Helen Alfredsson - Part 1 (The Early Years)

Intro Music 0:07

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

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Welcome to another edition of FORE the Good of the Game and Bruce Devlin. Did this guest only win one major?

Bruce Devlin 0:23

Well, this guest, I've tell you, she's a 29 times professional wins. And yeah, she has a she's got a credit for one major on the LPJ tour and two on the senior tour. But to be quite honest with you, we're going to tell the story that she has actually five majors on the regular tour and two on the senior tour. So it is great to have this young lady with us today, Helen Alfredsson. Thanks for joining, Mike and I. We look forward to this for a long time. Thanks.

Helen Alfredsson 0:57

Well, thank you guys. I'm so excited to see you, Bruce. It was a long time, and uh get to know Michael was has been very nice so far.

Mike Gonzalez 1:06

Buenos dias.

Helen Alfredsson 1:07

Buenos días para ti también.

Mike Gonzalez 1:10

Uh Helen joins us this morning from, or this afternoon, I guess in her time, from Sunny Mar Baya, Spain, which is probably a little bit nicer today than your hometown of Gothenburg.

Helen Alfredsson 1:22

Yes, that's what I heard. They said just stay there. I talked to my sister and she said this is gray, every shade of gray. Um, but um but home is home, I have to say, after we traveled so many years, you know, even when you take the dog out in the forest, you don't really care if it's that gray.

Bruce Devlin 1:40

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 1:40

Yeah. Well, um I I think you heard all about Bruce and I from Beth, Daniel, and Meg Mallon. And um what they probably told you is we always start at the very beginning. So we're gonna take you back to as early as you can remember, maybe not 1965, but sometime shortly thereafter. Uh but tell us a little bit about uh what you remember, your earliest recollections of of growing up in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Helen Alfredsson 2:09

Well, it's uh if it's with golf or just in general. Um sports sports was very much my thing. Um my dad was a very good handball player, my mom played uh sports as well, and I think I was around 10 when uh for no reason that I know, uh my dad decided that he wanted to play golf. So he took me to uh he took the family to this golf course that I grew up on, uh, which also Hendrik Stenson grew up on, and Corinne Koch. Um so we had pretty good players from there, and um it was a great place to grow up. The golf course was a pretty tough one, and that was and they were welcoming juniors with open arms. So we were able to practice and play and be on the golf course, which obviously I think helps when you're young and there's not a lot of restrictions. Of course, we had to behave, which was probably my most difficult part, but um I managed, I think. That didn't throw me out.

Mike Gonzalez 3:12

Uh was golf a big deal back then uh in in Sweden, or was that to come later?

Helen Alfredsson 3:18

No, it was still considered sort of a uh snob sport, an old man sport. Um golf is very cheap in Sweden. Uh, you know, uh a medium or an average uh yearly cost is like a thousand dollars, which is really nothing, and we don't have monthly dues or anything like that, so it's very affordable, but for some reason it it just had that stamp on it that it was for for rich people, sort of.

Mike Gonzalez 3:48

So you you said you were 10, 11 or so when uh you kind of got introduced to the game. Uh tell us about your early experiences. What first of all, what clubs did you play? Do you remember how they cobbled with the city?

Helen Alfredsson 4:00

Well, what do you what do you think a person in my age was this Paddy Burg seven iron?

Bruce Devlin 4:05

Oh perfect.

Helen Alfredsson 4:07

Yeah. That's what my first club, and then uh my dad added a wedge and a five-iron. Um, and then I think I got some wood that was cut off, which is obviously not the greatest thing. And then I think I had six handicaps when I got my first full set.

Mike Gonzalez 4:27

Okay, that was pretty good. And how old were you when you got your first full set?

Helen Alfredsson 4:33

Uh I was about 13.

Mike Gonzalez 4:36

And what kind of clubs were those? Do you remember?

Helen Alfredsson 4:39

What were they? They called Ryder Cup, I think. I don't know. Uh yeah, I don't remember what brand it was, but they called Ryder Cup.

Mike Gonzalez 4:48

Yeah. So how did you come to learn the game? Was it through your father? Did you have other teachers? Did you learn through observation?

