Dottie Pepper - Part 1 (The Early Years and the 1992 Nabisco Dinah Shore)

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it started to flip.

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Welcome to another edition of FORE the Good of the Game and Bruce Devlin. This morning we have a gem of a guest. A tough competitor, multifaceted woman, and a sparkly personality.

Bruce Devlin 0:29

Well, how about a couple of facts? 59 cuts made in majors out of 62 appearances. Two-time major champion, uh, Nabisco Dinosaur in 1992 and 1999. Everybody knows who I'm talking about, I'm sure. We see her every week just about on the uh CBS telecast, and it is great to have you, Dottie Pepper. Thanks for joining Mike and myself this morning.

Dottie Pepper 0:56

Well, thanks for having me. This is uh quite an illustrious group of people you've assembled and and will continue to assemble well past past my appearance. It's pretty amazing what you're doing.

Bruce Devlin 1:06

Well, thank you. We we've enjoyed it, it's been fun. Uh uh we're so glad that we can uh add all the great lady players along with the men that we've uh already discussed. So thanks again for being here.

Mike Gonzalez 1:21

Yeah, Dottie, thanks for being with us. And we are having a blast telling the lady stories. Of course, you and I talked a little bit, and we've done Kathy Whitworth now, and uh and we had a chance to do Laura Davies. Uh this week we just did Sally Little and and Martha Knowsey. And so we're looking forward to continuing to build on that list of great players from the LPGA days. And you know, while we talk about your career, I'm sure we'll talk a little bit about the LPGA history, uh, some of the great players that you competed with back in the in the times that you were active on tour. What we like to do in telling your story is uh always start at the beginning. So tell us a little bit about growing up as a young lady and how you came to learn the game then, too.

Dottie Pepper 2:01

Well, I I grew up in upstate New York, uh, where I still live. I I left for warmer climates when I was actively playing, but moved back home, I guess about 13 years ago. Um family. Uh my grandmother on my dad's side introduced me to the game. She had become a very avid player. I think she was about an eight handicap at her best, and the oldest grandchild was it was a cool thing to have us be able to share that time. So I started with a a set of um or a series of five lessons from a journeyman professional at a driving range here in Saratoga Springs with a set of clubs that were bought from the local sporting goods store. Chi Chi Rodriguez Northwestern, and it had of all things in it, I've told this story so many times, but who in the world would now put a three-iron in a kid's starter set? A three-iron in it. So I guess I learned a long learned the the the art of hitting long irons from a from an early age. But um, you know, we we played at a at a golf course. It was started on a nine-hole golf golf course. It's still there at the Part 29 in the state park system here in in New York State. And um, yeah, I I played a lot of golf just in this area. My I didn't have a family that had the means to to haul me all over the place playing playing big tournaments. So it was really um a product of really local ladies' leagues that I could play in because they were close. So it wasn't um it wasn't uh like a a silver spoon junior golf career, let's put it that way. But my dad owned a driving range for a while after he got out of the insurance business post-being in baseball. And uh I know I I worked the range. I you know, I was the kid in the cage that everybody trying to bomb balls at and cleaned toilets, made hot dogs, I did it all. Um and that's you know, that's where I ended up uh I think really kind of fine-tuning my my game through my my mentor, George Pulver. Was he retired from from the facilities that he was professional at, but he still came up and gave lessons now and again there, and and I was fortunate to be on a very short list of people that he was still working with.

Mike Gonzalez 4:06

Yeah, well, tell us a little bit more about that. And of course, we wanted to talk about your book anyway, your new book entitled A Letter to a Future Champion, My Time with Mr. Polver, who you just uh referenced. And I'm sure you're busy with uh book signings and there's a lot of activity around that book launch. But uh tell us a little bit about how that relationship developed and uh just how meaningful he was in your early life.

