Helen Alfredsson - Part 2 (1993 Dinah Shore)

Mike Gonzalez 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it started to win. Let's get you on the tour then of uh turning professional at age 23 in 1989. As Bruce mentioned, at the top 29 professional wins, including seven on the LPGA tour and 11 on the European Tour, which ranks top top actually it's T11 of all times, which is uh quite impressive. Uh started out on the LET tour and then uh made your way to the LPGA tour. So uh as you mentioned, just coming out of the box firing with the rookie of the year, your first year out there.

Helen Alfredsson 0:47

Yeah, no, I I think that is such a great thing to have because it gives you a little bit of a gold because you don't know exactly where you stand. And um it was really fun to to claim that and as I did in Europe, and um I was close to and then I was close to winning a couple of times, but I didn't manage the first year. Um but um but I had a great experience and I got to play, I got invited to play in Australia with uh I I won a playoff with Schmeyers. Um so I played there and then we got to play in Japan. Um, you know, had having won the British, uh made it I got some nice invites, so I went to Japan and played and won a couple of there. So I I enjoyed travel uh very much in those days. New courses, new places.

Mike Gonzalez 1:36

Yeah. Well, let's talk about that first professional win that came at the 1990 Women's British Open at uh Woburn, uh which was contested uh on the Dukes course. You won that in a four-hole playoff with Jane Hill.

Helen Alfredsson 1:51

Yeah, no, it was it was so it was a very, very strange summer in in England, and it was very, very dry. That ball would run forever. But it but if you're a little bit off as well, you know, that ball would just go forever. So um, and uh she was in, and I think I had four holes to go, and the last three holes is a very tough tight finishing. Um but uh I was very focused and um yeah, and I managed to get myself into playoffs. It's funny how you never question very much in those days. I had a couple of bird chances, and obviously I would have liked to finish, but then I got into the playoffs and managed to. It's funny when I look back on the last putt that I made, you know, those are the kind of putts like those uh four or five footers that you practice on the practice green as a kid. This is for the British, or this is for them. And you raise your hand and you go, yeah. And that's exactly what I got.

Mike Gonzalez 2:48

You know, uh both of you can relate to this, but for our listeners who have never played Lynx golf or caught a summer in the UK where it is fast and firm like that, everybody thinks, oh, it'd be fun to hit it over 300 yards, it just runs and runs and runs. Well, actually, it's hard. I mean, and and I'm talking about difficult hard uh to control your ball on the ground, to get distance control, to get it close, it's hard.

Helen Alfredsson 3:13

It's very hard. And and Woburn has a little bit of you know tight dog legs, um, especially coming in 16, 17, and 18. And it's you know, if you don't have the perfect line and you have to, I mean, you have to hit the club that you expect roll hundred yards. So it's not like you can bomb something, you know, it's because you have to still place it, and it's very hard to place it when the ball never stops rolling.

Mike Gonzalez 3:39

Yeah, true, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So uh we kitted a little bit at the top about seven majors because uh really you were a bit ahead of your time. Here you are winning the the the women's British open in 1990. Well, they didn't decide to make it a major until 2001, so you were 11 years early there.

Helen Alfredsson 3:58

Yeah, I mean 11 years, yeah. Well, but I mean to me it meant a lot, and uh, you know, I'm glad I got you know the the major, but it's um yeah, but it now is sitting here would have been more fun to have those five ones, or at least maybe four.

Bruce Devlin 4:14

Might have made a little more money, too.

Helen Alfredsson 4:17

Yeah, that's true. That's true.

Mike Gonzalez 4:19

Yeah, all all you do though to qualify uh to visit with Bruce and I is you just have to win one.

Helen Alfredsson 4:25

No, well, that's I feel very honored for that.

Mike Gonzalez 4:29

So you get the first uh victory uh in hand. The the second victory comes in 1991 in the Queensl Queensland Open. Uh, how did it feel to validate that first victory? Because sometimes that's important, isn't it?

Helen Alfredsson 4:43

No, it's it's always nice, you know, when you start and and you know, when when you're winning, especially a tournament like that, and I think when I came back home, it you know, with those days it was the media was crazy, you know. I had so much to do, and and from one day to another, you're on every paper stand and all that stuff. And it but it it really was tough because you realize how people change to you. You know, they try to say the right things, and I've always been allergic to the people that just trying to kiss your ass, and you know. Um, but it was very it it was nice to be able to continue to you know to get another win and get a few more wins to just see that it was not just one of those flukes.

