Karen Stupples - Part 3 (Solheim Cup and Broadcasting)

Lee Trevino 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle.

Mike Gonzalez 0:13

Then it started to look back on this now, winning a major uh your second win two thousand four. Looking back, uh uh did you find that you needed to set some new goals for yourself at that point?

Karen Stupples 0:30

I don't think I really knew what I was doing with it. I kind of I kind of wanted just to keep it where I was, you know, stay, stay with what I'm doing, don't make too many changes, what I'm doing is working, you know, just try and keep working on it, keep working on it, keep working on it, in the same way that I had been doing it. Um I felt it the initial aftermath of the win was very overwhelming. Uh lots of media, lots of people interested. Bear in mind I had I didn't have an agent, I didn't have anybody helping me with anything. Everything was coming straight to me. Um so it was completely above my pay grade, in all honesty. And it kind of hit me for six. I I I was very lucky that I was able to go back to to golf straight away. I went to Toledo the following week, came second. So I was able to continue that that form into the following week. But the golf course really was my sanctuary, and you know, I was able to lose myself in my golf. But I probably could have been better with goal setting, but for me it was always a bit surreal with with goals because it was never about winning, it was it wasn't about the tournaments, it was about my own self-improvement, and for that one week I had been pretty perfect, and um and I'm not sure that I knew how to how to do more than that or or even if there was anything more than that.

Mike Gonzalez 2:00

I know, and and Bruce, uh you'll remember talking a lot of these greats that we've we've talked to. Um when you win, you just assume you're gonna keep winning. Yeah.

Karen Stupples 2:12

Oh yeah. Yep. You don't think it's gonna change because it happens so easily. You're absolutely right. I certainly did.

Mike Gonzalez 2:21

But it's back to our point we made earlier. It's hard to win. And so uh you know, time marches on, you kind of we'll we'll help have you kind of help us bridge the gap from 2004 to uh what would be your next victory at the Wales Ladies' Championship. But uh um it still didn't come easy, right? I mean you were I'm sure working hard and you had learned a lot about yourself and your game, but it was still very, very hard to break into the winner's circle. Uh I'm sure you had some good high finishes, probably made some decent money, uh, but just didn't quite uh get it over the line, did you?

Karen Stupples 2:56

No, and and I had my chances too. I mean, I was in the final group of the US Women's Open at Cherry Hills the following year in 2005. Um I've had you know a number of other opportunities. I played well. Like I said, I just lacked some consistency uh with putting scores and putting as much as anything else. Like if I could have putted a bit better, I would have absolutely have had more victories or been more consistent with my putting and not so streaky. But again, a lot that comes down to self-belief. And you know, if you stop winning and you're not winning as much, and you you you're on a search to find that little something something that you had, it becomes the harder you try to find it, the farther away it gets from you. And so it becomes a bit of a battle. And then in 2007, I was blessed. Um, like I had had my son Logan in 2007, and so I became a mother. And honestly, he's probably the best thing that I've ever did, ever done, regardless of major victories or anything like that. Raising raising him to become become a man that he will be is you know probably the most important thing that I could do. Um, but it also was hard because I still was playing golf, I was still the the the primary breadwinner of the family. What I was making, what I was earning, was paying for him, my husband, for for us to to live our lives. And that was extra pressure, and then it slowly but surely started to become about the the money. Um and then in 2009, obviously I want to play on the Solheim Cup again, and I've been playing pretty good, and uh but I got pot passed over for that 2009 Solheim Cup team, so I was a bit mad, and I think I was more mad than anything, and and it enabled me to let loose of the trying and just have anger and play with and play with a bit of anger, and I ended up winning in Wales.

Mike Gonzalez 4:55

Yeah, give our listeners a sense for what your postseason uh routine was. I would assume that uh you finish every year, there's sort of an assessment period you go through looking back on okay, what what goals did I accomplish? What didn't I get done? How's my health? Uh what about other life priorities, state of my game. We got new competitors coming on the scene every year. It's not getting any easier. Take us a little bit through that process you go through between seasons.

