GB&I ready for Curtis Cup challenge

Scottish pair Hannah Darling and Louise Duncan will be hoping to draw on last year’s Conwy defeat in this weekend’s Curtis Cup match.

The Scottish duo are two of the six returning players to the Curtis Cup team from last year’s match, which ended in a victory for the USA.

This time around, however, Darling believes the added motivation from last year’s result will spur the team onto success.

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“Yeah, for us, six of us in our team played it last year,” said Darling. “Yeah, we got beaten; that’s under our skin.

“We’ve got a little something there that obviously gives a bit more motivation. But I think any match in a Curtis Cup, you always want to beat them.

“It’s probably been the quickest 10 months ever. It feels like last week almost we played Conwy, so we’re definitely ready to go.”

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The 42nd staging of the event takes place at the iconic Merion venue, something that isn’t lost on Darling.

“It’s just such a beautiful place,” she said of the 2013 US Open venue.

“We play a lot in America and there’s a lot of courses similar to this, but just some of the visuals on the course. It’s just in such good condition.”

While the home team will enter this week as favourites, according to Darling, that’s no barrier to causing an upset on American soil.

“The Americans, they’re ranked very well, but I think something we do well is we play our own game, and I don’t think we have to go into this week thinking we have to do anything differently to beat them.”