Martha Nause - Part 1 (The Early Years and First LPGA Win)

Major Championship winner, Martha Nause, takes us back to growing up in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, learning the game with her four siblings under the watchful eyes of her parents at their local country club. With no high school or college golf team (until her senior year), Martha's game developed as a family summer endeavor, learning how to compete and win (or lose) with grace from her mother. With the great Manuel de la Torre as her coach, she quickly turned her summertime passion into her life's work, turning professional at age 23 and qualifying in her first attempt for the LPGA Tour. Success came slowly, first by making a few cuts and small checks. Ten years of hard work and developing her self-confidence, Martha finally broke through for win #1 at the Planters Pat Bradley International. In the afterglow of winning, she still had some challenges and triumphs ahead. Martha Nause begins her life story, "FORE the Good of the game."

Transcript

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it started.

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Welcome to another edition of FORE the Good of the Game and Bruce Devlin. We have this morning a major champion from Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Bruce Devlin 0:24

That's right. This lady started off on the road in an RV, was the champion of 1994, DeMaurier Classic, and it is indeed a pleasure to have with us this morning, Martha Nause. Martha, thanks for joining us. We we look forward to you telling your story about your love of the game.

Martha Nause 0:46

Well, I'm excited to be here, and thanks to you guys for doing this. It's awesome.

Mike Gonzalez 0:52

Martha, welcome. And uh I'm anxious to talk because uh I spent a little bit of time just down the road in uh in Milwaukee and had a chance to play a little bit of golf up in your old neck of the woods, including the the course where you grew up on. Uh as you know, we're here to tell your story, and we always start at the beginning. So tell us a little bit about growing up in Sheboygan.

Martha Nause 1:12

Well, um, my family is a large family. We have five, I have five siblings, four siblings. Um, my mom and dad were avid, avid golfers. Their first date was playing golf. And um also uh a lot of competitiveness in their background. My mom um played her first golf tournament in a little nine-hole course outside of Madison, Wisconsin. Um I have the trophy, and I think it was in 1948 or something like that. So um it was uh sort of destined to be that we were all gonna have golf clubs in our hands at some point. I'm the third of five children. So my older sister and brother and I were really um out on the golf course right from the get-go with my mom and dad. And um, I mean, evenings, my dad was a physician, so in the evenings after dinner, oftentimes we would go out to the country club and they would want to play nine holes. So um they would tell a story. I don't remember this specifically, but my mom and dad would tell a story how um they'd get a cart, they'd set my older sister Julie and my brother Peter and I out on the first tee. They'd take off and say, We'll pick you up when we're done with nine holes. And off we would go. And uh, we would generally not quite to the second green by the time they got finished with nine holes. So, but they, you know, they let us uh make our way around whatever we could do on the golf course, which was a very, very tough golf course, super hilly. Uh the greens were um some of the hardest greens I've ever played, in um save for Oakmont, maybe. Oakmont's a little chal more challenging, but um, you know, we just got to play a lot of golf. My mom played some tournaments in the state of Wisconsin, and um she also was instrumental in helping to develop a good junior program at Pine Hills Country Club, along with the head pro Ken Seasons. And so we would have um Friday morning, we'd have junior lessons every Friday of the summer, and then they had little tournaments for us, starting with three haulers and then nine haulers, and and you know, we would have like a club, little club tournament at the end of the summer. Um, I mean, there were just a lot of opportunities for us to play, um, given that we couldn't get on the golf course all the time because you know, all the restrictions for having juniors on the course um were were uh pretty stringent. But the pro knew that we were uh gonna pay attention and were um disciplined enough to not be troublemakers. So we would hang out in the pro shop, my brother and my sister and I and other kids, and then um eventually he'd say, You kids, just go off and you know, go off the back nine, and when some grown-ups show up, you get off to the side and you get out of the way, but go and have have a good time. So that was kind of my uh introduction to the you know the the game that was so fun. We just got to play and um we didn't hit balls on the range because we we didn't have uh a range pass, but we spent a lot of time on the little putting green that that we uh were allowed to be on. Um so yeah, it was it was a lot of fun.

Mike Gonzalez 4:58

You know, uh it's it's unfortunate because uh a lot of clubs, probably more nowadays, uh, they just don't provide access to the kids like it seems like used to when when we grow up. Because Martha and I, you know, we're we're sort of the same vintage. And I can remember as a kid back in the 60s at our little nine-hole place, and and uh they were really pretty good about it, surprisingly.