Mike Gonzalez 5:29

Yeah, interesting, Helen, that you say this about uh sort of really time management in in a way, because uh sounds like you had a lot of demands on your time from the press and so forth. Can you imagine what that would have been like today?

Helen Alfredsson 5:42

Oh, I can't even imagine. And I tell you, the other thing is it is the social media. When I see these young kids that have to do what they have to do for sponsors and everything, I remember I was trying to help a girl who, Sandra Caldwell, who has won five or six long driving championships. So I called one of my agents in London that I had IMG, and I and I wanted to help her out, you know, like a little bit of sponsorship. And I mean, she's a cute blonde girl with short skirts, you know, and she hits it 300 and whatever 80 or yards.

Bruce Devlin 6:17

Amazing.

Helen Alfredsson 6:17

Oh, how many hits or how many likes does she have on uh and I'm like, no, she won six, yeah, yeah. But I mean, how many how many followers does she have? So there's so much more for them in order to be liked. And and something that really provokes me that I it's is when somebody has likes and they get to play in a professional tournaments just because just because. You know what? Draw the line, you you know, be pretty, and you know, we have plenty of pretty girls on tour right now that are fit as a fiddle and plays amazing, amazing golf. But to have somebody that is not even qualified to play just because they have, I think it's gone a little too far there.

Mike Gonzalez 7:00

Yeah, the the world has sure changed, no question about that. Uh so uh another win in '91. We're at the Hennessy Ladies' Cup. This is at the Golf und Land Club in Cologne, Germany. It's in a playoff with Marie Laure de Lorenzi and Corinne Dibna.

Helen Alfredsson 7:20

Yeah, no, uh for us, uh the Hennessy Cup was a very big was a big tournament. Uh Jill Hennessy was an amazing sponsor to us, and and um we always had free champagne all week, I have to say.

Mike Gonzalez 7:35

There you go.

Helen Alfredsson 7:38

Which was nice. But uh no, it was a great event. It wasn't a great golf course, it was uh beautiful. I always loved to come back to that one, and we continued to support that event uh through the years um until uh we didn't have it anymore. And so it's I always I enjoyed both. I mean, America was obviously old business, but you know, I wasn't in America at this time, but but I really enjoyed my time in Europe. It's a little bit little bit more laid back than America than America was.

Mike Gonzalez 8:09

Yeah, I think one thing uh that uh visiting recently with Bernhard Longer uh and he gave us an a I guess a good appreciation for what you would have gone through traveling through Europe, you know, it wasn't like we were all good friends because there was a language barrier amongst us. We couldn't necessarily talk to the Italians or the Spaniards or the French if they weren't fluent in English.

Helen Alfredsson 8:33

No, it's true, and and now they are a lot better in in um in English, most of them. But yeah, it was a little bit. And and I think just traveling in Europe the way we did, you know, with no GPS, you had a map that you know you you turned a page and it was a different country there. Now I have to go back. Where the hell does this road go now? And you know, and the money was different everywhere. It's like you say, what country am I in? You know, when you were driving and driving, and but it it was a great experience, you know. You learn to to ask questions, you figured it out. I mean, it as tough as it was sometimes, it's it also created great memories.

Mike Gonzalez 9:14

Where's my Franks? Where's my Lyra? Where's my Deutschmark? Exactly, where's my Pacetis?

Helen Alfredsson 9:18

I've got no money. I know. That's exactly how it was.

Mike Gonzalez 9:23

Yeah. So, Bruce, a couple more wins in '91. She wasn't done.

Bruce Devlin 9:27

You sure did. Uh we winning uh France and also Japan, the trophy coconut skull in uh France and the uh die paper. Well, I led Ladies Open in Japan.

Helen Alfredsson 9:41

Yeah, no, I loved winning in Japan.

Bruce Devlin 9:45

We've heard a lot of stories about Japan. No, no, no.

Helen Alfredsson 9:48

You heard enough. You heard enough.

Bruce Devlin 9:49

I want I I wanna I want to hear some more stories.

