Angela Stanford - Part 1 (The Early Years and Wins)

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Welcome to another edition of FORE the Good of the Game and Bruce Devlin. We've got our first guest today that really is still actively playing on their tour. She happens to be our youngest guest today, and she's also a neighbor, isn't she?

Bruce Devlin 0:32

She is a neighbor, yeah. We're both members at Shady Oaks Country Club here in Fort Worth, Texas. And uh this young lady, I call her young because she's like 40 years younger than me. She's been an eight-time winner and a major championship winner, and we are so pleased to have you with us today, Angela Stanford. Thanks for joining, Mike and I.

Angela Stanford 0:57

Well, thanks for having me. I mean, uh you you just said I'm the youngest that you've that you've interviewed. I I mean, I'm honored. I'd I'm happy to be on with you guys today.

Mike Gonzalez 1:06

Well, great to have you. And we know uh you're quite busy because you're still actively playing your tour, which we'll get into. But uh as we talked about earlier, Angela, we're here to tell your story, and the way we always start is at the beginning. And uh so tell us a little bit uh, first of all, about uh growing up in uh Fort Worth, Texas area.

Angela Stanford 1:26

Well, I have to say uh I grew up in Saginaw, which is a small town north of Fort Worth. Nobody knows it's there, everybody thinks it's Fort Worth, but um this city means quite a bit to me. I I now live just um a little northwest of Saginaw, but uh both of my parents worked for the city forever. Um the city hall is named after my mother. Um, so the city means a great deal uh to my family, and it was a great place to grow up. Um I played every sport I could get into. Um, you know, and I think it was my dad. My dad played golf like seven days a week until my brother and I were born. And my mom said, no more, no more, no more of that. So he caught on. He caught on really quickly, though, because when I got to an age where he could take me, he knew my mother couldn't say no. So that was his way back to the golf course.

Bruce Devlin 2:25

Interesting.

Mike Gonzalez 2:26

Yeah, I think we could relate to that story as fathers and as sons, probably too. But uh uh, so you got introduced uh by your parents, specifically your dad, I think at age 10 or so. So tell us about those early years playing golf with your dad and learning the game.

Angela Stanford 2:42

Yeah, you know, I don't really remember, um, I don't remember much. I mean, I I know I'd been playing softball and basketball and tennis, and we were driving home from a tennis tournament, and my dad could kind of tell that I wasn't that interested. And he said, Well, what do you think about golf? I'm like, all right, it's just something else to play. Like, sure, let's go. Um I don't remember swinging my first club. I remember being it was uh the little par three course uh at Rockwood in Fort Worth. Uh I grew up playing Zebos and Willow Springs, and you know, we were we were middle, lower class, so uh no country club for me um until I got to college. So uh, but I loved it. You know, I always say there for me it was a blessing to be poor. You know, I I didn't know any different. Um I didn't know that my parents didn't have any money. I didn't know I was supposed to be playing all over the world. Like it it it was almost a blessing that I was so naive and and we just didn't have a lot.

Bruce Devlin 3:44

Yeah. Yeah, common a common thread there, Angela. We found most of our players that we've interviewed were participants in other sports. Do you think that uh that helped you with the game of golf?

Angela Stanford 3:58

For sure. You know, I think the one thing that it definitely did was give me longevity. Um you know, it seems like these kids today, if you're only doing one thing, like I I talk about a mental break. Like you you can't be thinking about the same thing and going a hundred miles an hour on the same thing, you know, 365 days a year.

Bruce Devlin 4:20

Yeah.

Angela Stanford 4:21

Um, you know, I love basketball season, I love volleyball season, I love golf season. And when it came time to play that sport, I was all in because I was ready for it, I was hungry for it. And I try to tell these younger girls on tour, you have to want to be out here. You know, you you have to have that passion and that hunger. And, you know, that's why I go snow skiing every year.

Bruce Devlin 4:43

Yeah.

