The United States will take a narrow 6.5-5.5 lead into day two of the Junior Ryder Cup at Bethpage and it was a day of mixed fortunes for John Doyle, the sole Irish representative in the European ranks.
With six male and six female players comprising each side of 12 players, the morning session pitted the six European female players against the six U.S. players over three foursomes matches, and the same with the males, and the Americans got off to a hot start.
Led by U.S. top-ranked girls’ junior Asterisk Talley and teammate Amelie Zalsman, they jumped to a 5-up lead through seven holes.
Following a brief run from Team Europe’s Sara Brentcheneff and Benedicte Brent-Peterson, winning holes 8, 10 and 11, Talley and Zalsman closed the first match of the Junior Ryder Cup with a 4 & 3 victory with a birdie on the par-5 15th hole.
“It’s great to get off to a good start (in match play) because you don’t want to have to battle back the whole time,” Asterisk said.
When the U.S. won their morning matches, they won by a large margin. Following the lead of Talley and Zalsman, partners Anna Fang and Lily Peng won their morning match against Europe’s Charlotte Naughton and Alice Kong 6 & 4. In the following group, Frisco, Texas, resident Luke Colton and Giuseppe Puebla of Royal Palm Beach, Fla. also won 6 & 4 against Europe’s Callixte Alzas and Lev Grinberg.
The Americans took control of this match early, making the turn at 4-up, fueled by an eagle on the par-5 fourth hole. Colton hit his approach to eight feet to set up Puebla to drain the putt for eagle.
“Giuseppe ripped a drive like 350 (yards) down there and I hit it where I was aiming and it ended up being eight feet away,” Colton said. “That felt really big because (Europe) hit it close for birdie. Giuseppe made just about every putt out there and I think that got the match going. We were on fire after that.”
Even after a hot start and three commanding wins in the morning session from the U.S., Team Europe did not falter.
French duo Hugo Le Goff and Oscar Couilleau set the tone for Europe, defeating U.S. top-ranked junior Miles Russell and Vanderbilt commit Tyler Mawhinney 3 & 2.
“I’ve known Oscar since I was 7 years-old,” Le Goff said. “We used to play together quite a few times and we always play well together. It felt good to win the first point for Europe.”
Behind 3 points to 1, Europe flipped the momentum by winning the final two matches. Nagore Martinez and Louise Uma Landgraf won 3 & 2 over Zoe Cusack and Rayee Feng leaving Doyle and England’s Kris Kim needing to secure a point in the anchor match to level the tie.
Twice they trailed and Hamilton Coleman and Lunden Esterline, and twice they struck back immediately before taking their first lead on 10 and, having been pegged back themselves, then hit the front again with wins on 13 and 14 to establish the match’s first 2 up lead. Despite a U.S. rally, they held their nerve to secure halves on the final three holes and leave the scores locked at 3-3 going into the afternoon’s mixed foursomes and the closely-fought nature of the battles would continue.
The U.S. sent out their star players with top-ranked Russell and Talley facing French teammates Brentcheneff and Le Goff.
Russell and Talley jumped to a quick lead, reaching 4-up through 8 holes, and then the Europeans started crawling back. Through 14 holes they inched to 3-down, then proceeded to win holes 15 and 16 to get within one. Le Goff holed a 7-foot putt on 17 to extend the match to 18, where Le Goff again holed a match-tying birdie to split the point.
“It just shows you that on this course, you can never count your chickens,” European Captain Steven Gallacher said. “We saw two 4-up matches (this afternoon) that didn’t win. You don’t normally see that. This course, you’ve got to be on it all the time. You’ve got to hit great shots.”
The other 4-hole swing match came in favor of the Americans, when 2025 U.S. Junior Amateur Champion Coleman and New Jersey native Feng were 4-down through seven.
Hamilton and Feng won holes 8 and 9, with a par and an eagle, respectively, and then really turned it on by winning four of the last six holes.
With the match tied going into 18, Feng hit her approach to 10 feet, setting Hamilton up to sink the putt and claim the 1-up victory with a birdie.
“That was about every emotion you could feel on the golf course, in one round,” Hamilton said. “It would have been easy to give up, but we stuck with it.”
“I grabbed my putter, but kept the cover on because I had faith in him,” Feng said of Hamilton’s birdie putt on 18. “Towards the end we really pulled it together. We’re pretty great as a team.”
Hamilton’s birdie wasn’t the only U.S. match winner on 18. Colton and his afternoon partner Fang of San Diego were tied with Brent-Peterson and Couilleau going into the last hole. Fang’s approach left an up-hill, 7-foot birdie opportunity that Colton drained.
Doyle played alongside France’s Alice Kong in the penultimate match against Cusack and Boys’ Junior PGA Champion Esterline, but a slow start saw them lose the opening two holes and then the ninth to fall 3 down at the turn. A win on the 10th threatened a comeback, but it was short-lived as the Americans proceeded to win the next four holes and close out the match in devastating style, 6 & 4.
Full-point earners for Europe were Nagore Martinez and Alzas, defeating Peng and Puebla 3 & 2, while Charlotte Naughton and Kris Kim won 2 & 1 over Zalsman and Mawhinney.
Day two see the teams compete in mixed fourball action, and Doyle will this time team up with Denmark’s Benedicte Brent-Petersen in the second-to-last match, before the final-round singles which will complete the tie on Thursday.
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