Helen Alfredsson 9:54

Well, I think Katy Whitwood and uh Amy Alcott has the best ones. They were always joking, you know. We were always every time Amy would dance on the bus, we would go, we would ask what kind of music she was listening to because we would hear the music that was coming out in the bus. But with her dance moves, we thought she must listen. No, it was not the same. There was a total different tune going on in our head.

Mike Gonzalez 10:25

Oftentimes she'd sing and people would say, Turn it off. Turn it off.

Helen Alfredsson 10:29

I know, I know. It was but we used to joke because we used to have the party bus, and then we used to have the Betsy King bus. The party bus, for some reason, always made it less two hours later than the other bus. We made them stop at liquor stores.

Bruce Devlin 10:44

Yeah, that's what we had. Yeah. The traffic was so bad you could get off the bus, go buy some booze, and then get back on. You didn't have to walk more than a hundred yards.

SPEAKER_03 10:54

I know, unbelievable. People would get off the bus to go pee. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 11:00

Yeah, Amy, Amy, I I think it was Amy, it might have been Kathy, but I think it was Amy that told us that uh that uh Kathy was without a partner for karaoke. Amy joined her, and they won doing Tina Turner's What's Love Got to Do with It.

unknown 11:19

I know.

Helen Alfredsson 11:20

I wish I would have been there. I mean, those two, I mean, you can have two more different people, but I think Kat that's you and I talked a little bit about it, Mike, but just the sense of humor, the way they could laugh at themselves. And I mean, we were talking about Kathy Whitworth. When her hair moved, then it was a three-club wind. So everybody was in advantage when they stay with Kathy when it was a lot of wind.

Mike Gonzalez 11:48

Some people used to use a cigarette. They you guys use Kathy Whitworth's uh beehive.

SPEAKER_03 11:54

Exactly. Unbelievable.

Mike Gonzalez 11:56

Yeah, well, we'd heard so many great things about the Japanese stories. Of course, uh uh you know, you you you stay and then you you go up to play some of these golf courses, and it may be 15 miles, and it takes you three hours to get there, right?

Helen Alfredsson 12:10

Yeah, oh it was just you were just yeah, we we were just wondering, are they sure they know their way? Or I mean we were just but but for some reason we all did it and and and it it was really a great time when we were not allowed. It sounds crazy, but when we're not allowed to have caddies or parents to come, because it was really a time where we bonded, because we were sort of the outcasts, because you know, we couldn't speak to anybody and it was very hard to blend in. I remember going to the supermarket, and yeah, it was virtually impossible to blend in. So we did the best out of it when everybody was, you know, in the same situation. And um I remember Meg and I, I don't know if Meg said that, but we used to laugh. You know, when when we used to go there, we used to get toast toast is called. It was this thick and white. And so you ate toast in the morning and then you ate rice. And you can imagine what that did to you, your system. So after five days, people would look at each other, have you? No, have you? No.

Mike Gonzalez 13:26

No, no, oh, but we digress. Yeah, yeah.

Helen Alfredsson 13:34

It was uh it those little things that become bonding that we can laugh about now, you know, and everybody at the everybody would have so much fun in the end because it was just us, you know. It was we didn't really hang out with the Japanese, but it was the tour, even though we were not, you know, maybe friends on the mainland.

Mike Gonzalez 13:55

Yeah.

Bruce Devlin 13:57

So 91 wasn't the only uh time that you went to Japan. We we look at your record again in 1992. You win again at the ladies' uh Hannesy Ladies' Cup, then you win in Stockholm, and then you go back to Japan and win the uh uh Itoke uh Itoki classic. So more bus rides?

Helen Alfredsson 14:20

Yeah, more bus rides, more bus rides, and it was it was so funny because the you know what I won three times in Japan and it was like Christmas. Because normally in the stage you get a little trophy and you get the money. Here I got cars, I got one year, I got toilet paper for a whole year, I got a fur coat, I got plane tickets, and I just said, keep it coming, keep it coming. It was amazing. They treated you very, very nicely. I really enjoyed my trips to Japan.

Mike Gonzalez 14:53

Yeah, we we've heard that a lot about uh Christmas coming early when you went in Japan. Yeah. The other thing I recall, uh, and this was with Brandy Burton, and it sort of struck me because you said the same thing about sort of what you remember and and what is memorable. Um I think we talked about her first win. She didn't remember any of the holes or any of the shots, but she remembered the couple that she stayed with that week. I thought that was kind of neat.

