NORTON, Massachusetts — It’s been a long wait for Sue Curtin (Boston Golf Club) and Chelsea Curtis (The Country Club) to re-gain the opportunity compete as a team in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship. The pair qualified together back in October 2019 for the 2020 championship, which was later canceled due to COVID-19. But years later, the pair have earned a spot in the 2022 U.S. Womens’s Four-Ball, which is set to be a landmark event.
From April 20-24, Grand Reserve Golf Club (6,397-yards, par-72) will host the first USGA championship held in Puerto Rico and the first held in a US territory. Located in the coastal town of Rio Grande, about 20 miles east of capital San Juan, Grand Reserve stretches along a beachfront peninsula, with the El Yunque National Forest as a backdrop.
While Grand Reserve has hosted the PGA Tour since 2008 as well as other international events such as the World Amateur Team Championships, a USGA championship has yet to be held here, until now.
“This year there is a lot of talk about venues,” Curtin said. “To test your game on a national USGA level is the motivating factor. The course or club is more of a bonus factor being able to compete on a storied layout or a newer course that has the bones of becoming a history-making venue. I have never been to Puerto Rico so I’m looking forward to that opportunity.”
Curtin had success on the national stage last year, making it to match play in the U.S. Senior Amateur (Round of 16) and U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur (Round of 64), and qualifying for the U.S. Senior Women’s Open. In Puerto Rico, Curtin and Curtis are both hoping to make it to match play in the Four-Ball for the first time.
“It feels like there is some redemption,” said Curtin, who is making her fourth appearance in the championship. “We played well in both qualifiers and balanced each other out when we needed to the most. That’s what you need in this format.”
Curtis, a Mass Golf Board Member who played on what was then the LPGA’s Futures Tour, also is coming off a notable season last year as she captained the Mass Golf Griscom Cup Team. Curtis and Curtin both qualified for match play in the Mass Women’s Amateur at Plymouth Country Club and in the past two years have placed top 5 in the Mass Women’s Four-Ball Championship for the Townshend Cup.
Ahead of the competition, both players competed down south during the early winter months. In addition to playing with Curtis in the International Women’s Four-Ball, Curtin finished runner-up in the Doherty Women’s Amateur Championship (Senior Division) and won the Citrus Bowl Ladies’ Pro-Am on a team that included Massachusetts professional Alison Walshe.
And while tuning up for early season championships isn’t the easiest to do in the Northeast, the team plans to take a steady approach into Puerto Rico.
“Coming out of the cold spring here in New England is always challenging to feel tournament ready,” Curtin said. “I know we will be spending time on the putting greens quite a bit when we arrive in Puerto Rico.”
Starting Times & Schedule
Sue Curtin (Westwood) & Chelsea Curtis (Boston)
Round 1: Tee 1 | 11:25 a.m. ET || Round 2: Tee 1 | 8:05 a.m. ET
In four-ball, matches are played in pairs (a player and a partner, called a side, against another player and partner), with each golfer playing his or her own ball on each hole. At the end of each hole, the player with the lowest score wins that hole for the side. In stroke play, the low score is the side’s score for that hole.
The U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball consists of 18 holes of stroke play on April 20 and 18 holes of stroke play on April 21, after which the 64 sides (128 players) will be reduced to the low 32 sides (64 players) for match play.
Bob Toski, a 2014 inductee into the Massachusetts Golf Hall of Fame, is known primarily as one of the greatest golf teachers of the 20th century. But Toski also had 12 professional wins, including the 1958 Puerto Rico Open when he won by two strokes at Berwind Country Club, located just a few miles west of Grand Reserve Golf Club. Later that year, Toski won the Mass Open at Hyannisport Club, rallying from 6-strokes down on the final 18-holes to win. During his teaching days, Toski worked alongside several renown pros including 1992 US Open champion Tom Kite, who is the architect of Grand Reserve.
Grand Reserve Golf Club sits on the island’s northeast coast. Full of palm trees and lagoons, the classic Caribbean-style layout was designed by 1992 U.S. Open champion Tom Kite. It has hosted the Puerto Rico Open since 2008, with winners including Tony Finau in 2016 and Viktor Hovland, the 2018 U.S. Amateur champion, in 2020. Grand Reserve is also one of two championship courses located in the Caribbean.
