Donna Andrews - Part 1 (The Early Years)

In this first episode of our special four-part conversation with LPGA major champion Donna Andrews, we tee off with a deep dive into her early years and the foundations that shaped a life in golf. A seven-time LPGA Tour winner and Dinah Shore major champion, Donna joins Mike Gonzalez and Bruce Devlin to reflect on her roots in Lynchburg, Virginia, and the vibrant, active upbringing that planted the seeds of her athletic success.

From childhood memories of biking, hiking, and long days at the country club, to becoming a standout multi-sport athlete in high school, Donna shares how competing with her brothers—and later on a boys' high school golf team—toughened her resolve and sharpened her competitive edge. With humor and warmth, she recalls winning her first state titles, learning from her golf-influencing father, and the mentorship she received from legends like Davis Love Jr. and Jack Lumpkin.

We explore the influence of her faith, her academic excellence, and the early development of her short game—skills and values that would serve her throughout her career. Donna also takes us back to her decision to attend the University of North Carolina, where she balanced a demanding academic load with college golf, and reflects on the pivotal moments that convinced her to pursue a professional career.

Filled with personal stories, candid reflections, and the early signs of the champion she would become, this episode lays the groundwork for the remarkable journey of one of the game’s most respected figures. Don’t miss this engaging beginning to Donna Andrews’ inspiring story—told in her own voice, with heart and humor, "FORE the Good of the Game."

Transcript

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Welcome to another edition of FORE the Good of the Game and Bruce Devlin. We have another major winner with us this morning.

Bruce Devlin 0:23

We do, and and uh relative to some of the people that we've uh told their life story, this young lady is very young compared to some of the folks that we've been talking about. And what a what a pleasure it is to have uh Donna Andrews with us here this morning. Seven-time winner on the LPGA and uh and a winner of the dinosaur for her major championship win. And glad to have you, Donna. We've been looking forward to this.

Donna Andrews 0:50

Good morning, gentlemen. Yes, good morning. I'm excited.

Mike Gonzalez 0:55

Yeah, I'm glad we uh were able to get this going because uh, as Bruce said, as we get into the younger crowd, and we'll put you in that younger crowd, having talked to a you know, a lot of folks that played back in the 60s and so forth, um, you're still quite active.

Donna Andrews 1:11

Uh I lead a very busy life. Um, between teaching golf and running around with my two children and still doing some real estate on the side. I'm pretty busy every day.

Mike Gonzalez 1:22

And that'll keep you young.

Donna Andrews 1:24

It does. I love I love, I I had my career and now I can live and watch my kids grow up. So I try not to miss their sporting events and their events that they have at school.

Mike Gonzalez 1:34

Well, it's great that you've stayed so connected to the game, which I'm sure just helps you uh uh keep in touch with uh even the the younger players that are playing on tour now. And uh uh we're looking forward to talking about your teaching career. But the first thing we got to do is take you way back to 1967. I was in the sixth grade, Bruce, just by the way, and you were probably a little older than that. Yeah. I've already had three kids by then. But we're going back to Lynchburg, Virginia. And Donna, we always want to start out with your earliest recollections of growing up as a a child in Lynchburg.

Donna Andrews 2:16

Um, I think my first recollections we lived in a house that was behind a church that we went to and um on Princeton Circle, and just remember walk doing a lot of walking and outdoor activities with my family. So we were always active and biking and walking and hiking and always doing outside activities as a family.

Mike Gonzalez 2:36

Yeah, so tell us a little bit about your folks, any siblings, and kind of what they did for a living.

Donna Andrews 2:42

So I have um two brothers, a younger brother who's eight years younger than I am. He's an architect in Charlotte, North Carolina, and my older brother is a CPA. He's three and a half years older than I am. Um he's a CPA in Richmond. Uh they both have two kids, um, as do I. I have a 15-year-old and a 19-year-old. Um my mom and dad are still with us and very active. Um, my mom, in fact, was just out at the Donna tournament helping me run it. Uh, she does, she's in charge of all the volunteers, and my dad was always the one that was pushing and instrumental in the golf.

Mike Gonzalez 3:17

Well, that's terrific. So, as the youngest of three, you had the benefit of your two older brothers sort of paving the way for you, didn't you?