Dottie Pepper 4:28

Well, it developed, I think it was a twofold um beginning to the relationship because he was a golf course architect at that golf course that my grandmother and I played the most of our golf at at that time. Um it was $100 for a junior golf membership for an entire season. And to this day, it's still only $200. So we've kind of through the through through the town that now owns a golf course, I've been able to keep that alive and keep keep golf affordable for kids in this area. So that was really important. But um I knew him from building Brookhaven Golf Club. Uh I played a little bit of those local ladies leagues golf against his wife, Martha. And when it got to the point in in my career where um my dad couldn't really take me much much farther down the road um with what he knew about the game, it was kind of a kind of a common sense no-brainer to to reach out to Mr. Pulver, but I was so chickened that I wrote a letter to his daughter and asked her, asked her if she thought it would be um something that you might be interested in. Because he was 81 and I was I was uh four fifteen at the time.

Mike Gonzalez 5:32

Yeah, amazing. Did you play other sports as well?

Dottie Pepper 5:37

I skied uh during the winter. My family's still deeply entrenched in the ski business, so I I spent all the winter on snow, didn't play any other competitive sports in in high school because it was just there wasn't any time. Uh I was I worked in the ski shop and I had in golf season, I wanted to be able to play both both sides, and it actually worked out because we played on the boys' team here in high school. Um but the the season was in the fall, but the state championship was in the spring. So if you're playing another sport, um you were kind of cooked if you made it to states.

Mike Gonzalez 6:08

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Bruce and I, having had a chance now to do several of these interviews, uh, most of the folks that we've talked to, they've they certainly did play other sports as youngsters. But as we talk to the women, it's interesting, particularly the American women. Um there's sort of a line of demarcation with Title IX. And so you came along after Title IX, which meant that there were probably more um maybe not equal, but more opportunities for women to compete on a team at a university or at a high school compared to you know, earlier on we talked to some of the women that came before Title IX. So I was just curious as to what sort of opportunities existed for you back in high school and college days.

Dottie Pepper 6:47

So I we did not have a girls' team, so at that, but that's not really a Title IX situation. That's a state funding situation, an interest level here in New York State. Um, we finally do. This is the third year that they've had a team at my high school, and our section finally hosted the state championship last week. But um it wasn't a big thing for me because Furman University had had a women's golf program and a well-established women's golf program. What has changed since is that there are a lot more programs available. Um, you know, even schools like Vanderbilt didn't have a women's golf program when I was in school. And Clemson is very new to the women's women's game. It's still inside 10 years of having a program there. So uh it's changed a lot more just just after I, but it really didn't it didn't affect me too much because Furman had such a well-established long-running program.

Mike Gonzalez 7:39

So did you say that you played on the on the boys' team then in high school?

Dottie Pepper 7:44

I did. I played I played uh five years on the boys' team.

Mike Gonzalez 7:47

And how well accepted were you on from the boys?

Dottie Pepper 7:51

They didn't have a choice. Um I still stay in touch with a couple of my teammates. I I give an award at the high school for both now both boys and girls, uh, every year for the most outstanding player, and not necessarily the most outstanding player, but the most valuable player to the entire team. Didn't have to necessarily be the best player on the team.

Bruce Devlin 8:12

I imagine that uh that you were probably the best player on the team, actually.

Dottie Pepper 8:18

I I played in the one spot for my last three years, Bruce.

Bruce Devlin 8:21

I figured you did, yeah.

Dottie Pepper 8:23

And actually qualified to go to the state championship. So you had to play from the from the tees, and everybody played from the same tease, qualified to go to the state championship. So it was 98 guys and me at Cornell.

Bruce Devlin 8:34

Isn't that amazing? Yeah, that's a great story.

Mike Gonzalez 8:38

So at some point, uh you got thinking about well, maybe I want to play this in college. Were you highly recruited as a high school senior?

