Donna Andrews - Part 2 (The 1994 Nabisco Dinah Shore)

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

So let's get you on tour of uh qualifying in 1989, I think joining the LPGA Tour Bruce in 1990.

Bruce Devlin 0:24

Yeah, and uh record stat seven professional wins, including six uh PGA Tour victories. 1993 player of the year, most improved player of the year from golf digest. And uh of course we mentioned her win at the uh Nabisco Dinosaur and uh it was quite a career. Uh it what would not be considered an extremely long career, but that was your choice, correct?

Donna Andrews 0:56

Uh it was, well, it was more God's choice, I think, than it was mine. But um, I didn't listen very well the first time I got hurt. Um, I actually had bad shoulders, which I did not know at the time. Um, took a horsefall and dislocated a shoulder during my career while I was still playing, rehabbed, came back, did it a second time on my other shoulder, rehabbed, came back. And then the third time I decided the good lord was trying to get my attention, I wasn't paying attention very well. He had opened some other doors for me and the commentary and other parts. So I knew when that door opened, I need to walk through it.

Mike Gonzalez 1:36

Well, we're gonna get to that in your decision to sort of hang it up, but before we do, we've got a lot to cover. So um, you know, before we even talk about win number one, because you know, you it took some time, as it does for most, to get your sea legs out on tour, right? I mean, you're learning new towns, where to stay, where to eat, what the golf courses are like, all that kind of stuff. Uh, this might have been pre-GPS in terms of getting around the country, but just tell us about that first year on tour and what that experience would have been like for you.

Donna Andrews 2:07

You are right. It was certainly pre-GPS. Um, I traveled with an atlas. I mean, people don't even know what the atlases are like anymore. There was always an atlas stuck down beside the seat in my car. And I drove most places. Um, I didn't mind being in the car. So um being a rookie on tour, you're trying to cut expenses. So I stayed with a lot of families um when I went to events. They a lot of host families, private housing. Um, I can remember, you know, driving halfway through the night because I was having to qualify for some events. So I remember um finishing up in Nashville. I had made the cut and still had to show up Monday morning to Monday qualify in Virginia. And being my hometown, I certainly wanted to do that. So I headed out of Nashville as soon as I was done, um, drove all night to Lynchburg, Virginia. My dad got in the car with me. He drove me the last four hours to the tournament in Virginia where I could sleep before we got there. Uh showed up at 7 o'clock the next morning and got out of the car, took off course I'd never seen, and ended up qualifying for my first tournament there at Sleepy Hole in Virginia. And I remember at the qualify and looking at him, like we hit driver off one T, I was up, and then I noticed the other girls hit like irons or three woods off the T. And I'm like, there must be something down there we should have known about. And luckily we got down there, and I'm in the middle of this 15-yard wide fairway with a big old lake over to the side. And I was like, okay, sometimes it's better off not to know what's there. But um, I remember getting done that day, and after we qualified, I'm like, okay, can I just go to bed? It just needs some sleep. Um, but that's I mean, that's what you did back then. I mean, you pretty much you traveled out of your car. I I started with a little conversion van that I would just pack all my stuff in and head out on the road.

Bruce Devlin 4:09

Yeah. People have no idea what it was like.

Mike Gonzalez 4:14

Yeah. Large enough van for all your equipment, all your sticks, all your baggage for how many ever weeks you're out on the road. But you were able to stay with families. I assume that you're probably still in touch with some of those folks you stayed with over those years.

Donna Andrews 4:26

I do. I have friends all across the United States, families that I stayed with, um, some of them dear, dear friends. Now I've met grandkids from the kids of the families that I've stayed with. And um, it's just it's great to have such a large family across the United States, and I still consider them all family. Uh, one of my fondest memories is a course that we played in Springfield, Illinois, and I would stay with Mike and Nancy Smith and all their kids, and their son, Michael, was a little five-year-old redhead the first year I played, and there was a picture of us sitting on the steps with all the kids. They had five kids, and they still made room for me in their house. And I had little Michael sitting on my lap. And then the last year I played, Michael was a senior in high school and was six foot two. And I said, Okay, now I get to sit on your lap.

