2014 USA Curtis Cup Team Selected


The United States Golf Association (USGA) has announced that five-time USGA champion Ellen Port, of St. Louis, Mo., has been selected as captain of the 2014 Curtis Cup Team. The 38th Match will be conducted in Port's hometown at St. Louis Country Club from June 6-8.

The Curtis Cup is a biennial competition between female amateur teams from the USA and Great Britain and Ireland, first played in 1932 at Wentworth Golf Club in England. Port was a member of the 1994 and 1996 USA Curtis Cup Teams.

"Ellen is one of the great USGA amateur champions of the modern era," said Dot Paluck, chairman of the USGA Women's Committee. "She has well represented the United States in past Curtis Cup Matches, and we are proud to have her as captain of the 2014 Team."

"It's an honor and privilege to serve the USGA, my future players and the game that I've grown to love as the captain of the 2014 USA Curtis Cup Team," said Port. "It's an added bonus to have the venue in my hometown, at a club that is so rich in golf history and tradition."

Port won the 1995, 1996, 2000 and 2011 U.S. Women's Mid-Amateurs and the 2012 USGA Senior Women's Amateur. She is only one of two women to win both championships - joining two-time USA Curtis Cup Captain Carol Semple Thompson, and the 11-year span between her third and fourth Women's Mid-Amateur victories is a championship record.

Port was runner-up at the 2002 Women's Mid-Amateur, and is a record four-time Women's Mid-Amateur stroke-play medalist (2000, '01, '02, '10). Port has 58 Women's Mid-Amateur match victories, the most in championship history, and has also competed in the U.S. Women's Open, U.S. Women's Amateur, U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links and USGA Women's State Team championships.

In addition to her USGA titles, Port is an eight-time Missouri Women's Amateur champion, most recently in 2012, the most in championship history. She is a 12-time St. Louis Metropolitan champion, most recently in 2010, and was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame and the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame in 2012. Port also won the 1994 Women's TRANS National Golf Association Amateur Championship.

Port began playing golf at age 24 and is a 1983 graduate of the University of Missouri. Since 1986, she has served on the staff of the John Burroughs School in St. Louis, where she teaches physical education and coaches the boys and girls' golf teams. She is married to Andy Port and has two teenage children, Drew and Katie.

Great Britain and Ireland won the most recent Curtis Cup, capturing five Sunday singles matches for a 10½ to 9½ victory in 2012 at Nairn Golf Club in Nairn, Scotland. It was GB&I's first title since 1996 and seventh in Match history. The USA now holds an overall 27-7-3 record.

The above report is courtesy of the USGA. For more information, visit www.usga.org.