Ole Miss Golf’s Kennedy Swann Invited to USGA Curtis Cup Practice Session

Ole Miss senior Kennedy Swann has been named one of 12 golfers that have been invited to participate in a practice session in advance of the 2021 Curtis Cup Match, as announced Monday by the United States Golf Association (USGA) International Team Selection Committee.
 
The session for prospective players will take place Jan. 29-30, 2021 at Lake Golf & Country Club in Orlando, Florida. Of the 12 players to participate in the practice session, 11 of the players are current collegiate golfers, four of which hail from the SEC.
 
A biennial competition, the 41st Curtis Cup Match will be contested Aug. 26-28, 2021, at Conwy Golf Club in Caernarvonshire, Wales. The event was originally scheduled for last summer, but was postponed due to COVID-19.
 
Swann, who used her fifth-year of eligibility to return and pursue her MBA, currently No. 4 in Golfweek‘s individual rankings. The Austin, Texas, native earned co-medalist honors at the prestigious East Lake Cup in October and finished the fall season with a 72.7 stroke average.
 
Besides her win in Atlanta, Swann posted an 11^th place finish at the Blessings Collegiate earlier during the fall. Swann also picked up a match play win at the East Lake Cup with a 1-up win over Texas’ Sophie Guo in the semifinals.
 
In her first full year at Ole Miss, Swann earned second team All-SEC honors last season and finished no worse than a tie for 17th all season, including an individual win at the Illini Women’s Invitational at Medinah.
 
Swann finished fourth in the conference in scoring (71.39) in 2019-20, which was good for the second-lowest single-season stroke average in program history.
 
Those golfers who accepted invitations along with Swann were Allisen Corpuz (Southern California), Lauren Hartlage (Louisville), Auston Kim (Vanderbilt), Gina Kim (Duke), Rachel Kuehn (Wake Forest), Brooke Matthews (Arkansas), Emilia Migliaccio (Wake Forest), Kaitlyn Papp (Texas), Megan Schofill (Auburn), Aneka Seumanutafa (Ohio State) and Rose Zhang. 
 
Invitation to the Curtis Cup practice session does not guarantee selection to the eight-player USA Team that will compete in August. Players not invited will also be considered for inclusion on the team. As of 2018, the USGA provides automatic selections to the reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, along with the McCormack Medal winner and the top three players in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking, if eligible.
 
The Curtis Cup Match is contested by two teams of eight female amateur players, one from the United States of America and one from Great Britain and Ireland, which is composed of England, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The USGA’s International Team Selection Committee selects the USA Team, while The R&A selects the GB&I Team.