Brandie Burton - Part 1 (The Early Years)

Intro Music 0:07

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

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Welcome to another edition of FORE the Good of the Game and Bruce Devlin. This major champion we have with us this morning. I think if God had given her a healthy body for her whole career, I can't imagine what she might have done.

Bruce Devlin 0:28

Boy, how true that is. A winner of two major championships. She won DeMarie twice and five victories on the PGA tour, and it is indeed a pleasure to have Brandie Burton with us this morning. Welcome.

Brandie Burton 0:44

Well, thank you guys. Thanks for having me. It's uh it's an honor, and I'm humbled to be amongst all your past uh interviews and so forth.

Mike Gonzalez 0:52

Well, I know you've had a chance to probably see the list of some of the ladies uh that we've interviewed, and I'm sure you played with a lot of them.

Brandie Burton 1:00

I did. I was very fortunate. I would definitely play it at the right time, and wow, I mean, I would have never dreamt of playing with all my idols, so to speak.

Mike Gonzalez 1:08

Yeah, yeah. Well, as you know then, uh having uh listened to a few of these, you know, we kind of always go back to the very beginning, and I think it's one thing our listeners really enjoy is hearing from you, golf greats, about how you got started in the game of golf growing up as a little boy or girl. So why don't you tell us a little bit about growing up in uh in California?

Brandie Burton 1:30

Sure. So I was uh born in San Mardino, California, and raised just one city over in Rialto. Um I was the youngest of three. I had two older brothers. Um my dad, Roger, was a self-employed backhoe operator. Um basically he called himself a ditch digger. That's what he related to. He liked to play in the dirt. So um my mom, my mom ran the business out of the house and she wore all the hats, you know, taxi mom, you know, homemaker, she did the billing and so forth, and just was raised very blue-collar. You know, some months the the jobs paid the bills, some months we were waiting to get paid. So um, you know, it was it wasn't by far uh a difficult life at all. My dad provided very much for us, and he worked. If there was eight days in a week, he would have worked eight days in a week to give us what we needed. So I was very fortunate.

Mike Gonzalez 2:24

So it wasn't country club living then, though.

Brandie Burton 2:27

No, not at all. Um, you know what, but we had family all around us. My dad came from a family of nine. He had four brothers and four sisters, and we all lived within sometimes blocks of each other uh in California. So holidays were a lot of fun, and they were all you know, redneck beer drinking construction workers. So we had a lot of fun on holidays. Um, those are memories that I will cherish forever, and we're still continuing them, so um, that's fun. Oh, that's fun and um golf wasn't my first sport. I started swimming at the age of four, and what a lot of people don't realize is that I swam till I was like 13. I was started competing when I was eight. Um, and I was training twice a day and just a grueling, self-driven, a grueling, you know, just training regimen and loved it, but then woke up one morning and said, I'm done. Don't want to do this anymore. And my parents were like, Well, whatever you want, you know, if that makes you happy, then that's good. But backtracking a little bit, I um at H on our birthdays, my dad, because he didn't have a chance to spend a whole lot of time with us, he was too busy working, um, we could choose a day to go to spend with him. That was our birthday present. So anywhere we wanted to do, and usually it was fishing, and usually it was raining because that's the only time he had the day off. But the most important part was we got to spend it with him. So on my ninth birthday, I said, you know, I told my dad, I said, uh, I think I want to learn the game of golf. And my oldest brother played. Um, and my dad played maybe on the weekends. But um, so he's like, Well, if you're really serious about it, then he goes, You're gonna learn the right way. I'm gonna take you to get lessons. You're not gonna learn from me.

Bruce Devlin 4:22

Was he a player, Brandy?

Brandie Burton 4:25

He played just, you know, he was probably uh, you know, an 18 or so. He only had a chance to play in a men's club at a you know local public golf course maybe once a month if he wasn't working. Um, because he would try to pick up side jobs on the weekends and so forth. And my brothers played football and stuff, so he was helped coach football, and my brothers played baseball, so we were just a very athletic family. Um I started off at a place called his name was Walter Duda. He was in Redland, in Highland, California, and uh he owned his own golf range called Duda's golf range. And him and his wife lived at the house in the back, and then he had some property, so my dad made him a deal that if he came and cleaned off his property with the backhoe, that if he would teach me how to play golf.