Angela Stanford 4:44

I I just need that mental break to where you're not thinking about it every second of every day.

Mike Gonzalez 4:50

Yeah, it's uh it's such good advice for these young kids because uh they become more well-rounded athletically, but I think also mentally, uh uh if you participate in team sports, uh that's useful as well because it gives you a whole different perspective, especially as you got into Curtis Cup and you get in the Solheim Cup and so forth. It's just a different uh different vibe, isn't it?

Angela Stanford 5:11

Yes, I and I love teams. I loved everything about my teams. I love my coaches, you know, even the ones I didn't get along with. Um I I got to learn, you know, I got to learn how to navigate those hard situations. Um and I get the sense today that, you know, some of these kids have never had adversity, they've never had to overcome anything, so they so they don't really know how to navigate it. It's not always easy, it doesn't always end up in your favor, but you know, you got to be open to learning something in that process. And and that goes with teammates too. How do you get along with each other? How do you play for each other? Um, I had teammates that I didn't like, they didn't like me, and that was okay. But once we got on the court, or once we got on the course, I'm a team. Yeah, and and I'll do anything for you. And I think, you know, I think that's the other thing. It's hard, you know, sometimes when you get in these golf team situations, it's hard for people to shut certain things off because they never played on a team.

Mike Gonzalez 6:15

Right.

Bruce Devlin 6:16

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 6:16

Interesting. Well, uh you're age 10, you grab a club, you start swinging. Obviously, you weren't breaking par yet. Uh tell us a little bit about how your game developed, how you learned the finer points of golf uh as a as a youngster.

Angela Stanford 6:32

I was very fortunate that one my my main first instructor was Amy Fox, who is in Arlington, Texas now. She played golf at SMU. Um she and I think she actually saw me. She tells this story, and she says that you know, she saw me at the Fort Worth City Junior Girls Tournament, and she's like, Who is that kid? You know, I I want to I want to know who that kid is, and found out it was me and um touched base with my dad and said, Hey, I'd really like to help her. Um so at the age of 15, uh, I couldn't drive yet. So my dad, my dad throws me in the car and he says, We're gonna go see Amy Fox out at Leonard Golf Links on the west side of Fort Worth, whether you want to or not. And and I say Amy was my first major instructor, like, because I'd had a few people, and and as bad as this sounds, I I don't want to say bad, but they were they were men, and I, you know, I just Amy was a female and she could relate to me as a teenager, a young lady trying to play the game of golf. I I think that was part of it, you know. Yeah, I felt like she understood kind of what I was going through. And so we pull up to Leonard's and and I did not want to go. Did not want to go because I I said, Dad, I'm tired of it's like I'm changing instructors all the time. He's like, Well, let's just go try one more. All right. So I get in the car, get out there, and uh have a TCU head cover on and get out there and Amy can tell right off the bat I don't want to be there. And she said, Look, your father's paying for this lesson, whether you want to be here or not. So I'm Amy Fox, I'm the assistant SMU women's golf coach, and let's, you know, let's go, let's go have a great lesson. I'm like, and she kind of got my attention. I'm like, man, she she doesn't mess around. And and it it we worked together for 10 years. She's helped me on and off since I've been on tour. Um, but she's been a great friend, and what a blessing that she was in my path early in my career.

Bruce Devlin 8:46

Yeah. Now there's there's one guy too that's had uh quite an influence on your game who is still the the uh golf director at Shady Oaks Country Club, Mike Wright. Uh he's he's been an influence on your game too, right?

Angela Stanford 9:01

Yes, Mike, Mike Wright, again, another person. And you know, in all my golf career, I just tell people how blessed I've been to have these amazing people that have just been in my backyard. I mean, Amy's in Arlington, Mike's at Shady Oaks, and uh I was very fortunate when I graduated from TCU. Shady Oaks allowed me to come out and practice and play. And I was probably out there five years before I started working with Mike. And uh we again we worked together for 10 plus years, and and to this day he's still helping me when I have questions, or so um, and you know, I think it's hard when you talk about instructors because I've learned these these guys and gals, they get their feelings hurt, and you know it it's not you know, I've always said they're building blocks. I couldn't have learned what I did from Mike without Amy. Yeah, I couldn't have learned from Todd Kulb out in South Dakota but if I didn't have Mike. So, you know, for me, I've just had tremendous people, and at that time from 2005 to 12, 13 on tour, I won the most, and and I was working with Mike in those years.

