Dr. Mary Budke (born Nov 16, 1953) chose a career in medicine over the game of golf, even while she dominated amateur competition in the early 1970s.
Budke grew up in Dayton and began playing the game at age 8 on a nine-hole course in Dundee. She won three consecutive Oregon Junior Girls championships and played on the boys team at Dayton until the first OSAA girls tournament in 1971... which she won, shooting a 76 for 18 holes. Mary also won her first Oregon Amateur title in 1971 and kept winning... 32 consecutive amateur tournaments during one stretch. After taking the U.S. Amateur title in ’72, she competed for the U.S. against Britain and Ireland in the Curtis Cup, which the U.S. won.
All of this while also competing for Oregon State, where Budke was a non-scholarship, pre-med student. The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women had just been formed and created true national championships for college programs. Mary finished second in the golf championship as a sophomore then won it all in 1974 by a four-shot margin. Oregon State finished third as a team.
At the same time, Budke was in the process of winning eight Oregon Amateur Golf titles. She finished 17th in the U.S. Women’s Open in 1973.
Budke was ranked #1 of all US amateurs in 1972 and was honored with the Hayward Award as the state’s top amateur athlete at the Oregonian Banquet of Champions. She beat out track great Steve Prefontaine that year for the award.
Mary graduated from Oregon State and earned her M.D. at Oregon Health Sciences University. She spent 28 years as an emergency room physician in both Los Angeles and Eugene. Golf became secondary to career. Budke did win the Los Angeles City Women’s Golf Championships in 1990. After retirement, she returned to form as a senior amateur winning 13 events in Oregon and qualifying for the 2017 Senior U.S. Amateur Open.
Dr. Mary Budke was inducted into the Oregon State Athletics, Oregon Golf, National Golf Coaches Association Player and Pacific Northwest Golf Association's halls of fame.