Amy Alcott - Part 2 (The 1979 du Maurier, 1980 U.S. Open and 1983 Dinah Shore)

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Tell our listeners a little bit about some of the great players that were on the scene when you first uh came on the tour.

Amy Alcott 0:24

Well, um there was a whole group of them. Um the players that were a little older than myself, obviously, that were competing. The Judy Rankin, Sandra Palmer, Kathy Whitworth. Uh and I played actually one round, one one round of golf with Mickey Wright in Birmingham, Alabama. Probably one of the few players of my generation that we were off the 10th T at Green Valley Country Club. It was kind of her swan song. And she showed up on the 10th T, I think it was like my third year on tour, so that would probably be 77, 78, something like that. And she showed up in Birmingham and tennis shoes and had this amazing kind of full soft swing. And I remember on the 11th hole, which was the second hole, par five that was a straight hole but a dog leg le direct dog leg left. And I just knocked a three-wood down the middle to you know, not to go over the trees, and she hit this big huge hook up over the trees. I mean, even being an older player, you know, she ret I think didn't she retire at like 35 or something. Uh just um, but that was you know, and then to wake up the next day and say, you know, uh she Amy Alcott, I happen to have shot a great round, and she says, What did you think of playing with a young junior you know, young player like Amy Alcott? And she says, Well, she's the best young player I've seen come out on the tour in the last 15 years. So I was just like beside myself to have Mickey Wright say that about me. So I didn't win the tournament, but I was it was a it was a quite a memory. And then of course, Joanne Carner. I love Joanne Carner and her husband Don. They were always great friends to me, and um, you know, she's uh Joanne is the natural, okay? She had a great short game. We both use these Dunlop Australian Blade Iron Spruce. If you can't find them anymore, that softboard head. I'd come in staying finally not staying in private housing when I started to make a few bucks, and I'd stay in the hotel, and there she would be with her husband Don at the bar. And she says, You gotta learn to have a cocktail when you get done. And so I mean, Don and Joanne were like they traveled around in an airstream, and I don't know. It was just a different era, you know, in women's golf is something I remember a lot.

Mike Gonzalez 3:22

Yeah, traveling from stop to stop. Of course, we've talked to a lot of a lot of your peers about the experiences you guys had back in the day. Bruce, you know, tells the stories about cloth diapers on a greyhound bus with little ones back in the 60s.

Amy Alcott 3:36

Oh my god.

Bruce Devlin 3:38

You didn't know that, did you?

Amy Alcott 3:40

No. No, I know, you know, Bruce, I know you're you have you were out there during some of the real, you know, the early days and and a lot of it, but yeah, it wasn't easy.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

It was a lot of fun.

Amy Alcott 3:52

Yeah, coming from a foreign country the way you did, too, as well. I mean, it had to be uh an adjustment.

Bruce Devlin 4:01

Well, we got treated, I must tell you, we got treated by the American people like uh it was quite remarkable, really. You know, invitations to stay at people's homes and stuff like that, and you know, uh because we had only come over for two years and we ended up now we're in our 54th year here uh after just coming for two, so that ought to give you a pretty good idea.

SPEAKER_05 4:27

Were you from Sydney?

Bruce Devlin 4:28

We we love the country.

SPEAKER_05 4:29

Were you from Sydney?

Bruce Devlin 4:30

No, it's a little town about 130 miles from Sydney. A place called Golburn. Golburn, G-O-U-L-B-U-R-N. It was a it was a uh it was a little town, uh they had a couple of manufacturing plants there, and they also had a center for the railroad repairs. Uh so all the all the big machines that needed repairs, they'd bring them into Golden and they'd put them on a roundabout thing and they'd you know do all the repairs and that was sort of the main hiring people there.

SPEAKER_05 5:03

And your dad. Okay, go ahead. We'll we'll talk about that off the Yeah, we're not gonna talk about me.

Bruce Devlin 5:08

We're gonna talk about you winning you win in uh you win in 75, 76, you win the Houston Exchange in 77, and the American Defender in 78. What one tournament each of those two years.

Amy Alcott 5:21

Right.