Donna Andrews 3:26

I was the middle. I have a young I was the middle child, um, which they always say the middle child's the best athlete. So I was I was pushed by both of them. Um, we were all grew up in a very athletic family. Um, in high school, I did tennis, golf, I swam, um, I played basketball. So the boys used to complain that I was as rough at basketball as any of the guys that they played with. But we always had family fun playing basketball when I played on a high school team.

Bruce Devlin 3:57

So dad was the uh influencer for you to uh start the game of golf. Is that correct?

Donna Andrews 4:04

He was. Uh he was a great golfer in his day. Um he was a great uh he won the VSGA championship, I think that was back in 61, prior to having children, um, and was always, you know, probably around a four or five handicap. So he started my older brother and I, and then my mom didn't really pick up the game until my younger brother started playing because he was eight years younger than we were. So my mom picked it up then, and I'd say she's probably the most dedicated player in the family now.

Bruce Devlin 4:34

How things change, huh? Interesting. You also understand that uh uh Davis Love uh had a an influence on you in the early days, along with uh a gentleman that I used to have dinner with at the Masters, Jack Lumpkin.

Donna Andrews 4:51

I was fortunate. Um, they used to run golf digest schools at Pinehurst, and as a 15-year-old, I came down to the junior schools, and both of them were teaching, along with several other of the great golf digest instructors. I met Toski and some of the others when I was there. So that was really my start into them saying, you know, you're a good golfer. You should think about playing this game. And so I actually started working with Davis, who drive down to Sea Island and help, you know, work with him on my game uh throughout my college career. And unfortunately, he passed between my junior and senior year at UNC. But I've gotten to know his sons, Mark and Davis, and so I continue to go down there. I used to stay with his wife, Penna, and would go down there and work with Jack Lumpkin after that.

Mike Gonzalez 5:43

So your start is rather typical, I think, from what Bruce and I have found with our other guest, in that you were a multi-sport athlete, and you probably, from your experiences with some of the ladies you competed with, uh, that was pretty common. Uh you were athletes, well-rounded athletes, playing both individual and team sports that had to help you uh with your golf game.

Donna Andrews 6:07

Uh I definitely think um, and I wish more kids today. Um, that's one thing I've stressed with my children, is be a multi-sport athlete for as long as you can. Everybody wants them to specialize now by the t by the time they're like 10. Um, I played three sports my first two years of high school, and then I had to pick between playing tennis with the girls or playing golf with the boys, because I played on a boys' team. So I chose golf with the boys, and it was obviously the best choice for me. No, I and I think I knew at that age that I already wanted to try to make it on the tour. So that was where I started playing. So when I went back and played against the women, it seemed relatively easy because I had been competing against boys all through high school.

Mike Gonzalez 6:49

Yeah. So well, we're gonna come back to high school, college, uh, but I want to take you back to your first memories of playing golf. Um, what sort of attracted you to the game at the beginning?

Donna Andrews 7:03

Um, I don't know that I was that attracted to the game when I first started, but I was what you would call, I I mean, I call a country club brat. Um, my parents would take me and drop me off in the morning at the country club in the summertime, and you do morning swim team practice, and then you'd have all day to kill before evening swim team practice. So you went and played tennis, you went and played golf, you know, you were just at the country club all day long. Unfortunately, there aren't many clubs like that anymore. But um, everybody we used to do junior clinics, we'd hang out in the golf shop, the tennis shot during rain delays, and that was really where we first started. There was another gal, um Leanne Russell, who played at the club, and she and I would go out and just you know tee it up and play golf. But our very first tournament we went to play in in Farmington in Charlottesville, Virginia, and she finished last and I finished second to last. And I said, We gotta get better. So we did. We both got better. We both played on the high school team, and then I went on to continue to play in college.

Mike Gonzalez 8:06

Yeah. What what what do you remember about your first golf clubs?

