A month after going 3-1-1 in the Americans’ Curtis Cup rout of Great Britain & Ireland, Kupcho teamed up with Matthew Wolff to defeat Olivia Mehaffey and Viktor Hovland of the International squad, 4 and 2 in Friday’s mixed four-ball of the Arnold Palmer Cup in Evian-les-Bains, France. The Palmer Cup features the top players in college golf competing in a Ryder Cup-like competition.

In the first Palmer Cup to include female competitors, Kupcho, the NCAA individual champion from Wake Forest, helped the U.S. build an 8-4 lead with two days remaining in the event.

Kupcho and Wolff, who plays for NCAA team champion Oklahoma State, never trailed on Friday, but were all square with Mehaffey and Hovland through eight holes. But the Americans won four consecutive holes starting on No. 9 to take control. During that stretch, Kupcho and Wolff went eagle, birdie, birdie, birdie.

Overall on Friday, after parring each of their first three holes,
Kupcho and Wolff played their final 13 holes in 10 under par and their final eight holes in 8 under. They earned the first point for the U.S. team.

Saturday will feature mixed foursomes in the morning and a four-ball in the afternoon. And Sunday will be singles matches.

The event is being held at the Evian Resort Golf Club, which annually hosts the Evian Championship on the LPGA Tour.

Kupcho, who’s ranked No. 2 in the world in women’s amateur golf, is the third player who’s grown up in Colorado to have competed in the Palmer Cup, following Steve Ziegler (2009) and Wyndham Clark (2014). Cherry Hills Country Club hosted the matches in 2009, with Palmer himself in attendance. Palmer, of course, played golf at the same university as Kupcho does — Wake Forest. The King passed away in 2016.

The Americans lead the all-time series, 11-9-1. This is the first year an international squad is facing the U.S., rather than one strictly limited to European players.

For all the Palmer Cup results from Friday, CLICK HERE.
 

Two of the most lopsided matches in the history of the Curtis Cup have been contested in Colorado.

The biggest margin of victory out of the first 39 biennial matches held between women amateurs from the U.S. and Great Britain & Ireland was 11 points — a 14.5-3.5 win for the U.S. — when Denver Country Club hosted the event in 1982.

And, before the number of matches increased to what it is now (20), the Americans beat GB&I 8-1 in 1962 at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.

So perhaps it was only fitting that in the first Curtis Cup since 1994 that a Coloradan was on the U.S. player roster, the Americans scored the biggest Curtis Cup victory ever, points-wise. With NCAA individual champion Jennifer Kupcho of Westminster winning her singles match on Sunday in Scarsdale, N.Y., the U.S. finished off a 17-3 rout of GB&I.

That gave the Americans back the Cup after GB&I had won in 2016, and the U.S. now leads 29-8-3 all time in the matches.

The Americans swept all five sessions of the event and all eight singles matches on Sunday. (The winning U.S. team is pictured above, with Kupcho fourth from right. Photos courtesy of Mike Kupcho.)

Kupcho was playing in her first — and probably only — Curtis Cup given that she’s planning to turn pro next year. And she finished the nationally-televised competition with 3-1-1 individual record, winning the Sunday singles match, the Saturday four-ball and the Friday foursomes; halving the Friday four-ball; and losing the Saturday foursomes.

Kupcho, a 21-year-old senior-to-be at Wake Forest, was one of just five players to participate in all five sessions of the 2018 Curtis Cup. And no one played as many holes in this event as did Kupcho (86), the No. 2-ranked women’s amateur in the world.

Suffice it to say it’s been quite a last month or so for Kupcho, who won NCAA regionals and the national title, then this week was part of a record-breaking performance in the Curtis Cup.

“It means a lot, just to get it done with my team watching me at NCAAs. And now with the U.S. team with a bunch of girls I competed against at NCAAs … It’s just a great feeling,” Kupcho said on FS1 Sunday afternoon.

On Sunday, Kupcho (left) scored a 2 and 1 win over Lily May Humphreys. The Jefferson Academy graduate lost the first hole to a birdie by Humphreys, but won the next three holes — with a birdie and two pars — and never trailed again. Humphrey squared the match with a birdie on 9 and was within 1 down on multiple occasions on the back nine. But Kupcho hit an approach to 2 feet and made birdie to win the 16th hole. Then the Coloradan two putted for par on 17 to close out Humphrey.

Kupcho finished even-par for 17 holes in her singles victory, making two birdies and two bogeys.

The Americans had already secured the team victory by the time Kupcho won, but she contributed to the rout.