Bruce Devlin 5:17

That's a great story.

Donna Andrews 5:18

But I still still stay in, stay in touch with that family. Um, you know, they're their children are the same age as me, so it's been fun to keep up and follow them and follow what their grandkids and stuff are doing.

Mike Gonzalez 5:30

Yeah. And of course, even back then, young Michael would have known that there is no jail at the rail.

Donna Andrews 5:37

There is no jail at the rail. There is now. I actually went back and saw the golf course. Um, gosh, 25 years after we played there, and they actually had put in trees, and the trees have grown. So at that point in time, there wasn't. It was L Laura Davies' favorite golf course because she could just hit it everywhere.

Mike Gonzalez 5:54

I I live 30 miles away in a little town just west of there and never played the golf course.

Donna Andrews 6:00

Oh my goodness. It's a golf course worth playing. We loved it.

Mike Gonzalez 6:03

So we've talked about it a lot. We really have, yeah. So uh talk to us about how your game developed from when you came on tour to finding that first win. I'm sure it evolved, it continued to grow and develop your short game, I'm sure it got a lot sharper. But uh it takes a while to learn how to win, doesn't it?

Donna Andrews 6:22

Uh it certainly does. I think everybody, you have to put yourself in that position. That's what we always tell people. You've got to put yourself in that position to be able to win and feel that kind of pressure. I think the first pressure you talk about the the rail, um, the first pressure I really felt was um playing at the rail. You in order to qualify for the dinosaur, you had to have a top three finish. There wasn't, you know, it wasn't done off money list. It was if you haven't finished top three in a tournament, you don't get into the Nabisco Dinoshore. So I remember playing there at the rail, and that was my first top three finish. Um, and all I could think about when I finished third was all right, now I get to go to Palm Springs and play in the dinosaur.

Mike Gonzalez 7:09

So it took you three years to win. Bruce, I don't remember how long it took you to break through, but it's not easy.

Bruce Devlin 7:15

No, it's not easy. Uh well, I first came over and oh darn I listened to this. 62. I bet I was fortunate enough to win in early 64. So uh a couple of years. Yeah. I just uh like you said, it takes time. You gotta learn. Um Mike brought up a good point too, talking about new golf courses, where to stay, what to eat, the restaurants, uh, you know, it's just uh it's an always learning deal, isn't it, for the first couple of years, really.

Donna Andrews 7:54

Well, and I think it was very different for us than it is for the players of today. I mean, we did all our own travel arrangements, we booked all our hotels. I mean, they used to send out fact sheets to us that had the, you know, what airport you flew into, what rental cars to use, what hotels to stay in. I mean, that was all done by the player back then. We didn't have a manager that was doing all of that kind of stuff for us. So you had to plan, plan your schedule. I always planned my schedule based on where I was going to drive, what I was gonna do. And I think, you know, my first probably two years on tour was, you know, just trying to make sure you knew you could fit in and make enough money to put food on the table. Um, I was fortunate. My rookie year, I had a great year for a rookie that only played in 18 events, but finished 75th, finished 65th the next year, and then really started to play well, finished 13th, 9th, and 3rd, I think, on the money list. So I continued to just increase my game and play better and better the more comfortable I got with it. I think part of that is getting to know the golf courses, but also, you know, finding a caddy that you're comfortable with, somebody who knows you knows what you need uh from a player standpoint. Um, I think that's probably one of the most important relationships you have on the golf course is having that caddy that's there, knowing when to speak to you, when not to speak to you, what they should say, what they shouldn't say, all that stuff's really important.

Bruce Devlin 9:23

Take us through the uh uh that first victory that you had at the uh Sarlian One Pink Tournament in uh Portland, Oregon. Uh do do a little recap of uh you played very consistently there. You shot 69, 69, 70. Take us take us through the those three days of of what your mind was doing as you knew you were getting close to winning a tournament.