Donna Andrews 8:10

You know, I don't remember that much. You know, I was told I had a club in my hand, you know, as early as I could hold it. Um, my first memories are really from, you know, being out there at the country club and playing with my dad on weekends, just going out and just slapping it around. Um, my dedication probably started in high school as a multi-sport athlete. I couldn't figure out when I was gonna find time to practice golf because you know, you always had basketball or tennis after school. And so uh there was a gentleman by the name of Phil Owenby, who's still a dear friend. He lives in Richmond, Virginia. Um, he would meet me before high school and watch me hit golf balls for an hour before I went to high school. And I said, I've got to do this if I want to make it as, you know, as a golfer. So he would actually meet me out there, you know, several mornings a week before we went to high school. And um, so I was able to work both on my golf game and the other sports that I wanted to play.

Mike Gonzalez 9:10

Yeah, and was this uh this golf striking before uh high school, was that at the club?

Donna Andrews 9:16

That was out of the country club.

Mike Gonzalez 9:18

So you had a driving range?

Donna Andrews 9:19

We had a driving range.

Mike Gonzalez 9:21

Did you have your own shag balls?

Donna Andrews 9:23

Uh I did not, not at that point in time, but uh we they later put in a place out front where you could actually go where they actually had shag balls out front where you could go hit golf balls and pick them up, and that's sometimes what you had to do to work on your short game.

Mike Gonzalez 9:39

Yeah. Nine holes, eighteen holes. What was the golf course?

Donna Andrews 9:42

It's a beautiful 18-hole facility, lots of hills. So you learned um how to play off side hill, downhill, uphill lies. Um, and that's the one thing the girls comment on when they come to play in my tournament there. Um, that's where I host the Donna Invitational, is at the same course where I grew up. So it's fun to watch all the young girls coming and having to learn how to play that golf course.

Mike Gonzalez 10:03

Yeah. Bruce, I don't know about you when you were a kid, but I learned to play golf on Central Illinois flat farmland. I was terrible with any lives that weren't perfectly flat and even. So you guys had an advantage.

Bruce Devlin 10:18

Well, I I I got I got well when I first started playing, I played on a on a sort of a hilly golf course, too. So it was about about uh oh, I don't know, 12 holes that were uh around the flat area and then six holes that were up and down the hill. So I understand exactly what uh Donna's talking about.

Mike Gonzalez 10:40

Donna will probably talk about a couple of courses that you would have won on that probably featured some hills.

Donna Andrews 10:46

Uh there were several.

Mike Gonzalez 10:50

Yeah. So um you're you're playing golf, you're learning the game, you're starting to get a little bit better, you get into high school, decide to compete with the boys. So uh you were teened up probably from the tips with them, I suppose.

Donna Andrews 11:06

Yeah, that at that point in time I think the boys just played the equivalent of what I call the white tees. So um, you know, I played with them. That was when I was still in high school when I I had won the Virginia State uh junior AM, um, but went on to win the first of my Virginia State titles uh while still in high school, um, and then succeeded that one five years in a row before I turned pro.

Mike Gonzalez 11:31

Yeah. Um were you ex were you accepted as a girl on the boys' team? Because this would have been this would have been after Title IX had come out, and so at least at the college ranks, things were beginning to change. The opportunities for for women in sports uh took a while to filter down to you know some of the high school districts. But what was your experience with that?

Donna Andrews 11:52

Um, I was very well accepted. Um, the guys loved having a girl on their team. In fact, I can remember going to a state tournament uh with the guys' team, and of course they were mad at me because I got a single room all to myself with the coach's wife, and the four of them had to share a hotel room because nobody could stay in the hotel room with me. Um but I overheard one of them saying, We got a girl on our team and she's gonna kick your butt. So they were proud to have a girl that played as well as they did.

Bruce Devlin 12:23

That's great.

Donna Andrews 12:23

And, you know, I I was either number one or two man um just about every year on the team. So I would hold my own, and um, the guys were actually very proud of it. Uh dear friend Chris Brooks that played on our team, and um, a gentleman who played on the crosstown rival team by the name of Mickey Moore were probably my two biggest supporters while I was in high school playing golf.

Mike Gonzalez 12:47

Yeah, so let's mention your high school coach's name.

Donna Andrews 12:50

Uh that would have been David Graham. Um, he was a dear, dear friend, ended up moving in two houses down from my parents. Um, and he had a son that was actually the same age as my older brother, Jay. And so knew Dave Graham Jr. very well. But um we used to always play, he called him sticky buns. We would have called him honey buns, but that was his big thing. He would he would play with us, he would compete, and the goal was always to win sticky buns from Coach Graham.