Helen Alfredsson 4:56

Well, I think uh we were very lucky because we had an English, there was very it was uh it became um was a lot of English teachers that would come over to Sweden at that time. And my coach's name at the time was Alan Anderton. And I think it was I was just up at my club just a couple of weeks ago because they had sort of a reunion and and a little bit in memory lane with them. And but he was very simple. Uh he made it fun. It wasn't a lot of thinking, it wasn't a lot of try to get the ball and and really just try to learn to hit the ball in the sweet spot. It wasn't a lot of swing thinking, swing thoughts, you know, and uh you know, if you want it shorter, you have a shorter swing. If you want it harder, then you hit it harder. And and he and he really he was very good at trying to for me to hit it long. So as a woman, I was always well as a girl, I was actually quite long from the beginning, which really helped, which was a big advantage. But I remember the big decision we had to make to go from the you know, I'm so bad with the what is called the when they had more dimples, the little ball to the big ball. Remember that, Bruce?

Bruce Devlin 6:07

When we went from what I do remember that.

Helen Alfredsson 6:10

Yeah, and that was a big decision, and and my coach said, But I think you're ready because you hit it long enough and you're not gonna lose that much distance.

Mike Gonzalez 6:20

Did you play that smaller British ball?

Bruce Devlin 6:23

Yeah. The biggest problem I had when I changed with it was that big ball would curve a lot more than that little ball. And it was it was hard to keep from from cutting too much or hooking too much. I don't know how you felt about it, but it was not easy.

Helen Alfredsson 6:41

But I think you guys probably hit it harder than we do anyway. So that was not I really didn't find a big change. From from what I remember, I didn't really find a a huge change to to change from the little ball to the bigger ball.

Mike Gonzalez 6:55

Did you play the small ball in competition as a junior or was it already the big ball?

Helen Alfredsson 7:00

No, I think I must have. I think I must, yeah, I must have played a few competitions, like when I was 12 or something like that. But then, you know, when I I was in the national team already at 14. Uh the so you know it was I I don't remember exactly when I changed, but I remember the only thing I remember is like my my coach would have this talk with me that it's time to take the next step.

Mike Gonzalez 7:29

Well, if you're like uh a lot of the players we've talked to, Helen, uh uh golf was still probably at a young age competing with some other sports you were involved in.

Helen Alfredsson 7:39

Yeah, I played uh team handball, which is the way we played in Europe, where you have six players on each side, and then uh I played squash. Uh and so yeah, it was nice, you know, those were winter sports, and then I had golf in the summer. And uh and I was very lucky, I think, to play team sport handball because it keeps you, it gives you a good discipline as well, and and you get to celebrate as a team, and you are together uh and work as a team, which is which is a lot of what sport is all about.

Mike Gonzalez 8:10

Now, team handball isn't that well known to Americans, but uh isn't that a game a little bit like basketball? The the the d maybe the dribbling and passing is a little bit different, but uh similar to that?

Helen Alfredsson 8:22

Yes, but you have a goalie on each side. So so you have six players and and you throw the ball in between and you're trying to score behind the goalie. It's actually it is an Olympic sport. But I know when I say handball in the States, they always think it's like in this cage when you just play with the hands. Right. But it is a team sport. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 8:41

I think we saw the gold medal match in Atlanta in 1996. That was my first introduction to the sport. It's it keeps you in shape.

Helen Alfredsson 8:50

Yes, it keeps you in shape and it keeps you strong. And I think uh I really much like it still to watch the guys and the a and the women. We have good teams in both sides in Sweden and and they're very strong. There is no complaining, you know, like uh, you know, well, I guess soccer players, the women in soccer doesn't play as half of what the men does. Uh so it's but uh it's a tough sport. It's uh uh I really enjoyed it. I got a lot of energy that was burnt in those days.

Mike Gonzalez 9:19

Yeah. So w why do you think you gravitated toward golf?

Helen Alfredsson 9:24

Well, you know, it's very interesting today when we sit here with all this, you know, information about the ADHD and you know, all those. And I I always wondered myself, what do I do in golf? With my temper and the way my brain works. But I am a little bit involved with the ADHD Foundation in Sweden now, because a lot of kids, it's it's been proven that some of the the best sport for ADHD is actually golf, because it's very simple. You're hitting it and there's the target, and and it's quiet, and you do it on your own. And um, and I think probably that fitted me uh when I look back on it. And just this when you practice and you go into your own world, and I I still love to just hit balls and just to go in my own world and trying to hit the targets.

