By ART LAWLER
April 23, 2008 01:37 pm
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By now you already know that former Mabank High School golfer Adrienne Gautreaux has been trying to the make the LPGA tournament.
You may even know that Gautreaux (pronounced Go Trow) married Brent McDonald of A-Plus Plumbing in January.
“I call him Superman,” says Adrienne.
Does he have an “S” on his chest?
“Yes he does,” says Adrienne, sounding much like a new bride.
Even if she’s only talking figuratively, the truth is Brent is a legitimate master plumber.
Both are ambitious, incredibly so. Adrienne can be seen on the Golf Channel these days to win a golf survival show called the Big Break, something that will give her both exposure and attention from LPGA movers and shakers.
Even it takes moving heaven and earth to accomplish it. Someday Adrienne is going to be a member of the LPGA Tour.
This is a young couple that sets goals and pays attention to them.
Daily.
“We have a vision board in our house, to remind us every day what we want to accomplish,” she says. One of the goals is symbolized in a $1 million bill. There’s another picture of a fleet of plumbing trucks.
No time for slacking, maybe smelling the roses?
“No,” says the 26-year-old daughter of Mabank dentist Clayton Gautreaux.
Once the LPGA mountain has been scaled, she may try to be a television golf analyst, or maybe a super heroine like “The Bionic Woman, or maybe “Spider Woman” in a television series.
First things first.
And that’s surviving among 12 other promising young golfers who are competing for the Big Break, which will also,l provide $10,000 to the winner.
So go ahead, turn on your television. It could be on right now. The show is scheduled to run on Tuesday’s at 9 p.m., but you know these cable stations. They like to repeat this stuff at 4 a.m., or maybe even right now.
In case you’re not familiar with the annual event, this year’s survival test is being conducted at Kaanapali on the island of Maui in Hawaii.
This year’s elimination series began airing two weeks ago and will continue for the next several weeks.
You can also follow Adrienne’s progress, or lack of, by going to Golfchannel.com.
The plain truth is, even though it’s a done deal, viewers won’t know the survivor for about nine more weeks.
Adrienne’s not talking. It would cost her $2 million if she did.
Still, we tried.
“Just watch the show,” she said during an interview at the Cedar Creek Country Club where she is currently employed as an assistant golf pro. “I’ve got to be careful what I say.”
The actual competition took place over a 15-day period in December of last year.
Adrienne would like to get her hands on that $10,000 check, as would the other competitors. Financing is one of the reasons she’s no longer on the Duramed Future Tours.
She’s been a winner on that tour, but the money is nothing like what she could someday win on the LPGA Tour.
If she can survive the Big Break, she would have her entry fees paid on the Duramed Futures Circuit for a year, as well as getting an Adams Golf endorsement contract.
The plain fact is, Adrienne has gone to the LPGA Qualifiers competition the last three years, and she’s been one stroke away from qualifying each time.
The next level? It may be within her grasp this year, and this show may put her over the top.
Or not.
Her competition is fierce, and as Adrienne says, “Anytime you put 12 women together for that long, you’re going to have some cat fights.”
Adrienne admits, her greatest strength may also be her greatest weakness.
While her competitive spirit gives her all kinds of fiestiness and leads to other golfers referring to her a “fireball,” “the 5-3 1/2, 117-pound red head who averages an eyebrow raising 270 yards on average, depending on the day, can also be her own worst enemy.
Sometimes she and her husband can’t stop competing.
Like for instance when the two go to church and race to see which one can find the page first in the hymnal.
“Sometimes I put too much pressure on myself,” she admits. “I’m working on that.”
She’s also working with Sandra Haynie, who is in the LPGA Hall of Fame and is considered one of the top golf instructors.
“After I worked with her last year I won my next three tournaments,” Adrienne said.
Her work ethic is phenomenal. To earn money for the tour, she’s done substitute teaching, helped out in a youth shelter, given golf lessons, and worked as a temp agent.
“There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” she said, before adding this:
“I know what I want, and I’m going to get it — regardless of how I have to go about it.”
The next U.S. Open qualifying competition begins on May 14 in Houston. If she places in one of the top spots there, she’ll move on to sectional competition in Garland at Eastern Hills County Club..
From there, the top few players will get an invitation to play in the U.S. Open Tournament in Minnesota June 26-27-28-29.
That will go a long way to determining whether she is admitted to the LPGA tour.
This year it will be held in Palm Springs, California and will include four rounds of golf.
There will be a dozen, maybe less, vacancies for the golfer to compete for in the LPGA circuit where the big money awaits.
Even then, she’ll need sponsors.
So far, she’s got one. A-Plus Plumbing has said it will see what it can do.
Part of getting on the television show was having a compelling story to tell on the Golf Channel.
Adrienne’s, while sometimes sad, may be one of the best.
The summer before her sophomore year in high school, as a 15-year-old, she lost her mother.
Then she lost one of her good friends, Courtney Howard, whom she described as being like a little sister to her,” to cancer.
Still, she worked through it, becoming one of the nation’s best amateur players at South Carolina, where she ranked as one of the Top 30 golfers in America.
She also made some All-American teams.
And of course, she’s got the always intriguing story of how a girl far from the limelight in Mabank, Texas, has fought and worked hard to make the golf world pay attention.
The Eyes of Texas are on Adrienne right now. How well will she do. Or how well she did, will be known in a few weeks.
The only way to keep up with this is to turn on the television and start watching — especially on Tuesday evenings.
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