Feb. 23, 2017
Former Auburn women's golf coach and player Virginia Derby Grimes has been named captain of the 2018 USA Curtis Cup Team, the United States Golf Association announced Thursday.
Derby Grimes, who played for Auburn from 1985-86 and was the team's head coach from 1991-94, has been recognized as one of the world's top amateur women's golfers. She was a member of the 1998, 2000 and 2006 USA Curtis Cup Teams and owns a 4-0-1 record in foursomes, tied for the second-best record in Curtis Cup history. She is one of 10 women on either side to go undefeated while playing in at least four foursomes (alternate-shot) matches.
A biennial competition between top female amateur golfers from the United States and Great Britain and Ireland, the 40th Curtis Cup Match will be contested June 8-10, 2018, at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, N.Y.
"To captain the 2018 Curtis Cup Team and represent the United States and the USGA is both an honor and a privilege," Derby Grimes said in a press release from the USGA. "Having the opportunity to play on three winning Curtis Cup Teams remains one of the most gratifying accomplishments of my career. My captains - Barbara McIntire in 1998, Jane Booth in 2000 and Carol Semple Thompson in 2006 - all made lasting impressions on me, and I hope I am able to continue that tradition by sharing my perspective and passion for this game that continues to teach me so much."
A 1987 Auburn graduate, Derby Grimes was recognized in 1998 by renaming its annual home women's golf tournament the Auburn Tiger-Derby Invitational. The tournament, which has not been played since 2008, will be restarted in 2018 as the Evans-Derby Experience to also recognize former head coach Kim Evans. In 2004, Derby Grimes was inducted into Auburn's Tiger Trail, which honors outstanding athletes, coaches and administrators.
Derby Grimes won the 1998 U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur with a 4-and-3 victory over Robin Weiss at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas, and was runner-up to Corey Weworski in the 2004 championship. She was a member of Alabama's winning team in the 1997 USGA Women's State Team Championship and earned medalist honors in the 1995 and 1997 U.S. Women's Amateur Championships.
She served on the USGA Women's Committee in 2003-04 and was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2004. The Alabama native is a five-time Alabama Women's Amateur and three-time Mississippi Women's Amateur champion, and also won the 1987 and 1996 Women's Southern Amateur Championships and the 1998 and 2006 South Atlantic Amateur Championships, known as the Sally.
Four former Tigers have competed in the Curtis Cup - Derby Grimes in 1998, 2000 and 2006, Margaret Platt in 1990, Courtney Swain in 2002 and Cydney Clanton in 2010.
The GB&I Team won the 2016 Curtis Cup Match at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club in Ireland, while the USA won the 2014 Match at St. Louis (Mo.) Country Club. The USA leads the overall series, 28-8-3.