Different Strokes: Curtis Cup to showcase best of amateur game

You’d be amazed how many people have golfing bucket lists. In fact, there are two kinds – one involves planning, often in hope, a desire to play some of the world’s great courses; the other, often more practical, concerns a plan to attend tournaments and, on this front, the Masters is invariably the event pencilled in. And, for sure, it is an attainable goal, especially if money is no object. Tickets can be sourced.

So, the Masters, the Ryder Cup, the British Open – they’re all tournaments that feature on fanciful bucket lists. Let me add another for golfing fans, and one that is very much achievable. This week, in fact: The Curtis Cup, a biennial match between the finest women amateur players from the USA against Britain and Ireland.

If there is an understandable sporting frenzy about the Euro 16 finals kicking off in France this week, with planes, ferries and whatever other transport mode that grabs your fancy booked out, the Curtis Cup at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club in the foothills of the Dublin/Wicklow mountains outside Enniskerry from Friday through Sunday offers the chance for golf fans here to catch something rather special. And this year it is given extra spice by the fact that three Irish players – Leona Maguire, Olivia Mehaffey and Maria Dunne – are part of the B&I team.

Historically, the USA has been the dominant force in the match which nowadays involves three days of play – fourballs and foursomes for the first two days and eight singles on the final day – but there is a belief that this B&I team has the capacity to thwart the weight of history.

It could also be the final Curtis Cup for Maguire, who is destined to break out into the world of professional golf and the LPGA Tour in the foreseeable future.

I remember attending the Curtis Cup at Essex Country Club in Manchester-on-Sea outside Boston in 2010, where Leona and her twin sister Lisa became the youngest players ever to feature on a Britain and Ireland team. That the match that year was held on the very course where the Curtis sisters, Harriett and Margaret, learned the game and who would later donate the famous trophy to be played for in a biennial match, added some poignancy.

The Maguire twins had missed out on sitting their Junior Certs that year so that they could play. As Leona put it to me at the time, “I think the Curtis Cup is just a chance you get once and you have to take it when you get it.”

As it has happened, that was no once-off for Leona: she has played on the last three Curtis Cups and featured on the winning side at Nairn in Scotland in 2012 where Charley Hull and Stephanie Meadow – who have since progressed onto the professional circuits – claimed the winning points in the singles.

This is only the second time that the Curtis Cup has been staged in Ireland. In Killarney in 1996, where the team was captained by Ita Butler, there were no Irish players on the team. B&I won that match but the Americans would win the next seven stagings until the trend was bucked in Nairn.

Now, the match is back in Ireland and provides an opportunity to see some of the finest amateurs – and, for the most part, likely future professional stars – on our doorstep.

Go on. Add it to you bucket list, and tick a box!

Poulter’s Ryder Cup inspiration consigned to off-course duties

He got the nickname of “The Postman” for his ability to deliver under pressure in the Ryder Cup, but Ian Poulter’s role at the match in Hazeltine later this year will be confined to delivering some inspirational words in the locker-room.

Poulter – suffering from an arthritic foot condition which has forced him to put away his clubs competitively for the meat of the season, with a speculated four months on the sidelines – has been named as the fourth of five vice-captains by captain Darren Clarke for the match on September 30th-October 2nd in Minneapolis.

On getting such a quick pick-me-up after being ruled out of playing for the summer, Poulter, in a statement issued by the PGA European Tour, said: “The best moments of my career have come when I have been wearing the blue and gold crest of Europe on my chest, knowing at the same time that the contest means so much to every European player and to every European fan...Darren shares that same passion and he knows I will be there to assist him and the 12 players who will line up at Hazeltine in any way I can.”

By the numbers

3&2: There are three Irish players – Paul Dunne, Michael Hoey and Peter Lawrie – competing in the Lyoness Open in Austria on the European Tour this week. On the PGA Tour in the United States, Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell – who has added the tournament to his schedule – are in action at the St Jude Classic.

Word of Mouth (I)

“I know there’s a big road that goes through the middle of it” – Rory McIlroy on what he knew of Oakmont, where the US Open will be held next week. The World No.3 spent Saturday night watching video flyovers of the course on the internet before getting to know it for real in planned practice Monday and Tuesday.

Word of Mouth (II)

“We’re all nuts. We play this game. We chase a little ball around the grass and do it 18 times. We’re all nuts...I kept doing it because this was my ultimate dream, to get on the PGA Tour and try and win. The other thing was, I didn’t know what else I was going to do” – William McGirt on what kept him going as he played on no fewer than six mini-tours throughout his career before finally hitting the big time.

In the Bag

Matthew Fitzpatrick, Nordea Masters champion

Ball: Titleist ProV1x

Driver: Callaway Big Bertha Alpha 815DD (10.5 degrees)

3-wood: Ping G25 (15 degrees)

5-wood: Ping G (20.5 degrees)

3-9 irons: Ping S55

Pitching Wedge: Ping Tour Gorge (47 degrees)

Sand Wedge: Titleist Vokey SMS (54 degrees)

Lob Wedge: Titleist Vokey SMS (58 degrees)

Putter : Yes! Golf C-Groove Tracy II

Twitter Twaddle

“Well played @WilliamMcGirt great win at Jacks Place, congratulations buddy” – Ian Poulter, out for four months with a foot injury, tips his cap for Billy McGirt on his breakthrough win on the PGA Tour with his play-off success in the Memorial.

“The greatest of them all!! Sad day. RIP #FloatLikeAButterflyStingLikeABee” – Thomas Bjorn gets off the golf course and into the ring to salute Muhammad Ali.

Know the Rules

Q: In a four-ball match, A practices chip shots to the 18th green between play of the 9th and 10th holes. Thus, A is disqualified for the 10th hole under Rule 7-2. If A plays the 10th hole, is B, A's partner, also subject to disqualification for the 10th hole if A's play of the hole assists B, e.g. with regard to club selection?

A: Since A was disqualified for the 10th hole, the strokes played by him on that hole were practice strokes. Therefore, A was in breach of Rule 7-2 each time he played a stroke on the 10th and, if B was assisted by any such stroke, B incurred the applicable penalty.