Donna Andrews 9:50

Um, you know, I don't think I played the first couple days th knowing that I was going to be in a position to win. Um we always said that the uh golf course there um in Portland had probably the toughest finishing holes of any golf course we've ever played. Uh the last four holes of that golf course really make or break the tournament. So every day you'd get there, you'd go, okay, if I can just make four pars, I'm good. You know, you try to make your birdies before you got there and then just try to hang on to whatever you had. And so coming down the stretch, I was not in the lead groups. Um, I was uh three or four groups back, came in, posted a score, and then got to sit in the clubhouse. So that's what I call the come from behind when. I remember the putt I had on 18 uh was a big swinging putt, and I thought, oh, just get it down in two, get to the clubhouse, then see what happens. And sure enough, those last four holes, the pressure was on, uh, got to some of those other players much more so than it got to me.

Mike Gonzalez 10:52

Yeah. Yeah, I would have thought the way you've described this, and just looking at the progression of scores with you not being in some of the final groups, that perhaps you had weather that day.

Donna Andrews 11:01

Um, no, I don't remember there. I remember it being a beautiful sunny day. And um yeah, I just um I was I think I was three groups back. So I got in before the pressure got on me.

Mike Gonzalez 11:13

Now we're talking for our listeners, we're talking about the 1993 Ping Cellular One LPGA Golf Championship. That's a mouthful, uh, contested at uh Columbia Edgewater Country Club in Portland. Of course, we've talked about uh this tournament, certainly this venue quite a bit. Um it was a one-stroke victory over Tina Barrett and Missy McGeorge, who, by the way, won the following year that event. Um must have been a good field because over the years, 13 World Golf Hall of Fame members have won this event.

Donna Andrews 11:46

Uh it was a great golf tournament. Um I stayed with the Damises. I stayed with a wonderful host family there, uh, Carol and Jim Davis, who weren't golfers. Um, and um we laugh because they lived in a very old home that they had redone, but it still had the old, old windows in it that tended to stick with the paint. You had to, and I had gone to close the window before I left to go to the golf tournament and shattered their window. And that's the one thing. And I was like, I came downstairs and I'm like, I am so sorry. I broke your window trying to get it closed because once it came loose, it slammed shut. And then every year they used to joke about okay, well, you gotta break a window every year to win a golf tournament. But I think that took some of the edge off. I was much much more worried about that than I was about the golf tournament at the time. So I think that probably took a little bit of the edge off and uh gave me something different to worry about. But one thing I do remember, um, I used to love watching the fighter jets fly in and out of the airports right there by Columbia Edgewater. And I used to sit there watching the fighter jets and stuff. And my caddy eventually started to laugh because the other place that I won twice was in Tucson, Arizona, and used to love Mirmars there. Yeah and um, so I used to watch all the fighter jets fly around. He goes, Okay, so I just have to get fighter jets to fly around for you to win golf trick. Turns out my son has a love. My son has just gotten his private pilot's license working towards his commercial license. So I think my son ended up with my love of airplanes that I had.

Mike Gonzalez 13:24

Yeah, terrific. So so uh what changed after that first victory, mentally or otherwise?

