Stone Continues Match-Play Run-Ins With Curtis Cup Teammates

The Curtis Cup Match isn’t scheduled for Bel-Air Country Club until 2026, but Latanna Stone must feel like she’s involved in the biennial competition this week at the 123rd U.S. Women’s Amateur. After dispatching 2022 Curtis Cup teammate Amari Avery, of Riverside, Calif., 2 and 1, in the Round of 64 on Wednesday at Bel-Air, the Louisiana State University graduate student will get another member of the victorious 2022 USA Team on Thursday morning in Rachel Kuehn. “It was really hard,” said Stone of playing a good friend. “I feel for her. I mean, we're all out here to do one thing, though, and get the job done.” Stone’s Round-of-32 encounter against Kuehn is scheduled for 7:50 a.m. PDT. A year ago at Chambers Bay, Stone, a Floridian who first qualified for this championship as a 10-year-old in 2012, was the No. 1 seed but fell in the Round of 64 to Julia Misemer. She was one of three co-medalists from stroke play. Kuehn, of Asheville, N.C., who helped Wake Forest win its first NCAA title in May, has garnered the winning point for the Americans in each of the last two Curtis Cups (2021 in Wales and 2022 at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa.).