Above: Nadene and Sam Gole celebrate her stunning US Senior Amateur win last month. [Photo: USGA]
Nadene Gole has not thought all that much about her defence of the Australian Senior Amateur at Links Lady Bay in South Australia this week, but there is good reason for that.
For one thing, Gole likes to compartmentalise her life; one thing at a time. She thinks it is one reason why she has been successful as a player.
But more to the point, she has been dealing with a serious illness afflicting her husband, Sam, a long-time golf industry figure who recently had sepsis, a dangerous infection.
It’s the reason why Gole, 56, can’t repeat her remarkable 2023 feat of winning all six state senior amateurs as well as the national championship, since she skipped the Queensland Senior Amateur in July with Sam in hospital and gravely ill.
Having said that, she has had an amazing 2024, winning the R&A Senior and the US Senior Amateur, both firsts for an Australian woman. Links Lady Bay this week effectively rounds out the season.
Sam Gole has now recovered “to about 75 percent” and will be in South Australia for work with Drummond Golf, albeit that he may not complete his usual job of carrying his wife’s bag as caddie.
But for Nadene Gole, a former touring professional who has had a life in the game, the episode has her thinking differently.
“I’ll never forget it,” she said. “We were only back a week from the UK and he wasn’t feeling well. I thought he had the flu. It got worse and I was going up to work each day, and away from him, and my daughter said, ‘Mum, I think he needs to go to hospital and go on a drip.’ He was within 12 or 18 hours of not making it.”
Gole says her focus is clearer. “Golf’s not my everything. They laugh that I fly in for one event and then fly out, which I’ve done for both those events, but it’s given us a perspective on life being so fragile. Golf’s a sidekick that I get to enjoy while I can.”
Links Lady Bay is shaped in the style of the Irish and British links courses, and Gole has never played there. But nothing will faze her after playing the R&A Senior this year on “the hardest course I’ve ever played”, Saunton in England, where the winning score was 18-over-par. “When I first went to that course, I was wondering how I would break 80. That’s how hard it was.”
Gole intends playing the circuit for a while longer, including defences of her British and US championships next year. She hits the ball as far as she did when she was playing professionally 25 years ago, but knows as well that her intellectual property is valuable. “I would say to you my greatest asset is my mind. I’ve got a lot of historical data.”
The 2024 Australian Senior Amateur begins this Wednesday at Links Lady Bay, south of Adelaide, with 147 players competing. Gole and James Lavender, both Victorians, are the defending champions over a 54-hole competition.
There is also a teams competition with the states represented by four players.