Mike Gonzalez 13:19

Oh my. So he was a proper player then.

Donna Andrews 13:23

He was. He was a good player, he would take us out, he had an amazing short game because he didn't hit it very far, he was older. Um, and so he taught a lot of the players a lot about the short game.

Mike Gonzalez 13:34

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I I can remember back uh high school days, and sometimes the golf coach, their qualification was they had a station wagon.

Donna Andrews 13:42

Uh yes, that was true. Um, that was true of my college coach, but not my high school coach. Okay.

Mike Gonzalez 13:49

Well, we'll get to that. So you you you started to mention uh and let's mention your high school name, EC Glass High School, because that'll come up as we talk about uh many of the awards and accomplishments. So you're in their sports hall of fame, right?

Donna Andrews 14:03

I am in their sports hall of fame. That was probably one of my first.

Mike Gonzalez 14:07

Yeah. So Bruce, you know, you'll you look through the record for Donna and and uh you know, beginning in those high school days, just ripping off all these junior amateurs and state amateurs, and she mentioned winning five straight Virginia women's am starting in 1985. Quite a record. There's a lot of a lot of uh lot of trophies piled up during those days.

Bruce Devlin 14:26

Oh, that's a truth. Ten of them, actually. Ten total uh Virginia State Golf uh Association titles. Um quite quite a record. Uh and I I find it very interesting that you were so accepted by the boys, and I think that's great.

Donna Andrews 14:46

It was it was great fun to play. Um people go, well, didn't you miss not having a girls' team? And I was like, no. I said, you know, I was one of the guys back then, and I will have to say that probably hasn't changed throughout my career. Um, I probably have more guys that are friends that I golf with and do things with uh than I did girls, not while I was on tour, but outside of tour life, you know, most of the people over at Pine Needles, most of the industry is full of guys, and I have wonderful gentlemen who support me and take care of me and help behind the scenes with everything I do at Pine Needles, and some of my dearest friends are gentlemen.

Mike Gonzalez 15:28

That's great. Okay, high school voted most athletic.

Donna Andrews 15:34

Yes. Um, I was always the girl everybody wanted on their team when it came to PE and other sports because I mean, growing up with two brothers, you learned how to compete with the boys. Um, so it didn't matter whether it was baseball or tennis or golf or volleyball or dodgeball. Um, I always wanted to be the best, and God gave me a daughter that's exactly like me.

Mike Gonzalez 16:01

There you go. Hello to Sarah. And uh National Honor Society member.

Donna Andrews 16:07

Yes, I was always a good student. Um uh I believed that, you know, being a good student would help me um whether I made it as a coffer or not. And that was one of my decisions um when I went to college. Um, you know, I knew I wanted to go to college, and the better student you are, the better you are at getting into whatever school you want to.

Mike Gonzalez 16:28

Yeah, yeah. And you were president of the Fellowship of Christian athletes, and so faith must have been an important part of your life from early on.

Donna Andrews 16:35

Uh, it has been for a very long time. Um, it started back in high school and it still continues today. One of my fondest memories now is I get to participate in the Toby Mack FCA camp that we hold here at Pine Needles every year, and have gotten to know Toby. Um my kids know Toby more as Uncle Toby, not as some you know Christian star that's out on the stage. Um, so it's always been a huge part of my life.

Mike Gonzalez 17:00

Yeah, and Bruce, of course, we've enjoyed uh visiting with some of our other guests where faith was an important part of their life. Uh uh the one that really comes to mind, maybe one of the more famous ones being uh Bernhard Longer, and he shared his story about uh how he was uh you know really uh discovered Christ at uh at a uh a PGA Bible study, I guess, that that uh Hilton had at the Heritage Tournament the week after he won his first master's and used uh the Lord's name in vain as he talked about his win of first master's.

Bruce Devlin 17:34

Yeah, it's actually it's a wonderful story about Bernhard really become a uh a devout Christian uh after after going to a Bible study at uh at uh in uh Hilton Head. So very important to him as well as as you.

