CURTIS CUP

June 11, 2022

Elaine Ratcliffe

Merion Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Elaine, thanks for joining us. Can you sum up your thoughts after today? Obviously a dramatic afternoon but a great point at the end there.

ELAINE RATCLIFFE: We took it to them. We executed shots. The girls upped the ante. I said yesterday that the U.S. Team didn't leave anything out there. I think we set a pace that put them under more pressure and played some incredible golf.

The result in the end perhaps does not show the golf that was played out there. I feel for the top group and the middle group, to go down 18 and -- yeah, as this morning. Golf is very fair but golf is also brutal, and I would say at the moment I would put it closer to brutal at the moment, how I feel for the players and the manner in which it just slipped through our fingers.

Q. And again, lip-outs at two key moments.

ELAINE RATCLIFFE: Yes, yeah.

Q. Something I asked Hannah and Annabell, is that something you can channel with the players tomorrow and say, look, we've got something to play for here, we've been a bit unfortunate?

ELAINE RATCLIFFE: Yes, I mean, the golf that I saw, it was spectacular this morning and this afternoon. They've got game; they can play.

We've just got to play all 18 holes like that, and I think anything is doable. They're good golfers, and the same talk that we had this morning on the practice ground, same talk we had before we went to the tee, they've come out firing on the first tee. So we will do the same tomorrow, and they'll come out firing and we'll see where it gets us.

Q. What was the talk that you gave them?

ELAINE RATCLIFFE: Just individual to each other about why they're here, what they do, what they've done to get here, how they deserve to be here and how don't get beyond. Not quite stay in the present but that kind of thing, each shot.

Q. More putts were falling this afternoon; did you see anything different overall?

ELAINE RATCLIFFE: No, no. I think I've just seen good golf today. I think that's how I would frame it. I've just seen just an incredible high standard of golf on a course that is testing, that is probably one of the toughest courses a lot of them would have played. It's very unforgiving. But they've executed some fantastic shots and holed some putts.

Yeah, they've just played some good golf. They've played some good golf. To play good golf, you have to hole putts.

Q. Can you talk about the trust you saw on display, especially in Annabell and Hannah's match?

ELAINE RATCLIFFE: Yeah, that's one of the things we talked about all week. There's a beautiful Simon Sinek quote about trusting, and that's one thing we've always talked about, trusting our teams, trusting each other, and also them trusting themselves and trusting their processes. So what I saw today, I wasn't surprised by, because that's what we talked about doing, trusting what they've done to get here, and enjoy this moment because seeing the people out here today watching, the amount of families out here, the crowd, yes, we are in the USA, yes, there was a few more cheers, but on the whole, they have been really fair, really encouraging. Just enjoy it; it's fantastic. It doesn't get much better than this. And just trust themselves.