SUNNINGDALE, England — In a contest founded by famous golfing sisters, it was fitting that the opening match in the 43rd edition of the Curtis Cup contained a pair of siblings. Playing for Great Britain & Ireland, the Rhodes sisters, Mimi and Patience, were defending both national honor and an unbeaten record in foursomes play for England in the Home Internationals (contested by England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales) and the recent European Amateur Team Championship in Spain.

Playing in Spain, of course, was no problem for either of the Rhodes girls. The family home for the last 20 years has been at Sotogrande in Andalucia, and both are fluent in Spanish.

“At first it was tough in Spain,” says Penny Rhodes, their mom. “The girls came home from school every day crying because they couldn’t understand anything. The food was an issue, especially the squid soup. But they had to eat it. When they were about 12, we looked at things they were writing and realized they couldn’t write in English. At all. Which was a problem. You have to be able to write in English if you’re English. Patience wrote me a note once. On it was the word ‘pekac.’ She thought that was ‘because.’ So we sent them to Millfield school in England.”

By then, both girls were proficient in golf as well as a foreign language. And, going against what is so often the norm with competitive siblings, they almost immediately worked well as a team.

“Their games do seem to complement each other very well,” Penny says. “Patience is long off the tee. Mimi is better with the long irons. And Patience is a great putter. Get those in the right order and they make a lot of 3s. They are also very supportive of each other as the youngest of four siblings. They’ve always rooted for each other, amidst a little rivalry I never see.”

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That quality was needed at Sunningdale. Winning only one hole, the Rhodes went down, 6 and 4, to Americans Melanie Green and Rachel Kuehn, a result that resonated particularly with the elder sister. Mimi, 22, and Kuehn were both members of the Wake Fest team that won the 2023 NCAA Championship. So there was a little bit of extra edge there.

“On days other than today, we gel so well,” says Patience, 20, who will enter her junior year at Arizona State in the fall. “It is so nice playing with someone where it doesn’t even occur to either of us to say, ‘sorry.’ She would look at me really strangely if I did ever apologize for a bad shot. Plus, if anyone does get a bit down or a little upset, it’s nearly always me. And when I do, Mimi is there to get me out of it. We are never mean to each other on the course. We do have our moments off the course, but we keep that to one side when we are playing. It’s all business.”

A failing business on this particular day. Making just about every kind of mistake losing sides tend to make—missed fairways and greens on the opening holes, subsequent chances created but missed, then a couple of daft three-putts—the Rhodes were down early and never really looked like clawing their way back into contention. But still there was a little bit of levity lurking not far below the surface, quite apart from the fact that they were unable to disguise their intentions by speaking Spanish to each other.

“The problem was Rachel’s caddie knows Spanish,” says Patience with a roll of her eyes.

Anyway, having just won the 12th to get back to 4 down, Patience found the putting surface on the par-3 13th. The feat looked even more promising when the Americans missed the green left. But it was the visiting pair who made the winning par to go dormie five.

“I know Mimi isn’t the best at lag-putting,” Patience says. “So if she is faced with a downhill left-to-right putt, I’ll maybe tell her four times that it is downhill. Eventually, she’ll turn to me and say, ‘I know’ in a stern voice. Then, if she does hit it way past, we have a laugh. Which is what happened on the 13th green today. One thing though. I would never say I’m a better putter than her. Oh no. We’re both great [laughs].

“Where we are pretty similar is in how we react to things,” she continues. “Mimi is maybe a little more positive in how she reacts to situations. That stems from her being the older sister, I think. Equally, I never want to be letting my big sister down. She is very encouraging to me. And I try to reciprocate.”

Still, the pair are soon enough to go their own ways. As Patience heads back to Tempe and Arizona State, on Monday Mimi will be a professional golfer. Already she has made progress on that front, having arrived back in England only on Monday and (not-so) fresh from finishing sixth at Stage One of the LPGA Qualifying School. And before Stage Two she will play in an event on the burgeoning Rose Series and three events on the Ladies European Tour Access Series.

So a lot of golf lies ahead for the Rhodes girls. Hopefully with a better result than the disappointing loss they suffered for the first time in their golfing lives on the opening morning of this Curtis Cup.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com