Mike Gonzalez 10:17

Yeah, sort of fitting then that the two of you go in together into the Texas Golf Hall of Fame in the year 2020.

Angela Stanford 10:23

Yeah, yeah, I that was a lot of fun. Uh, you know, I I I have to admit, I kind of got my feelings hurt because I had heard that I was on the ballot the year that Shady Oaks went in. And I was like, man, that would have been awesome to go in with Shady Oaks because Shady Oaks is, you know, the reason I'm a professional golfer, really. Yeah. Um but then you know, God had something else in store. So that was that was fun going in with Mike.

Mike Gonzalez 10:48

Well, your your game must have progressed uh quite well as a youngster because uh uh you get to Boswell High School and uh you guys do pretty well individually and as a team, don't you?

Angela Stanford 11:01

Yeah, we didn't have much of a team. Uh, you know, this is in the early mid-90s, where you know, this was the other part of my dad teaching me golf and getting me into the game, was because there were so many women's scholarships being left on the table. And so I think he saw a pathway to get me to college. Um we had some girls on the team, but they, you know, it was something to do after school. It wasn't necessarily they were truly interested in golf, but um I loved even then I loved high school golf. I loved the team golf. Um, you know, I I really wasn't that good. I mean, I always say if you pick me up, if you pick my 18-year-old year old self up and put me in today's game as an 18-year-old, I I don't end up at TCU. I mean, women's golf from the mid-90s till now, big change. Way different game. Way different game. Yeah, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 12:00

Okay, so just for our listeners, uh, Angela Stanford, not that good in high school. Um, she only won the state championship four times. Right. That's right. That's right. Man, I wonder what you've done if you were good.

Angela Stanford 12:14

Well, well, that was the city. So I won the Fort Worth City four times.

Mike Gonzalez 12:18

Yeah.

Angela Stanford 12:18

Um won the high school championship my senior year.

Bruce Devlin 12:22

Okay.

Angela Stanford 12:22

Um and then the and then the ping state tournament my senior year. So I maybe I started to kind of flourish my senior year, but yeah, uh I wasn't highly recruited. You know, I I didn't play AJGA, uh, you know, we didn't have the money for that. I played a lot of North Texas PGA stuff, thank God for those programs. Um, thank God for the the city pro the city golf tournament. Um so those things enabled me to to be competitive and learn how to compete. And I was only recruited by four schools, I think.

Bruce Devlin 12:57

But you ended up going to TCU though, right?

Angela Stanford 13:00

That's where I want that's where I wanted to go.

Bruce Devlin 13:03

Yeah, and what and you had a disappointment. Pretty good career at TCU, too, right? Won nine tournaments when you while you were at college there. That's that's pretty special.

Angela Stanford 13:14

Well, another that's another case of coaching Angie, coaching Angie Larkin, who's still at TCU. Uh, you know, what a blessing to have her as a college coach. Um, you know, she taught me things that I didn't really know how to do. I didn't know how to travel. I didn't know how to eat on the golf course, I didn't know how to pack a bag. I mean, all these things that, you know, now looking back and you know, I I think I always struggle with today's kids and they they want to skip college. And I think NIL has helped girls stay in school and and play golf at college, but man, I loved it. I I loved being in college. I love that somebody else was paying for my travel. I love that somebody else was paying for my practice. There, they're somebody else, and maybe and again, maybe that's from being low or middle class, but why was I gonna hurry out of that? Why why would I hurry out of going to Hawaii uh every couple years? Um, so there were things about college golf that I love, but coaching NGO is a big part of that too.

