Catherine Lacoste - Part 2 (Winning the 1967 U.S. Open as an Amateur)

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it started to be able to do that.

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

So there were quite a few accomplishments as you as you traversed between the 1965 Women's U.S. Open, sort of your first taste there, where you finished 14th in an event that uh Carol Mann won. And uh and then uh uh bridging the gap to the 67 U.S. Open that you won. You had several competitions, uh uh many of which probably it might have been your first crack at uh starting with the Vagliano trophy, uh which was uh a win in uh in Germany in 1965. That was a uh tell us a little bit about that event for our listeners that aren't familiar with that particular championship.

Catherine Lacoste 0:52

It's a very interesting uh match which was played for the um Europeans, Continental, again to against the British. And uh it was uh great fun and the best best uh amateurs in Europe, and uh it was a very, very interesting tournament, I think.

Mike Gonzalez 1:14

You know, a as you look back with uh many more years of perspective, looking back on your young playing days, what gave you the most joy? Was it the team competition or the individual competition?

Catherine Lacoste 1:27

I like very much playing for my country. I think so. That's one of them perhaps one of the main things that uh stopped me from uh turning pro. Obviously also the th the fact that there was no pros in Europe. So I couldn't turn pros. I had to go and live in the United States. And I like very much Europe. I love being with my family. And uh it's only in the 80s that there was the first pros and the first tournaments for pros. Um but uh I like very much the team. I liked the what I didn't like was the match play individual. I hated the 18-hole matchplay. I thought I liked the metal play.

Bruce Devlin 2:10

Yeah.

Catherine Lacoste 2:12

Because uh the medal play, I mean, after 72 holes, obviously normally uh one of the best wins. Yeah in the 18-hole match play. I mean, anybody can win very often because one can have a very good day. And uh so uh the medal play I enjoyed very much. The team, the obviously the world team championships. I played many times. I played in Mexico in '66. I played in Australia in 68, also being the first individual there. Then in 70, I'd got married a week uh uh month before the the tournament, and uh in fact I was already expecting a child, but didn't know about it, and I finished all the same pretty pretty well. Uh I played in 72, I couldn't because I was expecting a child, but that was a miscarriage. Then I played again in 60, 76, and 78 and 76 and 78. So I played. I went on playing, even though I had four children in those ten years between 70 and 80. And uh I managed to play the same quite a few of the world team championship and uh enjoyed it very much. And in 80, I still I had my last child. A few months after that, they asked me to play the first World Women's World Series of Golf, which was wonderful. It was the ten best pros and uh the best amateur, the one that won the US amateur, and um well the Matt Cormac who was organizing asked me to come into that tournament. And uh it was four months after having a child in a cesarean, and I managed it and after two rounds I was fourth. I did finish last, but I don't think to be last in that type of tournament wasn't too bad. And then in the same year I played a role mixed Rolex mixed for some in Japan. That is a fantastic tournament because there are two people from each continent, and so there was Nancy Lopez and uh Lee Trevino, for example, and uh the the people like that, Hanan Prahmer's playing, and I played with Langer. I must say I think I'd have liked to play with uh Severano by Esteles, but he wasn't a Mac Cormack player, so but I mean if I'd played with Severiano, but we had a great time and it was a fantastic opportunity. That was one of the most fun. Then I played the the Colgate, and after that uh I didn't play anymore until starting again with the seniors uh many, many years later.

Mike Gonzalez 4:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's let's take you back to the your early days when maybe on more than one occasion you thought about the professional career. Was it ever a serious thought? And and you mentioned a few of the things that would have kept you from it. What was the one thing that would have mostly kept you from it? The fact that you'd have to come to America to compete?

Catherine Lacoste 5:05

I think the the the thing that helped me was my great luck to have pip people, my parents who could uh pay me a trip to the States to play a tournament. That's obviously helped me tremendously. Uh the thing to me in France, I love France and uh I like to play with the French team. Obviously the fact that there was no pros in uh in Europe was uh evident uh evidently if it if I'd been perhaps in the 80s, I've done the same thing. I think I probably would tr try to be a pro. But uh but uh I I never I'd liked also, I wanted honestly to have children. So it was also difficult to have children and go over the States to and to find a husband. And I met my husband, I had my four children, as I say, they were my best my best tournaments, my best wins in my life. And um, you know, so I never really thought of being a pro. I'd never nobody's ever asked me to be a pro. Funnily enough, I never had a proposition to turn property.