Donna Andrews 17:53

Yeah, it's it's been great. Um, you know, was fortunate to have FCA all through high school, um, joined a Bible church when I was in college, and then even out on tour, Chris Stevens ran a wonderful fellowship for all the girls when we traveled on tour and stuff. So everybody got to Betsy King was a huge influence in that. Um, so she was instrumental in keeping that going. Chris Stevens to this day still runs our fellowship out on tour, comes to see us at the senior open and things like that. So it's been great to stay connected with her and now to be back involved with FCA now you know that I'm a part of it at Pine Needles, it will always be a part of my life. I always say you got to have your faith, your family, and your friends at the top of your list.

Bruce Devlin 18:37

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 18:38

Terrific, terrific. So uh let's go back to high school days. Uh you're thinking about uh continuing your golf career. I don't know what was more important to you back then. Was it the golf or was it the studies? Because you said you're a good student. That doesn't mean you like school necessarily, right?

Donna Andrews 18:54

Um I didn't mind school. I was a I was a good student. Um I loved math, I loved physics, I loved the engineering stuff. Um I came by it honestly. My dad was a nuclear engineer. Um, I hated history in English, um, but I had to learn it anyway. It's a part of life. And um, I think my kids struggle with it just as I did. They're both math whizzes, just like I was. Everybody said, you know, you could do anything you want to with your math. And um that always just came easy to me. I never had to work very hard for that.

Bruce Devlin 19:25

So you so you don't need a a phone to do your uh mathematical uh deals, right? Like eight times.

Donna Andrews 19:32

I do not. I do not. I can still do all that stuff. I'm surprised what um when you ask kids for change nowadays, and you know, you give them you know $524 so that you so that you can get you know dollars back, and they're like, uh what did you give me? And it's like, oh my goodness, I just want an even change back. It's not that hard.

Mike Gonzalez 19:56

No, it's it's scary, isn't it? How reliable become on on machines and and calculators and so forth. Uh so your college decision. A little different back then than it is today, huh?

Donna Andrews 20:09

Uh very different. Um, you know, I knew that I wanted to go play in college. Um funny, Jay Hardwick was the coach at um uh Virginia Tech, which my whole family had been to Virginia Tech. So everybody thought I should go to Virginia Tech and be a hokey. And he promised he'd start a girls' golf team if I came there. Um but that didn't happen because there was no golf team there. There wasn't one at Virginia. The only Longwood and James Madison were really the only two schools in Virginia that had girls' golf teams. Um, and I knew I wanted to go a little bit further south for a little bit better weather in the winter, a little cold when you were playing in golf in Virginia. So um started looking at North Carolina schools because I didn't want to be too far from home. I'm still I still like being home with my family and stuff. So Duke and UNC were on the top of the list and got to know the coaches, fell in love with Doc Gunnells, who was the UNC coach. And as you said, she she was the cheerleading coach before she became the golf coach because she was the only coach that they had that knew golf, that knew anything about golf. And she was just such a sweet dear lady. We all played our hearts out for her. Um, we didn't use her for our coaching. We all had our own coaches and stuff when we got there, but it was a great choice for me. I knew I wanted to get a business degree, and UNC had one of the best business schools in North Carolina, along with Duke. But um UNC went out, they had a four-year degree, and I knew I wanted to try to make it through in four years and go out and see how I did on the tour.

Mike Gonzalez 21:42

Yeah. So you're able to leave home, but you didn't get that far from home. It was convenient to come back and see your family when you wanted to.

Donna Andrews 21:50

I would say my first year of college, I was home probably every other weekend or so. Anytime we weren't competing, I was only two and a half hours from home. So it was an easy Drive to get home, see my family. Um, you know, still had a younger brother at home, so wanted to watch him grow up too and be at some of his sporting events.

Mike Gonzalez 22:08

Yeah. What was the toughest part of the transition from uh living at home to going to college for you?

Donna Andrews 22:16

Oh, I don't know that I felt it was tough. Um I don't know. I think maybe I came home just to do my laundry every weekend other than to see my family. But um I I enjoyed the time away. I think I had developed a lot of independence because I had already been traveling and playing a lot of tournaments in the summertime. So I had already sort of developed that independence by having to be on the road and travel to golf tournaments by myself because my dad was still working and my mom had a young child still at home. So I learned to do a lot of things, traveled with a lot of friends and stuff, and we'd just hit the road and go to golf go play in golf tournaments.

