Tag: Merion Golf Club

USGA selects 12 players for 2022 Curtis Cup practice session in Florida

Five of the 12 players were members of the winning team in Wales in 2021.

12 players have accepted invitations for a United States Curtis Cup team practice session next month, January 15-16, at Mountain Lake in Lake Wales, Florida.

Five players who competed in the 2021 Curtis Cup, held just four months ago after the 2020 event was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will be on hand: Jensen Castle, Rachel Heck, Rachel Kuehn, Emilia Migliaccio, and Rose Zhang. Castle and Zhang were previously named to the team as automatic selections due to winning the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur and 2021 Mark H. McCormack Medal, respectively.

“The amateur talent in the United States is so incredibly strong right now, and it’s an honor to gather with this group for a practice session next month,” said Sarah Lebrun Ingram, who returns as captain for 2022. “We have a great mix of young women, including many players who helped lead us to victory in Wales just a few months ago and some players who have played fantastic golf this fall on the collegiate level who I am excited to get to know. I’m very much looking forward to our time together and I know the players are as well.”

Ingram captained 2021’s winning team, was a member of the 1992, 1994, and 1996 Curtis Cup teams, and is a three-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion. Elaine Ratcliffe, who defeated Ingram and the U.S. as a player in the 1996 match, will again serve as GB&I captain.

Eight players will eventually represent Team USA, June 10-12, at Merion Golf Club outside of Philadelphia for the 42nd Curtis Cup. The USA leads the overall series, 30-8-3.

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Full list of practice participants

Jenny Bae, 20, of Suwanee, Georgia (Georgia)

Jensen Castle, 20, of West Columbia, South Carolina (Kentucky)

Megha Ganne, 17, of Holmdel, New Jersey (Signed with Stanford, Class of 2026)

Rachel Heck, 20, of Memphis, Tennessee (Stanford)

Julia Johnson, 22, of Saint Gabriel, Louisiana (Mississippi)

Gurleen Kaur, 22, of Houston, Texas (Baylor)

Rachel Kuehn, 20, of Asheville, North Carolina (Wake Forest)

Emilia Migliaccio, 22, of Cary, North Carolina (Wake Forest)

Brooke Seay, 21, of San Diego, California (Stanford)

Aneka Seumanutafa, 21, of Emmitsburg, Maryland (Ohio State)

Erica Shepherd, 20, of Greenwood, Indiana (Duke)

Rose Zhang, 18, of Irvine, California (Stanford)

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Take a look at the iconic venues hosting USGA events in 2022

Here are all the events and corresponding venues the USGA will put on in 2022.

In 2022, the USGA is holding championships at some of the most historic venues in the world, highlighted by the U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. The U.S. Mid-Amateur is headed to the Midwest, where Erin Hills will pose an enormous challenge for the men who qualify.

On the women’s side, the USGA will welcome players to Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in Southern Pines, North Carolina, for the U.S. Women’s Open. And for the U.S. Women’s Amateur, qualifiers will head to Chambers Bay, University Place, Washington, home of Jordan Spieth’s 2015 U.S. Open victory.

Listed below are all the events the USGA will put on in 2022, accompanied by the corresponding venue.

After leading Team USA to a win in Wales, Sarah Ingram will return as U.S. Curtis Cup captain in 2022 at Merion

“Last week was a highlight of my career,” said Ingram of leading Team USA to the win in Wales.

Sarah LeBrun Ingram will keep the title “captain” for at least another year.

On Monday morning, just two days after Team USA came back in Wales to win the 41st Curtis Cup – the biennial women’s amateur golf competition between teams from the United States and Great Britain & Ireland – the U.S. Golf Association announced that Ingram will return as captain of the Red, White and Blue for the 2022 Curtis Cup, June 10-12 at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia.

“Last week was a highlight of my career, being able to captain a team of such talented and wonderful young ladies, who are certainly the future of the game,” said Ingram via a release. “It is an honor and dream to be asked by the USGA to captain the 2022 team. As we bring the Cup back to the United States, I’m already looking forward to next year’s Match at Merion, a place I treasure and one that will surely test both teams.”

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“Sarah’s experience and ability to connect with the players made this an easy decision for us, especially due to the unprecedented nature of the current Curtis Cup schedule,” said John Bodenhamer, USGA senior managing director, Championships. “The team thrived under her leadership, and we look forward to having her take the reins at Merion.”

After trailing by three points after a GB&I-dominated first day, the Americans slowly picked up points before running away with Saturday’s singles matches to win, 12 ½-7 ½. It was Team USA’s first win on foreign soil since 2008.

Normally held every other year, the 42nd Curtis Cup will be played in just nine months after last week’s 41st playing was postponed due to COVID-19. The R&A recently announced Sunningdale in England will host the 2024 Curtis Cup.

Ingram, a three-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion, has a deep history in the Curtis Cup. The Nashville, Tennessee, resident was a member of the 1992, 1994 and 1996 teams and was a two-time All-American at Duke where she was the top-ranked women’s amateur golfer in the world.

But she doesn’t just captain, she also still plays. In fact, Ingram will tee it up next week at the 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur at The Lakewood Club in Point Clear, Alabama.

Ex-USGA employee made $1 million stealing, then selling U.S. Open tickets

The selling of stolen U.S. Open tickets started in 2013 and last until 2019.

A former assistant director of open admissions for the U.S. Golf Association pocketed more than $1 million over a seven-year period selling stolen U.S. Open tickets, a story first reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Federal prosecutors say Robert Fryer schemed with two ticket resellers in Pennsylvania to sell about 23,000 stolen tickets for U.S. Open tournaments between 2013 and 2019. The face value of the tickets was about $3.4 million. The ticket resale companies were not identified.

Prosecutors say Fryer first starting stolen tickets ahead of the 2013 U.S. Open which was held at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pennsylvania.

“The defendant allegedly stole revenue from a legitimate business that pays taxes, employs many, supports a non-profit organization, and brings excitement and income to our district with U.S. Open events at courses like the Merion Golf Club,” said Acting U. S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams. “Criminals that conduct ticket schemes like this prey on the excitement surrounding big events; fans should remember that any item with a low price that seems ‘too good to be true’ should be cause for caution and concern.”

The USGA told Golfweek in a statement:

Several months ago, the USGA was made aware of a federal investigation into an embezzlement scheme relating to U.S. Open tickets. The USGA was identified as the victim of this scheme, which took place from 2013 to 2019 under a legacy ticketing system and originated from the inappropriate and illegal actions of a former employee, who has been charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The USGA was both appreciative and fully supportive of the efforts of the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania in this investigation.

The USGA implemented a new ticketing platform starting in 2020 and recently engaged an external expert to review our ticketing processes and controls to help prevent this type of activity from occurring and ensure best practices and security protocols are employed for our championship ticketing.

Court filings indicate that Fryer, 39, would send the tickets to the resellers by mail but sometimes he would meet them at the golf club where the tournament was being held. The federal report states: “One of the ticket brokers regularly emailed the defendant prepaid UPS shipping labels that he then used to send the tickets to that broker and that broker’s customers.”

Fryer now faces charges of conspiracy as well as wire and mail fraud, with a conviction possibly sending him to federal prison for up to 20 years.

The USGA also told Golfweek: “We do not comment on personnel matters but can confirm that Rob Fryer is no longer employed at the USGA.”