Donna Andrews 13:31

I think it was more just knowing I belonged. Um, I had always suspected that I belonged, um, but knew I had to work hard to get what I wanted. Um, I'll never forget my um, I think it was my rookie year. It may have been my second year on tour, playing in Tucson, Arizona, paired with Pat Bradley. And I think I was shooting, I felt like I was shooting a million. I think I ended up shooting 77, but she was probably shooting 67. And the whole way around the golf course, I was like, good shot, Pat, good shot, Pat, good shot, Pat. And she didn't say like five words to me. And I was like, oh my gosh, I've just got to stay out of her way. I don't belong out here. You know, I just felt like I was always in the way. And we got to the locker room that day, and we're walking around the locker room, and she came over and she put her arm around me and goes, Pro, I just had such a great time playing golf with you today. And I went, You did? You know, and she was like, she's like, You were a delight to play golf with. And I did. I looked at her and I said, You didn't say five words to me all day. She goes, Oh, that's just the way I am on the golf course. And that was when she was still trying to get her last win for the Hall of Fame. So she was pretty focused and everything. And I was like, Oh, I thought I was bothering you. And she's like, No, no, not at all. Some of us have, you know, the game face. Like, I always got in trouble because Dottie Mockery and I, she was Dottie Pepper, she started out as Mockery. She and I both traveled with our dogs, and so we were always out walking dogs and talking about dogs and stuff like that, and playing a golf tournament in Florida. We had a ton of rain delays, and she and I were just chit, well, when are we gonna go walk the dogs and all of that? And some bystander came up, one of the fans out there, and said, You're gonna ruin Dottie's reputation. And I said, Why? And they're like, Well, because she talks to you. She doesn't talk to me anybody. And I said, I said, that's just my personality. Um, and that's what I finally learned, I think, after my win is everybody has their own personality on the golf course. And trying to be somebody that you're not, I mean, I wasn't a Pat Bradley, I wasn't a Dottie. Um, I needed to talk and have fun when I was on the golf course because I played better golf that way. So I had to have a caddy that I could talk to that could bring that out in me, uh, rather than feeling like I needed to concentrate for five hours while I was out that. And I think that first win really set that stage for me to go, okay, you do belong out here. And to finish up the Pat Bradley story, I played with her several years later after she made it in the Hall of Fame, and she wouldn't shut up. It was and I'm like, Pat, what changed? And she goes, I got my last win for the Hall of Fame, so now I can have fun playing golf. Um, and she's become a dear, dear friend. Uh, love Pat. Um, and that's the great thing about golf, is you meet so many wonderful people, and they're still a part of our lives today.

Bruce Devlin 16:27

And you did something that not a lot of people have been able to do. We talk about after you win a win the first time, how do you uh how do you come back and win again? It only took you six months to get another victory, which is quite unusual.

Donna Andrews 16:46

I had got I would just say I got several early on um in '94. So um I started out with a win in um Tucson um and uh won the Tucson tournament. Interesting, both Tucson and Portland were both ping-sponsored events at that time. Yeah. And I happened to be a ping player. Um, 25 years of being a ping player, um, and was very fortunate to know Karsten and Louise Solheim and their sons, John and Alan. Um so dear, dear family, uh great to the game of golf, um, really so supportive of the women's golf and everything we did. So I used to love going out there to Arizona because we go out and go to the ping plant and get to be fitted for clubs and everything. So um I won early uh in '94 there at the ping tournament, and then two weeks later uh went to Dinosaur and was able to claim a victory there.

Mike Gonzalez 17:46

So you and Bruce both have gold-plated ping putters in your uh closets, I guess.

Donna Andrews 17:52

Several of them.

Bruce Devlin 17:56

Bruce, you've got a few of those, don't you? I do, yes. I uh I was fortunate enough to get five of them. And it's a very interesting story, too, because it was probably 38 years after I had won my last tournament using a ping putter that I got a call from John. Or actually, first of all, a call from John's um helper and said, Mr. Devlin, uh we've been looking through the records and I need to ask you a question. Well, did you use pings in this and that and this you know went through the whole thing and I said, Yes, I did. He said, Well, then um uh John wants to talk to you and he got on the phone and told me that they were gonna make me five gold putters, which was pretty special. Quite a quite a family.

Donna Andrews 18:53

That's very cool.

Bruce Devlin 18:54

Yeah.

Donna Andrews 18:55

Very, very cool. They um they made putters for us for our wins. They actually made putters for us during Solheim Cup. Um we each got a gold putter engraved with which whichever model we were playing with that has the Solheim Cup logo on it.