Karen Stupples 5:28

Well, I think for the most part there's a relief that that the season's finished. Uh that you finally get a little bit of downtime, that you can, you know, catch your breath a little bit, go and see family, um, spend Christmas with them. And, you know, that's nice. You know, you get to have a bit of real life because playing tournament golf is not real life. It's not the real world. It's a a circus. And so you get to live in the real world for a bit, and that's nice. But then you have to start back up again. And anybody who's played professional sport or played a musical instrument professionally or to a high level knows that the the longer you have off, the more time it takes you to get back. So for me, if I had a week off, it was going to take me a week to get back to where I was. And then if and then if you want to make improvements, obviously that's time on top of that. So if you take two weeks off, it's gonna take two weeks to get back to where I was, and then you have to start adding on time onto that. So the off season for me was always a mental battle between needing that time and allowing myself that time to not feel guilty about it and to not be stressed about the fact that I was gonna have to play catch-up when I came back. And you know, rest and recuperation is part of the performance pie. You know, you you need that, it's pretty important. But um the guilt that goes along with it is was hard for me, and um so I would typically try not to rest as much as I should have. And so you you you inevitably burn out quicker than you want to, and you inevitably need a break from it quicker than you need than you should have. So you know, in the offseason you you you do, you reassess, you take you take stock of what you did well, what you didn't do well. And in those days, the statistics weren't as good as they are now. So you kind of had to have a bit of a gut feel for it, trust your coach, and start planning for for the following year. And and for me, it was all about what tournaments am I going to play in, trying to peek, peak at the right time, you know, am I gonna play my best golf in the majors? Solime cups, you know, the big tournaments, the one with the big purses. That's really what was mattering.

Mike Gonzalez 7:41

Yeah.

Karen Stupples 7:41

So working on that.

Mike Gonzalez 7:43

I I saw Bruce smiling when you were start starting to talk about taking time off and the impact of time off. He probably remembers what Ben Hogan told him once. Oh dear.

Bruce Devlin 7:55

Yeah, Mr. Hogan, I said to him one day, uh uh I guess it was we were playing a practice round together, or maybe in the golf tour. I said, So Ben and I didn't call him Ben very often, but said how how many how many days a year do you take off? And he looked at me like I'd handed him a snake. He said, Take a day off. He said, You take a day off, it takes you two days to get back to where you were. So you were you were twice as quick at getting back to your game as what Hogan was. He said the day off is two two days to get back to where you were. Interesting.

Karen Stupples 8:38

Wow. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 8:41

Well, so uh as you as you approach 2014, I guess when you decide to sort of uh wind down the full-time play, uh just just bridge that gap from that that that victory in 2009 and and what life was like on the tour, with you had personal life going on, you got a a young son you're you're raising and so forth. Uh uh just uh the thought process leading up to finally saying, okay, uh enough, time to turn the page and do something different.

Karen Stupples 9:10

So it was probably I'd obviously had the victory in 2009, I played Solomon Cup in 2011, and and it was getting to the point where you've got young talent coming in all the time, um, trying to raise a child who's about to start school, um and and for to not be traveling with me. I mean, it don't get me wrong, Logan's tremendous, but he was a hard, hard baby. Like I rear I didn't get an awful lot of sleep. Um he was, you know, just busy. I mean, boys are busy, he was particularly busy, and so it was hard, and making money was hard because I had not an awful lot of sleep, and it got to the point where he was gonna go to school, he wasn't gonna travel with me, but I was still playing golf when I still had to practice and be outside of the home. So I wasn't seeing him very much, and it was really kind of heart-wrenching for me to not see him. Um at the time I thought I'm gonna throw everything I possibly can at golf. You know, if I'm gonna be away, if I'm gonna do this, I want to you know have one final hurrah that I can be, you know, throw everything I can at it. So I lost weight, I got extra fit, um, I worked, I basically worked my ass off, you know, to be good. And I did everything the right way. I mean, I did everything that I was supposed to do, but the results weren't coming on the golf course. You know, nothing I was, you know, the pressure of having to make money was getting to be more than my enjoyment of hitting quality golf shots.

SPEAKER_04 10:50

Yeah.