Mike Gonzalez 14:23

Yeah, so four-time all-American at TCU. And and uh so at some point as your game continues to develop as a collegiate athlete, uh you start thinking about hmm, do I want to do this for a living? Or what's plan B? What what was the thinking process back then?

Angela Stanford 14:39

I I didn't have a plan B.

Mike Gonzalez 14:42

You know, and that's the thing.

Angela Stanford 14:46

I I I've heard some celebrities say it. If you have a plan B, you're gonna fall back on it. So, you know, and and I honestly didn't think I was that good to play on tour. And and it was basically Coach Angie that said, Hey, if you're gonna try this, you need to do it now. Don't take a couple years off. You know, the the stats are people that take a couple years off and try to come back to Q school, chances are they don't make it a lot of time. She's like, go now, go to Q school. And again, ignorance was bliss. I had no idea what I was doing. Um, and actually, you know, when I came into TCU, I'll never forget sitting down, my first individual meeting with Coach Angie, and she's like, Well, what are your goals? I'm like, What do you mean, what are my goals? She's like, You have do you have goals? I'm like, My goal is to make the team. And mind you, there were seven girls. I only had to beat two of them.

Bruce Devlin 15:40

Yeah.

Angela Stanford 15:40

So she kind of looked at me and she's like, Well, I'm kind of thinking freshman of the year, I'm kind of thinking honorable mention all-American, I'm thinking maybe you win a tournament. And I'm looking at her like she's got three heads. So, you know, her her belief and her, you know, just the way she kind of paved the path for me. Um, you know, and then was the one that said, hey, I I think you can go try it on tour. You know, I I think you can make it. And she she was right.

Mike Gonzalez 16:14

Yeah, well, even with the success you had uh with collegiate golf, and to sort of set the stage for our listeners, uh, you know, you're approaching graduation and and thinking about the tour. It's about uh it's about the turn of the century, as I remember. And uh let's let's think about uh let's think about who's on that big stage that you're looking to join, because you're looking up and saying, oh, wait a minute, we got Annika Sorenston out there, Kari Webb out there, Sari Pack, Dottie Pepper. A lot of great players. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And you're thinking, okay, I'm gonna compete with those guys, huh?

Angela Stanford 16:51

Again, ignorance was bliss. I, you know, I had no idea what I was walking into, thankfully. Um, but yeah, you know, they Meg Mallon, Pat Hurst, Beth Daniel, Julie Inkster, they all turned out to be some of my best friends and greatest mentors out there. So it's like I've just been kind of in Kari Webb, you know, I it's like I've just been living like this dream for the last 22 years.

Bruce Devlin 17:17

Oh, that's great.

Mike Gonzalez 17:20

Well, don't wake up, right? I mean, you got still got time, huh? Yeah.

Angela Stanford 17:24

Exactly.

Mike Gonzalez 17:25

Well, you had a chance to play in the Curtis Cup back in uh 2000. Tell us a little bit about that experience because it was kind of cool probably having Carol Simple Thompson on your team.

Angela Stanford 17:34

Yeah, I first off, I thought it was a joke. Like, I get this phone call at 10:30 at night in Texas. My phone rings, I answer it. Is this Angela Stanford? Yes. Uh, well, we'd like to invite you to play on the Curtis Cup team. And I'm like, who is this? Like, this is a joke. Like, I thought it was, I honestly thought it was one of my friends because I'm like, you know, I I didn't play outside of the state of Texas much unless it was for college golf. I'm not well known on the USGA stage at all. And I I just thought it was a joke. And finally the lady was like, no, really, this is so-and-so from the USGA. I'm like, okay, I'm so sorry. I I just didn't think you would call me. And that that team was special because it was the last time that I I I'm pretty sure it was the last time that you had four older amateurs and then you had four college players. Now it seems like every team is super young. Like I had Carol Simple Thompson, that was I believe that was her final Curtis Cup as a player.