Mike Gonzalez 6:10

Interesting, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that is. Because that happened to a lot of players in America where almost back in the 60s they were really recruiting hard to bring additional ladies onto that circuit, weren't they?

Catherine Lacoste 6:21

Well, they didn't I mean they didn't ask me. I perhaps my father when he was around, he he didn't uh he would they would talk talked to him perhaps before and he probably s shrugged his shoulders or something like that. But uh I mean I there I I'm not saying I never said no, I don't want I don't want to be a pro. It just didn't uh go like that. I got married in 1970, which was very shortly after my I was already engaged in uh 69, uh December 69, so or even perhaps even before, but I got married in August 1970. So it's very shortly after all my tour. And in fact, I mean there weren't that many other tournaments. It would have been, let's say, a repetition of winning a tournament. If there wasn't one tournament I wanted to win that I I I didn't win.

Mike Gonzalez 7:12

You certainly wouldn't have been an economic driver back then. I think the total purse for the 32 tournaments played in 1970 was$482,000 total for the year. So you wouldn't have done it for the money.

Catherine Lacoste 7:25

No, probably not. Being lucky enough to be in the family I was.

Mike Gonzalez 7:30

Yeah. Yeah. Let's talk about some of these other competitions. I think it was in 65 that uh you probably had your first victory in the French International Ladies Amateur Stroke Play Championship. That's a mouthful. Because you won several of those, didn't you? You won you won those five five of five times in that event, I think, yes?

Catherine Lacoste 7:47

I I like that event, as I say. I like the many play much more than the menstrual.

Mike Gonzalez 7:52

Stroke play.

Catherine Lacoste 7:53

Sure.

Mike Gonzalez 7:54

Yeah, you know, you you you talk about uh the difference between the two forms of play. I guess it it sort of makes you appreciate what Tiger Woods did across those six years when he won three U.S. juniors and three U.S. amateurs. Yeah. Sure. Imagine winning that many matches in a row when something's bound to go goofy. You know, somebody just gonna catch fire, and and uh he was just so far above the pack. Uh, but that's not typical, is it?

Catherine Lacoste 8:20

Sure, sure. I mean the the US uh US amateur, I played in Birmingham also, but uh I didn't win. I I won also the Women's Western Amateur, which is match play. But um, I mean there are a few tournaments in fact in 68 I decided to come over for two months uh playing the amateur tournaments to to let's say learn how to play match play. They were more aggressive as players, probably in the United States, and uh taught me to play, which is a reason why probably I managed to win the US amateur and the British amateur the year after. There's also the the for the British, there's uh a detail that I I after I won the um individual in the Australian uh World Team Championship, I had a wonderful trip just for the interest and the fun. I went through uh Honolulu and then I went to um Los Angeles, I went to the Disney, Disneyland at that time. Then I went to Mexico in the Olympics, and I managed to to see the Olympics there. And then I was I'd met all these all these teams also that uh helped me uh for these trips because they said, oh, come over. I went to Peru and then I went to Chile where I played with uh um the the team uh that had played also in Australia, and then went then to Argentina, which there I I I went to um the the reason I was talking about this was I met uh uh Roberto de Vicenzo and I went to his house and I played around with him and I said I was a bit frustrated because I played already five times the British and I can't win it. My mother's won it, I really want to win it, and I've won many tournaments, and I and he told her gave me a few tips to keep the the keep the the ball lower. I had a very high ball, keep the ball lower, gave me a few tips of that, and the the year after I won the British. So and finally after the last uh the last uh place I'd left was in Rio de Janeiro, is also a little story that uh you'll probably enjoy. I I was with the Falconbirds who played the the World Team Championship also in Austral in Australia. And uh but uh and Roberto told me I said I I'd rather be in Rio and not I can't stay very long, I'd rather not play golf because I I want to see Rio. And she said, Well, put put a band around your arm and say you hurt your arm when you get down to the plane. And I did that, so I'm I managed to go around Rio and see it with uh the host being host uh uh hosted by the Falker Birds who were very sweet. And then the next the the I had to go back because this was my mother's birthday, so I had to go back to France and celebrate her birthday. But it was a two-month trip. I went and had a wonderful trip.

Mike Gonzalez 11:20

Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna I'm gonna take you back to 1966 now. You played an event that you won called the Astor Princes Trophy, which was at Prince's Golf Club. Of course, some people will remember that uh Prince's Golf Club was one of the 14 open venues. Uh it hosted it once, and uh fellow by the name of Gene Sarazen won that open championship. You opened with a round of 66.