Karen Stupples 10:51

And I started to worry about making bills. I started to, you know, because after I had Logan, I lost, you know, in those days, sponsors didn't stay around. You know, I lost over a hundred thousand dollars in savings just because of having a baby. And so it kind of sets you back a little bit in terms of your finances. And so I was under the gun to really, really try and make up the money to to keep you know everything fluid for our family. And it just got to be a little too much. Um, so I had my first foray into commentary, started in 2007, straight after Logan was born. Actually, I did some Radio 5 live work at the Open Championship at Carnusti. Loved it, thought it was fabulous. I thought, quite if this is something that I could do potentially when I retire, this this might be a good good gig for me. So every once in a while I would do some work for the BBC, uh, some Ryder Cup stuff, some open stuff. Um, every once in a while do a little bit of TV, but not a huge amount. And it got to the point where I thought, yeah, I really, really want to do this, but obviously living in America, working for the BBC isn't really the the opportunity and the money-making chance that it should that it that it should be. So I'm like, how do I how do I turn what I think I'm fairly good at into something that I can do long-term in America? And obviously, golf channel was broadcasting LPG Tour Golf, and I thought, well, maybe maybe that's something I can do. Maybe there's a little open spot there for somebody to to go in and do a few weeks or do a few little bit of work and see where that turns out. So I spoke to Beth Hudder, who was the producer at the time back in 2013, and I said, you know, any chance I could tag along, you know, with your own courses and see how it goes and you know, see if this is something I can do. And she says, Absolutely, of course. So off I go, tag along, quickly realized that that I could do that. So every opportunity I got, I would hang around in the trucks, I would tag along, I would follow what people were doing, I was learning all the time. And then in the summer of 2013 in Toledo, I'd miss the cut, and I thought, another missed cut. This is getting to the point of uh of being impossible for me. Really starting to hate being on the golf course, just really the the disappointments were getting too much for me every week. So uh I talked to Beth, I said, Hey, can I tag along again this week? And she said, funnily enough, we could do with a third-on course. Do you fancy putting on a pack and giving it a go? And I said, sure. And I'm thinking, crikey, here we go. This is this is it. And uh little did I know that that was really an audition for me to see if I could. And sure enough, here I am. That's really how I how I got into it in the summer of 2013, and and then I started doing more in 14. But I still I played a little bit in 14 too, but it has grown since then.

Mike Gonzalez 13:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, we want to come back and cover some of the uh uh the work you've done as a broadcaster uh the last several years. Before that, let's just let's just double back a little bit in time and make sure we cover off the team play because uh in addition to your amateur play uh on the on the Curtis Cup and the Bagliano Trophy, you had an opportunity to represent England at the World Cup. Also, we've talked about the Solheim Cup. We want to talk about your appearances there. So let's start with the World Cup because you had a chance uh at least in 2005 to uh go to South Africa with Laura Davies and play for England.

unknown 14:25

Yep.

Karen Stupples 14:26

I did. You know, obviously getting a chance to play with Laura is uh a bit of a dream come true, to be honest, as a partner. And um she it was fun. We were played at Fancourt in South Africa, so that was an experience in itself because I think fancourt is probably one of the toughest golf courses that I've ever played. And uh there are some funny stories. Um not sure that I played my best. Laura always played well, but I don't I think I might have let the side down just a little bit there. But uh I let her down big time on uh one hole. So the 18th at Fancourt, par five. I've hit a good drive, and Laura has pulled out a driver and pummeled this shot onto the green, off the deck, off of a downhill lie. Just magnificent shot. So we're on the green in two, chance of eagle. So I stand there with my putter, give it a good roll, a little too much of a good roll, putted it right off the green into a bunker. So Laura's was standing there with her putter expecting a little tapping birdie, and she has to go back to the bag and pull out a sandwich. So that was my experience of the World Cup.

Mike Gonzalez 15:33

Thank you, partner. Yeah.

Karen Stupples 15:36

Yeah. She all she could do was laugh. Like she she could she like was basically rolling around laughing because she saw how horrified I was at doing it. And that was quite funny.

Mike Gonzalez 15:46

She's got to be a fun hang, isn't she? Just a delightful lady. Oh, she is delightful.

Karen Stupples 15:51

Yeah, she knows her stuff. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 15:54

And a bit of a renaissance woman, right? I mean, she's into a lot of different stuff.

Karen Stupples 15:57

And she she she's into more stuff than I am, I think. Um she likes the she likes the horses and she likes the, you know, fast cars. A lot more exactly. Exactly. I'm I'm a I'm a bit of a bit of an SUV kind of person, just kind of a slow and steady, just kind of, you know.

