USGA

USGA Notebook: U.S. Curtis
Cup News and More

JANE BOOTH NAMED CAPTAIN OF 2000 U.S. CURTIS CUP SQUAD

Far Hills, N.J. -- Jane Bastanchury Booth of Cota de Caza, Calif., a member of three consecutive winning U.S. Curtis Cup teams from 1970-74, has been named captain of the U. S. squad for the 2000 Curtis Cup Match, the Women's Committee of the United States Golf Association has announced.

The upcoming Curtis Cup Match will be played June 24-25 at Ganton Golf Club in North Yorkshire, England. Booth will lead a team of eight women amateurs against a squad from Great Britain and Ireland in this biennial event, begun in 1932.

Booth, 51, holds the distinction of having an undefeated record in representing the United States in international events. In her three Curtis Cup appearances, she was 3-0-1 in foursomes (alternated shot of partners) and 4-0 in singles.

The U.S. squad won the Curtis Cup in all three years in which she played - 1970, 1972 and 1974. In fact, she is one of just eight U.S. players to earn 4-0 records in a Match (1974).

She also played on the winning U.S. team at the Women's World Amateur Team Championships in 1968 and 1970.

A career amateur, Booth finished third at the 1970 U.S. Women's Open, and was low amateur again the following year. She was near the top again in 1972 and 1974 when she was sixth and tied for ninth, respectively.

Among her many victories in her amateur career are: the Women's Western Amateur in 1969 and 1970, the 1972 North & South Women's Amateur, the Women's Trans-National Amateur in 1967, 1969, and 1971; and the Broadmoor Ladies Invitation in 1968, 1969 and 1970.

Her daughter, Kellee, now a professional golfer, was the 1993 U.S. Girls' Junior champion and was a member of the 1996 and 1998 U.S. Curtis Cup squads. Booth is a member of the U.S. Girls' Junior Championship Committee.

The Curtis Cup competition features three foursomes (alternate shot of partners) and six singles matches each day, with each match worth one point toward the team score. Each team gets a half point for a tied match after 18 holes.

The Match is conducted every two years, alternately in the United States and Great Britain and Ireland. The first Match was held in 1932. The Cup is named in honor of Harriott and Margaret Curtis, sisters who won the U.S. Women's Amateur four times between them.

The United States leads the series, 21-6-3, but Great Britain and Ireland has won the last three Matches contested in Europe (1988,1992 and 1996).

BAUER AND THOMPSON HEAD 2000 U.S. CURTIS CUP TEAM

Far Hills, N.J. -- Top-ranked women's amateur Elizabeth (Beth) Bauer of Cramerton, N.C., and four-time United States Golf Association champion Carol Semple Thompson of Sewickley, Pa., head a group of eight women amateur golfers selected to the U.S. Curtis Cup team for 2000, the USGA Women's Committee has announced.

It is a record eleventh selection for the 50-year-old Thompson, who played her first Curtis Cup Match in 1974. The upcoming Match, a biennial competition between two amateur women's teams, one from the U.S. and another from Great Britain and Ireland, will be played June 24-25 at Ganton Golf Club in North Yorkshire, England. The Great Britain and Ireland team will be selected shortly by the Ladies Golf Union.

Bauer and Thompson were teammates on the winning 1998 U.S. team. Others named with previous Curtis Cup experience are Virginia Derby Grimes of Montgomery, Ala., and Robin Weiss of West Palm Beach, Fla. Grimes also was a member of the 1998 team. Weiss previously played on the U.S. team in 1990 and 1992.

Leland Beckel of Bethesda, Md., Hilary Homeyer of Edina, Minn., Stephanie Keever of Las Vegas, Nev., and Angela Stanford of Saginaw, Texas, were named to their first U.S. Curtis Cup team.

Three-time Curtis Cup player Jane Bastanchury Booth, will serve as captain of the U.S. squad. The alternates, in rank order, are Jenna Daniels, 21, of Bonita, Calif.; Alissa Herron, 26, of Minneapolis, Minn.; and Krissie Register, 20, of Roswell, Ga.

Bauer, a 19-year-old sophomore at Duke University, has already won the Women's Harder Hall Invitational by 16 strokes and the Women's South Atlantic Golf Championship (Sally) by 10 shots this year. She also won the Harder Hall and the North and South Women's Amateur in 1999. She qualified for the 1998 U.S. Women's Open, and won the 1997 U.S. Girls' Junior.

Thompson won the USGA Senior Women's Amateur in 1999, adding to her national titles as the 1973 Women's Amateur champion and the 1990 and 1997 Women's Mid-Amateur winner. She qualified for both the 1998 and 1999 Women's Opens. Overall, she has played in 29 Women's Opens, with two top-10 finishes.