Mike Gonzalez 5:12

Oh, good. A little bartering.

Brandie Burton 5:14

Kind of yeah, kind of a little bartering. So on the weekends, um, you know, I didn't play every day, but on the weekends we'd go there, dad would work, Walt would teach me some stuff about the game, I would sit there and hit balls, and then I also in exchange, he would put me in the back room with egg crates full of golf balls. And he'd sit me down with a pan a can of red paint and a brush, and one by one, one ball would go in this little turning thing, and I'd hold the brush there and paint the stripes on the ball.

Mike Gonzalez 5:44

That's great.

Brandie Burton 5:45

Yeah, so those are good memories. And he also, you know, I was only, you know, nine, ten at the time, but he taught me how to he had put the ball rack on the front of an old Subaru car. And so at 10 years old, I thought I was just the best thing on earth for me to drive that car around on the range picking up the golf balls. Couldn't reach the pedals very good, but I figured it out.

Mike Gonzalez 6:07

Any any any accidents?

Brandie Burton 6:10

Um, there probably was a few in there. A few repair drives that he had to do. Yeah.

Bruce Devlin 6:16

Yeah.

Brandie Burton 6:18

So yeah, so from there, I just um, you know, at 10 years old, I was playing four sports at once. I was playing softball, I was playing golf, I was swimming and then squeezing a little tennis. I'm not really sure how my mom, you know, did the whole taxi thing. And, you know, we'd be on the road in this big station wagon when the back seat would be facing the wrong way going down the freeway, and I'd have different uniforms, you know, going from game to game or, you know, whatever I might have been doing. Um, so it was a fun childhood. Um and then after a couple years, my dad had a little bit of falling out with Walt, and I was doing a little clinic in Southern California, and a pro by the name of Tim Miskel out of Arrowhead Country Club. You guys have probably heard of Arrowhead because that's where Dave Stockton was from.

Bruce Devlin 7:04

Sure, yeah. Yeah.

Brandie Burton 7:06

Um, and uh he offered to um give me lessons, and and my dad was not that proud. He's a very proud man, so he was like, You're gonna go to a private club because I can't afford to give you lessons. And but Tim was more than generous and said, You don't, I just want to help your daughter. And he so it took my dad a little while, but he realized that I had the talent, and uh, so I would go there on the weekends and get lessons, and then we I would practice hitting balls during the week at some little Muni golf course down the street.

Mike Gonzalez 7:40

Did you have your own shag bag growing up?

Brandie Burton 7:43

I did, and we actually um my oldest brother was seven years older than I was, so or is seven years older than I am, and we'd sit in the front yard, we had like a little front yard like 20 yards long, and we put the bucket by the side of that garage, and we'd you know, try to hit little flop shots, create shots from corner to corner of the yard. Um, we had a neighbor across the street that we were friends with, and they had like about a six-foot hedge. So we try to hit flop shots or get close to the hedge and hit it back and forth from house to house. Um so you know, when you don't have the means to play or anything, you figure it out, right? You try to be creative, and that's all I needed. It was just fun times.

Mike Gonzalez 8:22

Yeah. So you you talked about swimming and kind of giving that up. Did you say at age 11?

Brandie Burton 8:27

Uh, about 13 I was. I actually I I sway got to the point where I swam in the junior Olympics, and I think I I fooled a lot of people. They really thought that I was heading down that road, and I just got burned out really bad. So I uh I can honestly probably tell you on my both you know on two hands the amount of times that I've touched the water since then, and that's been a long time.

Mike Gonzalez 8:50

Yeah, so uh I mean you guys can both relate to this because it takes a lot to achieve at the levels you achieved in your game, any sport, pick a sport. It takes commitment, it takes time, it takes more importantly, passion. And I guess once that passion's gone, regardless of the talent or whatever, it's hard to make it happen, isn't it?

Brandie Burton 9:11

Yeah. Um it's just you know, it is just passion. And uh I don't know, I just golf I just fell in love with golf. I wanted to be in charge of my own destiny, and that's the game that it gave me.

Mike Gonzalez 9:23

Yeah. Well, is is that what what happened that maybe you you didn't so much fall out of love with with swimming as you fell in love with the game of golf?

Brandie Burton 9:32

Um, you know, you have a good I never really thought about it that way, but I I I totally agree. That's absolutely correct.