Bruce Devlin 18:40

Okay.

Angela Stanford 18:40

Um Leland Beckle. Um I had Virginia Derby Grimes, um and I'm missing one other name. Uh gosh, it'll come to me. And then I had Beth Bauer, who was a world beater, um, Hillary Lunkey, who won the US Open, stole it from me.

Mike Gonzalez 19:04

We'll talk about that one.

Angela Stanford 19:07

Stephanie Kiever. So, I mean, you know, we it was it was awesome. Um and I it was I had again, I had no idea what I was walking into. Uh, we win, and then we go play the British Amateur that the week after at Walton Heath, where we're playing the 2023 I AIG Women's Open this next year. So um I remember Carol Simple Thompson walked up to me when she had been uh she wasn't gonna play match play, and she's like, uh, do you mind if I pull your trolley? And I looked at her and I said, You're crazy, but yeah, come on. Like I would be, I would be honored for you to pull my trolley. So yeah, Carol. Carol Simple Thompson caddied for me uh at the British Amateur in 2000. That was that was cool.

Mike Gonzalez 19:56

How about that? Yeah, yeah. Well, Bruce, why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about the professional record of uh Angela Stanford?

Bruce Devlin 20:03

Well, she's you know, she's got a good record. She won the uh the one major in uh 2018, the Evian Championship. As a matter of fact, I watched her win that. She was coming down the last day there. She's she put some scaring in everybody that was on her side trying to win. She I think it was the 16th hole. Uh she looked looked like she looked like she was gonna win, and then she she shook hands with a double bogey. That must have really been tough.

Angela Stanford 20:34

Bruce, I would it wouldn't be any other way for me. It it had to be as hard as it could possibly be, and I had to make it harder on myself.

Bruce Devlin 20:42

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, you started off uh, you know, in uh what eight professional victories all told on the seven on the LPGA tour, 36 top threes, a hundred top tens. Uh and I looked at I looked at your uh money winning record here, miss. That's he's jealous. Yeah, I mean I'm looking at this money stuff here that you got, and boy, you had.

Angela Stanford 21:17

I've had a good time. I've had a good time.

Bruce Devlin 21:20

Uh it's been great. A couple of times went over a million dollars for the year. That's wonderful, Angela. Uh, tell us about some of your wins.

Angela Stanford 21:28

Yeah, so you know, if you go all the way back to 2000, uh, I won the Futures Tour Tour Championship that year, which is now the Epson Tour, um, the feeder tour to the LPGA. And I remember before I got the Curtis Cup call, I joined the Futures Tour, paid my money. Well, as soon as you get the Curtis Cup call, you you get to play the open, you get to play the amateur, you get to play the British Amateur Curtis Cup. So my summer changed really quick. And so I asked the futures tour for my money back because my parents put up that money. Never mind. And they said, and they said, no, you can play our tour as an amateur. And I'm like, okay, well, I don't okay. So at the end of the year, I need a tournament between the first stage of Q school and finals. Well, they send a letter saying anybody that wants to play in the tour championship can play. I'm like, okay, I haven't played a tournament all year. Let's go. Uh I win. And I said, thank you very much. I'm gonna get my entry feedback from my parents and um paid some some people that had given me some money. I got to pay them back and uh went to final stage of Q school, get my card, finish fourth, and and try to I when people say the trunk slam, you know, have you ever heard of the trunk slam? Like you go to Q school, throw your clubs in the trunk, and you slam the trunk, and you never want to come back. And I made a point, I'm never coming back here. And and I never did, I never went back. And it was 2003 that um I win ShopRite for my first victory, and the cool part about that was I missed the cut. I'd been missing cuts. I missed the cut the week before in Rochester, New York. I fly home. I mean, New York City or Rochester, New York, to ShopRite, you can drive. There's no reason for me to go home. I get on an airplane and I go home. And that turned into a blessing because when I went shop right, now I have to come back home before I go out to Pumpkin Ridge. And when I flew into DFW after I won that that week, um, all you know, my friends and family are there, and that was a ton of fun. And the thing I remember about the shop right when I played the first two days with Laura Davies and Julie Julie Yangster.