Dottie Pepper 8:46

Uh I had a fair amount of letters. I only made two trips. I knew I wanted to go south of the Mason Dixon line, so when I got a letter to Penn State, it went on the circular file. I wanted to go south time uh hitting golf balls downstairs in a basement during the winter, but knew I needed to get out of the northeast in order to play better. But the the big mandate for me, for my parents, was you go somewhere, you get a valuable education because no one had had a four-year education in my family up to that point. Um, and dad leaving baseball in the way he did with not much to fall back on was difficult. So um getting a a valued education. So it was it was important to be to be prepared with a with a really valuable valuable degree. But I I was probably I don't know, I I I visited TCU who had was winning won the national championship. Um Chris Cheddar ended up getting getting my scholarship there. When when I said no, I was gonna go wear purple for for another school for Furman. Uh Chris took my took my scholarship, and you know, she ended up winning on the LPGA tour as well. So it really just came down to two schools and and two really good educations. But I felt like Furman was a little bit closer to home, was only 900 miles away. Um had a golf course on campus, which was really important. Um, the heritage behind the program was really important when you look at players like Bestie King and Beth Daniel and Sherry Turner, all major champions, had come out of there. Um that that was that was a that was a big part of why I chose where I chose.

Bruce Devlin 10:18

Wow, at Firman uh Dotty, you were three-time All-American there too. So you were you were a pretty dominant player in college as well.

Dottie Pepper 10:26

It was a very bumpy start, Bruce. I was not very good. My freshman freshman first term, it was pretty ugly, but it um I spent a week with my grandmother over spring break, and I did nothing but beatballs and play golf in Melbourne in Florida, and something clicked and ended up finishing, had a chance to win the national championship as a freshman, actually. And um it all it was pretty good from there for the for the most part.

Mike Gonzalez 10:52

Was it something you picked up on yourself, or was there something that somebody noticed that was helping you as you beat all those balls?

Dottie Pepper 10:59

Uh it was something that that clicked uh from well, from one of Mr. Pulver's Mr. Pulver's letters. Um, and I had that whole week with no pressure of school, no pressure of anything else, but going down there and beating balls. And um girl from my geology class gave me a ride, she lived in the next town over, so it worked out really well.

Bruce Devlin 11:18

Oh yeah, amazing. It's amazing how things turned.

Mike Gonzalez 11:22

You had a little bit of amateur success even before you got to Furman, didn't you?

Dottie Pepper 11:26

I did. I played in the state tournaments uh on a regular basis because uh the rule was if I could drive, I could play. That was kind of what we had money for, and you stayed with a local family generally. Uh I won the state state girls um twice, 81 and 83, and then the state women's amateur at the age 15 and 81. That was that was a pretty big deal because I won the amateur before I won the junior, so there was a lot of pressure to win the junior uh after coming off of the win. Yeah, three or three, so I guess three weeks earlier or so.

Mike Gonzalez 11:58

And then uh did you play in the US Open then while you were at Furman when you were low am?

Dottie Pepper 12:04

I did, that was 84. So that was that was my first uh first crack at it. I qualified at Apahomas, which just made me I I just still love that golf course. My sister Caddy for me. Um it was it was just kind of very lucky that the U.S. Open was coming to uh regionally, it was it was in Boston or Peabody, north north shore. Um, and went down to Applewamas to qualify and and actually had the the women's western was the next week at Yale. So it was a huge or in New Haven, it was it was a huge run off the east coast of really good golf at that time.

Mike Gonzalez 12:39

Yeah, that was I think that was Holler Stacy's third win in a US Open. Tell us a little bit about that U.S. Open experience.

Dottie Pepper 12:46

Still one of my if I had one round of golf left to play, I would play, I would pick Salem. Uh it was my first total immersion in really understanding Ross golf. Mr. Pulver kind of primed me for it, what to expect. And he was right on every instance, but it was a it was a week that really changed my life because it opened up all the doors for bigger amateur events, and it put me on the map to be on the Curtis Cup team in '86, which was the foundation really for my uh passion for the Solheim Cup. So that's that it was a huge week for me.

Mike Gonzalez 13:19

Curtis Cup, of course, was uh was at Prairie Dunes, I believe, in 1986.

Dottie Pepper 13:24

It was.

Mike Gonzalez 13:25

Who was who were the captains back then?

Dottie Pepper 13:28

Oh man. Uh Judy Bell was was the American captain, and I can't remember who was the captain of the of the GBNI side.

