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.