Bruce Devlin 19:10

That's it.

Donna Andrews 19:11

And then when you crossed the million dollar mark, they gave you a necklace that was a putter head, uh, that was a gold putter head that said a million dollars on it. So they had lots of great things that they did for us.

Mike Gonzalez 19:23

Classy P. Well, as you said, the family has done a lot of wonderful things for women's golf, including uh helping establish the Solheim Cup, which we'll talk about. Uh this win number two, which was validation win, uh, as Bruce said, came in March of 1994. It was the Ping Welches Championship in Tucson at the Randolph Golf Course, which we've talked about, the North Course. This was by three over Brandy Burton and Judy Dickinson.

Donna Andrews 19:50

Uh, it was um a great win for me. It was my first win really in windy conditions. Um, I remember playing and the wind just howling and blowing, um, and thinking, okay, I know how to do this now. Um, I did not know how to play in the wind when I first went on tour. Um, my rookie year, we went to Hawaii, and um I shot, I think like 68 maybe my first round, and was at the top of the leaderboard and um in Hawaii, Coalina. And then actually this was on Maui, and then um that day the wind started blowing, and I had an afternoon tea time the next day, and I showed up and I mean 34 mile an hour winds, and I went, I have no idea. I mean, I hit balls up in the wind and they went wherever the wind wanted to take them. And I went, oh my goodness, and I'll never forget, played with a player by the name of Jenny Ledback, and she had her three or four iron out hitting these little low stingers that would land short of the green and run up. And I'm like, How can you do that? I need to learn how to do that. And I had no clue how to do that. And I remember I think I shot 80, and I was like, Well, I guess now I get to enjoy the Beach Boys concert that night because I figured I was gonna miss the cut. Um, I ended up making the cut, but um, I just remember I I called my coach back home. I said, Jack, you have got to teach me how to hit a low golf ball in the wind. Um, and so we went back and spent time working on that. Um, we'd work on that every year before we went to Hawaii, and that would always pay off. It paid off in Tucson and it paid off again at the Dinosaur.

Mike Gonzalez 21:32

Well, good. Uh and you talk about Jenny Lidbeck. We've had her on the program. Of course, she got her major in 95 at the DeMaurier, so she must have had that low ball fight going at uh at Beaconsville uh Beaconsfield golf club up there. But anyway, uh you get uh you get win number two, you get validation. I'm sure it really helps uh with confidence because now in two weeks you're going to another major. Did you play the following week after that second win?

Donna Andrews 22:00

I did. I played uh we always went to San Phoenix and then Palm Springs. So I would play and I would drive over to Palm Springs, and I always enjoyed the drive into the desert, coming over the mountains, seeing all the windmills. Um it was a drive I made every year, um, and always enjoyed getting to the desert, one of my favorite spots.

Mike Gonzalez 22:21

We've we've had so much fun over the course of the interviews we've done, Bruce and I, with uh with the ladies talking about this tournament. And I don't care who the sponsor was, we always call it the Dinosaur out of respect. But this was your masters.

Donna Andrews 22:38

Absolutely. Still is today.

Bruce Devlin 22:43

Even though it's moved.

Donna Andrews 22:46

Even though it's moved, they still do a champions dinner and stuff like the Masters. Um they bring us all back. Um, they always brought us back to Palm Springs. Now they bring us back to Texas. Um, so my daughter and I get to go enjoy Astros games and go back and see all the past champions and go to the champions' dinner, even though it's in Texas.

Mike Gonzalez 23:07

And they're still trying to do it upright, aren't they? Yeah.