Mike Gonzalez 16:18

Yeah, suburban housewife kind of style, is that uh Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Karen Stupples 16:23

Safety first, yeah. Life insurance person, that's me.

Mike Gonzalez 16:27

Well, let's talk Solheim Cup because uh in 2003 you probably could have made the team, but you weren't yet eligible, were you?

Karen Stupples 16:34

No. Um I was not a member of the European Tour. Um because I had put all my eggs in the LPJ basket. And honestly, you know, playing on the Solheim Cup wasn't something that even entered my mind when I was trying to establish myself as a professional. And then all of a sudden it became a thing, and I thought, well, you know, how do I become a member? And I thought the thought of having to go through Q school was I I I really didn't want to have to do that, so the option was win, you know, win an LET event or win on the LPGA. So um obviously not in 2003, but 2005 was the next opportunity. So I made it my goal to try and get in on that, and which was why in 2004 I started my season in Australia on the LET because I wanted to try and have an opportunity to to win.

unknown 17:25

Right.

Mike Gonzalez 17:26

Yeah, so uh you got picked by uh your captain, uh Catherine Nilsmark was the captain for the the uh the European team and Nancy Lopez on the US side. The it was contested at Crooked Stick, an old Pete Died track that uh is a wonderful place down in in uh Carmel, Indiana. And uh you guys ended up on the losing end of it, but you were up against some pretty good players, weren't you?

Karen Stupples 17:51

We were. Um I mean it's always tough uh in an away game uh for whatever team you play on. I was I just remember being shocked at how raucous the crowds were, even at the Sol Lime Cup, and bear in mind it has nothing, it's nothing like the Ryder Cup. Um it's much more mild in comparison to the Ryder Cup, but even when there's a cheer when you miss a putt, you're like, wait, what? You're cheering because I missed it was uh quite jarring and and it was big. I mean, and and and the hardest thing for me, I played my singles match against Meg Mallon, and Meg has done everything she can to help my career. I mean, she would sign, you know, she would write letters of recommendation for visas and green cards and things like that, and she was a good friend, her and Beth Daniel, and I just playing against her was really hard for me. Like I find that that head-to-head fight actually quite difficult. And it took me a while to realize what I needed to do to excel in match play, and it had nothing to do with going head to head. I still I had to try and make five five to eight birdies in that round, and hopefully it was good enough to win. But going head to head, I was trying to be something I wasn't, and it was hard and impossible because I liked her. You know, it was so hard to play against someone you like.

Mike Gonzalez 19:12

How much fun was the aspect of team play on the Sol Hum Cup?

Karen Stupples 19:18

The first time it was stressful because the the level of expectation that's placed on your shoulders is huge, especially as a captain's pick. Um you have to, you know, like I said for the Curtis Cup, it not just are you your country as representative, but you're the continent's representative. You are one of the best women golfers in the whole of Europe, and every single female golfer in Europe is counting on you to get points for them. You know, that's that's the the reality of it when you're standing on the tee. Yes, you're playing for your teammates and you're playing for your captain, but it comes down to being so much more than that. And when you stand on that first tee knowing it, the level of expectation is just immense. And that the thought of having to try and find a fair way is huge. Now I wasn't one of those people that that threw up before they teed off. I was normal I was a little more calmer than that, but but for some reason the the captains always like to put me in that last spot. So off I went last with Meg Mallon.

Mike Gonzalez 20:21

Well, so you had more fun in 2011, I guess, huh?

Karen Stupples 20:25

Uh just a little bit. Yeah. Obviously winning makes a big difference.

Mike Gonzalez 20:30

Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But you're this time you're you're at home.

Karen Stupples 20:35

Yes. Uh we were in Ireland. Weather was atrocious. Uh, but um being part of a winning team was everything. Uh the victories, the songs, the bus rides. I mean, that's something that that unless you've been on a team and you sit on the bus and you sing the songs and you sing the chants and you're in that locker room with all the other players. It's very hard to put it into words just exactly what that's like. And I think of all the times, those were the most fun. The bus rides, the locker rooms, those were the most fun. And the after party when you win, that's pretty fun too. Drinking drinking Guinness out of the Solheim Cup is probably the best thing you can do.