Catherine Lacoste 11:47

Exactly. And I was playing with Angela Banalek. And we had uh we were playing first, and we we went around two and a half hours and uh had a six to six, and I called back home and I had uh a sister-in-law who didn't know much about golf, and uh they my parents were at home, so I told her I had a 66, and uh so my parents came back, but 66? It can't be true, you must be on nine holes or something like that. I mean it they were it was uh but we had very fast, I mean, as I say, in two hours and a half, and a lovely match with Angela Benalek.

Mike Gonzalez 12:25

I think at the time it was the the lowest round in a major British competition. Of course, you mentioned Lady Angela Benalek, married to Sir Michael Benalek, who we just lost uh recently. Sure. Quite a great amateur golfing couple from Britain.

Catherine Lacoste 12:40

Certainly a lovely lady. I didn't know him as well, but I know knew her, and she was lovely. But another low score, I don't know if you got it on your records, was a 62. Did you get that on your record?

Mike Gonzalez 12:54

Where was that at?

Catherine Lacoste 12:56

In Montfortin in the uh in the French championship. And I had a 62. That's uh probably the lowest uh that I've ever had.

Mike Gonzalez 13:05

So if you were to give Bruce and I three courses that we must play in France, which three courses would they be?

Catherine Lacoste 13:13

Ha! Chautauco, of course, but uh no.

Mike Gonzalez 13:15

Of course, you're you're biased.

Catherine Lacoste 13:19

Uh Moften was certainly one of my favorites then. I think it's um a fantastic course. Part of that, there's been so many new ones that it's difficult for me to um to judge now because it's uh there's so many new course. Uh Sanalabotage was a good course, certainly, with a lot of tournaments played there. Um I played a program with uh Arnold Palmer there. That is fantastic. Great fun. Uh I knew Gary Play also there. It's very sweet also. Um other courses that there's so many of them. I mean, it's uh it's difficult to s to say one more than another.

Mike Gonzalez 14:07

Yeah, let's go on to another uh championship you won again in match play. Uh uh so you're you're getting to you're getting to know match play and doing well in it. This was the French International Ladies Junior Amateur, your second one in 1966. Uh this was by 7-5 over Cecilia Perzlow.

Catherine Lacoste 14:26

Yes, Cecilia Mogodal, who got married to Gaeta Mogodalg after that. It was a very good tournament. I used to say the junior French Championship was very, very high level. And uh I was lucky to win it, uh uh obviously, and uh, but it was a great tournament.

Mike Gonzalez 14:47

You won the uh French International Ladies Amateur Stroke Play Championship for a second time uh that year over Claudine, one of your one of your teammates uh in the first Espiritu de Santo. And then in 66 you had a chance to, as you mentioned, uh to go to Mexico City for that second uh rendition of that event. Team third, team third, and individually third. And then we're just sort of building up toward that 1967 uh U.S. Open win. And we've talked a little bit about it. Uh you won by two at the Cascades course at the homestead in Virginia. Uh and this was over Susie Maxwell and Beth Stone by two strokes, with rounds of 71, 70, 74, 79. And uh and that last round, uh, from what I recall from reading about it, some pretty tough weather.