Martha Nause 5:19

Yeah, I mean, we just sort of it was sort of our, you know, being at the golf club was sort of our our summer playground, and mostly because my mom played tournaments and she wanted to get out there and play in practice, and um, you know, so I mean, a lot of times my brother and I would just spend time rummaging around in the river and the woods looking for golf balls, you know, and staying out of the way as much as possible. But my mom played some tournaments around the state, and she uh when I was 10, um I guess she said to my dad, I want to go play this this tournament. And he's it's gonna be a three-day, you know, I'll be away for three days. And he said, That's fine, take the girls with you, and you know, let's get them playing. So um off we went. And so at age 10, I did my first overnight tournament um away from home, and and um I lost badly, but it I had fun, you know. And you know, the thing was I I had such a great role model with my mom. Uh, she was a fierce competitor. And sh I watched, you know, when I'd be finished with my golf for the day, I'd go out and watch her play. And she won the tournament. It was a fairly big one within the state of Wisconsin, the Northeastern Golf Association tournament. And sh she either, if she won or she lost, I was always so impressed with her demeanor. And she was a fabulous winner. You know, she on one event she uh was playing a gal who was such a big hitter, and my mom couldn't keep up with her off the tee, but the this gal was also a little wild. So she'd get in the woods, and the match was tied on the going into the 18th hole, and she her competitor hit it in the trees. My mom was right down the middle and on the green, and then you know, we're all thinking, oh, she's got this one one. Well, the gal hits a sort of a Laura Davies type. She hits a shot out of the trees that you just can never believe, and onto the green herself, and a little farther away from the hole from my than my mom. She putts first, she makes about a 35-footer. And I guess my mom was one up. I had to have been one up. And she makes a 35-footer. Now the crowd was more for this other gal. Crowd was going wild, and my mom steps up and she drains her 30-footer to win the tournament. And, you know, she just was she was an amazing competitor. But one of the best lessons I ever learned from her was watching her lose. Because she, you know, a lot of other ladies I'd see lose, they'd, you know, get a little irritated and stomp off the green and barely congratulate their competitor. But my mom was the first one to go over and give the person a big hug and congratulate her. And, you know, it just made a big impact on me.

Mike Gonzalez 8:30

Yeah. And what what great life lessons that I think we probably all learned as youngsters around the game of golf.

Martha Nause 8:37

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, growing up, I realized late in my career what a huge impact golf had on forming me as a person. Um, I was sort of at a stage in my career where I wasn't playing well and I was frustrated. And, you know, I was wasn't feeling good about the game at all. And I was, you know, reading some books about the zen of golf or whatever. And and it there it asked me a question of, you know, what has this game done for you? And I had to sit down and think, wow, you know, between all the lessons I learned as a child growing up, the discipline and, you know, the competitiveness, and then all the lessons that I learned and and how golf changed me as a person. I was super shy coming out of high school and college. And I all of a sudden I'm on the tour having to relate to and talk to a lot of people I didn't know, and um, going to places I'd never been, and you know, it was such a huge uh impact for me that golf was such a big part of forming me as a person. So I wasn't feeling so bad about the game anymore.

Bruce Devlin 9:55

So, Martha, you mentioned Ken, the pro there at the at Pine uh Pine Hills. Pine Hills, Pine Hills Country Club. Well did he was he the guy that actually taught you? I know you were around your mom and dad a lot, but uh what influence did he have on your game?

Martha Nause 10:13

Well, he he taught us a very simple swing. Um there was nothing mechanical about it. He'd line us all up on the range all together, and and we'd all hit a ball together, and he'd say, you know, ready one, two, three, swing through the ball. And you know, one was we we put our right knee in a little bit, two was our backswing, and three, we'd swing through the ball. And that was really it. And um, you know, he would have he just had a good positive influence. Um again, nothing technical that I re remember. We would have chipping lessons and all that sort of stuff, but really the person that ultimately um formed me as a professional golfer was Manuel Delatory.

Bruce Devlin 11:03

Right.

