Seattle, Washington, United States: Nadene Gole has created a notable slice of golfing history by becoming the first Australian to win the US Senior Women’s Amateur.
Upstaging a field including some of the game’s most established amateur legends, 55-year-old Gole emerged triumphant at Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle.
Currently 116th in the women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), far and away the highest-ranked female senior in the world, Gole defeated 2022 champion Shelly Stouffer, of Canada, 3&2 to win her first USGA title in just her second USGA championship appearance.
“It’s amazing. It really is,” said Gole, a member of the Australian line-up that won the inaugural Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation Women’s Senior Team Championship in Malaysia in 2022.
“It probably will not sink in for a while. I’m happy to be taking it back to Australia, I really am. I’ve just taken an R&A trophy back there, so hopefully it grows the sport and people are inspired by it and have a bit more fun with the game,” added Gole, who first competed in a USGA championship at last year’s US Senior Women’s Amateur, reaching the quarter-finals.
Gole is only the fifth Australian female to win a United States Golf Association (USGA) title, joining an elite group comprising Minjee Lee (US Girls’ Junior, US Women’s Open), Gabriela Ruffels (US Women’s Amateur), Jan Stephenson (US Women’s Open) and Karrie Webb (US Women’s Open).
“For me, I just go and play golf,” said Gole. “I knew I was playing really tough competitors 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.”
En route to the final match, Gole defeated several USGA veterans, including last year’s runner-up and two-time Curtis Cup competitor Brenda Corrie Kuehn, 2009 US Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Martha Leach and Dawn Woodard, who has competed in more than 20 USGA championships.
A former professional, Gole has dominated senior amateur golf in Australasia over the last few years. In 2024 alone, she has won the Victorian Senior Amateur, South Australia Senior Amateur, R&A Women’s Senior Amateur, New Zealand Senior and Tasmanian Senior Amateur.
By her side every step of the championship, which for Gole consisted of 36 holes of stroke play and 97 holes of match play, was her husband, Sam.
For Gole, having him by her side meant something extra special, given Sam came down with sepsis just eight weeks ago, and was told it could be fatal.
“We had just got back from having a massive time winning at the R&A Senior,” said Gole of her husband’s unexpected illness. “He started feeling unwell. He had sepsis and septicemia, and he had about 12 to 18 hours to live. They luckily got the right antibiotic.
“I didn’t think I’d be here. I honestly wasn’t even thinking about playing golf. This morning, when I woke up, I was very emotional. Life’s very fragile, and I went through a month where I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just driving to the hospital and doctors and doing life, whatever it was meant to throw at us.”
Gole also paid tribute to compatriot Sue Wooster, the reigning Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation Senior Women’s individual champion and a three-time runner-up in the US Senior Women’s Amateur.
Gole said: “I think about a compatriot of mine, Sue Wooster, who has had three runners-up. She’s been such a great ambassador for our sport, senior women’s golf.”
In the final at Broadmoor, it was Gole who jumped out to an early lead, taking a one-up advantage with a par on the second hole. Stouffer levelled the match with a par on the third, but Gole responded by notching the first birdie of the day on the par-four fourth to reclaim her advantage.
A bogey from Stouffer on the seventh allowed Gole to stretch her lead to two-up. It would take the 2022 champion until the ninth hole to secure her first birdie of the day, but it allowed her to close the deficit back to one-down at the turn. The 54-year-old followed it up with a 30-foot par save on 10 after finding the fairway bunker. A Gole bogey on the same hole brought the match back to tied.
With the match level, Stouffer made another great up-and-down on the 11th, missing the green left with her tee shot before sinking a 10-footer for par.
But after a birdie on the 12th hole to regain the lead, momentum shifted back to the Australian on the 13th, where she followed up a tap-in par by Stouffer by pouring in an 18-foot slider for par to halve the hole. A big fist pump followed.
Hole wins on 14 and 15 extended the lead to three-up, the largest of the match, and one that would not be relinquished.
What The Champion Receives
· A gold medal
· Custody of the US Senior Women’s Amateur Trophy for one year
· A 10-year exemption into the US Senior Women’s Amateur
· An exemption into the 2025 US Women’s Amateur at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon
· Two-year exemptions into the US Women’s Mid-Amateur (2025 and 2026) and US Senior Women’s Open (2025 and 2026)