Catherine Lacoste 15:39

It was tough weather. After two rounds, I must say when I arrived, I can't say that I ever expected to win the sopen. That's obvious. My father was, I think, the only one perhaps believed it, but uh no, I don't think anybody else. Um the first two rounds I was lucky enough to play with Merle Lindstrom, with Merle Brewer now when she's married. Yeah. She was a lovely lady to play with, and uh we played both pretty well. And uh finished with five strokes at that time. It wasn't usual to call very much on the telephone. But that night I was five strokes ahead, and I must say, very surprised. So I called my parents to tell them, and they were obviously very happy and very surprised. I said, Well, I'll call you on Sunday to know how I finished. And um then the next day, obviously, with the 74, I was still five strokes ahead, and very surprised or excited, so I called them again. And uh in fact, uh the newspaper people to told me about uh Martin uh Fleckman, I think, who was leader in the US Open about two weeks before, as an amateur, and uh he was ahead, and they all asked me, Do you know about Martin Fleckman two weeks ago? I said, Yes, yes, I do know about him. But uh that is uh a good uh joke. I was also, it was uh uh the the weather wasn't very good, uh let's say the third and the fourth round, which obviously the we had to stop uh half an hour, the greens were soaked, had problems with three putts every night every uh some holes. And I uh I was seven strokes ahead and seventeen to go. I was playing with Marty Masters, and it was not an easy course, obviously, with the with the the the rain and nobody did very good scores. And uh finished, I was only one stroke ahead and two holes to go. So that wasn't very and I on top of it, I but that that was because on the 16th it was over a pond uh just before the green, and I more or less shanked the shot. On the right was a green, I was lucky because I didn't go into the water. And uh but I managed to do a chip in a pot, and uh, but that wasn't easy, and then there was a dog leg on the 16th, and uh I don't know if it was uh I think it was my natural draw that I usually had that made me turn around the corner and gave quite a lot of uh space because instead of playing normally it would have been probably a four-hour to play a second shot. I had only seven hours to play, played that well, went close to the hole and made the part two strokes to go. And then on the eighteenth eighteenth uh hole, it's a part three and there was a pond right at the bottom, and then it went up again to the green. And I stood on that uh T shot and said, Wow, if I top the ball, I'd be in a pond. I mean, you know, things that go through your mind at that time. And uh went luckily I was on the green, so I think it probably a three iron, and I was about seven, eight yards from the hole and uh putted and I was really a short putt. And uh but in my head it seemed very long. And uh when I saw the the the film afterwards, I said it was that short. Because I promise you what uh went into my head. I said, Well that uh that part, what do I do? I know two strokes lead. What do I try and go that get close to the hole or try and make it? But I don't know, it was probably a foot. And um uh I but the thought went through my mind, and luckily I just made it and that was easier.

Mike Gonzalez 19:24

Yeah, yeah. Most people don't lag one or two footers, but in that situation, you do what you need to do to win.

Catherine Lacoste 19:30

Yeah, yes, but you that's what you should do. But it's you everything goes through your mind.

Mike Gonzalez 19:37

Yeah. So seven-shot lead. Put us inside your head. What was going through your mind?

Catherine Lacoste 19:45

Well, uh seven shots that didn't really mark me very much. Uh one one-shot lead, that's five shot seed, obviously. I was quite comfortable. Margie Master made a seven the first hole, so that's why I had the seven after one hole. I just tried went on playing my game. Um, I remember that the that course uh was quite a tight course. In fact, I remarked that it was similar to the Ghost of Chantago that I'd played all my youth. Quite tight, like quite a lot of trees. And I used a lot, my two-wood instead of my driver for safety, I guess. The whole the whole tournament. And um then there was the greens that were we stopped, the greens were soaked, so that they didn't run the same. Um I didn't really play badly, but uh it's obviously it wasn't um normal game either. And um I just went on playing. And I saw the obviously the it was getting uh smaller the the tighter every time, but I managed uh on the 17th to do a birdie. I think uh quite a brave one because I went over the trees, perhaps a bit helped by my, as I say, my normal draw, and um made a good good shot.

Mike Gonzalez 21:04

That was that too would have been.

Catherine Lacoste 21:05

Yes, that's probably yes, I think so.

Mike Gonzalez 21:08

Yeah, now you mentioned playing with Margie Masters that last round. Uh wasn't she an Australian player?

Catherine Lacoste 21:13

Yes, and she's a very good Australian player.

Mike Gonzalez 21:16

I think recently passed away as well, as I recall. Uh I think so. The last few months. Yeah. Um you also mentioned Merle Breer, Merle Lindstrom. Of course, we had Merle on the show. And and was it helpful having someone who had won five years before?

Catherine Lacoste 21:30

Uh I what was helpful is the her kindness, her uh lovely person, very, very nice person. And um, you know, I think that helped tremendously. But I was still only just 22, so I was very young, and but she was very sweet with me and uh normal, normal what what I call normal treatment, but uh uh you know.

Mike Gonzalez 21:57

This was a birthday week for you. I think you you'd sell Your birthday early in the week, and then you won it on your father's birthday, right?

Catherine Lacoste 22:03

I I was celebrated with Patti Burg. Oh, is that right? I was with this family that I mentioned before, and uh uh the Prestons, and uh with her, she came to dinner with us at the little motel we were staying, and we blew the the birthday cake, and uh, she was also somebody fantastic person, very, very sweet. She played with uh Wilson also, so the Wilson people in general, having the contact, my father with the racket and things like that. They were especially friendly, I think, uh, for me.

