Courtesy of USGA
Rachel Heck, 20, of Memphis, Tenn., and
Rachel Kuehn, 20, of Asheville, N.C., have earned places on the 2022 USA Curtis Cup Team as the top Americans in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR® as of April 6. They will compete against Great Britain and Ireland in the 42nd Curtis Cup Match on June 10-12 at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa.
Since 2018, the three highest-ranked American players in the WAGR as of a predetermined date receive automatic exemptions from the USGA onto the USA Curtis Cup Team. Rose Zhang, 18, of Irvine, Calif., currently No. 1 in WAGR®, had previously been named to the team due to winning the 2021 McCormack Medal. Heck is currently No. 3 in WAGR, while Kuehn is ranked No. 8.
Reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Jensen Castle, 21, of West Columbia, S.C., had also previously secured a spot on the team, leaving four places to be chosen by the USGA’s International Team Selection working group for the three-day international competition. Zhang, Castle, Heck and Kuehn all competed for the USA in the 2021 Match last August, when it earned a 12½-7½ victory over GB&I at Conwy Golf Club in Wales.
Sarah Ingram, a three-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion (1991, 1993, 1994) and a member of three USA Curtis Cup Teams (1992, 1994 and 1996), will again serve as captain after leading the USA to victory last summer in Wales. Ingram, who was the low amateur in the 1995 U.S. Women’s Open, is a member of the Duke University Sports Hall of Fame, the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame and the Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame.
“Rachel and Rachel are fantastic additions to the team,” said Ingram. “Not only have they had unbelievably impressive collegiate seasons, resulting in these automatic selections, but both are experienced leaders who bring enthusiasm and camaraderie to the team. Having them included in the experience at Merion is something I am very much looking forward to both personally and as team captain.”
The Curtis Cup Match is contested by two teams of eight female amateur players, one from the United States of America and one from Great Britain and Ireland, which is composed of England, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The USGA’s International Team Selection working group selects the USA Team, while The R&A selects the GB&I Team.
Player Profiles
Rachel Heck, 20, of Memphis, Tenn., is a sophomore at Stanford University who won the 2021 Annika Award as the top collegiate golfer. She became the third player in women’s college history to sweep conference (Pacific 12), regional (Stanford Regional) and national titles (NCAAs), joining USC’s Annie Park and Arizona’s Marisa Baena. Last year, Heck became the first Stanford woman to win an NCAA title, and the ninth freshman to achieve the feat. Heck’s 69.72 scoring average over 25 rounds is the lowest in NCAA women’s golf history. She was a semifinalist in the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur, and a member of the victorious USA Curtis Cup Team last summer, compiling a 2-2-1 record.
Rachel Kuehn, 20, of Asheville, N.C., a junior at Wake Forest University, earned medalist honors in the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Westchester Country Club, posting 6-under-par 138 on the famed West Course. She had a strong start to her collegiate season, finishing runner-up at the Bryan National Collegiate before winning the Tar Heel Invitational by a stroke after a second-round 63, the lowest 18-hole score in Wake Forest women's golf history. She won the 2020 North & South Women’s Amateur and the 2020 Ladies National Golf Association Amateur. Kuehn’s mother, Brenda Corrie Kuehn, was a member of the USA Curtis Cup Team in 1996 alongside Sarah Ingram, as well as in 1998, when she went 4-0 and scored the clinching point in the USA’s victory. The Kuehns became the second mother/daughter tandem to have played in a Curtis Cup when Kuehn played in 2021 at Conwy Golf Club in Wales, where she scored the clinching point for her team on the way to a 3-1-0 record.
Julia Pine, USGA Communications
ABOUT THE
Officially named "The Women's
International Cup," the first Curtis Cup
wasn't officially held until 1932. The
biennial competition features the best
female players from the United States of
America pitted against a similar squad
from Great Britain and Ireland. While it
was hoped that many nations would
eventually join the Match, the Curtis Cup
has remained a two-sided competition.
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