“I’m very proud of these girls,” U.S. captain Virginia Derby Grimes said on FS1. “They’re a phenomenal group of girls.”

This isn’t the only time this year that Kupcho will represent the U.S. in a prestigious amateur team competition. Coming up July 6-8 in France, she’ll play on the first Arnold Palmer Cup that also features women’s teams. The competition is between college players from America and their international counterparts.

For all the scores from the Curtis Cup, CLICK HERE.
 

At this point, Jennifer Kupcho must be a little tuckered out, both physically and emotionally.

Through two days of the nationally televised Curtis Cup matches in Scarsdale, N.Y., the Westminster resident has the distinction of playing more holes this week than any other competitor in the biennial matches between the U.S. and Great Britain & Ireland.

The Women’s NCAA individual champion not only has competed in all four sessions of the event so far — two rounds of four-ball (better ball) and two of foursomes (alternate shot) — but she’s played a combined 69 holes over two days.

Only four other golfers out of the 16 total have played all four sessions — Amerians Lilia Vu and Kristen Gillman, and GB&I’s Olivia Mehaffey and Sophie Lamb.

Four of the five ironwomen competed against one another in Saturday afternoon’s foursomes, with Mehaffey and Lamb defeating Kupcho and Vu, the top two ranked women’s amateurs in the world, 2 and 1.

Kupcho (pictured in photos courtesy of Mike Kupcho) teamed with Gillman in the morning for a 3 and 2 victory over Mehaffey and Lamb. So going into Sunday’s singles, Kupcho owns a 2-1-1 record. Needing at least 10.5 points to win the Curtis Cup, the U.S. leads 9-3 through two days. GB&I has won two of the last three Curtis Cup competitions — including in 2016 — but the Americans are up 28-8-3 all time in the matches.

FS1 will televise the singles matches on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., concluding most prestigious team event in women’s amateur golf.

Kupcho, a graduate of Jefferson Academy who will be a senior at Wake Forest beginning in the fall, and Gillman led from the ninth hole on in their four-ball match on Saturday. They played their last nine holes in 5 under par to pull away. Gillman also won in the afternoon, making her 4-0 in this competition.

In the afternoon foursomes, Kupcho and Vu never led and trailed continuously after the second hold. After being 1 up through eight, Mehaffey and Lamb won the ninth and 11th holes with pars to stand 3 up with six to play.

The Americans cut the deficit slightly down the stretch. Kupcho drained a 3-foot par for the win on No. 13 and hit the green on the par-5 14th in two. But the U.S. duo three-putted for a disappointing par on the hole and Mehaffey halved it with a 12-foot putt. After additional halves with pars on 15 and 16, Kupcho had an 8-foot birdie putt on 17 to extend the match, but hit it through the break.

Surprisingly, given the stature of the two players, Kupcho and Vu didn’t make any birdies after the first hole Saturday afternoon. They finished 5 over par for 17 holes.

GB&I have won just two matches out of the 12 held so far, and Mehaffey and Lamb have done the honors in both cases, in Friday foursomes and Saturday foursomes.

For all the scores from the Curtis Cup, CLICK HERE.
 

But the Curtis Cup, which began on Friday in Scarsdale, N.Y., is a different animal.

The biennial matches are televised nationally throughout this weekend, on FS1. And the competitors are playing for their country — a la the Ryder Cup — as the eight best female amateurs from the U.S. take on their counterparts from Great Britain & Ireland.

Kupcho, a graduate of Jefferson Academy and now a senior-to-be at Wake Forest, is the first player to grow up in Colorado and play in the Curtis Cup since 1994, when Cherry Creek High School graduate Jill McGill did so.

Kupcho (pictured, at left) has received plenty of national TV exposure the last two years on the final day of stroke play at the Women’s NCAA Finals as she finished second in 2017 and won this year. And it was more of the same on Friday. In fact, when the Curtis Cup first came on the air on Friday morning, the first action FS1 showed was of Kupcho, who was part of the first match of the event.

As it turned out, day 1 of the most prestigious team event in women’s amateur golf was mostly positive for Kupcho. The Wake Forest golfer halved her morning four-ball (better-ball) match while paired with 15-year-old phenom Lucy Li. And in the afternoon American pairing of the top two women’s amateurs in the world — Kupcho is No. 2 and UCLA’s Lilia Vu is No. 1 — she and Vu won 2 up in foursomes (alternate shot).

Overall, the U.S. came out of Friday with a 4-2 over GB&I, which has won two of the last three Curtis Cup competitions. All time, the Americans are up 28-8-3 in the matches.