Mike Gonzalez 13:39

Well, it must have been a pretty tough competition.

Dottie Pepper 13:41

Well, no, we were just we were vastly unprepared. Uh we had a team that had um all all of it, no no one had played in the past in a in a Curtis Cup. Uh I think there were some I just think there was a there was a a general feeling that we would we had a bunch of college rock stars that they would roll over over the GB and I. And I think our our team never really appreciated what the Curtis Cup meant. Um you know, now in in hindsight, I was I was so so honored to be able to go down to Mountain Lake in January, this January, to to spend a couple of days with the team that just just played so remarkably well at at Marion. And just kind of pass along some of those stories of of things that I I learned and appreciated, and and they that it was just so different from from when we when we played in '86.

Mike Gonzalez 14:36

Yeah. Just looking back on your college career, what are some of the more fond memories of uh of that experience?

Dottie Pepper 14:44

I don't know if you could call it fond, but we we lost the national championship by a shot my senior year, and it was actually graduation day. So we had we had four seniors and a sophomore on the team, and there was no you know, there's no scoreboards at that time. And we came in with a with a very, very strong team, and I remember my teammates were at the University of Um New Mexico playing their golf course in Albuquerque, and my teammates and coach were all the back left corner, part five finishing hole. And I hit on the grain three, uh, ten feet right of the hole, and all I see them is you gotta make it. You gotta make it. So I'm thinking we had we had to make it to tie, and we had calculated wrong. I made the putt and we we lost by one.

Bruce Devlin 15:30

Shame. Yeah, shame.

Dottie Pepper 15:32

Yeah, but that was so it was the highs and lows of graduation day, I suppose. We all graduated. Uh, but we lost it. It was a s that was a sad night.

Mike Gonzalez 15:41

Yeah, I'll bet. Yeah, but you know what? Uh you're you're you're on that green thinking you've got to make that putt. It really means something. You made it. There's there had to be some good takeaways from that experience.

Dottie Pepper 15:52

There there definitely, definitely were. Um, I had a good championship myself after I opened with 81. I was so sick the night before the the opening round, and and coach asked me, not yes, you don't have to play tomorrow. It might be better off if you don't play because you might have to take your score. Um, and it turned out that um I don't remember if they took my score or not, but I rebounded well enough um to to finish, I think, top five myself and and the team, like I said, we we only lost by a shot.

Mike Gonzalez 16:20

Yeah. So when did you start thinking about maybe I'll do this for a living?

Dottie Pepper 16:27

I was probably 15. Yeah, oh yeah. No, I wanted to I wanted to play professional golf. But like I said, the mandate from my parents was to make sure I had a backup plan, and that was that was handled at Furman. Um but yeah, I wanted to play play professional golf, and yeah, you hit putt after putt after putt to win win the US Open, to win the LPGA championship, to make it on tour. I mean all these all those those putts that that are situational that fortunately I had um the ability to do a lot of that.

Mike Gonzalez 16:58

So what what did you do then between graduation and joining the LPGA tour in 1988? There must have been a little bit of time in between there.

Dottie Pepper 17:07

Played mini tour. Uh played the what was then the futures tour, had a little bit of money stocked aside from my grandmother. Um I gave up my amateur qualifying exemption to go to the open. So I I got back into the US Open with uh with $5,000 on my pocket than I borrowed from my other my grandfather on my mom's side because the money I had set aside was in a CD and I couldn't touch it until August. So I borrowed five grand from him thinking I can I can play I can play these next six, seven weeks on five grand and see what I make. And uh so he he cut me a check, I put it in the bank, I paid for qualifying school entry, I got myself through, I paid for the US Open entry, and I finished, I think Ty 12th or Tide 13th at the open itself, then I walked back in two weeks later and handed him the five thousand dollars back, and I had enough money to get through August. So it was um you know it was kind of scratch and go at the beginning, trying to make make enough have enough money to get through. Uh but I I think the hardest the hardest realization for me was getting my card in Octo uh yeah, eight I guess late October of eighty seven. And realizing I only had enough money to get through half the year. I only had 30 grand, and it was gonna cost about 60 to play. So I had to play hard.

