CURTIS CUP

August 31, 2024

Hannah Darling

Mimi Rhodes

Quick Quotes

Q. Hannah, to start with, what a day for you. It's been morning and afternoon.

HANNAH DARLING: Yeah, I'm pretty chuffed. I played well the last two days. Just really happy to get, well, three points on the board now. Yeah, it's my third Curtis Cup, so I kind of have a bit of experience to bring to it. With the last two being losses, I want this more than ever for the team. We have such a good time and a group of really, really good girls with great captains and vice captains, too.

This is just for everyone, and we want this really bad.

Q. Mimi, how did you enjoy it out there this afternoon?

MIMI RHODES: A lot. It was just very fun. I was playing good golf. I was very nervous to start with because obviously I wanted to do well after yesterday, but chatting with Hannah, she kind of just helped me -- helped with the nerves. I just played really well out there, hit a lot of fairways and greens, and Hannah was just there when I needed her, and I was there for her when she needed me. It was just a lot of fun.

Q. It seemed like you struck up a great partnership out there.

HANNAH DARLING: Teamwork, yeah, it was great.

MIMI RHODES: I don't think we've ever played together before.

HANNAH DARLING: Not even in practice.

MIMI RHODES: It was good.

Q. Why do you think it worked so well?

HANNAH DARLING: When you get two golfers that are playing well together, four-ball, you're always going to have a chance of winning the hole. We're both playing well, both striking it well and both holing putts when we needed to, as well. That's going to be a good combination no matter who it is, and the captain had faith in both of us to go out and get our point, and that's what we did.

Q. They threw a lot at you around the turn, Asterisk's tee shot on 9 and then good on 10 and 11, as well. It must be really satisfying to have come through that and then kick on the way you did on those closing holes.

MIMI RHODES: Yeah, definitely. I played against them yesterday, so it feels great to have beaten them today. But yeah, they definitely put the pressure on through 9, 10, 11. I'm just happy that we made it through.

HANNAH DARLING: But I think we were just focused on what we were doing. At no point -- she hit it to like four inches on 9 --

MIMI RHODES: Yeah, I kind of forgot about that.

HANNAH DARLING: But we were just walking off 9, we weren't upset about losing the hole; we were talking about matching it before it went in. We were always focused on us and what we were doing.

MIMI RHODES: The positives in what we were doing, yeah.

HANNAH DARLING: I think no matter what they threw at us, we were very focused on us, which was a good thing today.

Q. It must give you both a lot of confidence heading into the singles tomorrow having played like that today.

MIMI RHODES: Yeah, definitely for me, after yesterday. I played so much better today. I just felt more comfortable out there. I think yesterday I was just nervous in front of the crowd and stuff, and I just stuck to my game today and was very focused and wanted to get the win.

Q. There was that "come on" yell at th 18th this morning. How important was that? I've heard you celebrate in the past but that was --

HANNAH DARLING: Yeah, no, that was big. To be honest, it was more of a redemption yell after putting Áine in the short right bunker, which is probably the one place you don't want to go to that pin. So it was more of a bit of relief to be honest, but I was just super happy, and it really means something. Being here this week with this team, it means something. We practised for the last -- it's been two years since Merion, practised the last two years for this opportunity, and to have it, I was not going to let it slip by.

Q. As you say, it's going out tomorrow and finishing the job if you've got a lead going into tomorrow?

HANNAH DARLING: No, exactly. It's been tight -- we were tied going into this afternoon's session, so it's been tight. We're still up in all three matches right now. But match play golf, anything can happen. We were just going to stay focused on what we were doing.