In the four-ball, Kupcho and Li were 3 up through 12 holes, but opponents Olivia Mehaffey and Sophie Lamb won 13, 15 and 17 with Mehaffey birdies. Then Mehaffey drained a 10-foot par putt on No. 18 to halve the match. Mehaffey, ranked No. 16 in the world among women’s amateurs, and Lamb played their last 11 holes in 5 under par.

Kupcho, who made birdie putts of 30 feet on 8 and 18 feet on 9, and Li were a better-ball 3 under par through 12 holes, then made pars the rest of the way.

Then in the foursomes, Kupcho and Vu exchanged the lead early with Alice Hewson and India Clyburn, but the Americans led from the eighth hole on. They were 2 up after 14, but three-putted No. 15 to lose the hole.

Kupcho sank a 4-foot par putt to halve No. 16, but hit an off-line tee shot on 17 that left Vu with a awkward stance with the ball at knee level just outside of a fairway bunker. But after Vu managed to get the appoach in a greenside bunker, Kupcho redeemed herself by hitting the flagstick with her sand shot, leaving a conceded 6-inch putt for a halved par.

On 18, Kupcho put her approach 30 feet behind the hole, but after Vu putted to 4 feet, the Americans didn’t even need to attempt the par as GB&I three-putted after being in the greenside sand.

“We kind of struggled down the stretch,” Kupcho said on FS1 after the foursomes match. “We were putting each other in kind of different places that we’re not used to, but we brought it out and came through.”

Saturday will be another day of four-ball in the morning and foursomes in the afternoon, with FS1’s coverage running 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and from 3-6 p.m. (MT). Then on Sunday, it will be singles matches.

For all the scores from the Curtis Cup, CLICK HERE.
 

Except for one thing.

After being one of three finalists for the award for the second straight year — but not receiving the prize unveiled on the Golf Channel — Kupcho still owns the NCAA individual title this time around.

That’s the ultimate consolation.

As for the Annika Award presentation, the 21-year-old Wake Forest senior-to-be had to settle for being a finalist again as Arkansas’ Maria Fassi earned the honor this time around.

Fassi, a native of Mexico who has qualified in Colorado for multiple USGA championships, landed the award. She won six individual titles during the season, but finished 66th in the national tournament that Kupcho won.

It’s possible that Kupcho may have paid a price for the voting process for the Annika Award. Voting — by college golfers, coaches and selected members of the golf media — opens after the NCAA Regionals and continues until after the national championships. So it’s very possible that some votes were cast before Kupcho won the national title on May 21. She was eighth on the Annika Award watch list as of May 3.

Kupcho finished the college season with four individual victories, with three of them coming after April 1. In fact, she won an NCAA Regional tournament for the second straight year to go along with her national championship. She’s claimed seven titles in her college career so far and has finished sixth, second and first in the Women’s NCAA Finals. She’s the first Coloradan to win an individual NCAA Division I women’s golf national title.

The Jefferson Academy graduate, who’s spent considerable time developing her game with instructor Ed Oldham at The Ranch Country Club, is a two-time first-team All-American. She broke the Wake Forest women’s record for season stroke average that she set last year as she averaged 70.6 in 2017-18.

Now ranked second among the world’s female amateurs, Kupcho will compete this weekend as part of an eight-player U.S. team against Great Britain & Ireland in the Curtis Cup, a biennial match-play competition featuring some of the world’s top women amateurs. The 40th Curtis Cup matches will take place Friday through Sunday at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, N.Y.

Earlier this week, Kupcho did win a prestigious honor — the 2018 Honda Award for women’s golf, presented by the Collegiate Women’s Sports Awards. The Honda Award is given to the top women’s athlete in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports, recognizing athletic achievement, scholastics and community involvement.

A month ago, it was announced that the Westminster resident will be part of the first group of women who will compete for the U.S. in the Arnold Palmer Cup, a Ryder Cup-style competition between college players from America and their international counterparts that will take place July 6-8 in France.

Then on Tuesday, Kupcho received even a bigger honor when the USGA named her one of eight golfers who earned spots on the American team that will face Great Britain & Ireland in the Curtis Cup, a biennial match-play competition featuring some of the world’s top women amateurs.

The 40th Curtis Cup matches will take place June 8-10 at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, N.Y.

“It is very exciting and quite an honor to get to represent the U.S. as one of eight girls,” Kupcho (pictured) said via email on Tuesday morning. “I’m excited to switch the waters and be teammates with girls that I’m always competing against. It is going to be an awesome experience and a great start to the summer. This is one of my greater honors because the girls in the USA are great golfers and being one of the top competitors is a very big honor.” 