Mike Gonzalez 18:29

Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's uh uh let's just for our listeners uh do a brief recap of the career of of Dottie Pepper. Uh as we mentioned, turning professional 1988 at age 23. 25 professional wins for Dotty, including 17 victories on the LPGA tour. Leading money winner in 92, as well as player of the year in 92 and the bear trophy winner. Top 10 money in 10 of the 11 years, Bruce, from 1991 to 2001. That's pretty good playing right there.

Bruce Devlin 19:01

Yeah, and as I mentioned earlier, you know, to make 59 cuts out of 62 major championship starts is a pretty pretty pretty powerful record.

Mike Gonzalez 19:11

It sure is. You mentioned the the two majors that Dotty has, the 1992 and 1999 Nabisco Dinosure. We're going to talk about those, but Dotty, we thought we'd have you take us down memory lane with some of your other key victories throughout your career. And I think I probably want to start with something you won in Albany in 1985 as an amateur.

Dottie Pepper 19:33

Yeah, I went on the futures tour, uh, the Albany Colony Open. And it's still on what's now, what are they calling it now? I forget what they call it now. Anyway, that tour is still very much alive, and it's one of the longest running events that's that's there. It's now at Pinehaven Country Club, just near now, now near Albany. And um thought I had a putt at the last hole to tie, and it turned out to be a win. Um my sister again caddying for me. But I I won um on that tour as an amateur, and I don't know if anyone has since, but that was a that was a big deal too, because it really, for me, it it validated being low amateur in the open, but it also showed me that I could have some success, even if it's a mid-start on a on a smaller tour, that I was kind of on the right path.

Bruce Devlin 20:18

Yeah. Well, it didn't take you long uh once you turn pro in '88 to not your first victory in January in '89. Uh Oldsmobile L PGA classic. And you beat a a real real dog of a player there. Beth Daniel, I mean, goodness gracious, that had to be great for great feeling to beat her.

Dottie Pepper 20:41

The last three ball was Lopez, myself, and Beth. And I bogey the last hole to let the team have the playoff begin. Um, Nancy looked out for Bertie, and then we ran out of daylight, so I had to come back on Monday to finish. So it was pretty, it was sleepless.

Mike Gonzalez 21:01

So what did that one feel like getting that first one under your belt?

Dottie Pepper 21:06

It you know, I had a very good, I had a very good 88 on tour. It was a year of amazing young players coming out on the tour for their first first season. It was Laura Davis, Danielle Macapani, Lisa Lot Neumann, myself. There were a lot of really good players that season. And I think I finished 22nd on the money list or something like that, and I was third in the rookie of the year running. So it was it was a it was a really hard yeah uh to come out as as a rookie. So to get a win quickly in '89 was was important. And I then all of a sudden I thought I'd never hit a bad golf shot again in my life. I went on the LPGA tour, so you know, I'm I'm I'm golden. And I think I missed I think I missed three of the next four cuts or something like that. It was ugly.

Bruce Devlin 21:54

It's amazing.

Mike Gonzalez 21:56

I'm sure you'll agree, and our other guests have shared this with us uh as well. Two things. One, you use the term validation. We've heard that a lot.

Dottie Pepper 22:04

Is that right?

Mike Gonzalez 22:06

We've heard it an awful lot. We just heard it yesterday, didn't we, Bruce? U Yeah, we sure did. Um you know, you you get that for for example, Martha Nowsey talking about winning. Well, her first win was a Stableford competition. Right. Everybody sort of discounted that, right? Uh the next win was the uh the the uh the uh Sun Times uh event in sh in Chicago.

Dottie Pepper 22:24

She pulled out of the last hole.

Mike Gonzalez 22:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. But you know, people sort of discounted that win because it was sort of a short field. So to get that third win in the DeMorrier, validation. We've had a lot of players talk about, particularly win number two, validation of that first victory.

