“Lock-In” is the phrase of the week for the United States Junior Ryder Cup Team according to Team Captain and PGA Master Professional Suzy Whaley, and that’s exactly what the 12-person, co-ed U.S. team needed to do to take a 6 ½ to 5 ½ point lead following today’s morning and afternoon matches.
The U.S. got off to a hot start in morning foursomes at Nassau Country Club in Glen Cove, New York, led by U.S. top-ranked girls’ junior Asterisk Talley and teammate Amelie Zalsman, jumping to a 5-up lead through seven holes.
Following a brief run from Team Europe’s Sara Brentcheneff and Benedicte Brent-Peterson, winning holes 8, 10 and 11, Talley and Zalsman closed the first match of the Junior Ryder Cup with a 4 & 3 victory with a birdie on the par-5 15th hole.
“It’s great to get off to a good start (in match play) because you don’t want to have to battle back the whole time,” Asterisk said.
When the U.S. won their morning matches, they won by a large margin. Following the lead of Talley and Zalsman, partners Anna Fang and Lily Peng won their morning match against Europe’s Charlotte Naughton and Alice Kong 6 & 4. In the following group, Frisco, Texas, resident Luke Colton and Giuseppe Puebla of Royal Palm Beach, Fla. also won 6 & 4 against Europe’s Callixte Alzas and Lev Grinberg.
The Americans took control of this match early, making the turn at 4-up, fueled by an eagle on the par-5 fourth hole. Colton hit his approach to eight feet to set up Puebla to drain the putt for eagle.
“Giuseppe ripped a drive like 350 (yards) down there and I hit it where I was aiming and it ended up being eight feet away,” Colton said. “That felt really big because (Europe) hit it close for birdie. Giuseppe made just about every putt out there and I think that got the match going. We were on fire after that.”
Even after a hot start and three commanding wins in the morning session from the U.S., Team Europe did not falter.
French duo Hugo Le Goff and Oscar Couilleau set the tone for Europe, defeating U.S. top-ranked junior Miles Russell and Vanderbilt commit Tyler Mawhinney 3 & 2.
“I’ve known Oscar since I was 7 years-old,” Le Goff said. “We used to play together quite a few times and we always play well together. It felt good to win the first point for Europe.”
Behind 3 points to 1, Europe flipped the momentum by winning the final two matches. Nagore Martinez and Louise Uma Landgraf won 3 & 2 over Zoe Cusack and Rayee Feng and in the last match of the morning, John Doyle and Kris Kim won 1-up on 18 over Hamilton Coleman and Lunden Esterline.
At 3 points aside, the afternoon mixed foursome matches continued to be tight and included multiple 4-hole swings from both teams.
The U.S. sent out their star players with top-ranked Russell and Talley facing French teammates Brentcheneff and Le Goff.
Russell and Talley jumped to a quick lead, reaching 4-up through 8 holes, and then the Europeans started crawling back. Through 14 holes they inched to 3-down, then proceeded to win holes 15 and 16 to get within one. Le Goff holed a 7-foot putt on 17 to extend the match to 18, where Le Goff again holed a match-tying birdie to split the point.
“It just shows you that on this course, you can never count your chickens,” European Captain Stephen Gallacher said. “We saw two 4-up matches (this afternoon) that didn’t win. You don’t normally see that. This course, you’ve got to be on it all the time. You’ve got to hit great shots.”
The other 4-hole swing match came in favor of the Americans, when 2025 U.S. Junior Amateur Champion Coleman and New Jersey native Feng were 4-down through seven.
Hamilton and Feng won holes 8 and 9, with a par and an eagle, respectively, and then really turned it on by winning four of the last six holes.
With the match tied going into 18, Feng hit her approach to 10 feet, setting Hamilton up to sink the putt and claim the 1-up victory with a birdie.
“That was about every emotion you could feel on the golf course, in one round,” Hamilton said. “It would have been easy to give up, but we stuck with it.”
“I grabbed my putter, but kept the cover on because I had faith in him,” Feng said of Hamilton’s birdie putt on 18. “Towards the end we really pulled it together. We’re pretty great as a team.”
Hamilton’s birdie wasn’t the only U.S. match winner on 18. Colton and his afternoon partner Fang of San Diego were tied with Brent-Peterson and Couilleau going into the last hole. Fang’s approach left an up-hill, 7-foot birdie opportunity that Colton drained.
Also earning a crucial afternoon-session point for the U.S., with a little more breathing room, was Cusack and Boys’ Junior PGA Champion Esterline, winning 6 & 4 over Alice Kong of France and John Doyle of Ireland.
Full-point earners for Europe were Nagore Martinez and Alzas, defeating Peng and Puebla 3 & 2, while Charlotte Naughton and Kris Kim won 2 & 1 over Zalsman and Mawhinney.
With the U.S. Team’s slim lead going into Wednesday at Nassau, Whaley’s “lock-in” phrase for her team will continue.
“The phrase is actually Asterisk’s. That’s her phrase for when she really wants to play great golf,” Whaley said. “I think they all locked-in today. For me, locking in means every time you hit a shot, I want you focused. At the end of the day, we came out slightly ahead but I’m here to tell you we’re going to start over tomorrow. We’re going to lock-in.”
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