From Fairways To Operating Room, Valuable Lessons Remain For Budke

By Andrew Blair

Hot Springs, Va. – Her chip shot on the par-3 18th hole at The Homestead’s Cascades Course on Sunday dribbled onto the green, traced toward the hole, clanged against the flagstick and fell in for a birdie. Onlookers at the 2009 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur supplied a nice applause, along with some “ooohs” and “aaahhs.” But at the end of the day, there was no paycheck or headlines, which is just the way Dr. Mary Budke wants it. 

	Mary Budke chose the medical field as a profession over playing golf and it has worked out well. (USGA Museum)

The well-executed chip came a little too late for Budke, who fired a 14-over 164 in stroke-play qualifying and missed advancing to match play by two strokes, sending her back to her Eugene, Ore., home and the responsibilities of being an emergency room doctor at Sacred Heart Hospital.

Budke has long since determined that golf wasn’t going to define her success or failure in life, a decision ironically made just before the most significant victory of her amateur golf career.

The year was 1972, Budke’s game was near its pinnacle and she was trying to determine where the next few years would take her – the golf course or medical school. Frank Hannigan, who would later became executive director of the USGA, asked about her plans at the 1972 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship and Budke admitted she planned to follow her brother into the field of medicine.

A week after the Girls’ Junior, the 18-year-old Budke scored a 5-and-4 triumph over Cynthia Hill in the deciding match at the sweltering St. Lous (Mo.) Country Club. Reflecting on the time, Budke says the decision had a direct impact on her taking home the Robert Cox Cup, awarded to the U.S. Women’s Amateur champion.

“Then, of course, all my goals were met, so it was very easy to set it aside,” she says.

Well, sort off. Know that Budke never pursues anything that she wants to excel at with a passing interest. Possessor of a keen interest in sports, she grew up in Dayton, Ore., playing tackle football with the boys and shooting hoops, refusing to go inside, until her dad shut the driveway lights off.

She started playing golf at age 8 at nine-hole Riverwood Golf Course and initially was self-taught, learning by watching the pros on television and studying film of the game’s great players. By age 12, she’d reached the semifinals of the Oregon State Junior and admits “the lights went on” from the experience.

“I saw those girls play and I thought, ‘I have to be this good. I have to hit the ball that high, putt that well,’ ” Budke remembers.

A year later, she played in the U.S. Girls’ Junior; competing in a USGA championship was admittedly another illuminating experience. She worked tirelessly until she could master the shots when she needed them most, whether playing a friendly round or in a pressure-cooker of a high-level event. Armed with that philosophy, Budke won two Pacific Northwest Golf Association Junior Girls titles, collected three Oregon Junior Girls wins and twice won the Western Junior Girls.

No matter the circumstances, she was always committed to being prepared, whether on the course or treating a patient. For Budke, who graduated from Oregon State University before going to medical school at the University of Oregon, it’s a philosophy that remains one of the foremost tenants in her job.

Mary Budke claimed the 1972 U.S. Women's Amateur title at St. Louis C.C. (USGA Museum)

“It’s the preparation and evenness of temper,” says Budke, who now plays at Shadow Hills Country Club in Eugene. “It’s the ability to see the shot or how the case is unfolding – knowing it inherently and then doing the right thing. They go hand-in-hand.”

Watershed Win

Budke still has fond recollections of her Women’s Amateur victory and a promise made by her brother, Jim, the evening before the championship match.

“He said, ‘Win or lose, we’re going to celebrate,’ ” she laughs.

Budke, who longed for a Girls’ Junior title that never materialized due to Hollis Stacy’s dominance in the event over a three-year span, had no doubts that she was going to take home her first USGA title at the Women’s Amateur. She rallied from a 5-down deficit to record a 19-hole victory over Mary Bea Porter of California in semifinals. Somehow it seemed she had worked too hard to watch it escape her grasp.

As her play picked up in the afternoon session of the Women’s Amateur final, Guy Hope, the same professional who would intentionally grow the rough in the summer at Riverwood just to ready Budke for a bright future in the game, said, "Now she is finally playing the kind of golf she plays back home when something important like a 10-cent Coke is at stake."

“I knew that I was going to win,” Budke says. “I didn’t feel the same way about any of the other matches, but there was something about the 36 holes.”

Always a Golfer

Budke later played on the 1974 USA Curtis Cup team and captained the victorious 2002 USA squad, but her most compelling interest was and continues to be in helping others with her healing hands rather than using them to take an overlapping grip. When someone’s life is in your hands, golf just can’t compare, but today Budke is thankful that she still has an inseparable interest in the game.

“It keeps me going physically,” says Budke, a winner of eight Oregon Women’s Amateur crowns and a Pacific Northwest Golf Association title. “My goals are to always be around the game and never stop playing. I want to pursue it to a certain extent, but not exclusively.”

Experiences in the emergency room have more than put things in perspective.

“The hard cases are where you feel like you’ve made a mistake or you identify with someone who has undergone something horrible. I’ve hardened to it – a lot – but not entirely. It’s a difficult lifestyle.”

She still applies some of the same lessons she learned on the golf course, including at USGA championships, in her job.

“I never, ever, want someone to see my sweat.”

These days, it would be almost a foregone conclusion that the Women’s Amateur winner would be headed for professional golf. Budke says she has no regrets about her decision not to take her game to the LPGA Tour.

“I am less compelled by the game except I love it so much,” she laughs. “I love to play. I love to compete, but my goals have always been in amateur golf. [The decision] gets reinforced every time I play.”

Andrew Blair is communications director for the Virginia State Golf Association.
E-mail him with questions or comments at ablair@vsga.org.