Martha Nause 11:04

And after I graduated from college and decided I wanted to try to get on the tour, he was in Milwaukee and I was in Sheboygan, so only 45 minutes away. And we contacted him and he said, Yes, I can give lessons to non-members after I'm finished with my usual day, so after 6 p.m. And he said that yeah, so that was the summer of uh 77. And he said, I have two half-hour lessons available for the summer. And this was in June. And by that time, he he was pretty well booked. So we signed up, I signed up for him. My mom and dad, you know, said they'd helped me go through the process, so they helped me get signed up and all. And I went and had my first lessons with Manual, and I never looked back. I mean, his teaching really um again, non-technical and all, you know, as natural as possible and um made sense to me. And I ended up working with him for 42 years, including the year just before he passed at age 94. And he was he he was uh just a huge, huge part of my whole development as a golfer.

Mike Gonzalez 12:32

Yeah, swinging to the target.

Martha Nause 12:34

Yes.

Mike Gonzalez 12:37

And he worked with a few other name golfers, didn't he?

Martha Nause 12:40

Well, Carol Mann was probably the most famous, and she was working with him at the time, or had just been working with him when I was, you know, trying to find somebody to go see. I decided at when I was graduating from college that I wanted to try to get on the tour. Um, did not have those aspirations growing up. But anyway, Carol Mann, and then he also worked with um a number of other uh LPGA players at the time. Um, but then also Sherry Steinhauer from Wisconsin, also in a more contemporary uh name. But uh she and I were his main students while while we were both on the tour.

Mike Gonzalez 13:26

Yeah, yeah. I know later in the in his career, and we visited with Tommy Aaron about this, but uh Tommy remembers uh you know, uh took us back to when he first uh uh encountered Manuel. I want to say, Bruce, he had probably just was starting the senior tour when he worked with Manuel.

Bruce Devlin 13:42

That's right. That's correct. Yeah. Well he like uh you know, Manuel is uh he's kind of he's he's had a great reputation in the game for helping people, there's no doubt about it. Very significant man.

Martha Nause 13:55

Yeah, he, you know, and not only um did he help me with my own golf swing, but you know, after I retired from playing full-time, I started coaching. And I coached at uh men and women at uh McAllister College in St. Paul, Minnesota. And then I was, you know, they this was not a big um, you know, program where people had their own pros and their teachers and all this stuff. So I was the the teacher, and I started going and helped Manual helped me learn how to teach the golf swing. And I mean, honestly, I've used that method of uh swing the club to you know in the direction of the target, um with everybody from beginners to low handicapped men um and help them. And um, it's just to me such a simple way to swing, simple way to swing the golf club, which is a complicated movement.

Bruce Devlin 15:00

Yeah, yeah, it is.

Mike Gonzalez 15:02

Uh well let's go back to your high school days and and uh again kind of putting the dates together. I would guess you probably started high school in about 1968. Uh this was pre-Title IX, and so life was different for young girls trying to compete uh athletically. Uh and you get to high school at Sheboygan North, and there is no women's golf team.

Martha Nause 15:24

That's right. Um, as a matter of fact, we only had swimming. For sports, we had swimming, and my senior year we had basketball. Um, oh, and track, but no girls' golf team. And um the summer before my senior year, I won the Wisconsin State Junior Championship. And I and I had won other tournaments prior to that that were pretty big tournaments in the state of Wisconsin. So there are a lot of people in my high school guys that were on the golf team that I had grown up playing golf with, and they knew of my ability. And um some of them said, Well, you should join the boys' golf team because you know you could help us. And I was like, I like I said, I was super shy in high school and was not any sort of, I don't want to create any waves here. And I thought, well, you know, at least I could play, that would be fun. But then I got wind that the rest of the team said that if I made the team, they'd all quit. And so I decided I didn't want to be that rabble rouser and uh I'd go do something else. So I did not play high school golf. And when I went to college, I really wasn't looking to play. Like I said, I had no aspirations to get on the tour. So um I ended up going to a school that also didn't have golf for for women until my senior year. So um it really, you know, golf for me was really a family summer endeavor in Wisconsin. We got to play June, July, and August.

Mike Gonzalez 17:16

Yeah, that's about it.

Martha Nause 17:17

School Kate got out, and then school started, and we put the clubs away and we did other things. So um, yeah.

Bruce Devlin 17:25

Well, you did some other things too, from what I understand. You played the French horn and become a Girl Scout and you studied whales off Alaska. You've been a busy lady, haven't you?