Donna Andrews 23:10

Oh, they still Chevron has really been, they've stepped up, they've done such a wonderful job and been such a great supporter of the LPGA, and they take such good care of us past champions. But there's so many fond memories from Nabisco when it was the Nabisco dinosaur when I played. It'll always be the Nabisco Dinosaur to me. But I remember the hospitality tent. You would go in the hospitality tent, and there was always a diner on one end. You could get, you know, cheeseburgers and milkshakes. There was food. Uh, the food was always wonderful, the snacks were always wonderful. Um, Harpo the plant clown always came out there for entertainment. And probably one of my fondest memories was sitting, and I still have a picture today, um, sitting outside, they had um a husband and wife that brought their chimpanzee. And I sat there eating ice cream and sharing my ice cream with the chimpanzee chimp that was there with me. And it was one of my fondest memories of being at the dinosaur.

Mike Gonzalez 24:10

Oh, you know, this is way before uh social media, so there's no videos, probably, are there?

Donna Andrews 24:16

There probably is somewhere. Um, probably somewhere because that was I've always been an animal lover. That's uh every year when we'd go to Palm Springs, I'd go to the desert um to their little um zoo that they have out in the in the desert there, and just loved going there. Took my kids there every year that we've been there.

Mike Gonzalez 24:35

Yeah. Well, of course, for our listeners, we're talking about uh Donna's first major, which uh came at the 1994 Nabisco Dinosaur at Mission Hills Country Club. This was a victory by one over Laura Davies, uh Dame Laura Davies. And uh but before we get to your win, there's a lot of great history around this event, right? I mean, really dating back to the days when uh when when David Foster and Colgate Palm Olive got involved in sponsoring uh the LPJ tour. Uh really that was the time when we started to get some real money on tour. You know, back uh in the 60s, I think the the women collectively across all the tournaments in the 60s, I'm not sure there was a year when all the purses added up to even a million dollars. Um that started to change uh with the Bisco with uh Colgate Palm Olives involvement. Um total purse in 1970 before they got involved. That's for the whole year. Wow. In nineteen seventy. Uh jumped to nineteen eighty, and now the prize money nineteen eighty is five point one million dollars. So over five uh over ten times more. And of course, that was going to grow exponentially over the years. But uh uh David Foster, chairman of uh Colgate Palm Olive, quite involved. Um and uh one of the things they did was get involved with Dinoshore and uh had the first uh Dinoshore in 1972. It was the Colgate Dinoshore winner's circle, uh won by Jane Blaylock, and uh off they went.

Donna Andrews 26:14

Yes, um, you know, Jane, another player that has just done so much for women's golf and really was instrumental in starting a senior tour for those of us that have gotten older. Um, but um I can remember um Dinah, they I mean Dinah used to sing. Um, you would see her doing the entertainment uh the week they were out there. There were always parties and stuff. Uh Dinah and Bob Hope would both do entertainment for the tournament. And um my fondest memories prior to winning um were always seeing she and Amy Alcott holding hands running into the lake. Um that was my biggest memory uh prior to winning was remembering the pictures of she and Dina jumping in the water.

Mike Gonzalez 26:59

Yeah, of course, we've talked to Amy, we've had a lot of stories about Amy. She was the first, of course, to start that tradition of jumping into Poppy's pond. And that's continued uh uh almost to this day, hasn't it?

Donna Andrews 27:12

Well, I was actually given credit for restarting that tradition, I'm told. Um the the two players previous to me did not jump in the water. One was a playoff that ended on nine um with Dottie, and then Helen Alfredson, I guess, didn't jump in the pond. So I was the forced to win. Dinah had passed away in the fall prior to the year that I won. And um when I walked across 18, um, there had been a gentleman um by the name of Jim Weaver from Nabisco that I had played with in the pro-am, and he kept saying, I'm gonna come jump in the water after you win. And this was in the pro-am prior to uh even knowing that I might win a golf tournament. I'm gonna meet you by the bridge, we're gonna jump in the water, and I'm like, Yeah, yeah, whatever. And so a Sunday comes and I win and the grandstand, that walk by 18 and walking by that grandstand with everybody cheering and high-fiving you, there's not another walk in on the tour that's like that one. That's one that the girls remember uh every every year. That's one that you just look forward to. And so after making that walk and making the putt to win, um, the grandstand was yelling, jump in the water, jump in the water. So I took off my shoes and jumped in the water. And nobody told me that you weren't supposed to wear a white shirt on Sunday. So now they meet them with those pretty white robes. Um, because I jumped in with a white shirt on on Sunday. Oops.

