The reason Martha Leach wants to reach 90 USGA championships is etched deeply in one unfailing thought: she is a competitor.
When you grow up in a family of 10 kids, you compete for a seat to watch TV or a spot in the bathroom you share with six others — that lesson of gnawing at the bit and staying staunch stays with you.
“We had one TV and chairs throughout, no sectionals back then, and if I was getting up and said ‘one, two, three,’ no one could touch it. It was our code. It saved your seat,†Leach said. “However, I would be getting up and I would have a sister wedging her way in to cancel it out.â€
Leach, 61, thinks she has three or four years more of competition left to reach that goal of 90 events.
“People don’t know how cool it is to play in a national championship,†she said. “I have to say I am a USGA snob because I expect a lot from the courses and most courses deliver. Most venues deliver. And you expect the competition to elevate too.â€
Leach, the youngest sister of three-time U.S. Women’s Open winner Hollis Stacy, just played in her 34th U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur where she made match play for the 30th time and was the oldest player in the field to do so.
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