Bruce Devlin 5:22

Tell us about them.

Amy Alcott 5:24

Well, you're sparking my memory. Um yeah, they the one in Houston um was in a playoff, I think. I won there the Houston Oh, the Houston Exchange Club. Was that the case?

SPEAKER_01 5:38

You won by five shots there. Yeah.

Amy Alcott 5:40

Oh, there's a real story behind that one. We all the players were staying in a hotel or Ramada Inn in Baytown, Texas.

Mike Gonzalez 5:49

Oh, yeah.

Amy Alcott 5:50

And the course was the Newport Yacht and Country Club. And um Carol Mann was president of the LPGA at the time. And so the night of the second round, well, Friday night, I'm in the hotel room and I hear gunshots. Okay, and I realize one of these gunshots went through my wall, my wall. There I am in there watching Merv Griffin or something on TV. And and and then all of a sudden you heard these sir sirens, you know, and I got out of there really quick, and the room right next door to me, ultimately, the story is that there was like a love quarrel or something, that somebody was in there having an affair with someone else, and the husband came in and kind of it was not a good scene, and it shook everybody in the hotel up. And I go downstairs, you know. I'm a you still a young kid, 77, I'm like not 20. There's Marlene Hagee downstairs. I I walk by her room, and she's got cooking in her room with a crock pot with her sister Alice, and they said, There's just been a shooting upstairs. I know, I know. I said, Well, I have nowhere to go. I'm like a kid. And she says, Well, come on in here and have some uh I don't know, meatloaf or something. Tasserole, yeah. Tasserole dish. And anyway, I was one of the few people that had to find another room for me. It was the night before the final round or whatever. Then I went out and won the golf tournament the next day. So uh there was like blood outside, step over blood, and they had the forensics team in there, and that was pretty hairy. That was Houston.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

Yeah, yeah.

Amy Alcott 7:54

And then the rat rail was uh uh I remember that was a great win. I think I beat Hollis Stacy there. Uh at a good quality called Northridge Country Club, and uh it was sponsored by a the uh radio TV station down there, W-R-A-L.

Mike Gonzalez 8:14

Don't remember too much about that, but well then you you got it in 1979, uh four wins, uh starting off with the Elizabeth Arden in a playoff with Sandra Post, and then Major number one.

Amy Alcott 8:30

Yeah, that was very exciting. Um the one at Turnbury Isle winning the Elizabeth Arden Classic was was great. Um I remember uh finishing the tournament and going in there, and everybody saying, Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations. And I said, Well, there's one mother person, you know, right behind me playing, and that was a par five hole that if you hit it in two, you could eagle it. Well, what does Sandra Post do? I'm everybody's sitting there, the tournament committee's there, they're gonna crown me the champion, and she makes like a 15-foot putt, and we ended up going into a playoff. She eagled the last role.

Mike Gonzalez 9:15

Whoa.

Amy Alcott 9:15

And I over time I found out what that feel feels like to do something like that, because you know, I did that twice to win a tournament. But I wasn't at that age, you know, I was so anyway. We went three playoff holes and I ended up beating her and winning that tournament, and it was was really nice.

Mike Gonzalez 9:38

Yeah, that's even a better story to have an eagle thrown at you, but you come back.

Amy Alcott 9:45

And win the tournament. It was uh really quite a quite a moment.

unknown 9:49

Yeah.

Amy Alcott 9:50

No question. And then I went on when I went on to uh let's see, four times in 79 was um uh what else did I win there? 79 was let's start with the major. Okay, well, the Canadian Open. It was the first year that the uh Imperial Tobacco De Marie sponsored that event. And um it was uh one of the great, great wins. I had a very bad fever, I remember, and almost didn't play. I had like 104 fever that week and went on to um uh the final round. I was tied on the 18th hole with Nancy Lopez. And the beauty of this story, to tell you this in 2022 is just about three weeks ago, I happened to go to Montreal to visit a friend of mine and to play a little golf. And the whole part of it was to go back to Valet de Richelieu, Richelieu Valley, and to see where I did this because I think as you get older, these things are more meaningful. You just want to be.

