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Old Friends Meet: Grimes Defeats Thompson In First Round

 

By Rhonda Glenn, USGA

Ocala, Fla. – In a battle between two of the most well-known players in women’s amateur golf, Virginia Derby Grimes of Meridian, Miss., defeated Carol Semple Thompson of Sewickley, Pa., 4 and 3, in the opening round of match play in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship at the 6,173-yard, par-72 Golden Hills Golf and Turf Club.

Seven-time USGA champion Carol Semple Thompson kept the match close through the first 12 holes. (Steven Gibbons/USGA)

There was no favorite in the match. Thompson, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, has many more titles, but Grimes in the last few years has proven to be one of the better amateurs of the modern era. In this championship for women amateurs age 25 and older, they may be the last of a breed – career amateurs who never sought glory on the professional tour.

They are also old friends and when Grimes won the match at the 15th green, they hugged.

“Good playing,” said Thompson.

“It’s always a pleasure playing with you,” Grimes replied.

Grimes won this championship in 1998. She has played on the USA Curtis Cup team three times, in 1998, 2000 and 2006. In those first two matches, Thompson was her teammate. In the last, Thompson was her captain.

Thompson’s Curtis Cup record is unmatched, by anyone. She has played on the USA team 12 times. Her competitive USGA record shows a stunning seven championship titles, surpassed only by Bob Jones (9) and Jack Nicklaus, JoAnne Gunderson Carner and Tiger Woods, with eight.

In match play, of course, reputation doesn’t matter as much as what you bring to the first tee, and Grimes and Thompson made a match of it from the start.

They didn’t tie a hole until the fourth, and Grimes was 1 up. She won the sixth with a par, but lost the ninth to Thompson’s par and it looked as if we were in for a good battle with Grimes just 1 up at the turn.

Grimes and Thompson met Monday morning in the clubhouse grille. Despite having competed for some seven decades between them, they have played each other only one other time, in the 1993 Women’s Mid-Am, Grimes’ first and Thompson’s eighth. That year, she was still Virginia Derby and facing Thompson, who had set a qualifying score as medalist.

Grimes, of course, recalled that match well.

“I remember that because I knew who Carol was,” Grimes said Monday. That encounter was a close one, with Thompson winning, 1 up.

In the intervening 16 years, Grimes has married and Thompson was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

When they first saw each other Monday morning, facing only their second encounter in 16 years, Thompson smiled and said, “It looks like we’re playing each other.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Grimes said. “Me too,” said Thompson.

Not exactly scintillating conversation, but it’s often difficult to chat when your stomach is churning and you’re just trying to choke down your scrambled eggs. This is, after all, a national championship and both these players, Thompson at 60, Grimes at 45, knew there was still the possibility that one of them could win.

Thompson was elegant in her soft-yellow shirt and Bermuda shorts. Even her visor was pale yellow. Grimes was svelte but a bit more casual, an Auburn baseball cap perched on her head. Their swing tempos, however, were almost identical – the sweet, lazy rhythm of veteran players who know it’s going to be a long week. To win this championship, a player must endure eight rounds of golf, twice that of what it takes to win the U.S. Women’s Open.

With Grimes 1 up after nine, Thompson lost the 10th when she couldn’t get up and down out of a greenside bunker.

The 11th, Grimes believed, was the key hole. It’s only 145 yards, a par 3, but the green seems distinctly divided in two halves, one right, one left, both sloping away from the crest in the middle where the flagstick was perched.

Grimes was some 25 feet to the right of the hole, Thompson was 20 feet away and conservatively short. Grimes putted first and her ball crested at the hole, then tore down the other side, fully 5 feet past. Thompson putted uphill and sailed about 5 feet past.

Grimes missed her 5-footer. Bogey. Now Thompson had a chance to make her putt for par and cut the margin to one hole.

“I thought Carol was going to make that putt,” Grimes said, “but it’s a fast, fast green.”

The veteran campaigner stood over her putt, and missed.

“I thought that was the key hole, because I had some good holes coming up,” Grimes said. The next hole in fact, the 497-yard par-5 12th, where Grimes hit her approach shot to within a few feet of the hole. Thompson, uncharacteristically chunked her wedge shot to the green, hit again and missed her putt for par. Grimes birdied and went 3 up.

When Thompson bogeyed the par-3 14th, and Grimes parred to go 4 up, the match was all but over and ended formally on the 15th green. Grimes advances, Thompson goes home.

Grimes was relieved. “I knew Carol didn’t play as well as I’ve seen her play,” Grimes said. “I finally settled down a little bit (in the match).”

Players like Thompson come only once a generation, if that. Grimes knew what she was facing and even with her own wonderful record was unsettled at the start of the match. To get over it, “I hummed the Mississippi State Bulldog Fight Song,” Grimes laughed.

Rhonda Glenn is a Manager of Communications for the USGA. E-mail her with questions or comments at rglenn@usga.org.