Noreen Mohler Back In Right Place: Senior Women's Amateur Quarterfinals

By Andrew Blair

Hot Springs, Va. – Despite advancing to Wednesday’s quarterfinals at the 2009 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Championship, Noreen Mohler can’t help but sometimes feel a sense of indecision this week.

For Mohler, a Bethlehem, Pa., resident, dealing with the pressures of competing in a national championship has seemed like the easy part over the past few days.

“The hard part is that my mom [Hazel Friel] is in the hospital at home in Massachusetts,” Mohler said Tuesday. “She’s 91 and not doing too well. My heart is heavy about that, so I think of that more than, really, the golf.”

Growing up in Boston, Mohler recalls being brought to the game when she was 5 or 6 years old by her dad. Initially she enjoyed the game as much as a kid faced with a plate full of spinach and brussel sprouts. But things changed when she won her first junior tournament at age 12. Receiving a silver bowl and getting your name in the paper was about as cool as it gets, Mohler thought at the time.

A year later, her mother drove her to her first USGA championship, the 1968 U.S. Girls’ Junior at Flint (Mich.) Golf Club. Recalling the time, Mohler could hold back her emotions no longer. Mohler recently reminded her mother of the unforgettable trip.

“That was big-time,” says Mohler, her voice quivering.

Noreen Mohler's golf game is holding up quite well this week at the USGA Senior Women's Amateur at The Homestead despite her mind being on her ill mom back in Massachusetts. (Fred Vuich/USGA)

Mohler’s game flourished in ensuing years. She won the 1977 Eastern Women’s Golf Association Amateur Championship and reached the finals of the Women’s Western Amateur that same year. In 1978, she was a member of the victorious USA Curtis Cup team that competed at The Apawamis Club in Rye, N.Y. She played on the LPGA Tour from 1985-86 before deciding to delve headlong into the complexities of the restaurant business with husband, Jeff.

Soon, they owned the Aspen Inn and had three restaurants on their hands, equaling the number of children in their lives. Talk about no free time.

“I was a mom and business partner, so there was no time for golf,” says Mohler, who took part in an occasional member-guest tournament but played golf only four or five times a year.

But whether by fate or circumstance, Mohler was thrust back into the game in 2006. She read that the 2006 Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur was visiting Oakmont, one of the premier courses in the world and the site of 14 USGA championships.   

“I said to Jeff, ‘I think I’d like to try to get my game in shape and try to play Oakmont,’ ” she said.

Stoked by the opportunity, she reached the finals of the senior portion of the event and more importantly the finish reconnected her to the game she’d long loved. Playing Oakmont for five straight days wasn’t a bad primer.

“I came home and said to Jeff, ‘I want to play some more golf,’ ” Mohler explains. “That got my competitive juices back and that was ‘it.’ There was no turning back”

This is her fourth Senior Women’s Amateur and she’s already equaled her best showing in the championship, having also advanced to the quarterfinals in 2007 at Sunriver (Ore.) Resort. She also reached the semifinals of the 2008 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Barton Hills (Mich.) Country Club.

Scoring a 1-up victory over second-seeded Anna Schultz in Tuesday’s round of 16 on the Cascades Course at The Homestead helped Mohler clear a major mental hurdle. Admittedly, Mohler believes she can add to her litany of accomplishments this week.

“I think that I can win, I just have to let myself win,” she says. “That’s what I feel I need to work on. My mind plays tricks on me and it sneaks into my golf swing. The doubts come in every once in a while. I just have to keep telling myself that I have the game to win. I just have to try to trust it.”

Mohler, who takes part in Bible study classes, still points to the 2006 event at Oakmont as something of a defining moment of divine intervention.

“I just feel like God brought golf back into my life in 2006 and I play for His glory,” she says.  “It’s a blessing just to be out here. There’s never a bad day on the golf course, regardless of what happens.”

More Stunners

Life dealt Mohler a surprise this past winter, when Martha Kirouac a member of the USGA Women’s Committee called. Mohler’s initial reaction: “She was calling to ask me to serve on the Women’s Committee.”

Well, not exactly. Mohler nearly dropped the phone when she learned Kirouac had other ideas. Would she be interested in captaining the 2010 USA Curtis Cup team for the 2010 Match in her native state at Essex County Club?

Hello?, Mohler, thought to ask Kirouac. This is Noreen Mohler. Nor-een Mohler. You’re longtime friend. Are you sure you have the right phone number?

“That wasn’t even on my radar. I had no clue that I would even be considered. When she said, ‘Curtis Cup,’ I said wait a minute,” Mohler remembers. “You need to repeat what you just said to me. And when she repeated it, I just started to cry. I couldn’t talk. I started to blubber.”

“Look, Noreen,” Kirouac responded, trying to settle her Mohler’s nerves. “Hang up the phone, go tell your husband why you’re crying and then call me back in 10 minutes and tell me that you’ll take the job.”

“I called her back in five minutes,” Mohler laughs. “I’m thrilled, absolutely thrilled.”

Secure Surroundings

Though husband Jeff is on the bag this week, Mohler believes the 50-and-over players at the Senior Women’s Amateur are knit together by life experiences and are part of an extended family on the course. Each wants to see one another perform well no matter the final outcome.

“We’ve all experienced life. We’ve all experienced death. Loss. Divorce. Sickness. Cancer. We’ve all come through that and now we’re playing golf together. Golf isn’t the most important thing like it was when we were 18 and 19 years old. Life has come at us … and now golf is fun. You do like to see each other play well.”

And despite family’s support she wonders if she should be at home. A recent conversation with one of her three brothers gave her some confirmation that she’s in exactly the right place.

“Should I quit or do you want me to come home?” Mohler asked her brother, Jim.

“You should keep going, he said. “She looks forward to your phone calls every day.”

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