Mike Gonzalez 10:15

So the the solitude of the game attracted you a bit?

Helen Alfredsson 10:19

Yeah. I think so. Or or the challenge, because nothing was ever the same, you know, and you got the nerves and and and you learn how to deal with your nerves, and then when you had these tough shots uh that you have to do under pressure, I don't know. I I really enjoyed those moments.

Mike Gonzalez 10:37

So you had quite a uh a career as a junior and then as an amateur. Uh uh, you mentioned being the I think the youngest player on the national team at age 14. What sort of handicap were you at that age? Uh I had two. So this is after your full set and you're still getting better.

Helen Alfredsson 10:56

Yeah. Yeah, I was yeah, I just I that's how I think we were all like that. Uh, you know, I'm sure everyone that you interviewed in every sport, it's like you always wanted to be better. You know, what do you what do you have to do? What's the next level? And I think sometimes, uh not to go ahead of anything, but I think sometimes that's the problem today that the kids don't want to take each level. You know, I took the you bet you you become best at your golf club, and then you do best in your city, and then you do best in, you know, you know, in the next part, and then the national, and then you go in international on an amateur level. And it's always nice to have these little you know goals in front of you. I mean, it's it's a long ways uh up to get to play on the tour, but that keeps you going because there's always somebody that's better than you are.

Mike Gonzalez 11:42

Yeah. And and when did uh when did the sport really take off in Sweden where the national team and the youth development really became important?

Helen Alfredsson 11:52

Well, I think I don't know, I I remember so well in 1981. Uh we had just grabbed, we we were the first sort of group, it was a generation gap, Charlotte Montgomery and Pia Nielsen, who you know well from the 54, Vision 54. They played, so they turned seniors, and we were the first sort of, so then 81 we played at Wentworth Country Club, and we had started doing fitness. And Sweden is blue and yellow, the flag. So we had this chicken yellow uh Adidas overalls, and we were running around within Wentworth neighborhood to warm up, you know, before, and you know, Bruce, all these old men sitting in the clubhouse with the the tie full of every lunch, a bit from every lunch to last month, and this little blue, you know, whiskey nose, and was wondering, what are those people doing out there? Aren't they supposed to play golf? And and then we ended up winning, and and uh we were so young. And so fitness was quite early on, and and I think that's when it's sort of starting to grow a little bit, and uh and then we had success with that, and um, and then people start realizing, well, it's not very expensive. And my parents were always my dad would always say, Well, the more I play golf, the cheaper it is, because obviously you pay your dues at the golf course, and then the more you play, the cheaper each round gets. And my mom who played bowling on a high level is like, well, every time you go, you have to pay. So the more you play, the more it's expensive it's gonna get.

Mike Gonzalez 13:29

So you you've had a lot of opportunity to play on teams throughout your career. But as a junior, did you enjoy the team play more or the individual competition more?

Helen Alfredsson 13:41

Well, I was very lucky to, like I said, to be in the national team very early on. And I think, and I think when I first came to the States, they were wondering why golf was so popular in Sweden because of the weather. Obviously, it doesn't really permit all year-round golf. But I think when you have a small country and that the federation can sort of bring in the best players together, and so we would meet in the winter and have winter training, and we would do physical activities, and we would do all kinds of other sports together. And I think when you're young, 14, 15, 16, a lot of the girls quit in those days at that time. And we were all together and we became old friends, and we we from the north of Sweden to the south. Um, and Lotta was obviously somewhere, she was around Stockholm, and then Eva Dalu, who also played on the tour. You know, we became very good friends. And um and and and even though we were friends and we always competed against each other, obviously, on all the junior events in order to qualify for the European team events. Um it's I enjoyed both very much uh uh to do because if I played well as a as a sing in my when I played by myself, then I was able to make the team. So I got the best of both worlds pretty much.

Mike Gonzalez 14:57

Yeah, yeah. Bruce, uh long before going to college, Helen uh had quite a bit of success uh in the junior ranks and as an amateur. She certainly did.

