Soccer Legends Abby Wambach, Julie Foudy Swing Clubs To Fight Cancer

Abby Wambach and Julie Foudy attend the 2025 Women's Sports Foundation's Annual Salute To Women In Sports at Cipriani Wall Street on October 22, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)

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Catching up with USA soccer legends Julie Foudy and Abby Wambach right after a golf outing conjures up the kind of banter the duo is known for on their podcast Welcome To The Party.

Especially on a day during which Foudy beat Wambach on the course. “You can’t win everything, Abby,” Foudy joked.

I spoke with the podcast pals and FIFA Women’s World Cup winners last Wednesday, moments after they completed a round at La Paloma Country Club just outside of Tucson.

Wambach, who is widely regarded as the USA’s best-ever soccer player, helped the USA win the 2015 World Cup, and during her 14-year career scored 184 goals in 255 appearances for the U.S. Women’s National Team. She’s also a huge golf enthusiast.

“I love golf so much. “The reason I love playing golf so much is that it’s kind of a meditative thing that is also challenging," Wambach said, over Zoom, when we spoke Wednesday afternoon.

She added that the game, which she picked up as a regular pastime since retiring from soccer, offers her both the opportunity to stay active and be outdoors.

“With an aging athletic body, (golf) is something that I can do to be outdoors that challenges my mind and challenges me physically, but is not pounding on my body like soccer did, or like training for and running a marathon,” said Wambach.

Foudy concurred, but said that, in contrast, she took up golf during the height of her soccer career, while training for her biggest competitions.

“I played a lot when I was playing on the national team. We trained in Florida before the World Cups and a couple of Olympics. And so Mia (Hamm), Brandi (Chastain), and I, and Tisha Venturini, Kristine Lilly, we were all big golfers.”

On Wednesday, Foudy and Wambach played the pro-am at the Cologuard Classic by Exact Sciences, joined in their golf parings by colorectal cancer awareness honorees and survivors. Wambach explained how important the event and cancer awareness are to her personally, and why she and Foudy discussed colorectal cancer on their podcast and ultimately attended last week’s golf event.

Abby Wambach walks the course at La Paloma Country Club, outside Tucson, Arizona.

courtesy Cologuard Classic

“It felt like a no-brainer to partner with Cologuard, and it was their idea to bring us into the Cologuard Classic to play the pro-am. Because I have this kind of cancer in my family, I have been getting screened since I was 35, when I got my first colonoscopy.”

Foudy weighed in as well. “This pro-am is like none I have ever played. They bring in over 400 honorees, including cancer survivors, caregivers, loved ones, and 20 advocacy groups.”

Alongside Cologuard’s honorees, Foudy played with PGA Tour pro Joe Durand, who won the Cologuard Classic two years ago. Wambach played her pairing with PGA Tour pro Billy Andrade.

The Cologuard Classic took place March 20-22 at La Paloma Country Club in Tucson. It takes place annually in March, during National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. New Zealand’s Steven Alker won the PGA Tour event by one stroke in a playoff round over Ireland’s Pádraig Harrington.

“I love golf so much. And any chance I get to play, I’m there." Wambach added, “I also found out Julie’s a ringer, and her team beat mine by four strokes, which makes me very sad.”

“At this age, Julie and I have done a lot of hustling, not just on the soccer field but also in our post-careers, building our own businesses, and dare I say brands.”

Wambach emphasized that through both the Welcome To The Party podcast and their individual business ventures, they strive to work with organizations that promote the greater good. “We like to work with people whom we know by first names, and when you can pair those with incredible causes and incredible work, it’s a win-win-win all around.”

Olympics 2004: Abby Wambach #16 celebrates with Julie Foudy of the USA her winning goal in extra time to beat Brazil 2-1 in the women's gold medal match on August 26, 2004 in Athens, Greece. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

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Foudy also pointed out that colorectal cancer has the highest death rate of any cancer for adults under the age of 50, but says that the disease is the most preventable cancer. According to Exact Sciences, an estimated 60 million U.S. adults remain unscreened.

Wambach underscored the ease with which people can screen for the cancer, and how quick and simple Cologuard makes it to test for.

Wambach said that after her first colonoscopy, her physician found polyps. “If those are not treated, they turn to cancer.” She also said that her mother previously struggled with the disease.

“Cologuard makes it so you can do the test at home,” Wambach said, “It’s convenient and easy.”

Yoga? No thanks. Golf? Heck Yes!

“I grew up around golf," Wambach explained. "My dad was a big golfer and played almost every single day,” But she said that she did not play golf very much, if at all, while she was dominating soccer in America, and a sensation on the international soccer scene.

Yet, now in post-retirement, as she called it, Wambach sees golf as a sport that’s not only challenging to her competitive spirit, but also an avocation that is very calming.

“I’m obsessed with it and feel addicted to playing golf,” Wambach said. She also said that she prefers golf to many of the low-impact sports and fitness endeavors that some of her contemporaries tend to do in their post-retirement. Like yoga.

“I do not do yoga!” Wambach said adamantly. “I think yoga is for other, special people who are not me. Stretching is hard for my body. But I do think there is some sort of meditative thing about golf."

Wambach also dreams of making more time for golf now and in the future.

Abby Wambach, Kelly Clarkson, Julie Foudy, during an episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, October 23, 2025 (Photo by: Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

“My goal is to, when I retire from work and get done doing a lot of businessy stuff, to just—be a pro-am professional,” Wambach said, as Foudy chuckled. “At golf, you can always get better,” Wambach continued. "And, sure, at business, you can always get better at that too, but that’s just way less fun. Golf is more fun than business.”

Foudy agreed that golf should be about fun. “We used to play golf when we were on (international) trips, too," Foudy said of the team that won the 1999 World Cup and placed third in the 2003 World Cup. “We used to play golf a lot together before they had the She Believes Cup. We’d go to Portugal every March (for the Algarve Cup). We’d drink a lot of red wine and play a lot of golf.”

Foudy added that her husband, soccer coach Ian Sawyers, is a very good and avid golfer, and that her daughters, who are now in their late teens, are totally on board when it comes to hitting the links.

“I’m not as driven as Abby is to get better. I like to save my best shots for when I play against her,” Foudy joked. “But my kids are 17 and 19, and they’re more interested in playing now. I find that golf is a really cool thing to do with the family. We go out on Sunday afternoon, play together, and it’s time away from your phone. Time you can just be together.”

Read Frye’s recent golf interviews with Ray Allen and Timothy Simons.

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