John Huggan: Nairn but the brave

By John Huggan
Published on 03/06/2012 00:55

PAMELA Pretswell and the GB&I team will find it tough as they seek a unique US clean sweep

IT’S the final piece in the never-before-completed four-part puzzle. With the Ryder Cup already in the hands of the Old World and both the Walker Cup and Solheim Cup added in the space of three memorable weeks only last September, next weekend’s Curtis Cup matches at Nairn take on a unique historical significance. Not only will the cream of GB&I’s lady amateurs be attempting to beat the United States for the first time since 1996, they have a golden opportunity to complete an unprecedented “Grand Slam” of trans-Atlantic team matches.

Still, it would be best not to get too excited. Since the turn of the century, results in this biennial contest that dates back as far as 1932 have not exactly been close. Only once has the US’s winning margin been less than four clear points. And this year, armed with an eight-strong side from which more than one seemingly well-qualified individual has been omitted, the signs are that the home team will have to play well above themselves if a famous victory is to be achieved.

All is not lost though. On paper at least, that same sort of analysis made perfect sense before last year’s Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen. But things turned out a little differently on grass. There, a demonstrably superior American side was narrowly defeated by a combination of inspired play from an underrated home team and weather conditions that veered between unpleasant and downright nasty. In other words, if the Curtis Cup is to stay on these shores for the first time in 16 years, our girls are going to have perform at or beyond the limit of their abilities and the wind is going to have to blow, taking the tanned visitors out of their typically warm and sunny comfort zone.

The biggest – and perennial – question, however, remains the make-up of the eight-strong GB&I side. Just as has forever been the case with the Walker Cup side, the presence of a selection committee complete with its own nationalistic prejudices almost precludes any possibility that the team eventually picked will represent the best octet available. The notion that a side devoid of selectorial bias has ever been arrived at in either a Curtis or Walker Cup is fanciful indeed. Imagine, for example, that the best eight players happen to be all English, or Scottish, or Irish, or Welsh. With a selector from each of those countries pushing for their own, the chances of them coming up with the strongest team are slim indeed.

That admittedly cynical view of the selection process has only been enhanced by some head-scratching omissions from this Curtis Cup. It is something of a mystery, for example, how Scotland’s Sally Watson – after a solid enough year for Stanford on the US college circuit – has gone from being one of the best four players in the home nations at the last two Curtis Cups to suddenly being outside the leading 12 for this one. And let’s not forget the British Ladies champion, Lauren Taylor, who has been omitted because, back in March, she was recovering from injury and so was unable to play a full part at the infamous trial. One week later and almost three full months before the matches, Taylor was cleared to hit full shots, a fact that makes her non-selection even more puzzling.

This time, of course, the Ladies Golf Union – the female equivalent of the R&A when it comes to selection stuff – managed to dig themselves a hole by announcing that any player not willing or able to attend that “trial weekend” back in late March would automatically be ineligible for selection. Such a thing might have worked back in the 1930s when every candidate was home-based, but not any more. And when England’s Charley Hull – by a distance the best player available to the home side – accepted her invitation to play in the Kraft Nabisco Championship in California (where she would make the 36-hole cut) an immediate problem arose. In order to prepare correctly for her maiden appearance in an American major, Hull would have to miss the so-called trial.

At first the out-of-date dowagers of the LGU stood their flimsy ground and Hull, it seemed, would be absent from the GB&I squad. But someone somewhere came to her senses – a selector keen to give the side even the smallest chance of winning, perhaps – and the 17-year-old was eventually picked to play. Just as well too. According to former Ladies European Tour player Gillian Stewart, an in-form Hull is a must if the visitors are to be successfully seen off.

“Charley came to Nairn for four days back in April and I had the chance to play with her,” says the Inverness-based Stewart, who played Curtis Cup golf back in 1982 and was involved in coaching during the trials in March. “She was outstanding on and around the greens, head and shoulders better than anyone else in the squad. Throw in the fact that she is a very strong player, long off the tee and straight, and she looks to be the one who will lead the home side into battle.”

Stewart, of course, touches on a well, touchy subject when it comes to pitching and putting in the ladies game. At every level, females remain markedly inferior to their male counterparts when it comes to the part of the game in which, one would imagine, they should be able to compete on almost a level playing field. It is one of golf’s great mysteries.

Still, with the formidable Nairn links playing at something around 6,300 yards, ball striking will have a big part to play in deciding the destination of the trophy. In that area, Stewart was suitably impressed by the likes of Leona Maguire of Ireland and England’s Amy Boulden, the recent winner of the Helen Holm Trophy and the Welsh Ladies Stroke-play championship. So Hull will have plenty of powerful support.

The lone Scot in the squad, Pamela Pretswell, is also the oldest member at 23. The Glasgow University graduate is one of three players with past Curtis Cup experience – Maguire and England’s Holly Clyburn are the others – but it is safe to assume this will be both her second and last appearance. Not too long after the last putt is holed next Sunday evening, the former British Ladies Stroke-play champion will surely be a professional. Only recently Pretswell eschewed the recent Scottish Ladies Championship at Tain in favour of an appearance at a Ladies European Tour Access Series event in Sweden. It paid off too. Her victory, the first by an amateur at that level, is indication enough of the Scot’s obvious quality.

“Pamela is a good strong player with a great temperament,” says Stewart. “She definitely looks the part.”

As for the Americans, they are the usual potent mixture of crack US college kids and names that will no doubt become more familiar as at least some of them go on to make their marks on the LPGA Tour. Let’s hope one in particular goes on to have an outstanding career as a professional. How could you not root for someone called Brooke Pancake?