Mike Gonzalez 10:56

Sure.

Amy Alcott 10:56

And I stood in the middle of that fairway, and the hole's been kind of redesigned, and I got to experience what that was really like, the whole the whole experience of it. And um I went for the 18th hole in two with a three-wood, but left myself, as I was saying earlier, really long putt. And my caddy said, you know, that cup's a bucket. And I went in and uh I made this incredible stroke on the ball just trying to get it close, and the crowd went crazy. I knocked it in the hole, and here so I eagled the last hole, and I looked back after we finished, and now Nancy had to finish, and I saw her snap hook the ball in the trees, and I've never been so happy. But it was my caddy actually lost his pants, flinging the flag around and whatever. Larry, Tonto Larry. He used to read putts like this. So the kid they called him Tonto. You know, he'd have these, you know, uh, that was an incredible win because I didn't even think I was gonna actually be able to play. And um uh one of my most memor one of my most memorable that crowd, uh the French Canadians really embraced that that event. And and period, the sponsor again did such a they sponsored everything up there, so that was uh a great win for me. And the my first major.

Mike Gonzalez 12:28

Yeah, 79 is as you mentioned. That was the first time the the DeMaurier Classic was a major on the uh LPGA tour. And uh little 700 you threw Adam to win by three.

Amy Alcott 12:41

Yeah, is that what I did? I don't I don't remember, but I have it is my most beautiful trophy. It is without a doubt the most beautiful trophy I ever ever received. It's uh green and white trisk crystal trophy. It's called called Val San Lambert Crystal. You can hold it up in a room. I mean, you could hold it up in the middle of Dodger Stadium at night and put a light on it, and it would literally shine. You could the it would shine, it's like a it's amazing the the periscope lighting that comes out of it. So anyway, I I cherish that one a lot.

Mike Gonzalez 13:23

Sounds like you could have used that as a disco ball on the bus.

Amy Alcott 13:27

Yeah, that might have been helpful, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 13:31

Uh speaking of bus rides, I also understand that you used to do some impersonations. I don't know if you did those on the bus, but uh oh yeah.

Amy Alcott 13:40

Those were the days of my impress my impr my Howard Co sell impression, my Edith Bunker impression, All in the Family was a big hit there. Oh yeah. And uh anyway, that was really a lot of a lot of fun um back then.

Mike Gonzalez 13:57

Um Ed Sullivan.

Amy Alcott 13:59

Ed Sullivan. I used to do Ed Sullivan right here, right now, right on our stage in the Ep Sullivan Theater on Broadway. Here we are. We have the Girl Scouts of America. Come on, girls, stand up and show us your cookies. Also, on our show tonight is the I can't believe I'm doing this, is the entire cast of World War II. Come on, guys, stand up.

Mike Gonzalez 14:31

Oh and you remember Topo Gijo?

Amy Alcott 14:35

Topo Giju. Oh Topo. Yeah, I remember, yeah, those were really funny, funny times, that's for sure.

Mike Gonzalez 14:45

Yeah, I probably did co-sell, but I can't remember the lines I used to use.

Amy Alcott 14:49

Um oh, this is how would co sell due to the postponement of the Ali Frasia fight direct from Madison Square Garden, ABC Sports, the Unprecedented Network will now send you live and in color from Bengal Maine, highlights of the women's national roller derby championship.08 seconds around this very selecting track. We bring in Dandy Don for commentary. Hold the chowder, honey, and we'll see you soon. You like that?

Mike Gonzalez 15:35

I love it.

Amy Alcott 15:40

Down goes Frasia or um Archie Archie Archie, hi, the way it's like a sweet high those were the days.

SPEAKER_05 16:08

Then you knew what you were doing. Girls were girls in the middle.

Amy Alcott 16:15

Those were great great, great times.

Mike Gonzalez 16:20

Amy, thanks for the impressions. I think those are gonna be quite popular.

Amy Alcott 16:26

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 16:26

That was great.

Amy Alcott 16:28

Yeah, we'll we'll pass on the Edith Bunker one.