Mike Gonzalez 22:35

Yeah. Did you ever get a chance to see Patty doing any of her exhibitions?

Catherine Lacoste 22:41

A birthday party with uh I came back in '95 um to it was at the Broadmoor, and we had a celebration of the champions. And uh she she was there, she made an exhibition, and uh she was I mean, she made us laugh so much. She was a great character.

Bruce Devlin 23:01

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 23:02

She sure was, yeah. So uh Joe Dye was officiating your your fantastic gentleman, also, very, very sweet.

Catherine Lacoste 23:11

I got beautifully on with him. I saw his son also in Paris a few years later. I got on with him very well. Um I I must say I've lost track of him, uh Joe Dye, but I guess probably he passed away. I don't know. But uh he's he was a wonderful gentleman.

Mike Gonzalez 23:28

Yeah, longtime administrator with the USGA and then uh and then went on to become really the first official commissioner, didn't he? Of the newly formed professional.

Bruce Devlin 23:37

Yeah, when we broke away from the uh from the PGA to form the PGA tour, he was our first commissioner. And you know, when you won that open, uh Catherine, you you were the youngest winner ever to have won the US Open at that time. And you're still today the only amateur to have won the US Open for the women.

Catherine Lacoste 24:03

I know that. And I know you mention it right every time when on the television, every time there's US Open. And also there's one, I think, record. It was discussed at one time because somebody, I think the only the first foreigner to win, because somebody had turned American and there was this discussion, somebody had won it. But I think the first foreigner.

Mike Gonzalez 24:24

Yeah, you know, there's always a debate about uh what do you call Faye Crocker? Is she a Uruguayan or is she an American, right?

Catherine Lacoste 24:30

Uh that's what uh they said at the time, they were the first uh foreigner, the first uh obviously first French, but the youngest and the the first amateur.

Mike Gonzalez 24:41

Yeah, I I I love this quote that I saw from Sports Illustrator's article about this win. Uh this was written by Mark Mulvoy, and he said, one of the biggest golf upsets since Wamet unglued Varden and Ray. And Ray.

Catherine Lacoste 24:59

I must say it's just a big surprise for everybody.

Mike Gonzalez 25:02

Well, so yeah, so you know, take our listeners back to that day because uh, you know, here it is, uh uh 1967. Interesting time, by the way, in American history. Um still a fledgling LPGA tour, only 17 years old, still finding itself. It was years before you were going to get uh um old uh David Foster and Colgate Paul Molliff to enter the scene to really bring some money into the women's game. Uh pretty close-knit group, uh, small number of pros. I mean, they had trouble filling fields on occasion, and so they were really recruiting professional golfers, the ladies. Uh and it was also at the time the inmates running the asylum, meaning the ladies were were chief jury and judge of of everything going on, including officiating rules, marking the golf course, long before they had a professional governance structure. So it was an interesting time to come over as a foreigner into that into that mix.

Catherine Lacoste 26:05

Yes, and I think that uh this all you said explains very much that say the hurt that I made to the to the pros of that time. And in a way, I still apologize about it, but because they didn't have, as they say, they didn't have a Yusopian champion to bring forward in the next tournaments to make publicity about it, and I think that's what happened. And they they were worried about that, and uh what you said yesterday was very funny. Uh I don't know if you want to say it again or not. But I I understand very well they're hurt and uh uh and on top of it, I mean I wasn't going to go on and be a pro and they can I I stopped uh I didn't go on playing the tournaments with them. So like they couldn't even show the first amendment and won it, and uh so uh uh obviously for them it was certainly uh difficult. Uh perhaps that one more if that uh say it's incredible an amateur can has won it. Uh they could have taken, I think, the the good side of it. But um it was very difficult. I quite understand the difficult time for them.

Mike Gonzalez 27:19

Yeah, I mean uh uh to put it mildly, a bit of jealousy, bit of envy, but uh probably more understandable within the context of the time, I suppose, right?

Catherine Lacoste 27:28

Totally, totally understandable.

Mike Gonzalez 27:30

Yeah, yeah. Uh it almost seems as though you came out of this more famous in America than you were in France.