Dottie Pepper 22:41

Yeah. It's it's very true. Um, and I'm I'm not so sure why, but I I think maybe you maybe you think you got a little lucky, or maybe there was an accident along the way that that you kind of stumbled over instead of gotten mowed over by. And uh it was it was important to get a second one and not have to wait a very long time to get it.

Mike Gonzalez 23:02

Yeah, so your your validation came at the Crestar Classic at Greenbrier Country Club by nine over Chris Johnson. Uh boy, that was just a uh just squeaked in there, huh?

Dottie Pepper 23:13

Yeah, I wanted to lay up on the last hole. Um I literally wanted to hit three wood off the tee, and it was like, no, what do you you've got to be an idiot to hit three wood off the tee if we got an eight-shot lead or whatever? And I did burn the last hole to get it to nine, but it was only 54 holes.

Mike Gonzalez 23:28

So I just Yeah, wow.

Dottie Pepper 23:30

I had I had come back from playing in the LPGA Pro Am at Furman the week before, and again, something clicked. It was my getting my left heel down on the ground that to initiate the downswing. I remember it clear as to me. That's what set it apart. Um and I I think I shot like 64 or 65 in the Pro Am and just was it one out of tear.

Mike Gonzalez 23:52

How long did that last?

Dottie Pepper 23:55

Uh how long did it last? Or 90 was alright. I think it it lasted well, it got the US Open and nearly won the open from coming back from on the other side of the golf course. Um we had we had huge rain delays in Atlanta through the women's open. And uh Terry Jastro, Bruce, I'm sure you know Terry from from the ABC days, yeah. They had to be on the plane on Monday to go cover the Open Championship. And sure enough, I I'm on the back nine finishing at Atlanta Country Club, and I'm six under. And if I hole out on the last hole, they're staying because it's gonna be an 18-hole playoff on Monday. And he said, I went from loving you to hating you in two seconds. But I shot 66 on the on the other side of the golf course and nearly won the open.

Mike Gonzalez 24:51

Yeah. Let's talk about that first major. 1992 Nabisco Dinosaur at Mission Hills in a playoff with Julie Inkster.

Dottie Pepper 25:00

Yep. Um I had to make a putt at the last to win. She had left her her birdie putt short to even give me a chance, and I buried it, and then Julie had a poor T shot at the tenth hole, playoff went to 10. Uh, and I the hole was cut back right. I hit it in the middle of the green and two-putted for for a win. Um you know, it was I again, I I don't I don't think that second major to me was validation of 92, but to win there uh against who I beat in the playoff on the golf course with with with such solid history, um, and having it be the first major of the year. I think it set the year up to be be very successful.

Mike Gonzalez 25:42

Yeah. You would uh I think you'd finished second there the previous year, hadn't you?

Dottie Pepper 25:48

I think that's probably right. Yeah. I I know it was um that was an important event, not only because it was a major, but it was my first major as an LPGA member. I I got in the day before in '88 because I'd finished second in Phoenix. Uh O'Hiku made a made a birdie putt at the last to beat me in Phoenix uh as as a rookie. And went over there and had no clue, it didn't have a place to stay, nothing. And ended up finishing in the top ten. And and it rolled right through. It was that was it was a good golf course for me. It required that you hit a lot of different shots and and you have a kind of a recovery pattern.

Mike Gonzalez 26:29

Yeah, somewhere in in our research, I I remember reading uh something about that final round where uh someone had shouted out loser to you after leaving a putt short on the 17th hole, maybe in the final round.

Dottie Pepper 26:42

That's what I'm saying.

Mike Gonzalez 26:42

What was that all about?

Dottie Pepper 26:44

Some some guy who've probably been overserved in the gallery. Yeah, but but I heard and I took it personally.

Mike Gonzalez 26:52

Yeah. I mean, that kind of stuff does sort of impact you.

Dottie Pepper 26:57

Yeah, I don't how how how could it not? I mean, that that was that was personal.

Mike Gonzalez 27:02

Got you fired up?