Mike Gonzalez 16:32

You know, they're gonna tune in for the golf, but they're gonna stay for the impressions.

Amy Alcott 16:36

Yeah. There you go. Yeah, we'll yeah, I'm dating myself with all of these. A lot of people probably listening to this that will have no clue who Howard Cosell and Edith Bunker are, and you know.

Mike Gonzalez 16:49

Yeah. Well, you and I are about the same vintage, so we've sort of lived the same life experiences that way, you know. Yeah, yeah. So uh coming off that Demori 8 win 79, you still had a couple of wins in you. You won down in uh United Virginia Bank Classic. Uh, and also uh won in Japan, probably another bus ride by one over Sandra Post at that event.

Amy Alcott 17:13

Yeah. And Japan, uh the Mizuno classic in November of 79, was it? Uh yeah, Mr. Mizuno was quite the character. He talked like this. Ah, Amy Alcat. Welcome to my tournament. This is exactly how he was a real piece of work. He owned, you know, Mizuno Golf Club. Ah. And he'd had he'd you'd get off the bus and he'd read you your whole career. Ah, Amy Alcat, ah, rookie of the year. He was this little kind of curmogeny man who ah, and he made these noise, ah, winner, winner. Anyway, to win this tournament, I won the event there in uh in uh Osaka, and it was uh a great, a great win. Um where else oh in Virginia, United Virginia Bank. Virginia was a good state to me. I won a couple times there. Um and that particular win, uh, I believe was at um I was outside, it was in Suffolk, Virginia. United Virginia Bank Classic, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 18:38

The Elizabeth Manor Golf and Country Club. Does that sound familiar?

Amy Alcott 18:42

Yeah, Elizabeth Manor. Uh-huh. Yeah. Um I think I I don't think I eagled the last hole, but I birdied the last hole to win. And one of my wins there, I think it was at Elizabeth Manor, uh, was at the it was a plantation course. Was the maybe it was another year that I won in Virginia, but um it was at a course which was a public course, and it was the original plantation of the man who founded Planter's Peanuts, Amateo Obessi. And the clubhouse was used as a locker room. And from what people told me, um, he was a very small little man. He was like five foot four. And so the steps, everything was it was was an old plantation house, and the steps going up the stairs into this old house, and then in the locker room was a part of his house. The toilet seat, I'm not to get graphic here, but the toilet seat was about half the size of a normal toilet seat. He must have had that made out of porcelain or something. I just remember that we used his house, was the clubhouse, and it overlooked the 18th green, overlooking uh um uh Elizabeth Manor was earlier though, the one that you yeah, was this one at uh Sleepy Hole golf course? Sleepy Hole, yes, thank you for that.

Mike Gonzalez 20:16

Yes, Sleepy Hole talking about the toilet, I think, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah.

Amy Alcott 20:20

Sleepyhole was the it's it's probably still there, but Elizabeth Manor was more in nor into Norfolk, yeah. Um that was a a great win too, there.

Mike Gonzalez 20:31

Yeah. Well, Bruce, she did okay in the eight in 1980, didn't she?

Bruce Devlin 20:36

Boy, four four more wins and picked up the second major, which had to be probably might be your most important win mentally, then was that the U.S. Open that year. What a great win.

Amy Alcott 20:51

I won the U.S. Open at Richland Country Club, which is no longer there. It was a classical Donald Ross course. It was one of the hottest summers in American history. I mean, it the weather in the southeast got over a hundred for like 180 straight days. I mean, it was over a hundred, was let's say a hundred days. And they were putting thermometers in the bunkers, and it was just I had won the week before. I won the week before in Noblesville, Indiana, by a few, and it was so hot there. And uh went on, and uh that was uh amazing, obviously, to win back to back. I was in tremendous condition. I was like a hundred and twenty-eight pounds, um, you know, running every day, and I was in really great form. So I I Nashville was quite something, and uh I remember going into register, and one of the players said, Well, I know who's gonna win this week. I'm just Filling out a check and registering to play in the tournament. And they looked at me and they said, You know who's going to win this week? Whoever finishes. Because they had they actually had 25 people withdraw out of the open. It was very, very hot. That was a complete and total survival test. Wearing towels over my head, uh, thinking I was going to pass out the final round on the 10th hole. I said, Amy, used to putt on your front can into soup can saying, this is for the U.S. Open. And you can't, you know, pass out right now. You've got to find a way to. I really had to self-talk my way through the last eight holes. And win. Bogey the last hole and win by nine shots was pretty incredible.