Mike Gonzalez 21:18

There you go. Well, Bruce and I have heard a lot of great bus ride stories from you girls traveled in Japan and plan over there. Maybe you can give us some inside baseball on some of these songs and bus rides from the Solheim Cup.

Karen Stupples 21:36

Oh, I don't know if there's too many secrets I can divulge with that one. But there's there's a there's a lot of uh motivational songs, and there's some not so not you've got to be past nine o'clock to talk about some of these songs. You've got to be past the watershed.

Mike Gonzalez 21:56

A little on the edge, some of the lyrics, maybe, huh?

Karen Stupples 21:58

Uh, very much so. Oh, yes.

Mike Gonzalez 22:01

Yeah.

Karen Stupples 22:09

Yes, Katrina Matthew will surprise you. I'll just say that. There's a reason why she's won two Solheim Cups as a captain.

Mike Gonzalez 22:18

Yeah. She's pretty tough too, isn't she?

Karen Stupples 22:20

Yep. Oh, yeah. But so mild, in the outwardly mild. Yeah, inside.

Mike Gonzalez 22:27

Yeah, well, I know she was a captain's pick with you back in 2005. I think she probably made the team outright in 2011. But uh, you know, you're talking about Laura Davies and Suzanne Petterson and Anna Nordquist and Katrina and Sophie Gustafson and and you. I mean, you got you had some Annika was a non-assistant, uh non-playing assistant captain that year, but you you you had some players and you're going up against a pretty tough captain, a Rosie Jones. I mean, I I know she was a hard-nosed competitor, had a lot of success in the LPG tour, but you guys got it done. Yeah.

Karen Stupples 23:01

Yep. And that's uh, you know, that's something I can be really grateful for too. That that I have, again, you know, for for my job now, I've experienced both winning and losing at both Curtis Cup level and Solheim Cup level. It gives me a really good base of knowledge uh from which I can be, you know, I can empathize with everybody with, you know, like I can I feel what they're feeling. Like I still feel those same emotions when I'm watching it that I would have done if I was playing. It's uh it's pretty cool.

Mike Gonzalez 23:34

Yeah. So let's check let's get you back in the broadcast booth or out on the fairways, as the case may be, with microphone in hand. Uh, and as you're probably aware, Bruce did what you're doing for several years, uh post-career and and uh kind of uh at the same time he was really getting serious into the golf design business. So you share a lot of experiences that I'm sure uh you're you're gonna be happy to talk about.

Bruce Devlin 24:01

I do have a question for you. My question is when you when you finally got the chance to uh move in with the golf channel, did the producer have a talk to you and give you an idea of what you should and shouldn't do, or did you just go at it without any help?

Karen Stupples 24:26

Uh um Jerry Foltz was obviously very helpful. Like he gave me a lot of advice, a lot of help, a lot of you know, just the on the mechanics of it, as much as you know when to talk, when not to talk, what calling tape shots, things like that. Um but for the most part, I think now you just get thrown in at the deep end. Like, here you go. Hopefully, you're not gonna sink. You know, if you float, then you get to do it again. If you sink, then we'll find somebody else. Um, but I had some good advice uh from Jerry. Beth, the producer, gave me a few little little bits and pieces of what to do. But basically, I was left to my own devices to find to find my own way. And and I was very lucky that I did both. I did both booth and ground. Um that way I get a good I have a good knowledge of how every part of of a golf broadcast works, um, which I think is is really good in the in the in the long run. But no, it's it's I'm still learning. I mean, it's a funny story, like even down to the microphone. So probably, you know, I'm probably about five or six years, five years into my TV business, you know, I've been doing this for some time. And uh and Beth is like, You're you sound so quiet. What's what's wrong? You know, you're quiet. And so I said, I don't know, I'm I'm doing what I normally do. I don't know why I'm quiet. So I come in to the to the trucks that does the microphone and the packs, and they're like, How are you holding the mic? Where are you speaking? I said, Well, I hold it, you know, here. And they're like, No, you've got to talk into the top of the mic. You gotta feel like you're eating the mic. I'm like, why are you only just telling me this now? Like, here we are, five years in, and now you're just telling me. So, yeah, so that was my, you know, every single day there's something else, there's something new, you know, that you learn how how to go about certain things where you're standing, calling tape shots, trying to try and not to give the game away, trying, you know, remembering to call it as if you would have called it live, uh, not going on air if somebody if if if the crowds are about to clap whilst calling a tape shot because that gives everything away. Like there's all kinds of little tricks that you have to learn that you pick up along the way.

