York, Alabama, native Virginia Grimes, right, talks with Julie Inkster during the biennial Curtis Cup Match, which took place June 8-10 at the Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, New York. 

Virginia Derby Grimes was fortunate enough to not only experience three Curtis Cups matches as a player but to also be a member of a winning team on each occasion.

Earlier this month, Grimes, a York, Alabama, native, contributed to another Curtis Cup win for the United States. Only this time, she did so as the team’s captain.

“Being a player is one thing, but to be asked to be captain is probably at the top of my list,” Grimes said. “And to be able to do it was even better.”

Grimes didn’t just do it, she put her name in history, as the United States earned a 17-3 win over Great Britain’s and Ireland’s team at the Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, New York. 

The United States’ 17-3 win was the largest margin of victory in the prestigious tournament’s 86-year history, and it snapped a one-tournament losing streak against Great Britain and Ireland. 

Although serving as captain of the biennial tournament, which took place June 8-10, was a first for Grimes, coaching and instructing a team are skills she’s sharpened over the years. Grimes coached at her alma mater, Auburn, from 1991-94, and she drew from those experiences as team captain. She listed a few transferable skills. 

“Dealing with really good, top-notch women players, and nobody coming in and really just having an ego and it being about just them,” she said. “It was more about the team and not just an individual person. They were all about the team, and that’s what you have to have.”

Grimes coached eight of the country’s most talent golfers over the course of three days. This year’s Curtis Cup roster featured players from Hawaii to Alabama, and it included 15-year-old Lucy Li, the youngest golfer to ever qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open. Li is also the women’s world amateur golf ninth-ranked player.

Ever the coach, Grimes used some of her veteran players’ experiences as motivation ahead of the Curtis Cup. A couple golfers on this year’s team had the misfortune of playing on the 2016 team that lost, so during lunch after one of the team’s practices, Grimes called upon them to share their wisdom.

“Early in the week, I had them talk about that experience,” she said. “I felt like it helped carry over to the players (who said), ‘We don’t want to lose this;  we don’t want to experience this.’ I think it helped out a lot… I wanted them to chime in at the appropriate time, so it was a good conversation, and I think it helped.”

Although a selection committee picked the players, Grimes traveled to multiple courses leading up to the Curtis Cup to scout and evaluate talent, and she offered her recommendations to the committee. This year’s team chemistry left a lasting impact on Grimes.

“It was awesome,” she said. “There was never any drama; no complaining. It was a dream team. It all started going back (with) going out and seeing these kids playing and introducing yourself and meeting the parents.”

Grimes caught a glimpse of that chemistry last December when 12 players were invited to a practice session at Alabama’s Shoal Creek Golf Club. The session served to help players bond and see how well they paired with one another.

“I picked Shoal Creek because that’s where the Women’s Open is going to be,” Grimes said. “I just mixed them all up, playing foursome and four-ball… I got a lot of feedback through that big practice session in December, and some of the pairings when the matches started came from some of that in December.”

Not all of Grimes’ Curtis Cup highlights occurred in Scarsdale. One happened in Manhattan when Grimes traveled one of the borough’s Ralph Lauren stores to select team uniforms, a perk of the job. 

“I flew up to New York and of course saw Quaker Ridge and did some stuff at Quaker Ridge,” Grimes said. “Then the second day, we caught the train and went into the city down to Ralph Lauren and did the uniforms. I got to meet Ralph Lauren himself. He came in while we were looking over a lot of stuff, and it was neat. It was nice to meet him.”