Mike Gonzalez 9:38

And and what was the attraction to golf versus some of the other sports you did? What what was it that said, you know, I like this more, and here's why?

Brandie Burton 9:47

Um, well, I mean starting with swimming, I think I went I excelled in that so much because it was individual. Um softball, more team atmosphere, you know. Um I wanted to be the one to make the third out. I wanted the one, you know, to be the one who lost the game. I didn't want somebody else to lose it for me. Um tennis, the same way. Tennis just didn't grab me, but it's just I guess I had an extra hour in the day, so I needed to squeeze in another sport. Um and then golf, I don't know. It's just I think the variety, I mean, you could just do so much with it. And um, you know, I just I was kind of a loner, so I could just go out on my own and just beat balls all day long and do what I wanted to do.

Bruce Devlin 10:32

So Randy, we uh when you went to uh Eisenhower High School there in uh Rialto, were did you play any high school golf? Was there any we was there a team back in those days or not? It seems like it might have been just about the start of it.

Brandie Burton 10:48

Yeah, no, I played on the boys' team. I was number one on the boys' team, but by that time I'd kind of um with junior golf and so forth, I've c they the city kind of knew my name a little bit. I was winning some junior tournaments, so the guys didn't mind me so much, and I was I thought I was out driving them at the time, so they had a little bit of a problem with that, but I was playing from the back tees with them, so there was no excuses, you know. Um yeah, so I was playing all four sports until I got to high school, and then uh one day I I was playing uh in a softball tournament. I was on the third game, I was a catcher, and the next day I was leaving for junior world in San Diego, and uh the last game we were playing an international tiebreaker that was a runner on second, and the girl decided that she wasn't gonna slide coming in home with a squeeze. So she took me out, bulldozed me over, and that was the first time that my parents said, Okay, it's time. It's time for you to make a decision on what you want to do because we can't afford to, you know, spend the money for you to go to all these tournaments and you know you get hurt. So that was my last softball game, and then we were just a hundred percent golf from there.

Bruce Devlin 12:05

So at age 15, um you you went to San Diego for the junior world championship and it was a victor.

Brandie Burton 12:15

Yeah. That was a long time ago.

Bruce Devlin 12:19

You got good memories though, haven't you, from it?

Brandie Burton 12:23

Yeah, you know, those were the days. I mean, um you know, Tiger is what I think he's five years younger than me, four years. So he was playing in a lot of junior golf with me in here in SoCal. Um, Phil was playing. Um, you know, we had a lot of good players during my time frame of coming up in the junior ranks, and Junior World was our major in San Diego. So to go there. A lot of times we I think that might have been the one where it was raining so bad that um my brother said, I said, How am I gonna keep my hands on the club? And he said, Go tell mom to go to the grocery store and get a bunch of handkerchiefs. He goes, and just wrap the handkerchief around the grip and hold on tight. And that's what I did.

Mike Gonzalez 13:09

This was maybe before the uh uh appearance of of rain gloves. I don't remember rain gloves when I was younger. No.

Brandie Burton 13:16

I don't either. I I mean I got some, I have some now, but I don't I never used them. I I was a full core, no glove person.

Mike Gonzalez 13:22

Yeah. Yeah.

Brandie Burton 13:23

So um my hands were like sandpaper.

Mike Gonzalez 13:27

So as you as your game developed beyond just lessons or clinics that you would take, teachings that you would get, how else did you learn the game? Because, you know, when you when you grew up, I guess there was starting to emerge a little bit more video. I don't know if you could really get too much online yet uh as a youngster, but uh you know, there were books, magazines. What was your other ways of learning?

Brandie Burton 13:51

Yeah, I really didn't have any, to be honest with you. I didn't uh you know, when I first started, um I didn't touch a golf course for over a year. I mean, they you know, my dad said you gotta be able to hit the ball to be able to go play with other people first. Um but just between Walt Walt Duda and then with Tim Miskell, um you know, just fundamentals through him and short game, and they they saw my talent, and then I just kind of went on my own from there, really. I mean, Tim was with me all the way through my pro career, so he it was a long-standing you know, teaching relationship with him.

Mike Gonzalez 14:28

Yeah. So you you win junior worlds at age 15 for the next three years, four years, you're gonna be playing in some pretty serious amateur competitions around the world. At this point uh in your young career, what was the strong part of your game? What was the weakest part of your game?