Mike Gonzalez 26:48

That all sounds familiar, Bruce. Yes, it does. Yeah, Bruce didn't get a whole lot of advice. Uh probably more thrown into the deep end, wouldn't you agree, Bruce?

Bruce Devlin 26:59

Well, I'll tell I'll tell Karen exactly what advice I got from Don Olemeyer, who came to work from ABC to NBC when I worked with NBC. And he said, I said to him, So, Don, is there anything? You know, can you help me a little bit? Uh you know, my first time in the tower. And he said, Yeah, I I can help you a lot. He said, just remember that what you see on your monitor, the people at home see. So you don't have to talk anything about what you're seeing on the monitor. You need to you need to fill the spaces in of the individual that's about to hit the shot and what he has to face. And he said, 'Cause that's your expertise. The camera will tell the rest of it. Yep. So it was pretty good advice.

Karen Stupples 27:47

Yep. Absolutely. I mean, that's perfect advice, but it's it's figuring out what the people at home uh don't know and what they want to know.

Mike Gonzalez 27:58

Yeah, that's right. Give us a sense of your kind of typical schedule now, Karen, because we we do see on the fairways, we see in the booth, we see in the studio. Uh you got a lot going on. Is there is you know, let's just talk about your schedule and is there of those three, and there may be more, is there one aspect of it you like can prefer more than more than the other?

Karen Stupples 28:23

It's funny, you know, as I have as I have progressed in in through this role, um every aspect is slightly different. If if you're in the studio as a studio analyst, like Brandle Chambly, you get to completely delve in deep and go in in depth as to who's doing what, where and why. You can look at numbers, look at swings, formulate a good picture of what's going on on the golf course with that particular player at any given time. You have time to flesh it out, you have time to to do the how and the why. Um, so in many respects that's quite rewarding uh because you you have time to research it, you can look it up, and you have a really good finished product. If you're in the booth on the tournament site and you're the analyst, you've got to think on your feet, you've got to be quick with your answers, you've got to jump in, jump out, you've got to do the how and the whys very quickly. You've got to be observant, you can't let your guard down, and you've got to be aware of when other people are talking and not to talk over other people. But you see everything. So so you're you're completely in the game the whole time, and you feel like you're part of the story and the tournament, and it that in itself is very fulfilling. But for for me, the most fulfilling part is being out on the golf course with those players because you're living and breathing the shots with them, you're seeing it through their eyes, where they're standing, what they what they're dealing with. You can feel the emotion in the crowd and and in the players, like as you're walking with them, like it feels like you're still doing it. I think that to me is probably the most rewarding bit of of it is is feeling how I used to feel when I played. And that keeps me in the game. But every other bit has, you know, you know, every other aspect of this job that I do has aspects of being equally as rewarding, but being on the ground is really fun.

Mike Gonzalez 30:22

I'll share a personal example that uh I probably have just a little little snippet of what you're saying. I mean, it's I I I haven't experienced it personally as you have, but I was working the 15th T of the US Open Olympia Fields when Jim Fuhrer won, right? And I was on that T every practice round, all four rounds, fairly tedious, as everybody knows, right? I mean, it's but when that lead group got to that T, wow I mean the tension, the the drama was just palpable, right? And so if you're walking with the players and feeling that as you say every shot experiencing that, that's that's something well it is, and uh you're absolutely right.

Karen Stupples 31:11

You can you feel the energy, like you can feel it in the players, and having been there myself and and knowing what's going through their minds and what what their bodies are dealing with, you know, with the nerves and you know, trying to get the job done, the psychology of it. Um I mean, there's it's such a cool place to be because you you're live you're reliving it, but without the actual pressure of having to do it.

Mike Gonzalez 31:37

You work with some fun people, don't you? Yeah.

Karen Stupples 31:41

No, I love it. I mean, I you know, the the biggest gift I could have ever had in my broadcasting career was getting to work with Judy Rankin.

Bruce Devlin 31:49

Yeah, she's a sweet lady.

