Hannah Darling's impressive show at Curtis Cup

Lasswade golfer Hannah Darling did herself proud with a fine showing in last week’s Curtis Cup at Conwy.
Hannah Darling and Louise Duncan of Team Great Britain and Ireland interact during the Curtis Cup at Conwy. (Photo by Matthew Lewis/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)Hannah Darling and Louise Duncan of Team Great Britain and Ireland interact during the Curtis Cup at Conwy. (Photo by Matthew Lewis/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)
Hannah Darling and Louise Duncan of Team Great Britain and Ireland interact during the Curtis Cup at Conwy. (Photo by Matthew Lewis/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)

The Americans retained the amateur trophy after a dominant singles display on the final day gave them overall victory by 17.5 to 12.5.

The sides had been level going into the singles, but the Americans won six of the eight individual duels with Broomieknowe player Darling – who halved with Jensen Castle – one of only two players to avoid defeat.

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It looked as if Darling would register a win at three up with four to play, but she bogeyed the 15th and 16th before Castle birdied the last to snatch an unlikely half.

Nevertheless the half took Darling’s overall individual tally for the three-day competition in Wales to an impressive three points, her five matches producing two wins, two draws and just one loss.

Darling was one of only two Scots in the team, along with Louise Duncan, and they were paired to spearhead the Team GB & I glory bid on the opening morning, lining up in the top foursomes against Rose Xhang and Rachel Heck, world number one and two.

And they came so close to a sensational win with Zhang having to hole out to halve the match on the 18th.

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In the afternoon Darling, at 18 the youngest player on the team, was again in the lead fourball pairing, this time with England’s Annabell Fuller for a one-hole win over Heck and Emilia Migliaccio.

Fuller afterwards described partner Darling’s golf as “insane” as they played out a high quality contest that featured 13 birdies.

Darling said: “Fourball's all about making birdies. And we did that today. I think we were something like six-under in total.

“Annabell and I are good friends. We played at Junior Solheim two years ago against Rachel and we lost on the last, so I felt like it was our time to get revenge.”

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GB&I led 4.5 to 1.5 at the end of day one, but the US hit back on day two, which ended with the sides level at 6-6.

Darling suffered her only defeat of the week in the morning foursomes as she and Duncan went down 3 & 2 to Zhang and Heck.

But she was back to winning ways with Fuller in the afternoon fourball, with her excellent driving was complemented by Fuller’s strong approach play as they took a hard-fought encounter with Heck and Gina Kim 4&3.

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