Martha Nause 17:37

Well, you know, my whole life has been about doing a lot of different things. And yeah, I I started playing musical instruments when I was about the same age as I started playing golf. But you know, I played the piano and guitar and and French horn. Um I went to Alaska and well, the funny thing about going to Alaska is I it was in my sum uh summer before my senior year in college. I was a biology major, and I could get some college credit for this national outdoor leadership program in Alaska. So I went up there and spent this whole summer in Alaska, partly because I was bored with golf and I didn't want to just be in Sheboygan um doing the same old thing anymore. Um, so I actually took almost the entire summer off from playing golf um before my senior year of college. And I mean, I loved it. It was it was so fascinating. I love nature, have my cottage here, so um yeah, the whales, we were kayaking amongst the whales, and that was pretty incredible. We climbed up a glacier and all sorts of stuff. Um, Girl Scouts, I did that my entire life. My mom was the leader, I kind of had to do it. Yeah, but um yeah, I just you know, one of the things I thought about when I was trying to decide whether I wanted to go on the tour is how can I give up all these other things that I enjoy doing? I I loved skiing, snow skiing, and I played racquetball, and I played in high school or college, I played basketball and volleyball and I'm just an average sports person, and I thought, how could I give up all this stuff to just play golf? So I've been busy.

Mike Gonzalez 19:37

Well, at least you picked the sport that you can still play at our age.

Martha Nause 19:41

Well, I mean, I couldn't play tennis. I my family was we were golfers, so you know, when I was growing up, pre-Title IX, as you said, um, the only sports really that were okay for girls to play were golf and tennis. And, you know, tennis wasn't in the cards for me. And um so I was like, well, I'll give golf a try. And I don't know what else I really want to do, so I'm gonna give golf a try and see what happens.

Mike Gonzalez 20:11

Yeah. So take us through this process you went through where you know, you you get to high school, there's no uh girls' team, as you say, um, and then you get to college and there's no women's team as you start out at St. Olaf. And all of a sudden, uh at some point uh you graduate, you're thinking about turning professional golfer. So help us from from getting from A to B.

Martha Nause 20:33

Yeah, it's um it's a crazy story, really. You know, I I played as I as you know now, I played golf all my life in the summertime, and I was very competitive and I was successful, and I was playing against um girls that were getting some of the few scholarships that were available, and I was beating them, or I was at least holding my own with them. Um when I was going to college, you know, women's golf in the early 70s was pretty minimal. And I mean barely had anything on TV, you never read anything about it in the paper. So I really didn't have the role models that, you know, showed me that this was something possible. And, you know, I actually talked with my mom and dad when I was getting ready, you know, trying to figure out what to do going to college. And people would say to me, Well, you could maybe get a scholarship for golf. And I'm like, well, what am I ever gonna do with that? Because I want to get an education because I'm gonna need that. You know, I'm not gonna be able to make money at playing golf. These ladies, the biggest winners out there, are barely making a living. So I went to St. Olaf College and did not, like we said, did not have a golf team. Um, I wasn't interested in pursuing golf that avidly. I liked the game, but it was just one of the things that I did. So I got my Degree in biology. I played my French horn there. I played other sports. I actually wanted to go to the University of Wisconsin. Being a Wisconsin person, that's what you do. And my mom and dad, yeah. My mom and dad were Wisconsin alum. And um, but Wisconsin was gonna be too big a school for me. And my mom and dad knew that. They sort of pushed me towards a smaller school, and they said, you know, if you go to a bigger school, you're not gonna be able to do a lot of the things that you want to do outside of studying. So I ended up going to St. Olaf, and it was a fabulous place for me. Met a lot of great people that are still friends of mine. Uh, but played all these other sports. Then my senior year in college, you know, you got to start thinking about what you're gonna do next, right? And I had just spent the summer in Alaska studying whales, and I thought, you know, I want to be a marine biologist, I want to study whales, but it was too late for me to get into graduate programs for the year after I graduated. So um my senior second semester, um, I had very few classes that I had to take because of my summer program that I had gotten credits for. So I was taking a tennis class and I was working out in the mornings, and then I would do some other things. And we then we had a girls' a women's golf program. So then I would go practice golf on my own, and I was doing so many athletic things. I thought, wouldn't it be cool to be a professional athlete where you know they would just pay you to play? And so that was the first little thing in my head. Then I would go, I still didn't know what I wanted to do. I went to the Career Counseling Center at St. Olaf, and there were just stacks of pamphlets of different kinds of careers, and I was paging through them, and you know, all of a sudden there was a pamphlet on the PGA tour. No LPGA, but the PGA, and I was I read it, not thinking I would do PGA, but I was like, maybe I could try the LPGA. I don't know. I you know, again, I was I was playing against girls that had scholarships and they were and I was holding my own against them, and they were playing against people that were getting on tour and and making it on the tour. So I kind of thought, well, if A equals B and B equals C, I wonder if A equals C. And so I mean, literally what happened was I went back to my dorm, I saw a friend, she said, What you been doing today? And I said, I'm pretending to be a professional golfer. And I thought she'd laugh, and that would be the end of it. We'd have a big laugh and on we'd go. She said, Well, don't pretend, do it. And I was like, Oh, yeah, right. Here's Martha Nousey. She's on the 18th green of the US Open, she has to make this putting. And I thought, you know, I went through the whole thing, and I thought she just laughed. She said, if you have a chance, why not try? And I was like, I don't know. So then I, you know, went to a couple other friends and I said, What if I was trying to try to be a professional golfer? And they were like, Why not? Why not give it a try? So I went, I called my mom and dad, and they had been pressuring me. What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do with you know after you graduate? And this had been going on for quite a few months. So I said, I think I know what I want to try to do. And they were like, Yeah, what's that? And I said, I want to try to get on the tour. And they were they said, Awesome, let's do it. Yeah, and again, right, again, if they had said, that's crazy, you're nuts, you know, I don't know what you're thinking about. I probably would wouldn't have pursued it, but they were so enthusiastic, and and my mom said, We'll help. And um, so that's that's how it all started for me.