Karen Stupples 31:52

Yeah, I mean, she's just a treasure. Um, like I said, I used to love it when she would come and talk to me on the driving range, you know, and then all of a sudden I'm working with her, you know, somebody who's been there and done it, has so much experience and really was a trailblazer for for all of us women that have followed after her within the industry. And she's so well liked and so well respected across the board that it's really something to aspire to. You know, if if I go out at the end of my term with half of the amount of respect that she has garnished, I'd have had a I'd have bit a very good life and done a very good thing but with my commentary. So if I can be half as good as Judy, I'm gonna be very happy.

SPEAKER_04 32:33

Yeah.

Karen Stupples 32:33

But uh obviously, you know, you the the LPGA team is very tight, close-knit. Tom Abbott and Grant Boone, Morgan Pressell now, Paige McKenzie. I mean, we have a great group and we are 100% all in on calling women's golf and and uh trying to showcase it in the best way we can.

Mike Gonzalez 32:53

So looking looking forward, is there something in broadcasting you'd still like to do that you haven't had much of the opportunity to do yet?

Karen Stupples 33:01

I I don't know. I I think it's different asking me now than having asked me a few years ago. You know, like four years ago, I'd have said I I would have wanted more of a chance to cover men's golf um be on course on for the PJ tour. I think I probably would have said that four or five years ago. Um now I mean I've done a little bit of that and I'm quite happy with what I've done. Now I feel like I'm very happy with my roles. I'm very content with who I am and the voice that I have. Um I'm more confident than I have ever been with with what I'm saying. And I'm just really content with what I have. You know, I enjoy my job, I enjoy the people I work with, and uh I can't ask for for anything more than that. I think um this year I have a really fantastic schedule. I mean, this year my schedule is like off the charts good. I do the women's majors, I'm gonna go and do the the open championship at Trune, I'm gonna cover two weeks of Olympic golf, I'm gonna do the men's and the women's Olympic golf, which makes me incredibly happy that I get to be on the ground to cover both men's and women's there. Um and also, you know, everything that's going on with women's golf. Like I feel like um I have a fantastic schedule and the the doors have really opened these past couple of years for for me to do a lot of the stuff that that I've dreamed of doing.

Mike Gonzalez 34:29

Yeah, yeah. Well, continued good luck with that career, and we'll keep watching. Um in in the meantime, as you look back at uh you know how life changed coming after uh uh the big win at the British Open, I guess one of the neat things that happened for you is you were awarded an honorary membership at Royal Sinkports.

Karen Stupples 34:49

I was, and uh, you know, Deal have always been good to me. You know, they've they've always looked after me, they've they've made sure that you know I had whatever I needed and was able to practice whenever I wanted to and play whenever I wanted to. And uh to know that I can always go back there and play whenever I want is is pretty cool, but it also honorary membership at Prince's as well, where I first started is lovely. I played golf at a course called Canterbury Golf Club, which is just up the road as well. They've given me honorary membership too, and then uh Sunningdale, and also where I won the um the Welsh Royal St. David's, also have honorary membership there too. Going back, Royal St. David's is also called Harleck. Another one of those courses that has another name.

Mike Gonzalez 35:36

Yeah, yeah. Terrific. Well, you know, back to St. Port's uh uh just for our listeners, a little bit of history, uh, because they did uh hold the open championship there a couple of times, uh a little before they had the 32 Open Championship Princes. One was in uh two in in 1909, J. H. Taylor won there. He was from England, and then a Scotsman, George Duncan, won there in 1920. You know, they were scheduled to have the Open Championship at Deal two other times. Were you aware of that?

Karen Stupples 36:07

I think I've read somewhere about that, that uh, but wasn't it because of flooding or war or something like that that it wasn't happening?

Mike Gonzalez 36:16

Exactly. 1938 and 1949, both of those years, the open championship was scheduled to be played at deal, and due to high tides, they had to move it to Georgia's.

Karen Stupples 36:31

Well, they've since built a seawall, like a big seawall there now that uh a big stone bank embankment that uh the water doesn't come over very much, but there is some some low areas that still get a little wet.

Mike Gonzalez 36:44

Uh understand you're a big football fan. Uh Tottenham must be your must be your team.

unknown 36:50

Nope.

Karen Stupples 36:51

I'm an Arsenal, Arsenal girl. I knew that.

Mike Gonzalez 36:53

I knew that.