Dottie Pepper 27:05

Very much so. Why not? Yeah, so Bernie the Last Hole and went on to um, you know, win win on one more hole and and not have to take the traditional, what's now become traditional dive because I won on the landlocked tenth and they had to get off the air. So uh got the got the trophy from Dinah and the the chairman of of Nabisco at the time, and on we went.

Bruce Devlin 27:27

That was a gr great start to '92. Win there at uh Nabisco. Then you won three more times in '92. Sega Women's Championship, Welsh Classic, and the Sun Times Challenge. And uh you beat some uh again, you beat a lot of really good players to win that four to four times in '92.

Dottie Pepper 27:46

Well, I Bruce, I think I played, I played at a time when there were a lot of good players playing. And I played at a time, um, even my first Dinah, um, I was paired with Louise Suggs. So she still had a lifetime exemption into the event, and I played with Louise Suggs. Um, Kathy Whitworth, I I played with the first couple of years. She is my first Solheim Cup captain, and you know, Lopez and Bradley and Sheehan and King and Daniel, and just on and on and on. And I I was thinking about it earlier this morning that I played at a time where yes, I played with Louise Suggs and I played all the way through um Lorena Ochoa playing some of her very best golf. So it was it was a it was a long time and a lot of really good players.

Mike Gonzalez 28:30

Yeah, I'll say there were a lot of Hall of Famers from that uh from that era. What uh just tell us a little bit about uh some of the LPGA founders that you had a chance to get to know at some point uh during your career.

Dottie Pepper 28:43

I think the one I was closest to was Marilyn Smith, and it was at that very first Dinah that she came up to me as a rookie and said, you know, welcome, welcome to the tour. We're so excited to have you, your enthusiasm, you're a great player. Um and if there's anything I can ever do to you before you to um to just reach out. And she was amazing. Like I said, um, you know, being able to to reach out to people like Louise Suggs, um, Patty Berg, all those those players that that did so much to um well, they just did so much just to even get the game off the ground and and to establish it the way they did and do everything from writing their own press releases to pounding stakes to um you know being around like Betsy Rolls the tournament director of the LPGA championship when I was playing. Those are the people that that set the tour in such a positive motion for so long and and then to have relationships with people like Judy Rankin and and play for Pat Bradley, play with Pat Bradley, play for Pat Bradley. Uh it's it was a very special time. And I and I think those 13 women who are only only one is now left, Marlene Hagey, uh I think they're just about the most underappreciated people that there are in the game.

Mike Gonzalez 30:00

Very good point. I think they each deserve a book in and of themselves. They've all got great, great stories. I remember when we chatted with Kathy Whitworth, and I I sort of described the early days, it it just seemed to me, uh, comparing it to the circuses in my youth at Barnstorm throughout the United States. Absolutely. And they wore all different hats, didn't they? They had to do everything, they had to sell, they had to set up, they had to do the rules, they had to, you know, the whole thing, right?

Dottie Pepper 30:23

Well, there was one story I heard recently that um they actually stopped competition because Betsy Rawls was the rules expert. She was playing, and they went and got her out of a grouping, delivered her to where they needed the ruling, and then took her back. That would never happen. Yeah.

Bruce Devlin 30:40

No, that's amazing.

Mike Gonzalez 30:41

But some some great accomplishments, some big personalities. I mean, uh, I think uh I think Babe Saharius is the one that you know people wish she would have had a longer life because she did so many great things. Uh and I just remember um uh women like Helen Duttweiler who flew an F-17 flying fortress in World War II for crying out loud.

Dottie Pepper 31:03

Yeah. Talk about Babe, yeah, world-class Olympic athlete. Uh just they need they need to be talked about more. I mean, and I'm I was so glad that they've finally gotten some recognition in in some theaters when when this conversation starts to happen.

Mike Gonzalez 31:21

Yeah, that's great. Well, let's uh continue on with your career, Dottie. Uh Bruce mentioned the four wins in '92. Uh '93. Then you went on to win the World Championship of Women's Golf at Naples National. That was a victory by one over Donna Andrews, Meg Mallon, Michelle McGann, and Sherry Steinhauer.