Mike Gonzalez 22:54

Yeah. Bruce, uh, Donna had some uh some pretty decent success at uh UNC uh on the on the golf squad between individual and uh and uh you know team honors, I guess.

Bruce Devlin 23:08

Second team all American, and uh Donna was uh third in the individual at the NCAAs, which is pretty good too.

Donna Andrews 23:19

It was a it was a fun week. Um we went to New Mexico to play, um, and I was there as an individual because um my team didn't make it um and got to travel with Melissa McNamara, who's still she's still coaching now. Um her mom was her coach at Tulsa University. Um and so I remember the four of us just sort of hanging out and eating good food and playing good golf.

Mike Gonzalez 23:46

Talk about your 1988 win at the North and South women's amateur at Pinehurst.

Donna Andrews 23:53

Well, that was um that was a great week. Um I played against some great competition while I was there. Um I remember coming down the stretch, and you guys probably remember Ann Sanders from uh Seattle, Washington. Uh she was in the Final Four with several of us, young Bucks, as they called us, um, but we were all from UNC. Uh Susie Whaley, who went on to be the president of the PGA, um, and Katie Peterson, uh, who actually moved out to Seattle, Washington, and became a pastry chef. She was always the cook for us on our UNC golf team. So there were three of us and Ann Sanders that it really came down to. But I remember two different matches. Um, one was against um Amber Marsh, and I ended up making a hole in one on 16. I had been four down to her and brought the match back to even with a hole in one on the 16th hole, or 15th hole, I guess, was a par three on number two, and went on to win that match, and then ended up going uh 22 holes with Vicky Getz Ackerman, uh, who is now the president of the LPGA. So was in great company that week, um, had a lot of tough matches uh to finally get the win.

Mike Gonzalez 25:10

Yeah, you you beat Ann uh uh four and three. How old would she have been when you played her then?

Donna Andrews 25:17

Oh gosh. Well, I mean, when you're that young, everybody seems old, but I would have seemed anything.

Bruce Devlin 25:25

That's true.

Donna Andrews 25:26

I would have guessed she was mid-50s, probably.

Mike Gonzalez 25:30

Okay. We've talked about her a lot, uh, particularly when you talk about the Marlene Streets and the Carol Simple Thompsons. Uh, you know, she was a nemesis to all those great amateurs uh for a long time, wasn't she?

Donna Andrews 25:41

Um she was, and I will have to say it was so cool. We were playing out in Portland, Oregon, and I saw her across the way. She came to play the senior open last year, and I crossed two fairways to go give her a hug and tell her what a great influence she had been on so many players and stuff, but she was still had that great same bubbly personality and was going 100 miles an hour on the golf course just like she always did. So she hadn't changed a bit.

Mike Gonzalez 26:10

Great, great amateur, three-time USM uh winner on the women's side, uh runner up three times. She won the senior women's M four times. So, you know, when we interviewed Carol Semple Thompson, you can bet we heard about Ann a lot.

Donna Andrews 26:25

Absolutely.

Mike Gonzalez 26:27

Yeah. So you're finishing up your college career. You've had some good success individually. Uh that's uh, you know, put your name on the map with all the the victories you've had in the amateur ranks. And as you said early in the interview, you knew pretty early that you probably wanted to do this for a living, I guess, huh?