Brandie Burton 14:48

Well, I definitely was the athletic and I was pretty strong, so I hit the ball a long way. That was definitely my the best part of my game. And you know, on the flip side, as it always is, the putter always got me. Uh but I had I had a, you know, I worked hard at it, but that was always the one that kind of that I needed to keep working on more than anything else. But I didn't like to. I just I just wanted to hit it and hit and hit all day long.

Mike Gonzalez 15:14

Yeah, well, you know, to today today's Brandy Burton or today's Bruce Devlin probably would have looked back and told your younger selves, hey kid, spend more time around the pudding green game. That's right.

Brandie Burton 15:28

Yeah, that's exactly where I'm at right now.

Mike Gonzalez 15:33

Uh is that I mean, as a kid, did you like to spend your time there, or were you just enjoying launching those big drives out there?

Brandie Burton 15:41

Yeah, I know. I just love to beat balls on the range. And um, like I said, I was at Arrowhead, and fortunately, you know, Dave Stockton was around a little bit, so he would tell Tim or he would stop by and he's like, hey, let's go to the green, let's go to the putting green, you know, and who else better are you gonna have than Mr. Stockton, you know, to help you. So my actually first set of golf clubs was his dad's elite centurion spalding irons, Gail Stockton's.

Bruce Devlin 16:08

Yeah.

Brandie Burton 16:08

So um Dave was Dave did a lot for me. I I grew up playing high school golf against his son Ronnie, so um, you know, it's I've been I was very fortunate. So yeah, he uh he would get me on the putter a little bit and give me some ideas, so that would definitely help me out in my career as well.

Mike Gonzalez 16:24

Yeah. So did they not have a women's team then or girls' team at that high school?

Brandie Burton 16:29

No, just a guy's team.

Mike Gonzalez 16:31

Were you able to compete regionally, state wise then too, if you qualified?

Brandie Burton 16:36

I did. Um I uh just regionally, basically, they did have a state high school girls' championship that I played in uh at Pebble Beach that I won in one year. Um my senior year, uh I had it was just about the Title IX period. And um I you know I had the unfortunate circumstance where our athletic director forgot to turn my entry in. Oh my you know, there's so yeah, it was kind of disappointing, but you know, I don't know. You know, it's just the way it is. So I didn't compete in my senior year, but I won on my junior year. Um but I had plenty of other stuff to play in, so I I mean I was I was not happy about it, but you know, what are you gonna do? You just have to move on.

Mike Gonzalez 17:19

Yeah, I I Bruce, I seem to remember some of our other California guests, uh Julie Inkster and Pat Hurst and uh let's see, maybe uh Patty Sheehan, maybe? Uh but just talking about the opportunities of playing Pebble Beach as a kid, because a lot of tournaments just kind of found their way to Pebble, didn't they, Brandy? Isn't that the truth?

Brandie Burton 17:42

They did. And I remember, I remember what is it? Uh what's that one over the cliff? Uh seven, seven, eight.

Bruce Devlin 17:49

Eight. Eight.

Brandie Burton 17:50

It was really foggy, and I hit it right up to the edge, and I said, uh-uh. Line of sight back. I am not taking the chance of going over that cliff. I just I took my medicine and backed away from it. That's one of the main things I remember.

Mike Gonzalez 18:07

You probably uh could have invoked Rule 1-4, which was the equity rule back then under the rules, uh, in terms of uh unsafe uh conditions, you know, like if you're if you have a you're close to a crocodile or a rattlesnake or a bee's hive, just saying, Oh, this is too dangerous. I'm gonna take relief here. You should have.

Brandie Burton 18:26

Definitely.

Mike Gonzalez 18:29

Well, anyway, your your winning ways continued, so the next year you go and and play in the PGA national championship. Where was that contested?

Brandie Burton 18:38

Yeah, it was at Bell Reed. Bell Reed Contest, beautiful golf course. I remember in the um You know, I just you know, when I was a junior, I was just so focused. I don't I just wanted to I just kept hitting, wanted to make birdies, and I didn't even know where I was half the time.

Mike Gonzalez 18:57

Yeah, well, uh I I assume most of those tournaments back then were match play, those junior events. Um or was that one a stroke play event?

