BANDON, Ore. – People said to Martha Leach, “But Martha, you could win if you played with someone else.” Leach, 53, the 2009 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion playing in her 55th U.S. Golf Association event, didn’t want to play with someone else. She wanted to compete alongside her only child, Madison Gerstle, on Mother’s Day at the inaugural U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball. They were the only mother-daughter team in the field.
“No one deserves it more than her,” said Leach, “after being dragged around the world. Our vacations were my golf trips.”
Gerstle, 28, didn’t even realize people took any other kind of vacation until she got to college.