Great Britain and Ireland made a strong start on the opening day of the 41st Curtis Cup match at Conwy Golf Club in Wales taking a 4 ½ - 1 ½ lead over the USA. In calm and mostly warm conditions, the GB&I team made the most of their home advantage to win out in both the morning foursomes, by 2 ½ to a ½ and then the afternoon four-balls 2 - 1. Showing a real determination to wrest the trophy back from the USA, who were dominant in the previous match at Quaker Ridge in 2018, the young GB&I team, led by Captain Elaine Ratcliffe, raced out of the traps to take an early grip on the match. The English pairing of Annabell Fuller and Charlotte Heath set the tone for the day with a convincing 4&3 win over Rachel Kuehn and Emilia Migliaccio and their compatriots Emily Toy and Caley McGinty followed up with a 3&1 victory over Gina Kim and Brooke Matthews. The top match was a closely fought affair. The world number one and two, Rose Zhang and Rachel Heck, took it down the last against the Scottish pairing of Louise Duncan and Hannah Darling with Zhang holing out for a half on the 18th. GB&I maintained their momentum in the afternoon four-balls as the USA struggled to fully find their stride. Darling, the youngest player on the GB&I team at the age of 18, was again in the lead pairing, this time with Fuller, and they played out a high quality contest with Heck and Migliaccio that featured 13 birdies between the four players and once again went down the last. Darling, the Girls’ Amateur champion, played an excellent approach to the right handside of the 18th green and holed a 12ft birdie putt which was enough for a one hole win when Heck failed to follow her in from 6ft. At about the same time, Ireland’s Lauren Walsh combined with McGinty to see off the challenge of Kim and Jensen Castle by 2&1. The final match of the day also went down the last. It looked to have swung the way of the USA when Zhang, the US Women’s Amateur champion, birdied the 15th and 16th but Annabel Wilson bounced back to win the 17th with a birdie four. Zhang found the fairway with her drive on the last but her approach found the rough to the left of the green. Although she took three to get down from there her par five was enough to seal the win and claim an important point for the USA.

Trailing Great Britain and Ireland by three points after the opening day, the Americans, led by Captain Sarah Ingram, fought back to ensure the match sits level at 6-6 going into the final day singles tomorrow. The USA made their intentions clear from the start in the morning foursomes with lead pairing Rose Zhang and Rachel Heck notching a convincing 3 and 2 victory over the Scottish pairing of Louise Duncan and Hannah Darling. Rachel Kuehn and Emilia Migliaccio kept up the resurgence defeating Englishwomen Annabell Fuller and Charlotte Heath by the same margin. The USA didn’t have it all their own way, however, and the English pairing of Emily Toy and Caley McGinty secured an important half point at the last hole against Jensen Castle and Brooke Matthews. Toy holed from 3ft for a winning par five after McGinty had found the rough to the right of the green with her approach. That left the score at 5-4 in Great Britain and Ireland’s favor going into the afternoon Four-Balls. The USA continued to ramp up the pressure in the Four-Balls. Kuehn and Castle seized the initiative in their match with Duncan and Lauren Walsh to go 3 up after eight and, despite Duncan reducing the deficit to one hole with birdies at the 9th and 11th, the Americans eased to a 3&2 win. Darling and Fuller continued their successful Four-Ball partnership by clinching a hard-fought encounter with Heck and Kim by 4&3. Darling, the Girls Amateur and St Rule Trophy champion, maintained her rich vein of form and her excellent driving was complemented by Fuller’s strong approach play as the match swung in GB&I’s favor after the turn. In the final match of the day the USA’s Allisen Corpuz carded four birdies in five holes from the 3rd to take control of her and Zhang’s match against Toy and McGinty. The GB&I pairing battled to stay in the match but ultimately Corpuz sealed victory with a lengthy putt from off the green on the 16th. The match continues with the final day singles getting underway at 10 a.m. BST tomorrow. NOTABLE World No. 1 Rose Zhang is the only player to have yet to lose a match. She is 3-0-1 heading into Saturday's singles matches. Jensen Castle and Rachel Kuehn played together in Friday's Four-Ball, winning their match 3 and 2. The duo has paired together in the past to win two Carolinas Golf Association Four-Ball Championships. The last time the Curtis Cup Match was tied heading into the final day was in 1964 at Royal Porthcawl in Wales. The two-day match was tied at 4.5 points apiece. QUOTABLE "I don't know if I've ever made a putt that clutch before, so as soon as I made it like my heart just went crazy. But it was great to get the win with Rose today." - Allisen Corpuz, USA "We played super well, we really fed off each other and we ham and egged really well. When one of us was out of the hole, the other was putting for birdie and we holed a lot of putts. They played great but we just kind of had it going today." - Rachel Kuehn, USA