Curtis girls can win it with the Ballesteros attitude

By Richie Ramsay

Published:

SEVE Ballesteros walked into the European team’s locker room after the 1983 Ryder Cup at Palm Beach in Florida and ordered his team-mates to start celebrating.

They must have thought the Spaniard had lost his marbles, seeing how they had just been beaten 14

It was the third consecutive defeat for the European team after the continentals joined up with Great Britain and Ireland following 10 previous losses on the trot.

Making it a European team was meant to make the event more competitive, but there they were – three defeats in a row and feeling downcast.

Not Seve.

The way he saw it was that the defeat by the narrowest of margins (they had a putt to win at one point) was a water-shed moment when he finally believed they could win the Ryder Cup.

Seve wanted to party and eventually his team-mates came round to his way of thinking – and Europe never looked back.

There might not have been a Seve moment in last weekend’s Curtis Cup but I still believe it might prove to be a turning point for the GB&I team.

The scorecard looked like a heavy loss but that was not quite the case. A lot of the matches just came down to a couple of missed putts here and there.

I genuinely believe that defeat can make you stronger and I have no doubt that these girls will learn from the experience. A few people have been quick to criticise them, which is scandalous. The average age of the team was just 19 and it had players such as Carly Booth and Sally Webster, who are just 15 and 16.

They will be back at school this week, for goodness sake.

They have phenomenal talent and have great futures ahead of them.

There is no doubt the United States is farther ahead of them in terms of ability and experience.

The gap in the women’s amateur game is wider than in the men’s. That does not mean, however, we should move to make it a European team, which was the typical knee-jerk reaction this week.

I do not think this would be a great benefit as the home nations would suffer the most because the team could be made up entirely of Scandinavians, who had a head start on us in terms of youth development.

We are starting to catch up and I have no doubt the GB&I women will gain from these defeats, however painful.

The situation was similar in the Walker Cup, the men’s amateur competition, as the United States won seven in a row in the 1970s and 80s.

It was tough at the time but the home nations learned from the harsh defeats and eventually dragged themselves back.

I have been fortunate to play in a couple of majors as well as winning the US Amateur championship. But being involved in the Walker Cup in 2005 was one of the greatest experiences I have had.

The GB&I team had won three in a row and we were desperate to retain it. We came within one shot as Nigel Edwards putt grazed the edge.

The team was devastated to have lost but the gap between the teams was inches. Going that close might seem like miles away for our Curtis Cup side at the moment but I am convinced those young women are on the right road.

TODAY I will tee-off in the Spanish Challenge in Madrid in good spirits.

I am playing on the back of eight consecutive sub-70 rounds and top 10 finishes in my last two tournaments in Poland and Manchester.

The aim is to maintain that form and keep challenging for titles and I feel well equipped to do that this weekend in Spain.