Mike Gonzalez 26:32

Yeah, it's hard to imagine what would have happened had that college roommate and your parents and friends reacted differently.

Martha Nause 26:40

Well, I you know, I've gained a lot of confidence in my years since then, but back then I needed a lot of uh boosting up. And and you know, you I was somebody that appreciated the the boost, uh the the push a little bit and the support. And you know, I've thought of it so many times. I don't know what I would have done um had their reactions been negative. Um, I don't I would not have tried it out, I don't think. I wouldn't have given it a try. So yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 27:15

Well, that's interesting. So um other than just raising your hand and saying, okay, I'm now a golf professional, which which was kind of a that that probably not uh exaggerating the process for some back in the early days, right, Bruce? I mean, you you kind of declare, you know, but but what was that process for you, Martha?

Martha Nause 27:37

Well, um they the LPGA had just started um where you had to go through an LPGA qualifying school, and it's very different than that it is now, where they have multiple levels and you know, hundreds and hundreds of people that are trying in the first level. Um I basically signed up to go to the qualifying school. I had to have a uh handicap of I think two or less, I'm not sure exactly, but I really just had to sign up and and show up at this qualifying school, which was just a four-day tournament. And but going back, so when I graduated from college, I went back to Sheboygan and then got to see Manual. And I I always loved this whole process with Manual because he said when I showed up, he said, Now what is it you're trying to do? Well, I didn't realize at the time he meant with my golf swing, but I said to him, Oh, I want to get on the tour. And he's like, Oh, okay. And so then we started working on the on my golf swing and all that. Well, fast forward, I'll I'll fill in the blanks later, but fast forward to after I qualified, I called Manuel and I said, Manual, I I made it. He said, You you made what? And I said, I made the tour, I qualified. And he said to me, Oh, I thought maybe you were gonna work on your game for a couple of years and then try it. I said, No, I'm on the tour now. I don't know what to do, but I'm on the tour now. So anyway, he was he was amazing. Uh anyway, so go back. And I uh went to manual and I played and practiced that summer of 77, and I just played in every tournament I could get into. And my first actually played in my first national level tournament that summer. And I did okay, you know, I you know, it was a match play thing, and I and I did okay, I won a match here and there, but I never won anything. And then um the qualifying school was the end of January in 78, and I went and I showed up in my shabby old clothes and with my goal, my little carry bag that had a rip on the side. And there were 68 people there that were trying to get uh 13 spots on the tour. And some of them were um some Japanese ladies that had come over for from the that had been playing on the JLPGA. Um some of them were college players that were, you know, Nancy Lopez had just gotten on the tour, so they they were like the next Nancy Lopez with their fancy bags and their agents and their fancy clothes and you know, this, that, and the other thing. And here I was, I had no idea what I was doing. And I happened to be paired with the top ranked player for my first round, first two rounds. And I I think I was I don't know, I don't, I never good at my scores. I was close to par, if not maybe a little under after the first nine. And she and I are walking down the 10th fairway, and she looked at me and she said, Where did you come from? Because I had never been, you know, I didn't play in college and I hadn't been on the amateurs national amateur circuit or anything like that. And I was like, Oh, I'm from Sheboygan, Wisconsin. And um, long story short, I qualified and she didn't.