Karen Stupples 36:54

That that's that's been inherited from my dad. So my dad's my dad and his family have always been Arsenal fans, so that's kind of been handed down to me. Um it's much easier to keep up with it now over here in America than it ever used to be, but I I kind of lost track of it for a little bit there.

unknown 37:08

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 37:09

Kind of like Formula One now. Uh you know, more Americans are following European football, aren't they?

Karen Stupples 37:15

Yep. I think uh because it's on TV and I think more kids are playing soccer now in school, and I think they just fall into it and realize that it's a you know it's a pretty cool sport, even though the scoring isn't uh isn't very exciting. You can have nil-nil quite a lot and not much accent, but yeah, it's cool.

Mike Gonzalez 37:34

Well, go gunners, you go with the team, I'll go with the drink.

Karen Stupples 37:37

Yes. Okay, perfect.

Mike Gonzalez 37:40

All right, as we wind down, and I alluded to this uh early on in our visit, uh, but we always finish with three questions, Karen, and I always uh give the tea to my compatriot, Mr.

Bruce Devlin 37:55

Older partner is what he was going to say, Karen. Exactly. So the first question, Karen. If you were to have known what you know now when you first started on the tour, what would you have done differently?

Karen Stupples 38:22

Oh well, I I do think that I have spoken a little bit about that. I think I probably would have spent more time on my short game. I really feel like I could have developed the chipping and putting a little bit more, and I and I feel like I could have had more confidence in myself, realizing that you can win tournaments not having your best stuff. And I I felt like I was always really hard on myself. I feel like I needed to have given myself a little bit more slack. Uh so I think be easier on myself and work on my putting a chipping more.

Mike Gonzalez 39:00

We thought we might hear that, but we weren't sure. Maybe they were gonna think of something else. Uh second question: we're gonna give you one career mulligan. You got one do over for one shot in your career anywhere. I don't know if it would have made a difference in uh 2005 at Cherry Hills in the US Open, but one shot somewhere, where would you take it?

Karen Stupples 39:21

It would be the sixth hole at Mission Hills at the it was the Craft Abisco or the Dinosaur at whichever or Chevron now. Um so I was with Yanni saying in the final group. I think it must have been I don't know what year it was, forget now. Maybe 11, 2011. And uh I'm doing okay. Yanny's got off to a quick start, but again, as I have done in the past, I tried to push a little bit. So on the sick hole, I've run through a little bit and I'm on a down slope, and I'm right in front of this of the pond. You've got to hit over the pond to a green that slopes heavily back to front. And I was in between clubs. I was in between a nine on and an eight on. The eight on would put me at the back of the green. I've got to be really finicky with it, just a small little eight on. But I could hit a big nine on and get it to stop on the green, and you know, big nine on seem to be the play. So I pull out the big nine on, catch it a hair thin, lands on the green, spins off the front of the green into the penalty area. And I have a double bogey. I would do over that shot and pull that eight on out and hit it to the back of the green and take my two-putt and and see where it put me.

Mike Gonzalez 40:37

Well, knowing now that the eight was your favorite club, I would have suggested that as well if I was your cat. I know.

Karen Stupples 40:42

What was I thinking?

Bruce Devlin 40:45

Alright, last question. How would you like to be remembered?

Karen Stupples 40:55

I think I'd like to be remembered as a kind person who played some good golf. I think that's more more important to me than anything.

Bruce Devlin 41:11

There you go. It's been fun having you with us, Karen. Thanks a lot for your time. And uh I know I know we had some scheduling problems, but the wait was worthwhile, I can assure you. Thank you for your time.

Karen Stupples 41:24

Well, I really appreciate you you putting so much into this for me, so thank you.

Mike Gonzalez 41:29

Yeah, Karen, it's great to that we were able to add your story to all the golf greats that we've talked about and uh sort of creating this history of stories that uh we hope will live forever with the uh help of the USGA archiving all these for us.

Karen Stupples 41:45

Well, I think that uh you're doing a very good thing because uh one day we're not gonna be here and but our voices will live on.

Mike Gonzalez 41:53

That they will. Thanks very much for joining us.

Karen Stupples 41:56

No, thank you.

Mike Gonzalez 41:58

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.

Lee Trevino 42:22

It went smack down fairway.