The victorious Great Britain & Ireland team, with captain Elaine Farquharson-Black, celebrates after beating the United States by 11.5 points to 8.5 points to win the 2016 Curtis Cup. (Patrick Bolger/R&A)

By Ryan Herrington
Bringing back Scotland’s Elaine Farquaharson-Black as the Great Britain & Ireland Curtis Cup captain for next year’s match at Quaker Ridge G.C. outside New York City was the easy part. The two-time Curtis Cup player deserved to keep the job, a decision the R&A made official on Wednesday, after overseeing an impressive 11½-8½ GB&I victory over the U.S. in the 2016 matches at Dun Laoghaire.

Now for the hard part: Winning the Cup for a second straight.

Just once in the Curtis Cup’s 85-year history has a GB&I captain successfully led her side to two straight victories in the competition—Diane Bailey doing it in 1986 and 1988. Elizabeth Boatman led the winning GB&I team in 1992 and then saw her side retain the Cup in 1994 when the match ended in a tie.