It’s taken 40 years to get another Scot as captain of Great Britain and Ireland’s Curtis Cup team, but it looks like Elaine Farquharson Black will have no countrywomen with her at the Dun Laoghaire Club in June.
Not since Belle Robertson in 1976 has a Scot skippered the women’s GB&I team, and for Deeside’s Farquharson Black, a member of the 1992 winning team at Royal Liverpool, the honour is huge.
But as the Aberdonian lawyer has her team to play the USA in Ireland named today, her role is a world away from Ryder or Solheim Cup skippers or even that of the men’s Walker Cup team, a position now held by fellow Scot Craig Watson.
“I listened carefully to Paul McGinley and watched him closely at Gleneagles,” she said. “But I don’t quite have those funds at my disposal – it’s not so much whether I can have blue fish for the team room than whether the girls want theirs battered or fried!
“I was out at the Curtis Cup in 2014, and I obviously played under various captains during my own time. I have read (former US captain Paul) Azinger’s book, about his approach to the Ryder Cup.
“But I can’t travel to every event as Carin Koch did (for the Solheim Cup) or like Darren Clarke is doing. I’m going to Dun Laoghaire on a two-week holiday from my job, and my sons will probably be acting as vice captains.
“We’ve had one get-together atthe club but some players based in the States couldn’t make that, so the team will only really get together at the beginning of June.”
Although there hadn’t been a Scottish captain for four decades, Farquharson Black was hugely keen to be given a shot having captained Scotland and junior teams.
“I’m not sure why it has been so long, except that a lot of the players turned pro, like Gillian Stewart, Catherine Panton and Catriona (Matthew),” she continued.
“I’d hoped I’d get a crack at it. But what struck me was as a player you don’t realise how much the captain has thought about things.
“As a player you only see it as your point of view – why is she not playing me? When the captain is wrestling over everything, say will this pairing work, or will that pairing work?”
Elaine’s early experience as Scotland captain and as skipper of GB&I in last year’s Astor Trophy matches in Australia has already changed her approach.
“When I started as a captain I was more prescriptive, but then I realised what I need to do is to try and make sure they can play to their ultimate,” she continued.
“I am trying to retain every player’s normal routine, how they like to practice, what they like to eat. So I can create that wee bubble with them and make them feel they are playing in a normal event.”
She’s confident about the team at her disposal, even if there is almost certain to be no Scot among them.
“It’s very exciting. Over the two teams there’s seven out of the top 10 in the amateur world rankings playing and that’s pretty incredible. We’ve got three of the seven, numbers one four and nine in Leona Maguire, Bronte Law and Olivia Mehaffey.
“The fact that two of them are Irish (Maguire and Mehaffey is great in terms of people coming out to watch as the Irish always support amateur golf in such great numbers.
“I am expecting it to be very close, and I think that’s something where the overall result doesn’t always do the match justice because you can lose so many matches at the 18th.”