Bruce Devlin 15:09

And I I'm I was I looked at her record and I'm wondering you know, coming from Sweden, when when when did you think about sort of going outside the country to to get an education as well as play golf? What precipitated that?

Helen Alfredsson 15:30

Well Charlotte Montgomery had sort of started that. Charlotte and Pia Nilsson, they went to Arizona and and they loved it. And when they when when they sort of left, and I think they were very liked, they were good players. I think that opened the door for a lot of the other suites to um to come in. Obviously, we didn't really have the stats uh like they do now, but uh I had won quite a bit of tournaments and played well, so I I got a chance to go to San Diego and um yeah, and and it was such a great time. I I really enjoyed it, and and that's when you meet all the other girls, you know, and they went on to turn pro. And so the LPGA became a little bit closer, even though it was still a long ways away, because you felt that they were so far ahead, you know, like in Nancy Lopez or um and Pat Bradley and Patty Sheehan, and and you know, they were just names that we read about, you know.

Mike Gonzalez 16:28

Yeah. Well, leading up to uh coming over here to school, uh in terms of some of the wins, and and we don't have time to talk about them all, but there were there were quite a few uh Swedish match play uh championship winner in 1986, 87, and 88 as an amateur. Um you had a chance to play on a team that uh uh Bruce has some affinity to, and then this is we're talking about the Espiritu Santu team, which is the women's team amateur competition patterned after the Eisenhower trophy. You competed on the team for Sweden uh in 1986 and 1988, and this the second uh playing of that, the the 1988 team, uh you were team second uh to the U.S. And that one was played in Sweden.

Helen Alfredsson 17:19

Yes, it was. And it's so funny because this year's for the senior open, I met Ann Saunders, and uh, you know, she was on that team. I hadn't seen her almost since then. I mean, I don't know, she is almost 85 or something in there, I think.

Mike Gonzalez 17:35

She's come up a lot as we talk to uh Carol Semple Thompson and Marlene Street and uh Catherine Lacoste.

Helen Alfredsson 17:44

Yes, of course. I saw uh Carol Thompson, I practiced, played with her at the senior open for the practice round. Yeah, yeah. It's uh it's been it's been so I've been so lucky to meet so many of these amazing characters that we've uh that America's had that we've got to be a part of.

Mike Gonzalez 18:05

Yeah, well that that world team uh competition for the ladies that I talked about, um uh I want to say, and I gotta think about this, whether it was Marlene Street now or Catherine Lacoste that played on the first Espiritu Santo team. And that probably goes back to about 1964, where the the other fellow on your screen, Bruce Devlin, competed in the first Eisenhower trophy team competition. Well, it's two years before. It was only 30 years before that competition in Sweden. 1958 old course. Oh my god. Bruce Devlin representing Australia as a what, an 18-year-old Bruce?

Bruce Devlin 18:49

Oh no, I was older than that. I was uh actually, yeah, born 37, so uh I was actually 21.

Mike Gonzalez 18:59

Bobby Jones is the honorary captain for the US side. But the Aussies won the first competition, and Mr. Devlin, after an opening round of 80, wins the medalist competition.

Helen Alfredsson 19:14

Unbelievable. How about that, huh? Such a star.

Mike Gonzalez 19:18

Yeah. And his first trip away from Australia, too. That was his first, that was his first trip ever outside the country, I think.

Helen Alfredsson 19:26

It's hard to go to Australia. I remember first time I went there and I had to go to, I think we stopped in Bangkok or something, and I almost cried going there from Sweden. And then when I get on the plane and they said it's another eight hours, I thought I just I've had enough. I mean, I just I thought I I'm just gonna stay here. We played the the world championship, something pair world championship down there, but it it was beautiful. It's been a lot of trips to Australia since then.

Bruce Devlin 19:51

Can I give you a uh a postscript to that? Uh uh that that particular trip, uh, and you uh this is just confirming what you just said. When I left Sydney until I got to St. Andrews, it took me 52 hours. We went from Sydney to Fiji to Honolulu to Los Angeles to New York, about a six-hour layover, then to Newfoundland and then London, and then into Scotland. Amazing.

