1998

Virginia Derby Grimes, 34, of Montgomery, Ala., rolled in four consecutive birdies on the back nine Friday to win the U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur at the par-71, 6,068-yard Cypress Creek Course at Champions Golf Club.

A 1998 U.S. Curtis Cup team standout and former Auburn golf coach, Grimes defeated Robin Weiss, 45, of Palm Beach, Fla., 4 and 3, to win her first national title.

After a shaky start, Grimes took charge of the match at the par-4, 381-yard 11th hole when Weiss, the 1989 Women's Mid-Amateur champion, three-putted from just off the green. She began her birdie run one hole later with a 28-footer at the 175-yard 12th and followed with a 115-yard wedge shot to within 18 inches on the par-5, 494-yard 13th.

She then added a 31-footer at the par-4 14th, before closing out Weiss for the victory at the 366-yard 15th by sinking a 25-footer.

"When I made the turn, I talked to myself and said, 'This is the back nine. This is what it's going to come down to,' '' said Grimes, who coached at her alma mater from 1991-1994.

"Then, things started to happen."

Grimes, who defeated Martha Leach in the semifinals, had only one of her six matches this week extend to the 18th hole. In the finals, she hit just nine fairways and 10 greens, but needed only 23 putts, including 7 one-putt greens.

Weiss, a 45-year-old real estate broker, hit 10 fairways and nine greens, but had 30 putts.

"It was going to boil down to who had the hot putter,'' Grimes said. Weiss, a semifinalist in the 1998 Women's Trans National and 1998 Southern Amateur, struggled with her putting stroke and her positioning on the greens all day. "What happened to me today is what happened to Robin (Burke) yesterday,'' Weiss said of her semifinal win over Burke, the wife of Champions co-founder Jack Burke, Jr. "I put myself in the wrong spot on the green all day. When you do that, it's a nightmare.''

The win capped a summer of a lifetime for Grimes. In addition to this Mid-Amateur win, she was one of only three undefeated players on the victorious 1998 U. S. Curtis Cup team in Aug.. A semifinalist at the Southern Amateur, she also won the South Atlantic Championship.

"It's just been kind of mindboggling,'' she said.