U.S. Senior Women's Amateur
She stopped playing competitive golf for almost two decades. Now she's a USGA champion
Steven Gibbons
Nadene Gole of Australia, a former professional who surrendered her career to motherhood, took up the game again after a roughly 20-year hiatus, and has been rewarded with a victory in the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur at Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle on Thursday.
Gole, 56, in the midst of a stellar 2024 that includes six prior victories, one of them in the R&A Women’s Senior Amateur, defeated Canada's Shelly Stouffer, 3 and 2, in the 18-hole final.
“For me, I just go and play golf,” she said. “I knew I was playing a really tough competitor yesterday and today, and every match, I always have respect for who I play, but I just go and try to play golf the best I can. That's all I can do, and that's all I have control over most of the time anyway.”
Gole, at 120th the highest ranked player in the field according to the World Amateur Golf Ranking, played professionally from 1990 through part of 1998, then began a family, two children, that ended that chapter of her golf career. They are now grown, 26 and 23 years old, allowing her to take up golf competitively again.
“Yeah, I have a bit more time,” she said. “I have … a couple of businesses that we have, and I manage those. So I'm able to get away every now and then. I'm not doing it full-time, so on and off, which is a good thing.”
A year ago, Gole lost in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, and she had not planned on returning in 2024. But her victory in the R&A Women’s Senior Amateur, provided the impetus to return to the U.S. for its national championship.
Gole and Stouffer were tied through 11 holes of their match, then secured the lead for good with a birdie at the par-4 12th hole.
“It's amazing. It really is,” she said. “It probably will not sink in for a while. I think also a compatriot of mine, Sue Wooster, has had three runner-ups, and she's been such a great ambassador for our sport, senior women's golf. So I think, to have taken it before her, it's a bit sad for her, but I'm happy to be taking it back to Australia, I really am.”