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.
Top-ranked women's amateur
Elizabeth (Beth) Bauer of Cramerton, N.C., and four-time USGA champion Carol
Semple Thompson of Sewickley, Pa., head a group of eight women amateur golfers
who will make up the U.S. Curtis Cup team.
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.
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.
The Great Britain and Ireland
team will be selected shortly by the Ladies Golf Union.
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.
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.
It is a record eleventh
selection for the 50-year-old Thompson, who played her first Curtis Cup Match
in 1974. 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)
