The USA Curtis Cup captain, Pat Cornett has returned to Nairn on crutches and with her right leg in a cast after bizarrely breaking her ankle on day one of competition.
Cornett, who is a Professor of Medicine back home in California, knew immediately something serious was wrong after the motorised buggy she was in crashed into grandstand on the Nairn Golf Club course.
- Carole Sempe Thompson stepped in to captain the USA Team. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
The 56-year old was immediately conveyed to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness where doctors put her leg in a cast.
Former 12-time Curtis Cup star, Carole Semple Thompson was asked to act as USA captain for the afternoon Fourballs but has now handed back the team leadership to Cornett for the second round of matches tomorrow.
“This is definitely the most bizarre circumstance I’ve ever encountered and I have never seen anything like this happen,” she said.
“It was just so unfortunate for Pat but I believe she is on her way back to the course tonight so I will be happy to hand over the captaincy back to her.”
And if Cornett’s concerns with her ankle are not enough, her husband Mike had to be taken to a Nairn hospital on Thursday suffereing painful cellulitis in his feet, and with doctors detaining the American overnight and putting him on an intravenous drip.
The USA team dominated the morning Foursomes winning all three matches and then went 4 up when they won the first match of the Fourballs.
And at one stage, the USA team was up in all three matches before a revival by the GB & I team who won the remaining two matches and now head to Saturday’s round trailing two points behind at 4 – 2.
“At one stage there this afternoon I was ready to slit my wrists as we were down in all three matches,” joked GB & I captain, Tegwen Matthews.
“But seriously, it was a fantastic effort of digging in deep from my girls this afternoon.
“We had a frank and honest talk in the locker room at lunchtime.
“There was some schoolboy errors out there this morning but then America came out very strong and I was very impressed with their play in the conditions so full credit to them.
“But after pointing out to my girls that this was not up to our standard and I asked each and every one of them to be honest about their game and to learn from their mistakes in the morning.
“So to win two of three matches this afternoon has put us well back into the competition and we are looking to continue the momentum of winning the last two matches this morning.
“They will be starting out tomorrow on a high and that’s so important to our chances of winning back the Curtis Cup.”
