Tag: Sarah Ingram

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.

Annika Sorenstam among first three women members of elite Pine Valley

Amateurs Sarah Ingram and Meghan Stasi join Annika Sorenstam as the first women on the roster at elite Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey.

Annika Sorenstam will be one of the first three female members of Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey, joining amateur champions Sarah Ingram and Meghan Stasi.

The club notified its members via email Friday morning, Golf Digest reported. Club president Jim Davis told members in May that it planned to begin accepting women members who were accomplished players. The club was one of a handful remaining in the U.S. that don’t accept women members.

The very private Pine Valley is the No. 1-ranked course on Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses list for layouts built before 1960, and it is the highest-rated course in all of Golfweek’s Best database for courses around the world. Pine Valley was designed by George Crump and Harry S. Colt and opened in 1914 as an 11-hole layout that was completed several years later.

Previously, women had limited playing opportunities at Pine Valley, allowed to play only on Sunday afternoons. That changed in May, and the first tee is open to women without restrictions.

Meghan Stasi, pictured at the 2015 South Atlantic Amateur (Sally) in Ormond Beach, Fla., will be one of the first three women members of Pine Valley. (Golfweek files)

Sorenstam won the last of her 10 women’s major championships 15 years ago this week at the 2006 U.S. Women’s Open at Newport Country Club in Rhode Island. The 50-year-old briefly came out of retirement in February this year and made the cut in the Gainbridge LPGA event at her home club of Lake Nona in Orlando, and she played in the Scandinavian Mixed in June. She plans to play the U.S. Women’s Senior Open on July 29-August 1 at Brooklawn Country Club in Connecticut.

Sarah Ingram, pictured at the 2018 U.S. Women’s Amateur at The Golf Club of Tennessee, will be one of the first three women members of Pine Valley. (Golfweek files)

The other two new women members of Pine Valley are both accomplished amateurs. Ingram was an All-American at Duke, won three U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateurs among many other events and will captain the U.S. team at the Curtis Cup in August in Wales. Stasi played at Tulane and has won four U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateurs among many other events.

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U.S. Curtis Cup captain Sarah Ingram back in the winner’s circle with inaugural LNGA Senior Amateur title

Sarah Ingram was inspired by younger female amateurs to get back on the competitive golf circuit. It’s paying off for the Curtis Cup captain.

Earlier this month, Sarah Ingram was hovering just off the side of the first tee box at Augusta National. Several young women acknowledged her as they made their way inside the ropes for the start of the final round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur – some with a fist bump, some with a big smile.

Ingram is well known to them as the U.S. Curtis Cup captain for this fall’s matches in Wales (postponed from June 2020). In all, six of the 12 women invited to a winter practice session for Curtis Cup hopefuls had a tee time at Augusta National that day.

A three-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion herself, Ingram is something of an inspiration to the next generation. But she’s inspired by them too, so much so that she resurrected her amateur career.

Scores: LNGA Mid-Amateur and Senior Championship

Until last year’s Tennessee Senior Women’s Amateur, Ingram hadn’t won a golf tournament since 1994, the year of her last Women’s Mid-Amateur title.

On Wednesday, she wrapped up the inaugural Ladies National Golf Association Senior Championship. Ingram played 54 holes at Anthem (Arizona) Golf Club in 10 over to finish six shots ahead of runner-up Shelly Haywood.

“Three years ago after the Golf Club of Tennessee hosted the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 2018, I was kind of inspired by the girls and felt like it was time for me to maybe get back to the game,” said Ingram, who plays and practices out of the Golf Club of Tennessee. “I had missed some of my friends from golf and missed the competition and it’s been fun trying to build my game back up.”

One of the major revelations has been just how hard this game is – just how much time it takes to build back.

Ingram has concentrated specifically on trying to be patient with herself, and that was one of the major wins from the week in Arizona. Ingram led from the first round on.

“I tried to have the same mindset all week, just to be patient with myself, not get too worked up if I got multiple bogeys or a double bogey,” she said. “It also helped today especially, I felt like I definitely didn’t – had a little more trouble, I’ve got to keep it together. If I can shoot around 75, 76, I’ll have a good chance of winning. I can’t worry about people doing better than that. Just tried to stay loose and calm and also be brave and not be scared.”

Since getting to know some of the game’s top younger amateurs – Ingram has now been through the Curtis Cup practice session drill twice, considering that she prepped for a 2020 match before it was canceled – she has also benefited from watching their games.

“I tried to use things that I watched this week just to be a little more fearless on the course and to not let bad shots or bad holes bother me,” she said. “They’re all really good about that.”

Before Ingram ever won the title, texts were coming in from her Curtis Cup hopefuls. They had an eye on what the captain was doing this week.

The LNGA event also include a mid-amateur division, and both 54-hole events were in their inaugural year. When the long-running women’s golf organization announced it was creating this event, Ingram – like many of her peers – signed up immediately.

“It’s fun to have that competition, kind of keeps you wanting to get up in the morning and practice and play and get all the juices flowing,” she said.

In the mid-amateur division, a former Curtis Cup player captured the event by a five-stroke margin. Meghan Stasi, who played for the victorious American squad in the 2008 matches at the Old Course at St. Andrews, was 6 over. Dawn Woodard, who Stasi will partner with in next week’s U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, and Amanda Jacobs were runners-up at 11 over.

“This win is right up there with them all,” said Stasi, who has won numerous titles in Florida and Pennsylvania in addition to four U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur titles. “A win any time is great now. There are just so many great players now.”

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