Bruce Devlin 31:22

Oh my.

Martha Nause 31:23

And um so all of a sudden I finished this tournament and they said, Here you go, you know, pass the rules test, and and now you can play on the tour. And was like, wow, okay. I I think that summer before that, I th there was a tournament in Minneapolis, and I called up a friend and I said, You want to go to this tournament with me? I think I'm gonna try to get on this tour. I should probably see what it's all about. So I went and spectated for a day, and that was my only experience with knowing what uh the LPGA was was all about. But I have so I have a funny story about that. We're you know, all the people are all over the place, and I had never been playing golf around that many people. I wasn't playing, but I was imagining, and on the first T, you know, teeing off, and the you know, the crowds are around the first T. And I happened to see Betty Burfind hit uh her t-shot in the time. She was one of the longest hitters on the tour, and I watched it and I was like, ah, I can't do that. Oh boy. But then followed around, and then I was watching another hole. Donna Capone was one of the best players at the time, and she came up on the green and she had a I don't know, four or five foot putt, and she stalked it and she looked at it from every which way, and and everybody was quiet, and she got up and she missed the putt. And I turned to my friend, I said, I can do that. I can miss that butt too. And I said, I think I can do this. So, so you know, I was totally naive. I had no idea what I was up against, but um I did it, I made it, and I never lost my card.

Mike Gonzalez 33:18

Yeah, well, you know, as Bruce will attest, uh, it's one thing to get on the tour, but it's pretty tough to win on the tour, isn't it?

Martha Nause 33:27

Ugh Yeah. Well, it took me 10 years to win a tournament. Um though my first my first tournament, I was on the leaderboard the first day. I I was like, wow, look at that. My name's on the leaderboard. If I keep playing like this, I might have to play with Judy Rankin. She was one of the few names that I knew because she had been the first $100,000 career uh season winner. Um I missed the cut, but at any rate, um yeah, 10 years, and I had come close a few times. Um I I missed a putt that would have put me in a playoff in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It did get me into the dinosaur, so that was a big a big thing for me. But you know, I I just wanted to try to keep playing. I once I was out there for a little while, I knew I had the physical skills, but I just didn't know whether um mentally I had it. I was very hard on myself, and I would, if I saw my name on the leaderboard, I would sort of self-sabotage and you know, oh, I get all nervous and I get distracted, and then I would goof up. And so I actually ended up going to um Bob Rotella, a sports psychologist. He was one of the first sports psychologists, and um he helped me a lot. He helped me realize you know how to think better about competing. And um I can't remember what year that was that I saw him, but finally I I broke through on my tenth year on the tour and won my first tournament. Um The Planners Pat Bradley, which was a Stableford tournament. And um it sort of helped me that it was a Stableford tournament because it was a different way of playing, a different way of thinking. You had to be more aggressive and go for the pin and you know, go for the putts and try to get those points with the birdies and and eagles if you couldn't make an eagle. Um so yeah, that was that was a huge breakthrough for me. Just knowing that I won a tournament was was huge. Um and then a couple more followed later, but I mean that it was it was hard. It was hard to to win. And you know, you you always compare yourself with the the people that are winning all the time, right? And they're like, why can't I do that? And I know I used to go to the leaderboard um when I was early in my career and to try to get some confidence. I would try to find one of the superstars that was playing well, and I if I only could beat them for nine holes, I'd say, Well, look at this, I could do that. I beat them on that nine holes, so I should be able to keep it going. But uh, it's it's such a hard game mentally.