Most recently, she finished runner-up to Bauer at the 2000 Women's Harder Hall Invitational. In 10 previous Curtis Cup competitions, she has a combined record of 8-8-1 in singles, and 7-6-3 in foursomes.

Beckel, 33, earned her place on the team with consistent finishes, including a runner-up finish at the 1999 U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur. She was a semifinalist in 1999 at the Southern Women's Amateur and the 1999 Women's Trans-National. She also was a quarterfinalist at the 1999 Women's Western Amateur and reached the third round of match play at the 1998 U.S. Women's Amateur.

Grimes, 36, was the 1998 U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur champion. She tied for second at the 1999 Harder Hall and reached the quarterfinals of the 1999 Southern Women's Amateur. A former golf coach at Auburn University, she underwent back surgery in early January, but is expected to be fully recovered by the time of the competition.

Homeyer, a 20-year-old junior at Stanford University, had her best finish of the last two years at the 1999 Women's Western Amateur, where she was runner-up. She was a quarterfinalist at the 1998 Women's Western Amateur.

She finished second at the 1999 PAC-10 Championship, and tied for 15th at the 1999 NCAA Division I Championship.

Keever, a 21-year-old junior and teammate of Homeyer's at Stanford, advanced to the quarterfinal round of the U.S. Women's Amateur in each of the past two years. She was the medalist and a finalist at the 1998 Women's Trans-National. She finished tied for 9th and 15th at the 1998 and 1999 NCAA Division I Championship, respectively.

Stanford, a 21-year-old senior at Texas Christian University (TCU), was a quarterfinalist at the 1998 U.S. Women's Amateur. At the 1999 Women's Amateur, she posted the second best qualifying score, but was upset the second round of match play. In the college ranks, she won four tournaments in 1999 and earned first-team All-America honors.

Weiss, a 45-year-old career amateur, was a finalist at the 1998 U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur. In 1999, she won the Southern Women's Amateur, was a semifinalist at the Jones-Doherty Invitational, and was the medalist and reached the quarterfinals at the Women's Trans-National.

The Curtis Cup competition features three foursomes (alternate shot of partners) and six singles matches each day, with each match worth one point toward the team score. Each team gets a half point for a tied match after 18 holes.

The Match is conducted every two years, alternately in the United States and Great Britain and Ireland. The first Match was held in 1932. The Cup is named in honor of Harriott and Margaret Curtis, sisters who won the U.S. Women's Amateur four times between them.

The United States leads the series, 21-6-3, but Great Britain and Ireland has won the last three Matches contested in Europe (1988,1992 and 1996).

INDIANA'S TREY HOLLAND ELECTED AS USGA PRESIDENT

Far Hills, N.J. - Trey Holland of Indianapolis, Ind., has been elected for a one-year term as president of the United States Golf Association during 2000. He succeeds F. Morgan "Buzz" Taylor of Hobe Sound, Fla., who served as president from 1998-99.

The election of officers and the full 15-member USGA Executive Committee took place on Jan. 22, 2000, at the USGA's Annual Meeting in San Francisco, Calif.

Holland will lead the volunteer Executive Committee in directing the Association's professional staff and more than 1,200 volunteers who serve on more than 30 committees.

Holland, who just completed four years as a vice president of the Executive Committee, joined the group in 1991 after serving on the USGA's Sectional Affairs Committee. He was chairman of the Championship Committee in 1998-99 and had served as chairman of the Rules of Golf Committee from 1993-97.

He is particularly interested in the Rules of Golf and their application for the disabled. He often serves as a Rules official at USGA Championships. He also is chairman of the Grants Committee of the USGA Foundation.

Professionally, Holland is a physician, who practices with Associated Urologists, Inc. He is a graduate of Wabash College and the Indiana School of Medicine.

Reed K. Mackenzie of Chaska, Minn., and Fred S. Ridley of Tampa, Fla., have been elected as vice-presidents, Peter W. James of Pacific Palisades, Calif., has been elected as secretary, and Walter W. Driver Jr. of Atlanta, Ga., has been elected as treasurer. Mackenzie and James also served as vice-president and secretary, respectively, in 1999.

Eight others were re-elected for the Executive Committee for another year, while two individuals were elected for a first term. Jack Vardaman of Bethesda, Md., has been re-elected to serve a third year as general counsel.

Returning members include: O. Gordon Brewer of Pine Valley, N.J.; Paul D. Caruso of Helena, Mont.; Eric J. Gleacher of New York, N.Y.; Merton B. Goode of San Francisco, Calif.; Frederick C. Hickle of Tucson, Ariz.; John D. O'Neill of Westhampton Beach, N.Y.; H. Winfield Padgett of Dallas, Texas; and Carole Semple Thompson of Sewickley, Pa. Jeanne-Marie Boylan of Boston, Mass., and John Suisman of Bloomfield, Conn., have been newly elected to serve one-year terms on the Executive Committee.