Helen Alfredsson 20:31

Oh my god.

Bruce Devlin 20:34

Hard to believe. That's of course, you know, that was the the days of the no no jet, so uh it took a long time to do it.

Helen Alfredsson 20:43

Holy misses, and I was crying. Well, yeah, no, it is. Those are the amazing memories, and you see where people are, you know, how fast it goes today to travel. I mean, considerably anyway.

Mike Gonzalez 20:57

Back to team play, 1987 European ladies' team championship at Turnberry, team win for Sweden.

Helen Alfredsson 21:06

I know, and you know what's very funny because I roomed with Evadol, and we had never really played Lynx Golf. You know, it's such a different type of game. Um and uh I remember I had this milkman that was Caddy, typical, you know, Scottish guy, and and we thought it was raining and it was so windy. So I asked him, I said, is it can it get windier than this? And he looks at me, ma'am, this is just a slight breeze.

Mike Gonzalez 21:38

Uh well, Turnberry's probably changed a little bit from that first time you were there. Have you have you been back since?

Helen Alfredsson 21:45

Yeah, I've been back when they changed. I think it was 17 they changed. And then I haven't changed it since Trump took over. But um, but it it was one of my absolute favorite golf courses for a long time. It's it just When it's on that piece of property, it just looks and feels like nothing else was meant to be in that property.

Mike Gonzalez 22:07

Yeah. Yeah, it's it's it's quite a beautiful place. Uh the following year, in that same competition, you went to Sevi's golf course up in the north of Spain and had team third. What do you remember about that experience?

Helen Alfredsson 22:21

I remember we all got stomach sick. That seemed to be the thing when we got when we went to Spain in those days. We all got stomach sick. And it was so funny. On the plane back, we were having to wear our national uniforms, and we were basically owning the bathroom and the airplane, and we couldn't really hide either because we had the Swedish golf team on our so they, you know, there is the Swedish golf team, and they're all um not feeling so well. No.

Mike Gonzalez 22:51

It wasn't the blue and yellow overalls, though, that you wore.

Helen Alfredsson 22:54

No, no, no. This was actually proper clothes.

Mike Gonzalez 22:57

Yeah. Would would uh would Sevi's uncle Ramon Soto have been the pro back then or not?

Helen Alfredsson 23:05

He probably was. I don't that I don't really remember. We were just in awe because we all loved Sevi. You know, he was our favorite kind of guy.

Mike Gonzalez 23:15

So tell us about the college decision. Because that's kind of a big deal back then, right? Coming to America to play play golf and come to a different country.

Helen Alfredsson 23:25

Yeah, well, I had a little bit of it. It was a little bit, I had family issues, and and uh my parents ended up having gotten divorced, and so I just decided to uh I got some help to to get into college in San Diego. One of the other Swedish girls had been there before, and um, so they took me in. And then we had Gordon Severson. I don't know if you knew who that was, Bruce. He was working with um Yes. Yeah, he was very good friends with uh oh no, I dropped the name. Um the the guy who started the Taylor made Stillwoods. Um anyways, they so he was our coach, but we had to um take a personality test with Gordon Severson. And when I came back, he says, Well, it came back, you're totally uncoachable. So it was some tough years I went through with him. Um yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 24:24

Well, some of that maybe you know what was happening back home, what's happening with the family situation, some of it probably part of your personality. I mean, I remember talking to Jen Stevenson, and as we got to know her better about her younger life, uh bit of a maverick. Certainly you wouldn't call her a conformist.

Helen Alfredsson 24:42

No, absolutely not. Uh when I played with her in one of the tournaments, we were team, we were a team, and nothing was ever good, and no, no shirt is good enough. And so I I when she hit a really good one, so I just said, Well, at least the Jen, that is less shitty. Because nothing was ever good enough.

Mike Gonzalez 25:04

Uh so tell us about that college experience. Probably some ups and downs, I guess.