Mike Gonzalez 36:42

Yeah, it sure is. Yeah, you know, you you touch on that, Martha, and and I'll ask uh Bruce too, but both of you. Uh aside from the development in equipment since the time that you both played, a couple of other developments, I think. Um I think uh well, agronomics certainly. But the mental aspects of the game and also physical conditioning, what do you think's been the most significant advance beyond equipment in the game? Is it the mental side? Because you know, we talked to people that played in your era, Martha, and as I like to relate well Annie Watkins telling us, he said, he said, you know, all these young whippersnappers, they've got their teams with them. He said, My team was me, my caddy, and whoever the bartender was in the town I was playing in.

Martha Nause 37:28

Well, I mean, that's that's really so true. I've gone out to to watch some tournaments, some some players and some tournaments in the last few years, and um that yeah, they do have a team. And um it it's you have you have to have support. Um otherwise, you know, you're you're left alone with your thoughts, and if you aren't disciplined in what you're thinking, you can go down the wrong road, you know, way down the wrong road. You know, if you just miss hit a shot a little bit, um, that can start a spiral that can get can get uh ugly. And I would say the mental um the mental side of things has I think has been the biggest difference. Because everybody has the everybody has the access to the equipment. Um certainly the the physical fitness side of things has changed the game in terms of maybe being able to swing a little faster or whatever, but it's we're all so different mentally, and we all have our strengths and our weaknesses in how we think. And the people that can harness their thoughts, I think makes the biggest difference. I mean, you think about a golf swing taking two and a half seconds, and if you shoot, I'm not gonna do the math for you, but if you shoot 70, how many how many seconds are you actually performing your sport?

Bruce Devlin 39:11

Yeah, yeah, not very long.

Martha Nause 39:13

Yeah, only a few minutes, uh, maybe a minute or so. So the rest of the time is just your head, and you know, what are you thinking? How are you preparing for it? I mean, there's a lot of that, but in between shots, how you react, how you let it go, how you don't let bad shots go, how you get ahead of yourself. That there's so many um mental aspects to the game that can be detrimental.

Mike Gonzalez 39:44

Yeah.

Martha Nause 39:44

Or if you think the right way, they can be, you know, beneficial.

Mike Gonzalez 39:48

Yeah. Bruce, are are there some fellows that you played with that come to mind that had they had access to today's mental approach, coaching, tools, etc., could have gotten out of their way and won a lot more?

Bruce Devlin 40:01

You know, I'm not sure. I I uh that brings back a memory of a of a gentleman that uh that I thought, you know, I wouldn't even stand on the practice tee with him. He was so intimidating a young man by the name of Paul Bunderson, who who I ended up giving a job later in, uh later in his career. But I think uh I think uh a young man like that could have uh you know could have done with that help from the from from a group of guys or gals or whatever. But I think Martha's right. It's I think it's it's definitely the metal side of it. But you know, today's uh today's sports people are much more physically active than what we were when we were growing up. I mean, you know, like Lanny said, you know, our our exercise was you know picking up a glass of beer.

Mike Gonzalez 40:54

You weren't in the workout trailer every morning, huh?

Martha Nause 40:56

No, not what workout trailer?

Mike Gonzalez 40:59

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, Martha, you remember making your first check?

Martha Nause 41:05

Um, yes, I do, and I have a picture of it. I was so excited, I took a picture of it. $212.68 or something like that. Um yeah, I played, you know, for on my my rookie year, I played about six months before I made a check. And um we had the the size of the fields at that time were pretty small, I mean, really small compared to what they are now. And sometimes when we had our biggest purses, we would get fields of 70 or more. But they didn't the payments were for the top 60 and ties. And there were often times, well, sometimes I made the cut. If we had a cut, um, I'd be, you know, from 60 to 70, and I never made a check. So I made my first check in well, I don't remember exactly where, maybe Baltimore, $212. And I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread that I made money playing golf.

Bruce Devlin 42:27

Yeah.

