VICTORY was secure and the cheering had eventually subsided around Killarney's clubhouse when Ita Butler was thrown off guard for the first time as Curtis Cup captain. With a totally unexpected gesture, the youngest member of the beaten American side succeeded where she and her colleagues had failed over two days of matchplay battle.
"I was stunned - I really didn't know how to react," recalled Butler, who had led her players to a stunning triumph by 11 1/2 to 6 1/2. Totally unprompted, 19 year old Cristie Kerr had taken it upon herself to present the opposing skipper with a congratulatory bouquet of flowers.
It was a decidedly curious thing to do, particularly without consulting any members of her own side. Yet, it may have reflected a general admiration for the performance of the Dublin housewife.
Whatever Kerr's motivation, the first staging of the Curtis Cup in the Republic of Ireland had been something of a tour de force for the Irish leader of a team without an Irish player. Butler had glowed with pride as President Mary Robinson travelled south to meet the players on the eve of the match.
Even the rhododendrons had obediently delayed their blooming for a month by way of a salute to the occasion. When play commenced, the skipper watched a well planned strategy work to perfection.
"I was apprehensive," confesses Butler. "We had held the trophy since or win at Hoylake in 1988, so I could only relinquish it. Then there was the fact that the matches were being played here, in front of my own people. That brought its own pressures."
Those concerns seemed to vanish, however, with the arrival of the President - "she made me feel very proud" - and the beauty of Killarney which was seen in all its splendour in delightful sunshine. All the while Butler was focusing her energies on uniting the home players into a winning unit.
As it happened, they prepared so well that they were unruffled by the shock decision of US skipper Martha Lang to drop her national champion, Kelli Kuehne, for the opening day's singles. "Kelli has had a few foot problems," said Lang. "I have no problem with my foot," countered Kuehne.
The upshot of it all was that Britain and Ireland swept to a 6-3 lead at the halfway stage. "Absolutely brilliant," enthused Butler. "If you had offered me that score at the start, I would definitely have taken it."
But there were inherent problems in such a lead. Instead of the traditional British and Irish battle for supremacy, she had to ensure that her players didn't squander a winning position. She did it by placing her strength at the bottom of the singles order, choosing the splendid Janice Moodie in the anchor position.
"A safe pair of hands," is how Butler described the 23 year old Scot, who had also been a key figure in the 1994 matches at Chattanooga, gaining a last green win over Carol Semple Thompson. On this occasion, Moodie had what proved to be a triumphant march against Kuehne, beating her 2 and 1.
It was also a memorable occasion for another Scot, Alison Rose, who secured four points out of four to equal the 1986 achievement of Trish Johnson at Prairie Dunes. In fact, five members of the home side were unbeaten over the two days in which huge galleries from all over these islands and further afield thrilled to the quality of golf in stunning surroundings.
"To be perfectly honest, I never worried about the Americans," said Butler. "After convincing myself that I had a team capable of winning, I set about concentrating on the things that we could control. Obviously I couldn't influence whether or not Martha Lang decided to play Kuehne."
Interestingly, while we talked about this gifted player who later added the British Women's crown to her two US Amateur titles, Kuehne had just embarked on a professional career. Predictably, it was a fairly notable debut as she and Tiger Woods earned $75,000 apiece when finishing joint second in the JP Penney Mixed Foursomes Tournament in early December.
Meanwhile, there was the prospect of a flood of Christmas cards to Butler's Foxrock home, adding to all of the earlier correspondence. "I've had about 400 letters, some from Americans, telling me how much they enjoyed those wonderful days in Killarney," she said. "I even got a letter from a British MP, Ian Sprout."
There were the letters, including one from Peter Alliss, which were sent directly to the Ladies' Golf Union at St Andrews, congratulating all concerned. While closer to home, Milltown GC saw fit to bestow honorary life associate membership on her.
Little more than a month after the historic British and Irish Curtis Cup win of 1986, I remember travelling to Whittington Barracks for the Women's Home Internationals, just north of Birmingham. For Mary McKenna, Lillian Behan and Claire Hourihane, it must have seemed a somewhat mundane challenge after the excitement of Kansas. But it was refreshingly new to the Irish non playing captain. Only now can we appreciate the full significance of Ita Butler's performance in leading her country to victory on that occasion - the last time they won the title.