Mike Gonzalez 28:44

Well, um, it wasn't quite as sanitary back then as it as it was toward the end, was it?

Donna Andrews 28:50

Uh it was not. It was pretty um gross at the bottom. Um there were coots that lived there, which are little black birds that pooped everywhere. And the edge of the pond wasn't very deep. So I actually jumped first and then dove. And then as I came back to walk back out, one of my socks got like sucked off my foot. And I'll never forget because a fan went in after it and showed up later and asked me to autograph it.

Bruce Devlin 29:18

And I was like, that was an all the bird poop.

Donna Andrews 29:23

But what fans will do.

Mike Gonzalez 29:26

Yeah, well, you mentioned Dina had passed just before uh this this victory you had in 1994. Of course, she was uh then elected as an honorary member of the LPGA Hall of Fame, quite fitting that she was. Let's talk about the week. You were playing obviously well because you won two weeks before. So coming into you show up at Mission Hills, you're feeling pretty good about your game, I assume.

Donna Andrews 29:47

Uh I was. I was striking the ball well, and more importantly, I felt like I was putting well. So showed up there with lots of confidence, um, had three great rounds, uh, ended up paired with uh Laura Davies and my best friend on tour, Michelle McGann, for the final round. So that made it a lot more comfortable um to be playing with, you know, a dear friend. Um unfortunately made a few mistakes um coming down the stretch. Um two very memorable ones on the par three. My caddy and I were debating which club to hit. I guess it's hold 13. Um, and we decided the pin was on the back tier, and it was like, oh, the only place you don't want to be is over the green. That's the only dead spot. So let's pick the club, the shorter club. It'll go into the bank and it'll all be good. If it gets to the top tier, great. And um picked the club um and decided that we were gonna hit the six iron, and I hit the shot and it sailed over the green. And I was like, oh man, I can't believe I was that pumped up. I hit it that far. And I went walking back to the bag, and the caddy goes, Man, I thought that was the right club. And as I'm handing it to the caddy, I realized I had pulled the five iron out of the wreck rather than the six. And I was like, I I play pin clubs, it's written right on the face of the club. How did you not see that you had the wrong club? It's written right there. And I was like, Oh my gosh. But we talk about having worked on my short game with Jack Lumpkin. We had just been working on a little flop shot to land it soft. I always remember the analogy, like a butterfly with sore feet. Um, well, none of us will ever forget that one. And I'm like, okay, I've got to have that shot. Um, and so sure enough, walked back, executed it beautifully, got it up and down to safe par. And that was for me really the turning point. Um, got kept me in it. Um, was tied with Laura going to 17. Um, and unfortunately had a bad T shot short and right on 17 and made bogey on 17. And thought, oh my gosh, I just gave the tournament away to Laura. Um, she's a long hitter. She had been able to hit the green and two uh most days on 18 par five that I've never reached in my life, never can even dream about reaching. And we stepped up on the 18th T-Box and the wind was blowing in our face. And she was uh she pulled out her two iron and I thought, oh my goodness, she's not going for it. She's playing safe. Well, she blew her two iron right in the trees, and I'm like, okay, I've played the whole five wood, five wood every day. It had been five wood, five wood wedge every other day. Um, and even though it was it with into the wind, I was like, okay, stick with your game plan. So I hit five wood, five wood. Unfortunately, that laid me six iron into the green. Um, but she punched out through the fairway and was sort of on the side of a bunker. She wasn't in the bunker, but she was in the grass on the bank of a bunker and hit her shot way left on the green. I figured it probably had about a 90-foot putt across the green. And I remember looking at the shot into the green, and my caddy goes, Well, you're going at the pin, you're going at the middle of the green. And I said, It's the only chance we've got to get it at the pin, just right of the pin, so we have an uphill putt. And um, I said, I've been working on this knockdown shot with my coach. I said, I just got to execute knockdown six iron, it'll be perfect. And after I hit it, he goes like that, and I said, Yeah, just like that. And it landed and rolled up. It was probably, I guess, 10 to 12 feet from the hole. Um, and um, I remember Laura putted and was still outside of me. She putted again, so I knew I had the putt to win the tournament. And my caddy looked at me and said, you know, we were reading the putt. He's like, How hard are you gonna hit it? And I said, It won't be short to win my first major. And sure enough, it wasn't until I saw the replay I was like, ooh, I wouldn't have liked that pot.