Catherine Lacoste 27:37

I still more famous in America than France. I don't I don't know that next year is gonna be the 60th anniversary of the first uh world team championship that we won. I haven't a clue if there's gonna be a celebration or not. I think there should be. Uh Claudine is still alive, I'm still alive. And I think it's a pity that they there isn't, because I think for the good of the game, I think they it's very important for the youngster to know that uh there's been people before them. I think it helps. But I'm still much more famous in the United States. Like you could see in July this year, and it was a joy to be in the USGA and to be part of it. And uh it was incredible. But even in the Great Britain, I mean, uh I went a few years, uh quite a few years later, not very long ago, around 2000, I went to Ireland and I went round with my second husband around Ireland, and we were received with uh I mean so much joy from the people from Royal Counter Down where my mother won it, and Port Rush, where all the ladies made a party with for us. And I mean uh in Great Britain, I think uh perhaps uh United States and uh uh Great Britain uh more golfers than French in their heart. I don't know. Or they don't they they don't treat the the the champions. Uh I was obviously uh very nicely honored by the the Republic and they I had the Légion d'honneur, the officer of the Légion d'honneur. That was I mean they did a wonderful job at that point of view. But I think um yes, it's important for the youngster to know that they had champions before in their own country.

Mike Gonzalez 29:23

Yeah. Well I think as the global game continues to expand and and uh and more and more uh youngsters in France find the game, I think at some point people are gonna come to truly appreciate uh you and your record.

Catherine Lacoste 29:36

After sixty years.

Mike Gonzalez 29:40

You gotta be patient, you gotta give them time.

Catherine Lacoste 29:43

I am, as you see, I'm a I turned my life right to another another uh subject, and um I'm having great time as I am, and I can't play golf, so I mean I don't I mean I enjoy very much this type of as I say, I enjoyed it tremendously what you did uh in uh Pebble Beach was just fantastic, and we all enjoyed seeing ourselves the the the past champions. We we had a good time. And it was a real joy. It's a fantastic uh thing to do, and uh you don't know how much I appreciated. They remembered me and made me come from from Spain and uh I I mean it it just didn't uh have dinner with Mer Melbria. It was just, you know, it remember brought brought us back many times. As I say, I think also the US Open is something very special. And I think um nowadays I still I still uh when I say that I'm US I was a US Open champion. Even people who don't know much about golf, I mean uh it's something that's a credit, and I think uh that's credit to you also made it such a big thing.

Mike Gonzalez 30:49

So let's talk a little bit about how winning the US Open changed your world.

Catherine Lacoste 30:57

Well, thing is it as I say, it's gonna marked all my life without any doubt. Uh changed my world, I I don't know if it changed my world in uh in a way except it being recognized having won the US Open. I got married in 1970, I had four children as I said, and then um I brought up my children, it takes the time. Then they came over, in fact, uh three of them came over to uh uh American um high school and uh universities and so I was a lot in the States, so I still went on being there. And then um pushed by my second husband, I went on to playing the seniors and we won the the seniors uh championship team championship in Europe uh for five times out of six when I was captain, which is also a great joy. I got married to a musician with nothing to do. I told him a bit about golf. But uh as I say, I think I was about the level in guitar that he was in golf. But we enjoyed playing together. And uh he was uh a classical guitar Spanish uh player. He composed very many beautiful pieces that are now being going around the world, which is fun. And uh he passed away nearly two years ago. But we had a fantastic life at that point. We traveled a lot, we went to the States, he he personally he made some courses in Hampton and Sydney in North Carolina in uh in Virginia. He was there for five years, so he knew the United States before before I were well I was just knowing him when when he he went over there. I knew him then. And so we I think we shared something that was uh the same in music, high class music and uh high class sport is the dedication, the work, the precision, the I mean uh there's there's a lot of similitude between very good music and very good uh sport. So with that that's probably one reason we got on so well. And uh I think I mean I can't say more than I had a a very happy life through golf, through music, through so and I was very lucky. I've been very lucky. And at the moment I'm still going on diffusing all his music uh around the world, as I say. I've got one in in Madrid in a few days, one in Paris in in February, another one in Madrid in the best best uh concert place in Madrid in June. So at least I'll go on living with this uh music and uh uh but as I say, I can't play golf anymore, so I have to find an occupation.

Mike Gonzalez 33:53

Yeah, there you go. Well, I I did find myself on YouTube yesterday listening and enjoying some of his music.

Catherine Lacoste 34:01

Good, good.

Mike Gonzalez 34:02

Then it's thank you for listening to another episode of 4 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, and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game.

Intro Music 34:21

So long, everybody spit off too, as long as you're still in the stage, you're okay.