Mike Gonzalez 22:51

Yeah, you just wanted to stay on your feet, didn't you? At some point you just said, I just stay conscious here.

Amy Alcott 22:56

Just had to stay conscious. I'm walking up on the green. I mean, I topped my drive off the 18th hole. My hands were like baseball gloves. They were so I mean, I was taking back then you'd take salt tablets. They didn't have all the drinks and stuff and the water, and uh people were passing down like flies, and um that event really meant a lot because it was the last tournament that my father saw me win, and um he saw me win from a distance under a tree, and that's a whole other story uh about my dad, but um that really meant a lot to have that happen and walked on the 18th green and Hollis Stacy, who had already won two US opens, said to me, Now don't nine put, you know. As as typical of Hollis being as competitive as she is. Yeah, that that was unbelievable to to do that. I had strong strong memory of 1980. It was a good year.

Mike Gonzalez 24:09

Would you attribute your physical conditioning coming into that tournament as being very important in surviving when when a lot didn't?

Amy Alcott 24:15

Yeah, very. I think it was very important to be in the shape I was. And obviously, if I won the week before, it was um, you know, very, a very uh, you know, I was kind of rocking on all cylinders, putting well, and playing within myself, and my mental state was pretty calm, and I wasn't getting ahead of myself, and um, all the things you have to do. You have to kind of there's a part of being a great golfer is that you can only be as prepared as you can be, and then there's a that part of you that has to let the snowball gather pace, and you have to learn how to check out and flow on your own energy and your own momentum. And I think that's what the zone is being in the zone. I mean, you can only be as prepared if you're kind of thinking about stuff while you're out there, you know, like keep the left arm straight or whatever. You can't have to think about more than one thing versus just you gotta go out and play the game.

Bruce Devlin 25:19

Yeah. Yeah. Good point.

Mike Gonzalez 25:22

So your next win, uh, would did it feel like a home win uh being a California course at the uh Inomori Golf Classic at Almaden?

Amy Alcott 25:34

Um yeah, that was up in San Jose. Yeah, that was a great win for me. Um I liked the golf course. Um and I remember hitting a shot, I over hit a par three and played a shot backwards there and made a par. It was an incredible hole. Um and uh just seemed to, yeah, that was a great win. I do remember the golf course was very dry and um one of the better courses at the time to play playing there.

Mike Gonzalez 26:08

Bruce, wasn't there a men's event there back in the 60s? Seems to me I remember Guyberger winning out there at least once.

SPEAKER_05 26:15

Almondon.

Bruce Devlin 26:17

I I there could have been. I I know I never played there, but yeah, there could have been. Yeah. Yeah.

Amy Alcott 26:25

Sets up against the mountains. It's it's uh a very typical kind of course up in that kind of Los Gados area.

Mike Gonzalez 26:36

Yeah. Well, you mentioned Joanne Carner earlier, and uh in 1981 you beat her by one at the Bent Tree Ladies' Classic at Bent Tree Country Club.