Brandie Burton 19:06

I think that one was that one was stroke play. Um you know, basically the USGA events were the match play one, so um but I believe that was the stroke play.

Mike Gonzalez 19:17

So what kind of scores were you posting back then when you were 16 years old?

Brandie Burton 19:22

Um, you know, I was I think I was low 70s, average low 70s to mid-70s. Um I wasn't and then I pop in as you know 68, 69 here and there, but uh yeah, I mean I was pretty consistent.

Mike Gonzalez 19:35

Yeah, so the following year, 1989, you picked up uh a few wins and some great uh really some some great experience, Bruce, as you look at some of those competitions she was able to get into. Fabulous.

Bruce Devlin 19:48

San Diego again for the junior world, and then the U.S. Junior Girls Championship at Pine Needles, where you beat Carrie uh Hoshino. And then the Transnational Championship, you were a runner-up. But uh you got to play in the uh U.S. women's amateur too in 89 and nearly won it, except Vicky Getz took it out in the final, huh?

Brandie Burton 20:13

Yeah, Vicky Getz, uh Ackerman and I, we we battled our our uh amateur days against each other. It's like you win one, I'll win one, you win one, I'll win one. Um but you know, in 1989, that was an important year for me because it was my senior year in high school. Um I was graduating early, so um I was 17, and I didn't play a lot of national events as a younger junior because my parents couldn't afford it, frankly. Just whatever my you know we could drive to. Uh and when I could, um, you know, I would stay with families and so forth. My mom wasn't able to travel with me, so that kind of you know made me grow up fast.

Bruce Devlin 20:50

Yeah.

Brandie Burton 20:51

Um, but being my senior year, my parents decided, you know, we need to try to get you some exposure because we need to get you into college to forward your golfing career. Yes. So um, you know, they did everything. We did garage sales, we you know, my dad read a lot. We sent, we you know, sold books for 10 cents just to make money to get me to where I needed to go to get that exposure for that. And luckily, you know, I produced in those big events and that gave me the exposure to all the college recruiters.

Mike Gonzalez 21:20

Yeah, you sure did. I mean, take us back to that uh U.S. Junior Girls win. Uh, that was at Pine Needles. Uh long trip for you to go all the way across country for that one.

Brandie Burton 21:31

Yeah, it was. And, you know, I didn't realize what how big of that event that really was, uh, meeting Peggy Kirkbell there at Pine Needles. I mean, you know, I'm just a young punk at that time. I didn't know what was going on. And um I met her and then I um just I just played really well. And um I I remember one of the US J officials coming down eighteen. I was I believe I was one up coming into the hole and She's sitting back on the fairway and she's putting lipstick on. And I said, What are you doing putting lipstick on? And I said, I thought I should be the one getting ready for the show. But uh yeah, that was that was definitely a big accolade for me to win the USG or any USGA event is huge. I mean, that's just just a great thing to have on your resume.

Mike Gonzalez 22:22

Well, and then uh a couple things. One, you probably got to go back there in '96 for the US Open, didn't you?

Brandie Burton 22:28

I did. Yeah. And I think I played fairly decent there. A golf course played a lot longer than I played the when I played the junior. Yeah. Um, but you know, I'm I'm a big Donald Ross fan and all the old architecture stuff. I love playing golf courses of that nature, so I I just would, you know, lick my chops trying to get hold of some of those golf courses.

Mike Gonzalez 22:53

Yeah. Yeah. Of course, the other thing about winning a USGA championship is you get to go to the museum at Far Hills and walk into that big champion's room and see uh up on the board 1989 U.S. Junior Girls Champion, Brandy Burton.

Bruce Devlin 23:12

Yeah.

Brandie Burton 23:12

Yeah, you know, I'm a little embarrassed to say that I've never been there. But um I've got to go. That's definitely gonna be a bucket list.

Mike Gonzalez 23:21

That's pretty cool to know that it's gonna be there for a long, long time. And you got your name on the trophy, too.

Brandie Burton 23:27

Yes, sir. I uh I'm uh very honored to be able to have my name there with all the rest of the unbelievable players on that on that trophy.

Mike Gonzalez 23:36

Yeah, yeah, you almost uh you almost got to write it on another trophy uh at that uh at that 1989 U.S. women's amateur. You mentioned uh Vicky Gutch in the final. Again, that was at Pinehurst, so that's a cross country for you. You remember who the medalist was that year? Uh give you a hint it was a California girl.