Martha Nause 42:28

But yeah, so it was funny that first year, in order to keep my card for the next year, uh, at that time, you had to, there was a money threshold that you had to earn, and it was, I don't know, a percentage of the total purses of the entire season. And I had to make $1,800 my first year to keep my card for the next year. And I had made $1,600 with four tournaments to go. And I this is a schedule of about 30 tournaments. So I wasn't doing real well. Um, my chances were looking a little bleak, but I went out and we were in Oakland, Oakland, California, and I ended up um leading the tournament after the first day. I shot a 68, which I'd never, I don't know if I'd ever been under par before, much less that much under par. And I was leading the tournament, and I was like, wow, look at look at this. And I saw Kathy Whitworth in the locker room, and she said, Congratulations on your great round. Now, to doubt tomorrow, just go out there and have fun and and well, I shot 80 something, but I made the cut.

Bruce Devlin 43:51

I made the cut.

Martha Nause 43:53

And I ended up making the uh $500 that I needed to create. The threshold for my $1,800 um limit or goal. And then I went crazy and I made a couple hundred dollars in the last three tournaments. Every every tournament made some money after that. And I ended up making $2,200 or so for the first year. And thankfully my parents were helping me get through it all. But uh yeah, it was yeah, you remember those things. You remember making your first check.

Mike Gonzalez 44:32

Yeah, let's go back to that first win, which was the 1988 uh planters Pat Bradley In International at the time. That was at Willow Creek Country Club in North Carolina. And you mentioned a different format, Stablefoot format. So it was by one point over Debbie Massey and Judy Dickinson. Uh uh you you did mention that uh perhaps it was the different format that helped you break through. I was wondering whether that might be the case because it had to be just it is a just different mental approach with Stablefoot, isn't it?

Martha Nause 45:02

Well, it is, and I mean, obvious uh honestly, I almost didn't even get through the first round. Um, that week, I mean they changed it every once in a while. I don't know, they changed the format a little bit, but that year there was a cut of half the field after each round. And I was on the cut line on the after the first day. I had to do a playoff to get through to the second round.

Bruce Devlin 45:29

Oh my.

Martha Nause 45:30

So I got through that playoff, and then the next day I was a little better. And each day the points started over. So the next day I was a little better, and I was close to the cut line, but I made the cut. The third day I don't remember, I mean, I got in pretty easily, but it was a different um in my mind, it was a different attitude because you know that what do they say? If you made a double eagle, you'd get eight points or something like that. And I kept saying to my caddy, I'm going for the eight-pointer. I'm going for the eight-pointer. And but it just made me much more focused on trying to get it as close as possible and making a birdie, where I didn't have quite that same that same focus in other tournaments. Um, I was very conservative. I didn't want to make mistakes, you know, other tournaments. That was sort of my um one of probably helped me play for 22 years and not lose my card, but it also may have uh prevented me from um maybe winning a couple more times. I don't know. But at any rate, it just was a different, uh, a different feel for me.

Mike Gonzalez 46:46

Did your approach change then after that tournament? That hey, maybe I need to be a little bit more aggressive or not?

Martha Nause 46:52

You know, I thought that was probably a good idea, but I just easily slipped back a little more into um doing what I had been doing. So it seems like you, you know, you'd think, oh yeah, now this is the way I'm gonna play from now on, but um, I didn't necessarily. Um I did, but that was sort of during the time when I was really delving deeply into more sports psychology stuff. And I worked with different sports psychologists and read a lot of books, you know, Pia Nielsen and Lynn Marriott, and their Vision 54 was still just just barely coming out, but there were a lot of other people that I worked with um through the years. And and, you know, like I said, did a lot of reading of different books, Fred Shoemaker books and things like that, where I just learned a little bit at a time. Um and one of the things that really made a difference for me was you know, changing the questions that I was asking myself. I would used to see my name on a leaderboard, and I would then get distracted and I don't always say to myself, why do I always screw up? Why do I always self-sabotage? And I read something that said, ask yourself the questions of what you want, not what you don't want. And I started asking myself the question, what do I need to do to win? What do I need to do to be a champion? And it changed my outlook on practicing. Um, people came into my life that helped me learn more things. It opened my mind to being more on the positive side of things. And, you know, that made a big difference in in helping me then win again. And um, I did realize, I I did realize though, never look at the leaderboard. That doesn't do me any good.

Mike Gonzalez 48:55

Thank you for listening to another episode of For the Good of the Game. And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 49:16

Whack down the fairway. It went smack down the fairway. But it started just like just smitched off line. It headed for two, but it bounced off nine. My cat is as long as you're still in the state, you're okay. It went straight down the middle, quite away.