Amy Alcott 26:47

Oh yeah, yeah, Sarasota. That was um that was a great win. We came into the, I believe, the 18th hole we were tied, another par five finishing hole. Just holding it together. And so Joanne was kind of a big bomber, you know, and I hit a drive down the fairway, and you could go hit your second shot over the water. There was a huge big tree that the pin was set on the left side of the green, and there was a huge big tree up in front of the green. But if you were hit a good drive on that hole, you could get there in two and be right of the tree and beyond the green putt for Eagle. But I didn't do that because I wasn't quite as long as Joanne, and I hit a driver and kind of a at the time a seven wood, this seven wood that I had, this old power-built seven wood, and laid up, and I had like 90 yards to the hole. And Carner, you know, was dragging on that cigarette she used to smoke, coming down there. It could have been a hundred degrees, she's still working the cigarette and flings it, pulls out like a three-wood, and goes for the green, and the thing plugs right into the bank right under the tree, and she's in the rock, kind of had to stand on rocks, but you could see the ball. So her only shot that she could possibly have had was a s stand where she was gonna fall in the water almost regardless, but she didn't care. She got in there, and instead of uh going back and taking a drop, she got in there and hit this most amazing shot with like it would have been 60 degree wedge now, up over this huge oak tree onto the green, about six feet from the hole. It was like the most incredible, incredible um shot. And um I hit mine in there about 20 feet and miss it and make par. And um I I remember I had one shot lead going into that hole. And so now she had a six-footer after hitting two big sh incredible shots. She's got the six-footer to tie me. And she misses the putt. And I will always remember her gutsiness going for it and her style and her she was a man they'd probably call her a swashbuckling style, you know. But she she went for it, you know. It was yeah, it was a great memory.

Mike Gonzalez 29:33

Yeah. Well, you had uh one more win in you in you, uh, which was the Lady Michelobe uh over Sally Little that year, and then um Atlanta, yes.

Amy Alcott 29:44

Uh-huh. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 29:45

Yeah, in uh Brookfield West Golf and Country Club.

Amy Alcott 29:50

Yeah, yeah. Don't remember it too well, but um I hung in there and tarred the last hole and was a great win.

Mike Gonzalez 30:00

Yeah, you won a 92 at the Women's Kemper Open, a real Connopali. So over in Hawaii by one over Joanne Carner again.

Amy Alcott 30:08

Yep, that was that was uh I I got it up and down on 17. It was pretty head-to-head. I remember that golf course because I took a local caddy. We didn't wear any shoes, which is what you do in Hawaii, and I played the round of golf with no yardages. I played uh 54 hole, I guess it was a 54-hole event. It was the Women's Kemper Open, and uh played with no yardages, just played by sight, which is always how I've always played my best before the days of yardage books and rangefinders. You know, if you don't know it's a nine iron, then you shouldn't be playing, you know, as far as I'm concerned. If it's between a pitching wedge and a nine-iron, you should just kind of make a choice, you know.

Mike Gonzalez 30:58

Yeah, for sure.

Amy Alcott 30:59

And I remember pretty much playing that whole week without a regular caddy with a yardage book, and I took this local guy, and um I had on the first T, he was so nervous. He my head cover for the driver was tight, and he snapped it and he broke my driver on the first T. And I said, I'd have forgot his name. I said, I don't care how fast you have to run, but you need to go into the golf shop there and grab me a driver. So he brings out this Ben Hogan, closed-faced, ultra-stiff shaft driver, right? And they're saying, now on the T from Santa Monica, California, Amy Alcott. I said, This is not gonna. So I try it and I almost knocked it in the water on the first swing. And I really only used that club twice, I think, during the round. The rest of it was with a hook face three when I was trying to hook everything to get, you know, make it run a bit. Make it run. So that was a very fulfilling win to win like that. There's uh like a story behind everything, but to win like that, and then I I birdied the last hole to beat Joanne and uh I think Lopez. We were all paired together uh by one. And uh that was very exciting. Jim Kemper gave me the trophy, and it was a great win to win like that under that kind of adversity. Just you I have to find a way, you know.

Mike Gonzalez 32:39

Yeah, yeah. Well, let's uh let's talk about your first of three Nabisco Dinosure wins. Uh course that event was always contested at Mission Hills Country Club. This one was by two over Beth Daniel and Kathy Whitworth.

Amy Alcott 32:57

Yeah, was it? Okay, so that was uh 1983.

Mike Gonzalez 33:01

1983.

Amy Alcott 33:03

Yeah, 1983, and um I remember winning there and holding it together.

Mike Gonzalez 33:12

A little windy?