Brandie Burton 23:59

I don't I don't remember.

Mike Gonzalez 24:01

And I mentioned her name earlier. Pathurst.

Brandie Burton 24:06

I was gonna say it's gotta be Pat.

Mike Gonzalez 24:08

Yeah, so what do you what do you remember about that run through that tournament?

Brandie Burton 24:13

Um again, another Donald Ross course, right? So I number two is going down. It's like my favorite golf course of all time.

Mike Gonzalez 24:22

Yeah, is it? Yeah.

Brandie Burton 24:23

Yeah. I mean, I love the you know, the crown, the greens, and uh um the shot making that you have to do on those golf courses. It just requires, you know, to work the ball, and I love to work the ball. Um I just remember not putting very well, and that's why Vicky got me, because she was masterful with the putter.

Mike Gonzalez 24:42

And that was all that was what it was all about, huh?

Brandie Burton 24:45

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 24:46

Did you get to play in the uh US Open there?

Brandie Burton 24:49

I did not. One of my million injuries.

Mike Gonzalez 24:53

Okay. All right, yeah. And we're gonna you know, we're we're gonna get to that, I guess. Uh, but when did that all kind of start for you?

Brandie Burton 25:00

Uh the injury-wise.

Mike Gonzalez 25:02

Other than getting bowled over at the at home plate. Yeah, so that was the start.

Brandie Burton 25:05

That was the start of I I had Yeah, so pretty much um nine 96-ish. Um is when uh I I can't I don't even have a timeline of all the stuff that's gone on with me, but that's when I I think I I had an ankle injury, and then 98 is my shoulder started going a little bad, and then believe it or not, I've had a surgery or two every year since, till this day.

Mike Gonzalez 25:33

Yeah, which is it's crazy, hard for our listeners probably to fathom because uh as we go through your career you'll remind us of, well, here's why I didn't win this year, because I was doing having this done or that done, right?

Brandie Burton 25:47

Yeah. But uh, you know, the cards are dealt. I just, you know, I just dealt with it, and I'm just you know very lucky to have had the career that I've had.

Mike Gonzalez 25:57

Yeah, yeah. So so '89, you're coming off a big year, as you say, senior year. Um you're trying to figure out what you want to do college-wise. You certainly got a few coaches' attention, I'm sure, in 1989. So tell us a little bit about that transition from high school and and what the college search was like for you.

Brandie Burton 26:17

Yeah, so um, you know, I'm not very good about boasting about myself, but I was the number one recruit in the country. Um, so I pretty much had my choice of wherever I wanted to go. I was I gradu I skipped third grade, so I graduated a year early. So I just, you know, January I turned 17 in my senior year. So at that time, you couldn't turn pro, you had to be 18. They didn't have the you know, write your letter and that's you know, she's good enough. Can she join the LPJ tour?

Bruce Devlin 26:47

Yeah.

Brandie Burton 26:47

So my parents, you know, they were just uh 100% supportive of whatever I wanted to do, whatever was going to make me happy, but they would coach me along the way. It's like, you know, help me with my decision making. So I had Arizona State University with Linda Volstead. Um, I visited b both USC and UCLA, but really wanted to kind of break away from home and learn my independence a little bit for that one year. Uh that I thought I didn't know. I went in and told the coaches that I can't promise you that I'm gonna stay because I just want to play golf. Yeah, but maybe I might like it. Maybe I'll fall in love with school and stay. But to have the opportunity, I was very blessed. Um I also went to the University of Arizona, so a few trips in there, and then basically it came down to Arizona State because um Karsten had just built a golf course across the street from the school. Yeah, you know, Pete Dyed design and we had our own private practice facility for the for the team then. Um so I had all the golf that I wanted. I had this whole practice facility, so ASU it was, and I was you know very happy there for a brief time that I spent.

Mike Gonzalez 27:55

A little bit better than taking your shag bag over to the Muni, huh?

Brandie Burton 27:59

Yeah, it's funny because I would um you could park on this side of the street, but the same Scottsdale Road coach would drive by on her way to work every morning at nine o'clock in the morning, and I would uh go hide in Pete Dyes bunkers and park down at the public side and then walk my clubs up and go park in the bunkers because I knew what time she was gonna drive to work.