Mike Gonzalez 24:04

Oh my.

Angela Stanford 24:06

I mean, how cool is that?

Mike Gonzalez 24:07

Like, yeah.

Angela Stanford 24:09

Laura Davies is, you know, I I say as a professional, there are only a couple of golfers that I watch. You know, people are like, oh, you're so close to these these women, these professional golfers. Do you watch them? Well, I don't. You know, I I'm trying to take care of my own business, but there are a handful of players that I watch when I play with.

Bruce Devlin 24:29

Laura Davies, one of them. Yeah, for sure.

Angela Stanford 24:33

I mean, she I've seen her hit shots that I I mean, she was in the trees. She is literally in the trees on number 12. And I'm I look at my caddy, I'm like, what's she she's gotta come out sideways. I mean, that's her only next thing I know, this ball is hitting the green. And I'm like, How does she do that?

Bruce Devlin 24:52

No.

Angela Stanford 24:53

50 yards. I mean, she went straight up over the tree and dropped it on the green. I'm like, I never saw that.

Mike Gonzalez 24:59

Yeah, and and probably would never think about playing it, huh? Yeah.

Angela Stanford 25:03

Oh no, never, never. She's taking full swings in the trees. So and Julie, you know, Julie Inkster is the most competitive person I've ever met, hands down. Um, if she makes a birdie, I want to make a birdie. Anytime I made a birdie, she seemed to follow me with Birdie. I mean, so I think that week, looking back, I mean, just having the the I guess having Julie there that was kind of that competitive push, and then having somebody like LD that I was having so much fun watching her, I kind of just got lost, you know, I and and played really well.

Bruce Devlin 25:41

She got lost shooting 65, 67, 65. I mean, that's some great scoring playing with those two great players.

Angela Stanford 25:51

Oh, it was awesome. And like I said, when you're playing, and even today, you know, like I love playing with MB Park because every putt she hits is gonna be around the hole. I love playing with Jen Young Ko. I, you know, the number one players in the world, the best players, the the quarters, Lexi. You know, anytime I get to play with the best, it's so much fun because it it just for me competitively just turns those juices on and and uh it it's I love it.

Mike Gonzalez 26:21

Well, you must recall how you opened that round, that final round of 65.

Angela Stanford 26:26

I do. Uh it was Birdie Birdie Eagle. And then I I honestly I don't remember another thing until I got to 18.

Mike Gonzalez 26:38

Oh well, that was wire to wire. Uh I think maybe one off the tournament record, but 16 under 197. And so that's your first tour win. Yeah. Did it feel like validation or was validation yet to come the following week?

Angela Stanford 26:55

Um, it felt more like relief, you know, and same thing with the major. I think anytime you're chasing something and you finally get it, there's more relief than anything. I think the validation's always in the second one or the third one or whatever. But you know, that that week was more of, ooh, okay, I I do belong here, I do, you know, and a funny side note. And I always, you know, this has kind of been my the chip on my shoulder my whole career is I've I feel like I've always been overlooked. And and that's okay. I mean, I've always been the underdog, but that week I remember seeing in the paper there was a young star named Paula Creamer who got a sponsor's invite. It was like her one of her first LPGA tournaments, and I think Michelle Wee might have been there too as an amateur, and just it just I was like, man, and I got Annika, you know, she had just come off colonial. I'm like, everybody's always talking about everybody else. And it's always kind of been my chip on my shoulder, I guess.

Mike Gonzalez 27:58

It was about time to show everybody before we uh move to the next week. I just uh reflect back on something you said in college when you said about uh during that time, that's when I learned to, among other things, travel and so forth. Well, uh, you've now been traveling on the tour for about three years, and I would suspect that first year was the most difficult because you'd not play any of the courses, you don't know where to stay, you don't know where to eat. Tell us about that experience of just getting started on the LPG tour.

