Donegan Putt Clinches Match; Curtis Cup Stands 3-3 After Day 1

BATON ROUGE – LSU senior golfer Aine Donegan rolled in a 17-foot birdie putt on the final hole to win her fourball match Friday and help Great Britain and Ireland to a 3-3 tie with the U.S.A. after the first day of the 2024 Curtis Cup at Sunningdale Golf Club in England.

Donegan rolled her putt in moments after a 25-foot breaking putt by Megan Schofill fell in for birdie in the best-ball match that suddenly made a tie in the match possible for the USA.

But the Irish golfer, playing with South Carolina’s Hannah Darling, settled in and dropped it down to give GB&I its first outright win of the day, 1UP, over Schofill and Anna Davis of the USA. Davis is a sophomore at Auburn and Schofill recently graduated from there in the all-SEC matchup.

“That was a very nice feeling,” Donegan would say afterwards. “And I’m just really happy to put a point on the board for us.

“My thoughts were just trying to hit a good putt. I had to make it – I wasn’t really as much focused on speed,” she said. “I was just trying to hit a good putt, trying to hit it in the middle, and if it goes in, it goes in, and if it doesn’t, I still have a half.”

Donegan and Darling were 8-under par on their card in the foursomes with six birdies and an eagle on the 489-yard par 5 second. Darling hit a drive some 350 yards, knocked it to about four feet and made the putt.

Donegan earned 1.5 points for GB&I on Friday after making a winning par putt on the final hole in the morning session of alternate shot that gave her team a half point with an all-square match.

“Really pleased with the start,” said Donegan, who was T4 for LSU in the May NCAA Division I Golf Championships. “I’m very pleased with how I hit the ball. I suppose probably more on the back nine this afternoon. I didn’t hit the ball well this morning, and I didn’t really hit it that good on the front nine. Then I just really stuck with it and tried to focus on my tempo.”

Donegan teamed with fellow Irish golfer, Beth Coulter, in the alternate shot match.

In the six matches on the day, both teams had two outright wins and two matches were all square. IT is the fifth time out of 43 stagings of the Curtis Cup that the team have been tied after the first day (1934, 1936, 1964, 2016, 2024). The match was tied after one day the last time the Cup was one by GB&I in 2016.

The respective captains have ended up running the same match back again Saturday morning in England as Donegan and Darling will face Americans Davis and Schofill in the second-of-three matches in the alternate shot competition. That match is set for 7:55 a.m. BST at Sunningdale and 1:55 a.m. CT.

Another round of three fourball matches will be played later on Saturday with the event concluding on Sunday with eight singles matches. The Americans need 10 points to retain the cup while the GB&I squad needs 10.5 points to capture the Curtis Cup.

Live scoring can be found at the RandA.org championships site as well as a live blog. The Golf Channel will begin televising the second Saturday matches at 7 a.m. CT with coverage moving to Peacock at approximately 11 a.m. CT.