Mike Gonzalez 28:20

And there's no video available of that either.

Brandie Burton 28:23

No, no, no, not at all. No find my iPhone thing or nothing like that. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 28:27

So what was the transition to college like for you?

Brandie Burton 28:31

Um golf wise, uh I it was easy. Um time management wise with the studies and everything, really hard. I coached that to get me a lot of help. I had tutors keeping me eligible. Um being away from home was really hard because I like I said, I grew up very close to my family. So there was a few times that you know, luckily I was only a six hour drive away, so I would Friday nights I would hop in the car and come home for the weekend to kind of cure that you know homesickness type thing. So um, but overall it was a great experience.

Mike Gonzalez 29:07

And and when did the switch flip, you know, where you said, hey, I want to do this for a living.

Brandie Burton 29:13

Well, um you know, I think I won six out of seven of the events that I played in. Um I didn't win the national championship, but our team did. Um so I really did everything that I could do there. And I was just there was nothing more for me golf-wise that I felt that I needed that and I was ready for the next step. And I just I wasn't happy with studying. I just wasn't happy unless I was out playing.

Bruce Devlin 29:41

Yeah.

Brandie Burton 29:42

So I talked to my parents, and um, you know, they agree that like, you know, we're we'll 100% support you in whatever you want to do.

Mike Gonzalez 29:49

So yeah. Well, by by this time, uh uh you had already had a chance to play in at least a couple, maybe three women's U.S. Opens. You were rubbing shoulders with other ladies that had maybe competed with you earlier that were now on the tour. So uh uh it probably was uh a little less daunting for you than maybe somebody else that would have been coming in cold.

Brandie Burton 30:14

Um yeah, like you know, like I said, I did play in some opens. I played in a couple dinosaurs, which was, you know, that was dinosaur tournament was like that was a US Open as well for me because that's where I grew up. I my mom would take me there to watch, you know, Lopez, Karner, Skinner, Sheehan, Alcott, all of them hit balls, and I never went on the course, I just would sit there and watch them hit balls on the range all day long. So um to play in that a couple times was great experience. Um I got to meet Dinoshore when I was 16, so um yeah. So I was ready. Um, but it didn't come very easy, that's for sure. The transition to turning professional.

Bruce Devlin 30:56

I look back at uh it's no wonder you wanted to turn pro. You look look through your career in 1990, North and South Women's Amateur. You win the Broadmoor Championship. You get to play on the Curtis Cup team. Three as we said, three women's US Opens as an amateur, and then as you said, six wins out of seven uh in tournaments you played for at uh Arizona State quite a year.

Brandie Burton 31:25

Yeah, uh I I don't know what to say. I was just I was just playing really well and I was healthy, so that was you know a huge thing. And um yeah, I was just ready to go. I'm re I was ready to go try myself in the big leagues, as they say.

Bruce Devlin 31:42

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 31:43

I want to hear a little bit about that Curtis Cup experience back in 1990. That was a win for the U.S. side. It was contested in New Jersey at Somerset Hills Country Club, and uh we mentioned Miss Getz early. She was uh amongst your teammates, but she also had a couple of older teammates that were great, great amateur players.

Brandie Burton 32:05

Absolutely. I mean, Leslie Shannon was our captain. Um, you know, Carol Semple Thompson. I'm I just played a practice round with her last year at the U.S. Senior Open. Oh, did she? She's amazing. Robin Weiss, uh, she's you know, we still keep in contact. She turned out to be a really good friend, um, as well as Carol and then Ann Sanders, and then we actually had Karen Noble on the team. She played on tour for a little bit.

Bruce Devlin 32:30

Right.

Brandie Burton 32:31

Uh Crystal Parker, I believe, was on our team. So yeah, it was it was a great experience and um now great golf course as well. Anytime you can wear your you know your country's colors, it's that's the best.

Mike Gonzalez 32:46

Yeah. And what's even better is when you go undefeated. Yeah. One all the time.

Brandie Burton 32:52

Yeah, that's uh like I said, it was yeah, that year was a good year for me, amateur-wise.

Mike Gonzalez 32:58

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 33:23

It went smack down the fairway. And it started just like just smack off line. My head is as long as you're still in the stage, okay. It went straight down the middle file away.