USA Wins Junior Ryder Cup

The U.S. sealed a fourth successive Junior Ryder Cup, beating Europe 16 to 8 at Blairgowrie Golf Club in Scotland. Amy Lee sealed the deciding point with a 6 and 5 win over Germany's Alex Försterling.

The American team entered the singles matches with a 7½ to 4½ edge. There were a few fleeting moments early in the day where it looked like the Europeans would make a comeback. In the second match of the day, 18-year-old Sam Burns of Shreveport, La., earned a half-point against Bradley Neil, a Scotsman who grew up on the host venue course. Burns capitalized on a mistake from Neil at the 16th before making a birdie the 17th to win a second of three successive holes and then sinking a 35-foot putt at the 18th to forge a halve.

In the end it came down to 17-year-old Lee of Brea, Calif., who made four successive birdies beginning at the 10th hole. The 2013 Junior PGA champion was delighted to have been the one to secure the victory for her team.

"It feels really good," Lee said. "I played absolutely flawless today, I think I was five under through 13 holes. I birdied 10, 11, 12 and 13 coming in to win the match so it was amazing. On the 12th green I just saw that we needed a half point to win the cup and it feels incredible that I was able to capture it.

"We couldn't have had a better captain. (PGA pro Brian Whitcomb) was very supportive and knew everything he needed to say and everything we needed to do. We couldn't have done it without him."

Burns was delighted to have staged such a turnaround, especially under the circumstances, but was inspired by the performances all week of his teammates. "It was a crazy match," he said. "I knew it was going to be a tough one in Bradley's hometown, with all the people out here supporting him. I knew he would have an advantage, but we talked all week about never giving up and that's truly what I did today.

"I knew I was never out of the match, even being 3-down with three to play I knew my teammates were out there putting their hearts into it, so I figured it was the least I could do. To win the last three was really special to me."

The Europeans were disappointed not to have been able to turn the tide, but put it down to the putting prowess of their opponents on a week when many new friends were made between both teams.

"It's always bad to lose but we did everything that we could and the Americans were better," said Linnea Ström of Sweden, who halved her match with Bethany Wu of Diamond Bar, Calif. "Every one of their players putted better. I'm happy to have played well today."

Marcus Kinhult, who won his singles match 2 and 1 versus Gordon Neale of Dove Canyon, Calif., agreed that the week was a great experience. "It feels bad but they were better from the beginning," said the 18-year-old.

"We expected more from ourselves but they were better on the greens and that was the difference," Kinhult added. "They holed a few more putts than us, especially some big ones at the end of the first day, so they deserve it.

"It's been a great experience. It was a lot of fun, we've all made new friends and now Gleneagles will be great fun to play the course and watch the big guys. That will be cool. All experiences are good experiences, even if we lost, so I will learn from this."

"It was much closer today than what the final score indicated," said U.S. captain Brian Whitcomb, a PGA professional from Bend, Ore., and a past president of the PGA of America. "Every match was close, nobody won any match this week by playing mediocre golf. The only way you're going to win against these guys is to play a great round of golf and in this case we played a few more great rounds than they did."

The above report is courtesy of the PGA of America. For the complete results, visit http://www.rydercup.com/usa/juniorrydercup/2014-junior-ryder-cup-team-usa.

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