Bruce Devlin 33:56

We need a little quick.

Donna Andrews 33:58

It was solid in the back of the cup, yeah. It was solid in the back of the cup. And it wasn't, I got goosebumps when I saw the replay later going, that was a little hard, but it went in. I jumped in the water, and the rest is history.

Mike Gonzalez 34:11

Yeah, yeah, that's that's great. Now, one thing you did, you kind of blew by your Saturday round because you shot a smooth little 67 on Saturday that featured a pretty good stretch of golf on the front.

Donna Andrews 34:22

Um, yeah, I think it made five birdies in a row, maybe. I don't remember exactly, but um yeah, um, you know, there's some difficult holes there, um, starting with six, um, and made a good birdie on six, um, followed by even better birdie on seven. And then I, you know, eight's a par three. Um, and it was a pen that everything sort of just fed down to. So there were lots of birdies being made there. Nine was a par five that you could get just short of the green and two. And then uh ten, I just made I made a great putt from the fringe on ten that day.

Mike Gonzalez 34:58

Yeah, smooth little 31 on the front on Saturday. That got you going. So that gave you a one-shot lead going into uh uh into the Sunday round, playing with uh uh with, as you said, Michelle and and playing with uh Laura Davies. You know, we interviewed Laura and I'm sure we asked her at one point uh uh if if you had a mulligan, where would you take it? I can't remember if she would have told us it was that two iron or not, Bruce.

Bruce Devlin 35:27

That would be a good choice, though, wouldn't it?

Mike Gonzalez 35:31

Maybe she'd wish she'd played a little bit more aggressively on 18. That had to surprise you a little bit.

Donna Andrews 35:36

I was very surprised. Um, and maybe into the wind, maybe she couldn't get it there in two. I don't know. But um it was interesting when she came to do the interview at Pine Needles for the women's senior open. Uh we were doing a press interview there. And the one question one of the girls had said, What was the one that got away that you really that you really felt like you know you let get away? And she said it was the dinosaur. And I said, I had no idea.

Mike Gonzalez 36:05

Yeah, I'm pretty sure we talked about this in length. So so you know, you you look at the record books now and and and the wins uh those last three weeks then went Andrews, Davies, Andrews for the win at the uh at the dinosaur. So she was playing well coming in as well. Um what changed after that first major for you?

Donna Andrews 36:27

Um I don't really know that anything changed. I I think I changed my schedule a little bit because I really I had taken time off before going to Arizona um and had learned up until that point I would like play four weeks and take one week off. And I found that that year I actually started out and I went to Hawaii and played, and then went back home and took two weeks off before I went out to Arizona to play. And really felt like after doing that, it gave me a week to sort of take off and get my mind off of golf, and then a week to get my game ready. Um, I remember working with Dr. Coop and he says, you have to find something outside of golf. And he said, You like fishing, you like horses, pick one and do it and do it well. And unfortunately, I picked horses, which was a very expensive hobby, um, and what led to my first shoulder injury. So I probably should have taken up fishing instead, but I still love them both.

Mike Gonzalez 37:26

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, it's along everybody.

Outro Music 37:51

It went smack down the fairway.