Boylan has served on the USGA Women's Committee since 1989 and has been the chair of the Women's State Team Championship Committee since 1995.

Professionally, she is the chief financial officer of Boston Sand and Gravel Company. Suisman, a disabled golfer since a 1991 accident, served for 35 years as a board member of the Connecticut State Golf Association. As a player, he reached the fourth round of the 1960 U.S. Amateur. Professionally, he is a psychotherapist.

Retiring from the Executive Committee are Timothy Kilty of Bay Village, Ohio, who served from 1995-99, and C. McD England III of Huntington, W. Va., who served from 1996-99.

The USGA is golf's governing body in this country and shares the responsibility for writing and interpreting the Rules of Golf for the world with the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland.

The organization's most visible role, however, is played out each golf season in conducting 13 national championships, including the U.S. Open, U.S. Women's Open, and U.S. Senior Open. The other 10 national championships are exclusively for amateurs, and include the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Women's Amateur. More than 40,000 golfers entered USGA championships during 1999.

WATSON, STRANGE, NORMAN, BADDELEY EXTENDED U.S. OPEN EXEMPTIONS; 2005 OPEN TO PINEHURST

Far Hills, N.J. - Past U.S. Open champions Curtis Strange and Tom Watson, two-time British Open champion Greg Norman, and amateur Aaron Baddeley have been offered special exemptions into the 2000 Championship by the Executive Committee of the United States Golf Association. The Committee also awarded the 2005 U.S. Open to Pinehurst (N.C.) Resort and Country Club (No. 2 course).

The action was taken at the Association's Annual Meeting Friday (Jan. 21) in San Francisco, Calif.

The upcoming 2000 Open, set for June 15-18 at Pebble Beach (Calif.) Golf Links, will be the 100th overall and the fourth held at Pebble Beach. Strange, 44, won the Open in 1988 and 1989, becoming only the sixth player to win in back-to-back years.

He has played in 21 Opens, 20 of them consecutively since 1980. His 10-year exemption from winning the championship in 1989 ended last year. Overall, he has finished in the top-10 five times.

Watson, 50, won the 1982 Open at Pebble Beach in dramatic fashion, chipping in for birdie on the 71st hole to edge Jack Nicklaus by two strokes.

Overall, he has participated in 28 consecutive Opens, with 11 top-10 finishes. Watson has received two special exemptions in the past - in 1993 and 1996.

Norman, 44, has narrowly missed winning an Open championship twice. He lost in a playoff to Fuzzy Zoeller in 1984 and was edged by Corey Pavin's brilliant par at the final hole of regulation in 1995. Overall, Norman has played in 17 Opens and all but one since 1983.

Baddeley, 18, of Victoria, Australia, became the youngest winner ever of the Australian Open in 1999, when he outplayed an elite professional field that included Colin Montgomerie. He was the first amateur to win the event in the last 39 years.

Recently, he was invited to play in the upcoming Masters Tournament. At the 1998 U.S. Junior Amateur, he set a stroke play scoring mark and was runner-up.

Jack Nicklaus, 60, also will play, having accepted a three-year special exemption in 1998. This will mark the 44th consecutive Open start for Nicklaus, a four-time champion who won at Pebble Beach in 1972. He also won the 1959 U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach.

The Committee also voted to take the Open back to Pinehurst Resort and Country Club (No. 2 course), just six years after its successful debut there in 1999. Not since 1946 has the USGA opted to return so quickly to a previous site. In 1946, the Open returned to Canterbury (Ohio) Golf Club after a successful Championship there in 1940.

In other action, the Open purse was raised by $1 million to $4.5 million, the U.S. Women's Open purse was raised by $1 million to $2.75 million, and the U.S. Senior Open purse was increased by $500,000 to $2.25 million. The purse offered at the Women's Open is the highest in all of women's golf.

Special exemptions were also offered to Nancy Lopez and Pat Bradley for the upcoming Women's Open, which will be played from July 20-23 at the Merit Club in Gurnee, Ill. Both are members of the LPGA Hall of Fame.

Lopez, 43, is a four-time runner-up (1975,'77,'89,'97) who will be playing in her 24th consecutive Women's Open. She is the only player in the championship's history to have all four rounds in the 60s, something she did in finishing at 9-under-par and runner-up to Alison Nicholas three years ago. Lopez previously accepted a special exemption in 1999.

Bradley, 48, won the 1981 Championship at LaGrange (Ill.) Country Club by a stroke over Beth Daniel. She was runner-up in 1991. A player who has won all four modern majors in women's professional golf, Bradley will be playing in her 28th Women's Open. She previously accepted a special exemption in 1998.

•Related USGA news and notes

No exemptions were offered at this time for the U.S. Senior Open, which is scheduled from June 29-July 2 at Saucon Valley (Pa.) Country Club.