Two Georgians are among eight players selected to compete on the 2014 U.S. Curtis Cup team, which will take on a team from Great Britain and Ireland in St. Louis June 6-8.
Jonesboro’s Mariah Stackhouse, a sophomore at Stanford, and Milledgeville’s Ashlan Ramsey, a freshman at Clemson, are the two Georgia golfers selected to the team.
All eight U.S. picks are current college players, with two each from USC and UCLA and the other two from Alabama and Mississippi State. The team consists of four sophomores, two juniors and two freshmen. All eight are ranked among the top 25 in the Women’s World Amateur rankings, with five in the top 10.
Stackhouse has already won four college tournaments for Stanford and was a first team All-America selection as a freshman. A recent victory in a tournament hosted by UC-Irvine earned her a spot in the LPGA Kia Classic in Los Angeles, and she turned down an invitation to the Kraft Nabisco Championship because of a conflict with a Stanford tournament.
As a junior golfer, Stackhouse was a first team American Junior Golf Association All-American, and won the Georgia Girls Championship twice.
Stackhouse also won the Georgia Women’s Golf Association Championship twice, as well as back-to-back victories in the GSGA Women’s Match Play Championship and the 2009 Georgia Women’s Open. Later that year, she was part of the Georgia team that won the USGA Women’s Team Championship.
Ramsey has won twice as a freshman at Clemson following an outstanding showing during the Summer just prior to her enrolling at Clemson.
After winning the GSGA Match Play, she followed with consecutive victories in the Women’s Eastern and Western Amateurs, and was the qualifying medalist for the U.S. Women’s Amateur.
Ramsey also competed in the 2013 Kraft Nabisco and made the cut in her first start in a professional event. Ramsey was runner-up in the U.S. Women’s Public Links Championship in 2012, losing to one of her Walker Cup teammates. Like Stackhouse, Ramsey represented the U.S. on the Junior Solheim Cup team.
The last time Georgia was represented on the Curtis Cup team was 2002, when Angela Jerman and Courtney Swaim were part of a victorious U.S. squad.
Vicki Goetze competed on Curtis Cup teams in 1990 and ’92, with Cindy Schreyer and Terri Moody representing the U.S. during the 1980s.
Martha Kirouac was the U.S. captain in 2004, leading the Americans to an 11-7 victory with a squad that included Paula Creamer, Michelle Wie and Brittany Lang. The U.S. leads the competition 27-7-3, losing in 2012 in Scotland after seven straight U.S. victories.