Amy Alcott 33:14

Very, very windy, yes. And I think Beth Daniel had a disadvantage because she hit a high ball and she made a bunch of bogeys early in the round, and um yeah, it was it was a survival test, you know. It was um I remember having a caddy, my caddy at the time, Johnny Swenson, um, and I had to kind of like he wanted me to lay up on the last hole, and I said, kind of live by it and die by it. And I said, I'm gonna take a three-iron and I drove it in the rough and then didn't hit a good second shot and had like 180 to the hole in the wind, which was a big deal back then. I said, I'm gonna just hit the hell out of this thing with a big draw and try to get it somewhere on the green. Because if I had to lay up again, I would have had to get it up and down for a par. And I just hit the most incredible hook three iron with that, and just barely got it on the green and ended up like two putting to win the tournament. That was a quite a survival test. I remember him saying, Thank you for showing me how to win. And uh I think sometimes that's the most you know fulfilling thing in a career is all the different if you've got the game, all the different ways that you find ways to do it, whether it's in the or the wind, or the rain, or with the fever, with the flu, all the different ways. I think I look back and I think those are the things that oh the things you overcome. Not so much the great shots you had, although those are important, but the things that you kind of do to make just find a way to make it happen.

unknown 35:07

Yeah.

Amy Alcott 35:07

And the great ones, Bruce, don't you think they just find a way to do it?

Bruce Devlin 35:12

Yeah. Just know how to get it done.

Amy Alcott 35:22

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 35:24

So tell us about uh butterfly bakery.

Amy Alcott 35:29

Oh, well the butterfly bakery was a bakery in Westwood, uh, not far from um well my chiropractor at the time was next door, and I used to go in and get adjusted and my back, and then I used to stop in for a piece of their crumb cake, blueberry crumb cake. And it was just kind of a neighborhood little place owned by some really nice Armenian people, the Chakmakians. And I said to them one day, I mean, they followed my golf career, and they said, wouldn't it? I think it would be great. I'm just kind of getting over the tour. You know, I've been out there a long time. I'd like to come in here during the off season. It was like a passing comment. And I'd like to have a regular job, like wait on people in a bakery and help you make sandwiches and cut the brownies and all of that stuff. And he's and she said, Liz said, Amy, anytime you want to do that, as long as you put one of those um head uh things over your head, you can come in here anytime. And I was loving it. I started in there cutting brownies and putting frosting on the carrot cake, and then I started to wait on people up front and make sandwiches. People would line up and come in and whatever. So I guess one day somebody came in there from Golf Digest magazine, and um they did a whole article on me. I mean, it was a whole, it was not a, you know, it was like me holding a bunch of cakes with holding with an apron on, and Amy Elcutt founder niche or something. But I really enjoyed that. And then another thing that happened was right around the corner was the headquarters of Occidental Petroleum. And Armin Hammer, who founded Occidental Petroleum, was still alive, and obviously they had all their they had an executive chef over there, on over there, and a lot of his senior executives were golfers. And I guess word got out that Amy Alcott is like making sandwiches over at this little deli, and they'd show up in there, and then word got to him like, you know, we've got we're paying this guy like 200 grand a year to cook breakfast, dinner, lunch, and dinner, and you're going over to see this golf pro and get tuna sandwiches, you know. And I was told, I was told that he actually walked in there one day when I was out on actually out on the tour playing, because this was only a side job for me. It says, Is this Amy Alcott here? And everybody kind of looked around because a lot of people work there. What's he doing here? So anyway, I never met him, but I guess I caused a little bit of a stir stir there at the butterfly. But I really loved it. It was a lot of fun. It was a great relationship I had with this couple, they're no longer alive. And um I got to be around food, which is something I still really love. Anything related to I'm kind of a foodie.

Mike Gonzalez 38:49

Yeah, yeah. Well, as we get into 1984 for Amy Alcott, four wins. One of the wins I want to talk to you about is the Lady Keystone opened at Hershey Country Club. Uh you won by one over Julie Inkster and Martha Nousey. And the reason I want to ask you about that, well, number one, uh you only shot 65 minus seven in the final round to win. But number two, and you'll you need to think about this because one of the questions we always ask our guests at the end is if you gave if we gave you one career mulligan, where would you take it? Well, Martha Nousey, when we visit with her, she says, my mulligan would certainly be my 12-foot par putt on the 18th.

