On Sunday, Los Angeles added a new Farah to walk of fame.
Her name was Farah O’Keefe, and she was making the painstakingly long walk from the 17th green to greet her teammates after perhaps the best week of her life. And though she looked every bit the terrifying superstar who’d utterly dominated Great Britain & Ireland to the tune of five points and a triumphant victory at Bel-Air Country Club, it was the fist pump after her putt fell on the 17th to win the Cup that told the whole story.
O’Keefe, a junior at the University of Texas and one of the best collegiate golfers in the world, carried the Americans to a victory at this 44th playing of the Curtis Cup — the biennial match play competition that serves as women’s golf’s counter to the Walker Cup. All week long, she looked the part of a player fresh off an NCAA individual title and a U.S. Women’s Open start … and certain to waste little time making her way to the LPGA whenever her time at Texas is up.
“It is a lot of golf. I’ve played a lot of golf in the last month and a half. It’s really kind of ridiculous, really since SECs,” O’Keefe said Saturday. “This is what I love to do, and this is my passion. Even though my body is hurting and everything is feeling kind of old, I’m still enjoying it, and I think I’m running on a little bit of adrenaline.”
In the end, she finished 5-0-0, good for top billing on an American side that featured no shortage of talented youngsters, including amateur star Asterisk Talley. O’Keefe’s Americans fended off a late Saturday charge by the GB&I with a forceful finish in Sunday Singles, winning the last six of eight matches to clinch a 13-7 victory and extending the American side’s long-running dominance in the all-important final day format. Since the Curtis Cup went to a three-day format, the Americans are beating the GB&I 46.5-23.5 in the singles session. The Americans have also won four of the last five cups.
“I think it was all about perspective,” said Talley. “You feel the adrenaline out there, so you don’t get tired too much. But when you do, you’re just like, man, it’s always great to be out here with friends and family. I think it’s great to play golf every day for a living. You always have to keep that in perspective. Not everybody gets to do that. You have to be grateful.”
In the end, there was plenty to be grateful for on the U.S. side after clinching a victory to return the Cup to American soil. Only the top-two billings on the GB&I side, Sophia Fullbrook and Patience Rhodes, managed to deliver victories on the final day as the American wave rolled in at Bel-Air, and as Farah O’Keefe was crowned as the tournament’s undisputed winner. The excitement carried all the way to the team room for the American side, which was still abuzz even as the evening rolled in to Hollywood.
“I’m so over the moon,” Jasmine Woo, another victorious American, said. “I don’t know how to feel right now.”
On Sunday evening and for the next two years at least, the answer is clear: She can feel like a champion.