Dottie Pepper 31:42

Yeah, I mean, there you go. More great players. That was that was an that was a that was a very difficult golf course and still continues to be part of Amber Golf for men. Uh really quality, tough field.

Mike Gonzalez 31:56

And that was an event founded by uh Mark McCormick, as I remember.

Dottie Pepper 32:00

The world championship was an IMG-owned event. Funny too, when we went uh in '91, we went to Australia for that championship. Meg Mallon won. I finished second. Uh Meg still doesn't have the trophy, it disappeared somewhere.

Bruce Devlin 32:18

Ah, big dad. Yeah.

Dottie Pepper 32:20

When they shipped it from Australia, it still doesn't have it.

Mike Gonzalez 32:25

That's a shame. Well, the next year you won the first edition of the Chrysler Plymouth Tournament of Champions at Grand Cypress Resort by two over Nancy Lopez and Lori Merton.

Dottie Pepper 32:35

Yeah, I think you're starting to see a pattern develop here. I played well on hard golf courses, and the uh Grand Cypress was a hard golf course. Um Nicholas hadn't kind of softened up the edges of Grand Cypress yet, and it was it was a beast. I remember the weather being extraordinarily difficult that week. Um to, you know, it was it was an event you worked hard to get into, you know, and to be able to be a part of a tournament of champions. You had to win. It wasn't a moneyless thing. It was you had to win to get there. And to then to be able to beat everybody in that field. It's not a major, but it feels like one. It feels like one, yeah, exactly.

Bruce Devlin 33:13

Absolutely.

Mike Gonzalez 33:16

Two more wins in 1995. You won the Ping Welches Championship in Tucson. That was over uh I don't know if she was a relatively newcomer at this time, but Annika Sorenstom and also Cindy Rerick, and then in 95, uh the McCall's LPGA classic is Stratton Mountain by three over Kelly Robbins, which was the final edition of that event.

Dottie Pepper 33:36

It was, and that was my local event. Uh, that's only an hour and 15 minutes from where I grew up. And I always have often said it was my favorite win on tour because I had so many friends and family in the gallery. And although I won by three over Kelly, I think look at who it was Pat Bradley who finished third, and it was really between Pat and I until very late, and it was the the Bradleys from Woodstock in Boston versus all the peppers from around here. And who was in the gallery? One young Keegan Bradley.

Bruce Devlin 34:09

Oh, is that right? Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting.

Mike Gonzalez 34:12

That's a neat memory. Well, Bruce, 96 was a pretty good year for this young lady as well.

Bruce Devlin 34:18

Oh boy, four four more victories in '96. Uh, you you you were dominating in '96, weren't you?

Dottie Pepper 34:27

Yeah, I had a really good run. Um, those I think they came within seven weeks. Um, but nobody really remembered. So I I had played very poorly at the beginning of the year. I pulled the ripcord, I pulled out of two tournaments, went back home, and was living in South Carolina at the time. Missed the cut at the Women's Open, one of my missed cuts in majors. And it was at Pine Needles, and um I didn't even have a car to get home. I was supposed to, my mother would we had played the Skins game the week before in Dallas. JCPenney flew us privately to Pine Needles. Didn't even have my car there. My mom was gonna come pick me up. They were living in South Carolina at the time, too, on the weekend. Fine, get a courtesy car, plenty of round to get around for the week. Um I'm gonna miss the cut on Friday afternoon, and it's like, this is so pathetic. I can't even go home tonight. I have to wait for my mother to come get me. Um and it it really uh it was an eye-opener for me that I needed to go back to the basics, and so I I went back, I got Mr. Pulver's books out, his letters out, and I did two a days. Um then I played and played and played and hit balls until literally till my hands bled. Um after pulling out of the next two weeks, I needed that time to reset, and then I won in Rochester, I won in Atlantic City. Um I ended up winning in Portland, but nobody remembered that seven-week stretch because in the middle of all of that, someone said hello world. It went straight down the middle. Tiger Woods turn professional.

Mike Gonzalez 35:56

Thank you for listening to another episode of For the Good of the Game. That's when my 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. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 36:18

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.