Angela Stanford 28:32

Yeah, I you know, I tell these younger kids today, you just gotta try to keep your head above water. You know, it it's unless you're just one of these generational talents, it's those first couple years are gonna be hard. So I think for me, again, ignorance was a bliss. I didn't have a bunch of things going on on the side for me. It was it was just golf. We didn't have social media back then. Um, I I wasn't, you know, again, I'm overlooked, so nobody really cares to talk to me much, nobody really cares what I'm doing. So for me, that kind of made it easier because I was simply out there to play golf. I certainly wasn't working out, you know, people weren't working out, you know.

Bruce Devlin 29:14

Yeah.

Angela Stanford 29:14

So for me, and and at that time, we had a lot of domestic events, so I could drive, you know, traveling was a lot easier back then. Um so I I think for me, and I had a great caddy. Again, blessing. I randomly meet this gentleman named Jeremy Young, who you know had been caddy, he's a great great caddy, and he kind of taught me how to plot my way around these golf courses. So um I got lucky that I fell into a good caddy. Uh traveling is easier back then, and and really I think I finished 91st uh on the money list my rookie year, and and that kind of got me into everything the following year. So it was a little it was difficult, but again, I don't think I had as many distractions as people have today.

Bruce Devlin 30:04

I think you're right.

Mike Gonzalez 30:06

You found relief at the shop right, uh, obviously had some good things going with your golf game, probably with your thinking, uh shooting a score like that. And so you want to obviously carry that momentum through as long as it'll possibly last, right? So take us through from stepping off that 18th green uh on the Sunday at ShopRite, and and then let's let's take us into that next week.

Angela Stanford 30:29

Well, I had my basketball coach, Coach Janice step. She was there with with her uh husband, I guess, John Rhodes. They were there. She loves a casino. I think we spent every night down at casinos in ShopRite at Atlantic City. Well, you know, when you win, you you get the trophy, you get everything. Well, we gotta get to Philadelphia to make our flight. So we are flying down the expressway trying to make our flight. We barely get on the plane, fly back to DFW. Again, family, friends, everybody's there. The very next day I gotta get on a flight and go to Portland for the 2003 US Open. Yeah, get up there. I think I played nine holes on Tuesday, and I I remember going back to my room and I slept for like four hours in the middle of the afternoon. I don't take naps, I'm not a nap person, so I was exhausted and and just not knowing all the emotions that come with all that. I think Wednesday I might have played nine more. And when people talk about the zone, there is it does exist. I don't know how to get into it, I know how to get out of it. But but once you get in it, you're really you're not thinking about anything, and you're kind of on cruise control, and and you can't explain it and you don't know how you got there, but that week I was on cruise control, um, and it was awesome. And I remember they were doing a Monday pro-am on the other golf course. It was a pumpkin ridge. I had a Monday pro-am on the other golf course on the following Monday. So I signed up for it. I mean, again, I just want a tournament, but what people don't understand is you plan these things in advance. I'll sign up for a pro-am a couple months down the road. Now, what I've learned is when you do that and you win a tournament, you honor those commitments and you show up because now you have the shop right winner that wants to play in the Monday Pro Am. So I help him. Yeah. So I remember we we go into the playoff, and uh I look at my parents were there, uh, and I look at my mom and I'm like, mom, I feel so bad. Like, I gotta tell them I can't play in this Monday pro-am. And she's like, honey, I think they'll find somebody else.

Mike Gonzalez 32:49

Yeah, yeah. Well, you so uh you obviously had a good week at this uh at this US Open at Pumpkin Ridge, and and uh um you made a long birdie putt on the last hole to get into the playoff, didn't you?