Helen Alfredsson 25:08

You know, you're in a new world and and uh yeah, it was uh it was it it was tough. It was uh, you know, we had a lot of experience in the national team. When I got there at 19, you know, we had played the world championship, we had played so many. So I knew, I mean, for me, the hard thing for me was that I had to be out there and hit balls for five hours. You know, I felt that my practice was quite efficient. I knew that if I hit the ball well that day, I mean, I couldn't do more that day if we were on the driving ranch. But he made he we had to be there. And so I ended up sometimes not burnt out, but just beating balls for no reason when I could do other things that I felt like I needed to study. So sometimes I didn't feel like I did anything really as good as I wanted to.

Mike Gonzalez 25:57

Um were there ever any repercussions to you uh studying when you're supposed to practice?

Helen Alfredsson 26:02

Well, of course, because uh I was thrown off the team. I was second on the team, but then I was thrown off because I wasn't behaving uh I didn't follow his orders. So yeah. Only once? I'm kind of used to being in trouble.

Bruce Devlin 26:17

Yeah, you were only thrown off the team once?

Helen Alfredsson 26:21

Uh well, I mean, if you have to be that specific, Bruce. No, there were several times.

Mike Gonzalez 26:28

Probably never lasted too long though, huh? No.

Helen Alfredsson 26:32

Uh no, I they took me back on the team.

Mike Gonzalez 26:35

Yeah, yeah. So tell us about the team experience. Uh any players that we would recognize today?

Helen Alfredsson 26:41

Well, not on my college. My college wasn't really, you know, it was an international college. Actually, Alison, what's his name? Um the Irish guy that uh was the captain for the Ryder Cup. Um Paul McGinley. Paul McGinley was a lot of things. Yeah, he went there. Uh, but that was after me. Uh he ended up actually marrying Alison uh McGinley or a Shapcart, which was her name in those days. She was playing when I was playing.

Bruce Devlin 27:13

Okay.

Helen Alfredsson 27:14

But the good thing is we were Division I, uh, which was nice. So we got to go and to play the best schools. Um we got to play, you know, obviously all the way to Georgia, and we were in Stanford and UCLA. And so I got to play a lot of golf with with uh the top players or the top schools.

Mike Gonzalez 27:32

Did uh did you get to use your international business and marketing degree?

Helen Alfredsson 27:39

Well, uh well, not as much as I probably could have, but but the good thing was that it gave me something to talk about with business people. You know, when we played with them, I could ask relevant questions and uh and about their business. And and that felt actually nice that it wasn't just about my golf, but you know, how they ran it and how they marketed it, and you know, you know, small things like that, which which made sometimes it interesting for them too that it wasn't just about us. And I learned a lot from them too.

Mike Gonzalez 28:11

When when did you first start thinking about doing this for a living?

Helen Alfredsson 28:16

Well, it was actually in that uh Esperanto you know, in 1988 I was fin I finished college and I came back home and then we had an insurance company that sponsored the national team and they gave us some money uh if we wanted to turn pro. And I thought, well, I have nothing else to do right now.

Bruce Devlin 28:37

Might as well take a shot.

Helen Alfredsson 28:39

You know, take a shot. And uh so I played a year on the European Tour, became the rookie of the year because it was too late to go to Q school, and then I went to Q school, and then I forgot to enter in the final in Sweetwater, Texas. So I had to go back to Europe for a year. I won the British, and then I got to play in the Sol first Solim Cup, and then I went back to the Q school again and made it.

Mike Gonzalez 29:06

Yeah. So we don't want to skip over your uh very extensive modeling career. Yeah.

Helen Alfredsson 29:12

Well, yeah, it it was it wasn't that extensive, really. It was it was it was that hot that we just did. It was just a little glitz.

Mike Gonzalez 29:22

Was that just right after college, right right before you you turned pro or?

Helen Alfredsson 29:27

No, no, actually that was before college.

Mike Gonzalez 29:30

Gotcha.

Helen Alfredsson 29:31

Uh so I I re that that was when I made uh some really bad decisions um looking back on it now. But at the time it seems to be brilliant decisions, but they uh obviously weren't in any way, shape, or form.

Mike Gonzalez 29:45

At that age, they're all brilliant decisions. Exactly. No thinking.

Helen Alfredsson 29:49

Oh, what's fun for now?

Mike Gonzalez 29:51

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, and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 30:12

Whack down the fairway. It went smack down the fairway. When it started to slice, just smitch 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.