Kupcho will have the distinction of being the first player who grew up in Colorado to play in the Curtis Cup since 1994, when Jill McGill made the U.S. team. McGill, winner of the 1993 U.S. Women’s Amateur and the 1994 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links, is a Cherry Creek High School graduate who went on to win more than $2.3 million in a long LPGA Tour career. She’s also a Colorado Golf Hall of Fame inductee. Kimberly Kim, who played one season at the University of Denver, competed in the Curtis Cup in 2008 and 2010.

Suffice it to say Kupcho is in elite company.

“Jennifer Kupcho is a fierce competitor,” Liz Fradkin, Team USA’s manager for the Curtis Cup, said during a USGA Facebook telecast on Tuesday.

Joining Kupcho on the U.S. squad will be:

— UCLA’s Lilia Vu, 20, of Fountain Valley, Calif., the world’s top-ranked women’s amateur.

— UCLA’s Mariel Galdiano, 19, of Pearl City, Hawaii.

— The University of Alabama’s Kristen Gillman, 20, of Austin, Texas.

— Stanford’s Andrea Lee, 19, of Hermosa Beach, Calif.

— Luci Li, 15, of Redwood Shores, Calif.

— The University of Texas’ Sophia Schubert, 22, of Oak Ridge, Tenn.

— The University of Alabama’s Lauren Stephenson, 20, of Lexington, S.C.

Galdiano and Lee also played in the event in 2016. Meanwhile, Li is the youngest U.S. Curtis Cupper since Lexi Thompson in 2010.

Virginia Derby Grimes, winner of the 1998 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, will be the U.S. captain.

“Our committee is extremely thoughtful during the selection process and takes very seriously the opportunity to select the members of this team,” said Martha Lang, a member of the USGA Executive Committee and former U.S. team captain. “We know the players we selected are extraordinarily talented competitors.”

Kupcho, a junior at Wake Forest in North Carolina, currently stands No. 3 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Rankongs. She recently won her second individual title of this college season and the fifth of her college career.

The Coloradan was the women’s NCAA individual runner-up last year after leading by two strokes with two holes remaining. In the national individual women’s college rankings this season, Kupcho is No. 9 according to both Golfweek and Golfstat. Besides her two wins individually this season, Kupcho has collected a runner-up and a sixth-place finish among her eight tournaments.”¨”¨

The 20-year-old has been a dominant force in Colorado women’s golf for several years and has been making a mark nationally and internationally recently.”¨”¨

Besides finishing second in the Women’s NCAA Championships in 2017, Kupcho qualified for her second straight U.S. Women’s Open, and she went on to finish 21st overall — and second among amateurs — in arguably the most presigious women’s golf tournament in the world.”¨”¨

Kupcho also claimed her first national title as she won the Canadian Women’s Amateur by five strokes. At the U.S. Women’s Amateur, she made the match play round of 64. Collegiately, she won an NCAA Regional and she was a finalist for women’s college player of the year.”¨”¨

The Jefferson Academy graduate earned the CWGA highest’s honor — the President’s Award — in 2017 after being named the CWGA Player of the Year for an unprecented three consecutive years (2014-16). She was inducted into the Sportswomen of Colorado’s Hall of Fame last year after being named the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame’s Golf Person of the Year in 2016.

“¨”¨Additionally in 2017, Kupcho won her third consecutive CWGA Stroke Play, this one with a 13-shot victory margin. And at the CoBank Colorado Women’s Open, she placed second for the second time while competing against a field that included many professionals.”¨”¨

The USA leads the all-time Curtis Cup series 28-8-3, but Great Britain & Ireland has won two of the last three meetings, including in 2016 in Ireland.

The Curtis Cup competition features six foursomes (alternate-shot) matches, six four-ball (best-ball) matches and eight singles matches over the course of the three days.

Among the Colorado Golf Hall of Famers who have competed in the Curtis Cup over the years are Barbara McIntire (1958, ’60, ’62, ’64, ’66 and ’72; captain in 1976 and ’98), Judy Bell (1960 and ’62; captain in 1986 and ’88), Tish Preuss (1962, ’64, ’66, ’68 and ’70; captain in 1984), Nancy Roth Syms (1964, ’66 and ’76; captain in 1980), Carol Sorenson Flenniken (1964 and ’66) and Jill McGill (1994). Another Coloradan, Dana Howe, played on the 1984 U.S. team.

Two Colorado clubs have hosted the Curtis Cup, The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs in 1962 and Denver Country Club in 1982.