Text Size

Leach Overcomes More Than Just Derby Grimes

By Ken Klavon, USGA

Ocala, Fla. – It must be in the genes.

Martha Leach bears down on her drive off the first-hole teeing ground Wednesday in her semifinal match. (Steven Gibbons/USGA)

How else to explain Martha Leach’s run to the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur final? The sister of past U.S. Women’s Open champion Hollis Stacy capitalized on shots when she needed them most and wouldn’t relinquish a feeble hold on a lead against a seasoned Virginia Derby Grimes in Leach’s stirring 1-up semifinal win.

This wasn’t a case of Leach stepping out from the shadows of her bigger sister. Leach is an accomplished player in her own right, having appeared in more than 40 USGA championships. She can certainly play, evidenced by a resume that could make many other competitors blush. Besides two U.S. Women’s Open appearances (1979 and 1993), Leach has swung a club in 14 U.S. Women’s Amateurs and 22 Women’s Mid-Amateurs before this week. She’s had adequate success, making it as far as a Women’s Amateur semifinal. In this championship, she’s now played in the semifinals four times.

In one fell swoop Wednesday at Golden Hills Golf and Turf club, Leach stayed alive through two more rounds of play that catapulted her into the 18-hole final against Georgia’s Laura Coble. The two shared a fervent hug off the 18th green, yelping with joy, after Leach gallantly guided in a 36-foot par putt that kept her from going to sudden death. 

“It’s always a surprise, really, in any tournament you play in to get this far because there’s so much that has to happen,” said a visibly wiped-out Leach.

Coming down the stretch, Leach’s grasp on the lead could be characterized as meager because she also had an intangible to fend off in addition to Derby Grimes. On No. 15, after playing 33 holes to that point Wednesday, the oppressive Florida heat had taken its toll on the Savannah, Ga., native. Leach took a moment to catch her wits. Rare is it that a smile doesn’t crease her face. In this case, she felt wobbly and said as much to her caddie-husband, John.

“I was feeling nauseous,” said Leach, 47.

From that point on, somehow, some way, Leach was able to reach deep within and block out the queasiness that could have forced her to come out of shots early. She admitted it became a challenge as Derby Grimes pinned her ears back two down with two holes to go and came at her like a matador rushing a red cape. “I knew she would fight to the finish,” said Leach.

Leach had gotten this far after wrestling the lead from Derby Grimes’ clutches with par wins on the 10th and 11th holes to go 2 up. She maintained the cushion when it seemed fleeting, like on the par-3 14th. Leach saved par and gained a halve from the collar when she scooted in a 24-foot putt.

“You always have to think they’re going to make it,” said the 45-year-old Derby Grimes, who won the 1998 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur and finished as runner-up in 2004, of the putt.

On the next hole, the 15th, Leach dodged another loss while feeling woozy.  This time Derby Grimes couldn’t convert on a downhill 5-footer that left her looking as though someone poisoned the well water.

Leach had a chance to close out the match on the 380-yard, par-4 17th. All she needed to do was sink a 5-footer for a halve. The ball struck the back edge of the hole, swirled around and out, looking something like a failed Harlem Globetrotters trick shot on the greens.

It was new life for Derby Grimes. Her drive on No. 18 was a beauty. The ball cut past the highest branch of a tree by the slimmest of margins and left her in the center of the fairway with 145 yards to the hole.

Leach had the misfortune of driving into the right fairway bunker. She came through her ball on the approach shot out, but didn’t open the clubface enough. The ball squirted off the bunker lip and left 80 yards to the flagstick.

With Derby Grimes on the green in two – leaving a 12-foot putt to the hole – everyone but Leach had one foot headed toward No. 1, which would have served as the first playoff hole. After getting on the green, Leach burrowed in and calmly put a stroke on the 36-foot to save par. The ball meandered right, breaking 4 feet, and found the hole as an elated Leach raised her arms in delight.

“I was thinking she could bang it as hard as she wanted,” said Derby Grimes. “She had nothing to lose. What can you say.”

Instead of being the one in the enviable position, Derby Grimes quickly had the pressure of the match thrown squarely on her shoulders. Make the 12-footer for birdie and they would continue. As she did too many times in the semifinal duel, Derby Grimes didn’t hit the putt quite firmly enough and her putt curled left of the hole.

“I willed that putt in,” said a smiling Leach of her 36-footer. “I said to myself, ‘I am going to make that.’ When it went in, I told myself that I really did will it in. And then it changed the M.O., forcing Virginia to make hers.”

More than that, Leach’s modus operandi moved her one match closer to her first USGA title and one closer to her big sis.

Ken Klavon is the USGA’s Editor of Digital Media. E-mail him with questions or comments at kklavon@usga.org.