Donna Andrews 26:47

Um I did. I knew I wanted to try. Um in my mind, I was giving myself two years out of college. Um, I always I did a lot of talking with Dr. Coop while I was in school about the mental um side of golf, and really felt like my golf game wasn't at an A level when I was in college because I was having to split time between school and studies um as well as golf. And he just kept urging me to say, okay, just do what you have to do. You want a degree. So I I didn't make many B's in college, I did make a couple, and I wasn't happy about that. Um but um I also went through in four years, which athletes in my time didn't go through in four years. Everybody was on the five-year plan. But I knew I didn't want to. My thought was I didn't want to have to sit out of competitive golf for a year. And if you red shirt, you know, you can take off your early year, but I was already playing and part of the team my freshman year and playing, so didn't want to have to sit out a fifth year to go back and finish school. Um, had seen some players that had gone who had never gone back and finished their fifth year to get their degree, and I didn't want that to be me. So I took a full load for four years. So, you know, my golf game wasn't as good as I thought it could be, and told Dr. Coop that when I left school I could concentrate 100% on my golf game, and we just see where it took me. And so ended up moving to Pinehurst right after I graduated, uh, got a house with a group of golf pros down there. I rented a room in a house with a bunch of golf pros from down there, knowing I wouldn't be there that much, and started working full-time on my game once I left school and was fortunate to get a conditional card my first year when I tried. Um back then, yeah, back then you got two tries to make it to the final stage of qualifying school. And I opted not to go to the first stage because I wanted to stay amateur long enough to play in the USAM because it was at Pine Needles that year. Or sorry, it was at Pine Hurst that year. So I missed the first stage of qualifying school to stay amateur long enough and thought, well, if my game's good enough, one shot should be enough. And luckily I finished second in the first stage, which advanced me to the final stage of qualifying school, and then unfortunately finished like 18th. So I got what was considered back then a conditional card and not a full exempt card. So did a lot of Monday qualifier, got in. Back then we had 35 events on the LPG tour. So I ended up getting in 18 events and finished 75th on the money list, which was enough to keep me in full status for the following year. Yes, sir.

Mike Gonzalez 29:32

So you talked about uh your game in need of development, uh, you know, because you're splitting time between being a student and being a golfer in college. Now you're thinking about turning pro, you're thinking about qualifying. Do you remember what aspects of your game you felt really needed the fur, you know, the furthest development to compete on the LPG tour?

Donna Andrews 29:52

Absolutely. It was my short game. No questions asked. Um, I tended to hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens, so I didn't have to use my short game a lot. If I didn't hit 15 greens around, I wasn't happy with the way I played. Um so I was a very accurate player. They don't weren't always close to the bin, but they were typically on the green. So when you don't miss many greens, you don't think you have to practice your short game very much. But I remember yeah, I remember after um after Davis passed away and I was looking for my next coach, um, I was actually, I made it on tour my rookie year, and was out in Arizona and had met Mike LaBeau and Sandy Lumpkin um through the Golf Digest School and had to go qualify in Phoenix. And we were in Tucson, so I had flown to Tucson to play that event, had to go Monday qualify in Phoenix, and drove up to Phoenix and had actually called them and said, Can I come stay with you? I just need a place for one night. And they opened their graciously opened their home to me. Um, little did I know that at that point in time I learned that they have snow in Arizona. I had no idea they had snow in Arizona. Um, so I learned that the hard way. I wasn't prepared for that. I thought Arizona was sunny and 100 degrees all the time. But um was sitting around the dinner table with Mike and Sandy Lebeau. And I said, you know, I really have to find somebody to work with on the East Coast. I said, Mike, I'd love to be able to come out here and work with you, but that's not feasible with me living on the East Coast. And Sandy looked at me and goes, Well, why don't you go see my dad? And I'm like, Well, he wouldn't work with me. And he's like, Why wouldn't he? And so she called up her dad and said, Okay, I'm sending you a new student. Donna's coming to see you. When can he see her? So that was how I originally started working with Jack because we sat around and I said, I've got to find somebody who's great with the short game. And Jack Limkin was the best when it came to short game, teaching me all sorts of different shots, teaching me to use my imagination. Um, he's the one that really shaped my short game.

Mike Gonzalez 31:55

Yeah. Let's just take you back to your qualifying uh experience. Um if you were like most, it was probably some of the most intense pressure you ever felt.

Donna Andrews 32:06

Um absolutely. Um, I think I probably felt more pressure at the second, what was the second qualifier to get to the final stage, just because I'd only given myself that one chance. But I also knew if I was playing my best golf that it shouldn't be a problem. And I played very well. Like I said, finished second, um, made it to the finals, which was in Sweetwater, Texas, who we were all thankful when the qualifiers left Sweetwater, Texas, because that was a very difficult golf course, especially for people who weren't used to playing it. Um, and had some really tough finishing holes. So you never knew where you were going to finish until you got through those last three or four holes at Sweetwater.

Mike Gonzalez 32:47

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 33:09

Whack down the fairway. It went smack down the fairway. And it started like just spit off line. Headed for two but it fast off night. My head is as long as you're still in the stage, you're okay. Head wet straight down the middle, quite a west,