Amy Alcott 39:32

Oh, wow. Well, that's interesting.

Mike Gonzalez 39:33

Of that tournament of that tournament.

Amy Alcott 39:35

That's interesting because that win was probably my most unusual, freakish win of all of my tournaments. Because I had gone off, I was six shots out of the lead, teeing off at 10.30 in the morning. Not a lot of, you know, we were playing on the East Course at Hershey Country Club, and I believe Ben Hogan had been the pro there. Milton Hershey had hired him back in the day. He was uh the pro there, but that's not the point. Um, I shoot this career round and shoot 65, and I like finish at 10 under, and I can see the leaders walking down the first fairway. And there's like minus 10, minus 11, whatever. And I'm thinking, okay, well, that was a fabulous round. I had a good finish. I went in, changed my clothes, got all my luggage, and I'd been gone out of town for like three weeks or something, and I wanted to get back to the West Coast. So transportation picked me up out front, zipped up my golf bag, and I'm on my way to Harrisburg Country Club. I mean, Harrisburg Airport. Thinking, you know, my caddy's saying, You sure you want to leave because, you know, this is not, you know, they're not. And I'm thinking, what? Wait four hours to have and miss the flight, have to stay overnight again and leave tomorrow? I mean, this is how I was thinking. Thinking somebody's not gonna shoot one under or par. So we had the big telephones back then, right?

Mike Gonzalez 41:18

Yeah.

Amy Alcott 41:18

The guy drives me to Harrisburg Airport, we get out in front of US Air, it's now, but it was a 45-minute drive there. And he gets some call that Julie Inkster is on the 17th Green and I'm tied with her. And I'm 45 minutes in a car away, right? And I've already checked my bags. Okay. And the plane's leaving in like 50 minutes.

Mike Gonzalez 41:48

Clubs are loaded.

Amy Alcott 41:49

The clubs are loaded. So I throw caution to the wind and I said, you know what, Alcott, you could be it really being a playoff. You can't, I mean, when I tell this story to people, they can't even believe it. So we went inside, we got my golf bag, and the club the that was in the day you could just, you know, your luggage what my luggage went on. I got my golf clubs there and a pair of shoes. I had a pair of jeans on. And we raced back there to the top of the hill. And on the top of the green is Martha Nousey and Mrs. a putt looking down off the hill. I got holding a briefcase in my purse. I'm standing next to Governor Dick Thornburg, who's gonna print it, probably give me the trophy, and the huge Hershey bar. He's like uh dressed like a huge Hershey bar. And I'm standing there, and it came down to a three-foot putt for uh of Inkster, and she misses it, and I win the golf tournament. And um I'm just like I'm shaking my head thinking, God, I'm so glad I came back, and I'm glad Inkster missed it because I don't think my shoes, my golf shoes were on their way to Los Angeles, and all I remember is walking down to the 18th Green by them after they'd signed their card, and I remember my caddy being so excited and uh Danny Wilson and um going walking by Julie Inkster and expletive, she says, Where the blank did you come from? Where were the scoreboards? And I said, Well, that's the way the cookie crumbles. And I just kept walking, and uh it's a great I still have this great picture of that win. But that was the most freakish, unusual win, and I didn't wait it out. Uh, but I'm glad I didn't get on the plane because I could have been lost out on a win.

Mike Gonzalez 43:57

You think any winner on either tour?

Amy Alcott 44:00

Has ever no showed the prize giving uh for the no no showed the playoff?

Mike Gonzalez 44:06

Well, that's that might be worse.

Amy Alcott 44:08

I've never no showed the playoff and just say whatever and yeah, take it second, or even if I didn't, you know, I don't know. Maybe they kicked me out of the turn. I don't know. That was pretty wild.

Mike Gonzalez 44:22

Thank you for listening to another episode of For the Good of the Game. And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, but it tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 44:43

Whack down the fairway. It went smack down the fairway. Then it started to slice just smidge off line. It headed for two, but it bounced off nine. My caddy says long as you're still in the state, you're okay. Yes, it went straight down the middle, quite away.