Angela Stanford 33:04

Yeah, and I remember there was a holdup because Annika's group was right in front of us. I actually saw the shot that she hit on 18 that went way right. I remember we had teed off, I was walking up the fairway, and I was directly behind her, however many, you know, a couple hundred yards back, and I see this ball take off to the right, and I look at my caddy and I said, I've never seen her hit a shot like that. I've never seen her hit a shot that far offline. So I turn around and I go back towards a tea box to go find a bathroom because I'm like, this is gonna be a while. Like she's hit it in a place that she's not getting out of anytime soon. So and that's even part of being in the zone. Like, if you're all in your head, then you stand there in the fairway and watch all that. But I just was like, oh, I'm gonna walk backwards, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna get out of here. Like, I don't think I don't think that every time. So, and sure enough, there was a long ruling. Um, I believe she ends up making bogey and she's out of the playoff. Um, and then I make the long putt, and you know, I I remember my dad had watched the entire tournament. My dad walked the whole way around on the 18th hole, so the 72nd hole of the 2003 Women's Open, he can't get into the bleachers because it's so crowded. Well, my mom was there. My mom saw me make the putt. My dad missed it.

Bruce Devlin 34:33

You did, didn't it? Yeah.

Angela Stanford 34:35

He was like, I've seen every single shot until the most important one.

Mike Gonzalez 34:40

Oh my. So you go to an 18-hole playoff. Of course, it's you, it's Hillary Lunkey, the eventual winner, and Kelly Robbins.

Angela Stanford 34:49

Kelly Robbins was one of my favorite. I mean, her swing was so smooth. Everybody kind of called her the Freddie Couples of women's golf.

Bruce Devlin 34:58

Really?

Angela Stanford 34:59

Her swing was amazing. Uh, and I really like Kelly. I um eventually ended up playing on the Solheim Cup with her in 2003, but she was always so nice. One of the older pros that she was nice to me, and a lot of the older pros weren't. So um it was fun being there with Kelly. I knew Hillary from college golf. Uh, we obviously played the Curtis Cup together. I liked Hillary a lot. Um, we were friends. She had her eventual husband on the bag that week. Um, so you know, I I think it was a comfortable environment for everybody. And I wouldn't have been surprised who won that day because I think we all felt really comfortable with each other. And I remember thinking, it's a Monday playoff, like nobody's gonna be out here, you know, nobody's gonna be watching. And we're gonna hill. There were cars everywhere. I was like, oh my gosh, like this is a real thing. Yeah. So again, ignorance was bliss.

Mike Gonzalez 35:59

Yeah, and and again, it made made a long putt on the last hole of the playoff. Uh, so you didn't want to make it easy on Hillary, did you?

Angela Stanford 36:07

No, and and honestly, I thought she was gonna miss there. I the the one that she made was on Sunday that I didn't think she'd make, but yeah, she when she made that because there was so much break in that putt and the day of the playoff. And but Hillary's always a great putter. You know, I I wasn't surprised at what she was doing that week, you know. I think a lot of people gave her a lot of heat for it's the only tournament you're ever gonna win. And anybody that asked me that afterwards, I'm like, well, what other tournament do you want to win in? It's the US Open. Like if I only had one victory and it was the open, you know.

Mike Gonzalez 36:46

Yeah. So what kind of mindset did you take out of that week?

Angela Stanford 36:52

Um you know, it was really hard because if you because again, it it vaults me into the Solheim Cup. It was that year in Sweden. So I get to play with Rosie Jones, Meg Mallon, Beth Daniel, um who else was? I mean, all of the older generation. I got to be on that team. Kelly Keeney was on that team. Um so it was an interesting mix. But it was all the older generation, and I'm so grateful that I I had that opportunity. Um but it was for me personally, 04 and 05 were my toughest years because now I thought, you know, I not that I thought it would come easy, but you thought all of a sudden, okay, I've made it. I'm gonna be on cruise control. Well, it's golf. Nobody's ever on cruise control of golf.

Mike Gonzalez 37:48

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 teat up again for the good of the game, it's along the fairway.

Bruce Devlin 38:13

It went smack down the fairway. My head is as long as you're still in the state, you're okay.