Golf News: - Posted 15th June 1998

US announce Curtis Cup team

Far Hills, N.J. - Carol Semple Thompson, the 1997 U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur champion, Beth Bauer, the 1997 U.S. Girls' Junior champion, and Jo Jo Robertson, the 1997 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links champion, were selected today to compete on the 1998 United States Curtis Cup team for its biennial Match against a team from Great Britain & Ireland (GB&I).

The Match will be contested 1st - 2nd August  at the Minikahda Club in Minneapolis, Minn.

The eight-member U.S. team was selected by the United States Golf Association's Women's Committee and will be captained by Barbara McIntire, 63, of Colorado Springs, Colo. A two-time U.S. Women's Amateur champion and a member of six U.S. Curtis Cup teams, McIntire also captained the team in 1976.

Other golfers selected for the U.S. team include: Kellee Booth, 22, Coto de Caza, Calif.; Robin Burke, 35, Houston, Texas; Jenny Chuasiriporn, 21, Timonium, Md.; Virginia Derby Grimes, 34, Montgomery, Ala.; and Brenda Corrie Kuehn, 33, Fletcher, N.C.

The three women selected as alternates are Robin Weiss, 44, Palm Beach, Fla.; Eve Lux, 23, Highland, N.Y.; and Ellen Port, 36, St. Louis, Mo.

Two years ago, GB&I defeated the U.S. team, 11 1/2 - 6 1/2, at Ireland's Killarney Golf and Fishing Club for only the sixth time in the competition's history. While the U.S. has dominated the series, holding a 20-6-3 edge, GB&I has won four of the last six meetings.

With this selection, Thompson, 49, of Sewickley, Pa., earns a record-breaking 10th appearance in the Curtis Cup Match, eclipsing the record of nine appearances she shared with Mary McKenna, a GB&I golfer who appeared in every Curtis Cup Match from 1970-1986.

Thompson made her nine previous Curtis Cup appearances in 1974, 1976, 1980, 1982, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, and 1996. Her 15 victories (7-6-3 in foursomes and 8-6-1 in singles) is also a Curtis Cup record.

Thompson captured her third U.S. national title when she won the 1997 U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur. She has also won the 1973 U.S. Women's Amateur and the 1990 U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur. In 1974, she won the British Ladies Open Amateur.

Bauer, 18, of Cramerton, N.C., won the 1997 U.S. Girls' Junior Championship. She took medalist honors in the championship, setting 18-hole and 36-hole records with rounds of 68-66--134, and she was also a quarterfinalist in the 1996 Girls' Junior. In 1998, Bauer has won the North & South Women's Amateur and the Women's Southern Amateur championship. She will be a freshman at Duke University.

Robertson, 22, of Roswell, N.M., won her second U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship in 1997. She was also the 1995 champion. In 1997 and 1998, Robertson reached the third round of the U.S. Women's Amateur. A senior at Oklahoma State University, she was a semifinalist in the 1997 Broadmoor Ladies Invitational.

Booth, a member of the 1996 American team, returns for her second appearance. The 1993 U.S. Girls' Junior champion has a Curtis Cup record of 0-1 in foursomes competition and 1-1 in singles. In 1998, she was runner-up in the Harder Hall Invitational and the South Atlantic Championship and was a member of Arizona State's NCAA Division I championship team. Booth is the daughter of Jane Bastanchury Booth, a member of the U.S. Curtis Cup team in 1970, 1972, and 1974.

Burke was runner-up in the 1997 U.S. Women's Amateur Championship. A quarterfinalist in the 1998 Jones-Doherty Invitational, Burke is the wife of 1956 Masters champion Jack Burke Jr. She was also a quarterfinalist in the 1995 U.S. Women's Amateur Championship.

Chuasiriporn was low amateur in the 1997 U.S. Women's Open and won the 1998 Harder Hall Invitational. In 1997, the Duke University senior won the Women's Eastern Amateur and was a finalist in the Women's Trans-National. Recently, she was a finalist in the 1998 North & South Women's Amateur.

Grimes won the 1998 South Atlantic Championship and was a semifinalist in the 1998 Women's Southern Amateur. In 1997, Grimes was medalist in the U.S. Women's Amateur, a semifinalist in the North & South, and a member of Alabama's winning team in the USGA Women's State Team Championship. The 1996 Women's Southern Amateur Champion, Grimes was also a semifinalist in the 1995 U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur.

Kuehn was a member of the 1996 U.S. Curtis Cup Team. Her Curtis Cup record is 0-2 in foursomes and 0-1 in singles competition. She was a finalist in the 1998 Women's Southern Amateur and was runner-up in the Harder Hall Invitational. She was the U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur runner-up in 1995, earned medalist honors in 1996, and was a quarterfinalist last year. She has competed in a total of 26 USGA national championships (six Girls' Juniors, nine Women's Amateurs, five Women's Mid-Amateurs and six Women's Opens).