Former PNGA Player of the Year Monica Vaughn Named to 2016 Curtis Cup Team

Monica Vaughn of Reedsport, Ore. was one of the eight players recently selected by the USGA to compete on Team USA in the 2016 Curtis Cup, to be conducted June 10-12 at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club in Enniskerry, Ireland, outside Dublin.

Vaughn, 21, who is in her junior year at Arizona State University, was the 2010 PNGA Junior Girls’ Player of the Year, a year in which she won the PNGA Junior Girls’ Amateur, Oregon Women’s Amateur, Oregon Junior Girls’ Amateur and the Oregon Women’s Public Links. She still owns the course record at four different golf courses in Oregon, all shot while still in high school, where she twice won the Oregon State High School Championship (2011, 2013).

While playing at ASU, Vaughn has victories in the 2016 Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge and the 2015 Ping/ASU Invitational. As a sophomore, she finished fifth in the individual competition of the 2015 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship.

The other seven players named to Team USA for the Curtis Cup are:

• Sierra Brooks, 17, of Sorrento, Fla.
• Mariel Galdiano, 17, of Pearl City, Hawaii
• Andrea Lee, 17, of Hermosa Beach, Calif.
• Mika Liu, 17, of Beverly Hills, Calif.
• Hannah O’Sullivan, 17, of Chandler, Ariz.
• Bailey Tardy, 19, of Peachtree Corners, Ga.
• Bethany Wu, 19, of Diamond Bar, Calif.

Caroline Inglis, 22, of Eugene, Ore. was named the second alternate for the team.

“These eight young women who will represent the United States in the 39th Curtis Cup Match are among the most talented players in the world,” said Diana Murphy, USGA president. “The USGA is proud to have them as ambassadors for the game, and we wish them the best of luck as they prepare for the competition in June.”

The Curtis Cup Match is a biennial international women’s amateur golf competition between eight-player teams from the United States of America and Great Britain and Ireland (GB&I). It consists of six foursomes (alternate-shot) matches, six four-ball matches and eight singles matches over three days of competition. The USGA’s International Team Selection (ITS) Committee selects the USA Team, while the Ladies’ Golf Union selects the GB&I Team.

All eight players on Team USA are among the top 30 of the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking, with O’Sullivan (No. 2), Brooks (No. 4), Galdiano (No. 6) and Tardy (No. 7) in the top 10.

O’Sullivan won the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur by a 3-and-2 margin over Brooks at Portland (Ore.) Golf Club. Earlier in the year, she won the Symetra Tour’s Gateway Classic, becoming the tour’s first amateur winner since Kellee Booth in 1999 and the youngest since Cristie Kerr in 1995. She also earned victories in the 2015 Rolex Girls Junior Championship and 2015 Rolex Tournament of Champions. O’Sullivan partnered with Robynn Ree to finish runner-up to Liu and Rinko Mitsunaga in the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball at Bandon Dunes, and she finished tied for 53rd in the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster (Pa.) Country Club. O’Sullivan, who qualified for the 2012 U.S. Women’s Open at age 14, will enroll at the University of Southern California in the fall.

Brooks earned victories last year in the South Atlantic Women’s Amateur (the Sally) and Women’s Southern Amateur, and was a semifinalist in the Polo Golf Junior Classic, an event she won in 2014. Brooks will start her freshman year at Wake Forest University this fall.

Galdiano captured victories in the 2015 Joanne Winter Arizona Silver Belle Championship and the 2015 Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship. She also earned
runner-up finishes in the 2015 Junior PGA Championship and 2015 Polo Golf Junior Classic. Galdiano competed in the 2011, 2013 and 2015 U.S. Women’s Opens, with her best finish a tie for 42nd in 2015. She will enroll at UCLA in the fall.

Lee won the 2014 Rolex Tournament of Champions and the 2014 Yani Tseng Invitational. That same year, she reached the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur, the quarterfinals of the U.S. Girls’ Junior and tied for 69th in the U.S. Women’s Open. Lee earned a silver medal for the USA in the 2015 Pan American Games, and the next week she again reached the U.S. Girls’ Junior quarterfinals. She will start her freshman year at Stanford University in the fall.

Liu teamed with Mitsunaga to win the inaugural U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship in 2015. She kicked off the 2016 season with a win in the Sally Tournament. Her other victories over the last two years include the 2014 Women’s Southern Amateur, the 2014 Women’s Western Amateur and the 2015 Thunderbird Invitational Junior, and she notched runner-up finishes in the 2015 Ione D. Jones/Doherty Amateur, the 2015 Women’s Eastern Amateur and the 2015 Rolex Tournament of Champions. Liu, who reached the quarterfinals of the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur and the 2015 U.S. Girls’ Junior, has verbally committed to attend Stanford in the fall of 2017.

Tardy won the 2015 North & South Women’s Amateur Championship over Wu, rallying from 2 down with two to play to prevail in 20 holes. She reached the third round of match play in the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur, and in 2014 she qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open. Tardy is a freshman at the University of Georgia, where she earned her first collegiate win, in the 2015 Windy City Collegiate, in only her fourth start.

Wu was runner-up in the 2015 North & South Women’s Amateur and the 2015 Canadian Women’s Amateur, and reached the semifinals of the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur. She was a quarterfinalist in the 2014 U.S. Girls’ Junior and earned medalist honors in the 2014 U.S. Women’s Amateur, the same year she successfully defended her Annika Invitational victory. Wu is a freshman at UCLA.

Robin Burke, the 1997 U.S. Women’s Amateur runner-up and a member of the victorious 1998 USA Curtis Cup Team, will serve as USA captain.

“It’s exciting to have the team announced,” said Burke. “I’m looking forward to bringing the players together for practice and creating positive energy for the Match in June. This is a remarkable group of players – all very talented, all proud to represent the United States. I’m not sure Ireland is ready for us, but we will be ready for Ireland!”

Elaine Farquharson-Black will serve as GB&I captain. Farquharson-Black, a native of Scotland, represented GB&I in the 1990 and 1992 Curtis Cup Matches.

The USA won the 2014 Match at St. Louis (Mo.) Country Club, 13-7, and leads the overall series, 28-7-3. The GB&I Team won the 2012 Match at The Nairn Golf Club in Scotland, the last time the Match was played on GB&I soil, to halt a streak of seven consecutive victories for the USA. Prior to that, the USA had not lost since the 1996 Match at Killarney Golf and Field Club, the only other time the biennial competition has been held in the Republic of Ireland.

Notable past USA Curtis Cup Team members include U.S. Women’s Open champions JoAnne Gunderson Carner, Paula Creamer, Juli Inkster, Kerr, Patty Sheehan, Hollis Stacy and Michelle Wie, as well as past and present LPGA stars such as Beth Daniel, Jessica Korda, Stacy Lewis, Nancy Lopez, Dottie Pepper and Lexi Thompson.