Ireland's Claire Dowling has been confirmed as captain of the Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup team for the match against the United States at Ganton near Scarborough on June 24th-25th next year.
The 41-year-old, formerly Claire Hourihane, has won four caps, including the 1986 match in which the Americans were beaten on home soil for the first time.
"The Curtis Cup has always been the pinnacle for every amateur golfer and the same applies to the captaincy - I'm absolutely delighted to have been invited," she said.
Dowling is a member of the same Copt Heath club in Birmingham as Walker Cup captain Peter McEvoy. She gets her first taste of the captaincy when she leads the team against the Continent of Europe in the Vagliano Trophy at North Berwick on July 23rd-24th.
America won back the Curtis Cup last year, but it was only their third success since 1984.
Meanwhile, Australia's Rachel Hetherington sank a two-foot birdie putt on the first play-off hole to defeat Canada's Lorie Kane and win the $800,000 LPGA Chick-fil-A Charity Championship in Georgia on Sunday.
Hetherington birdied the 18th hole to get to 12-under-par 204 and force sudden death, shortly after Kane parred the 465-yard finishing hole.
The pair returned to the 18th tee and both played aggressively, trying to reach the green on the par-five hole in two. Hetherington just missed the green, while Kane ran through.
Hetherington lifted her wedge shot within two feet of the pin, while Kane stuck her third shot five feet from the cup. Kane missed her putt, but Hetherington did not and her birdie gave her the $120,000 winner's cheque. "I expected Lorie to make it and I thought that we were going to the next hole," said the Australian. "I'm disappointed for Lorie, no one in the world wants that to happen to anyone."
But Kane said: "There was no need for her to say sorry. There has to be a winner and she's it.
"It (the putt) was just inside the right edge. The greens were damp today, the ball was picking up grass all day long."
Hetherington shot a two-under-par 70 in the final round, and Kane carded a 69 before settling for her second runner-up finish in the tournament in as many years.
