Andree (right) uses mirror with alignment markers to coach Howard Mezer.
Photo: Don Davis Jr. HPE

Also, Golf magazine named her one of the top 50 teachers, male or female, in the ninestate Southeast Region. She’s involved with the Randolph County chapter of the LPGA Girls Club, an organization that attempts to keep young female players in the game.
  When it comes to teaching at Holly Ridge, Martin instructs young and old, male and female. She has worked with everyone from 31/ 2- year old kids to high school students to 97-year-old senior citizens. Some of her students come from several hours away, although most come from High Point, the southern part of Greensboro, Lexington, Thomasville, Asheboro and Randleman.
  “Everybody learns differently and plays golf for different reasons,” Martin said. “Some play for recreation, some play to be with family, some are serious players.
  “I can be technical or very basic. My goal is to make the game fun and make them want to come back.” Martin expects to keep coming back to Holly Ridge, a privately owned, daily-fee course off Highway 311. She has worked there almost since the facility, a links course designed by Jim Bivins, opened in 1994.
  Holly Ridge Golf Links is on the site of the former Ridge Dairy Farm. The owners are Phil Ridge, Dale Hollingsworth and Bobby Myers.
  “The owners are a great group of guys,“ Martin said.
  “They’re really family focused. We try to make the course very fair and not tricked up. We believe the quality of our course and the customer service will make people want to keep playing here.” Until coming to Holly Ridge, Martin never held a job for so long. But she’s never been out of the golf business.
  Growing up in Portland, Maine, her love for the game came at an early age. She remembers riding with her father, Bo, during a Monday night Twilight League and becoming hooked at golf.
  “I couldn’t get enough,” Martin noted. “I tried to play some tennis, but I couldn’t always find someone to play with. In golf, I didn’t have to rely on someone else.” Martin won several club championships at Purpoodock Club in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, and played No. 2 on the boys team at Portland High. She played in many junior events sponsored by the Southern Maine Women’s Golf Association.
  “If not for them, I wouldn’t be in the game today,” said Martin, who will return to Maine to give a clinic this summer. “I would hitch rides with the ladies, and they made sure I signed up for the right events.” Martin was so sure about her future in golf that she took the dramatic step of going to college at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Unable to secure a scholarship, she earned one of two walk-on spots for the USF women’s golf from about 30 who tried out.
  What if she didn’t make the team?
  “I loved the game and there was no doubt that I couldn’t make it,“ Martin said. “I was really focused on getting better and better and eventually becoming an LPGA Tour player.” Her dreams of playing professionally ended when she blew out her shoulder during her sophomore season. But she stayed in the game.
  “I immediately thought, ‘OK, what else can I do in golf ?’ ” she recalled.
  Martin did plenty, moving to Phoenix after college to work for Ping. She served many roles with the golf equipment giant, and even helped the LPGA run the tour event in nearby Moon Valley.
  Next, Martin moved to Massachusetts to work with another familiar name in golf – Titleist. She worked primarily in multiple product line promotion before moving to Los Angeles to start what would eventually become the LPGA Urban Junior Golf Program.
  Martin started from scratch, using an AAU grant and momentum from the 1984 Summer Olympics in L.A. to start an inner-city junior golf program that would eventually go to several cities across the nation.
  “That was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had,” Martin said. “I always loved working with kids.” Later, she moved to Denver to help revamp the city’s junior ! golf program. But she yearned to move back toward Maine and decided that North Carolina would be the limit of her northern progression.
  “I wanted to get closer to home but not get too cold,” Martin said.
  The opportunity at Holly Ridge came in 1995 while she was visiting Mary Beth McGirr, an LPGA Teaching Professional at Stoney Creek.
  “The Triad Area needed another female instructor,“ Martin said. “And the folks at Holly Ridge invited me to come.” She’s been there every since.
  “I’ve stayed here because of the people, more than anything else,” Martin said.
  “The guys at the course are great to work with and the people that come to the course are a delight. They remind me of the people I grew up with.” But without the Maine winters. Martin’s long and winding path apparently has ended in Archdale.
 
tberry@hpe.com |888-3518