Helen Alfredsson 15:22

I know it's uh I made some long-term long time friends, you know, with uh with my families, and and I still keep in touch with them. And and that's another one that's a beautiful thing with America, how we were allowed to, how people were so incredibly generous and opened the doors and opened their homes to us, and and uh it made it so much easier, actually, um, because you you you didn't have it every week, obviously, but you had it a few times a year, and and just to look forward, in the end you felt like you're coming home. You it was a break from the hotel visits. Um and uh yeah, I really enjoyed those moments. And I remember uh we did an interview when we played the McDonald's Championship in Wilmington, and they did an interview when it was a rain delay, and they asked the families, and so they asked us, and I remember uh telling them, yeah, it's it's a tough job to stay with the Duke cars because I have to wash the toilets and I have to do the laundry, and and they put that in the paper, and they like, oh my god, you know, because they were known to have McDonald's stores, but that was the kind of jokes that we could have with each other.

Mike Gonzalez 16:32

Yeah, well, Brandy talked about her first win. And of course, you know, when you're leading after 54, you got kind of that late tea time and you got a lot of time to kill, right? She remembers it was breakfast at Wimbledon at her host home, and they had strawberries and cream out on the back patio, just a nice leisurely morning that took her mind completely off the job for the day.

Helen Alfredsson 16:53

Fantastic. Yeah, yeah. That's yeah, yeah. America is, you know, America is a very generous, uh, incredible country, and uh and some of the most generous and kind people that I've met through my life.

Mike Gonzalez 17:08

So after some of your early success on the LET tour, um you want to take a whack. This is now 1992, coming to Q School for the LPGA tour. Tell us a little bit about that experience. Was that was that a different kind of pressure than you'd ever felt before? Your first whack at that?

Helen Alfredsson 17:27

I tell you, I think 92 was I made it in 92, right?

Mike Gonzalez 17:33

Yes. Yeah, yeah.

Helen Alfredsson 17:35

Yeah, because I missed yeah I missed signing up for one year. But um, no, I think that is one of the toughest things. And I had a European tour to play on, but I'm thinking about the girls that don't have another tour to play on, and everything depends on what you're gonna do in the next year or maybe a long time ahead of you and uh the pressure because it's you're really not winning, you're winning your card, but it's not about being w winning the actual tournament. That doesn't matter. You just and that sometimes is harder because you just need to be in the top 15. And I remember my my uh fiance at the time. Uh I I keep making bogeys, and and he says to me, You have to you have to shape up. Look at this. This old lady is beating you. And that was Raymond, that was Raymond Floyd's sister, Marlene. Marlene. But so I I made it, and uh yeah, you're right. Um I think I don't know what you feel, Bruce, but Q school was one of the toughest. It's such a stress that it doesn't go away until you're done. You don't feel relieved anywhere that whole week.

Bruce Devlin 18:44

Well, unfortunately for me, I didn't have to go through Q school. Uh well be that way. I came over a little came over a little bit in '92, uh in the '62, uh, and then ran out of money and went back and played in Australia and New Zealand. And same thing in the in '93, I came over with my wife and two children at that time, and they come on a boat, and I was on the plane, and I ran out of money again, and they went to the Nicholas House in Columbus for six weeks before their boat left to go back to Australia. So you talk about some funny things that happened during this professional golf life. That was one of the craziest weeks. And then fortunately, I come back in early 64 and 1 in uh St. Pete, so then I got exempt and stayed exempt then.

Helen Alfredsson 19:42

Yeah, it's it's amazing. The road is never a straight one, is it?

Bruce Devlin 19:46

No, it's not. Boy.

Helen Alfredsson 19:47

The tenacity and the the how much you're ready to work for something that you really want. And you were so far away from home, too. I mean, really far away from home.

Bruce Devlin 19:57

Yeah, that's that was the hard part, I think. The hardest part, I think, was was being so far away.

Mike Gonzalez 20:03

Yeah, he you know, he and Bruce Crampton, uh, a couple of the early pioneers, right? Uh coming over all that way and making America and that tour your home. Yeah. Yeah.

Bruce Devlin 20:15

So let's go to 93 now. Boy, what a what what a way to start out, huh? Dinah Shaw. Win at Mission Hills. Yeah. I uh beat uh Tina Barrett, Amy Benz, and and Betsy King. Uh that had to be, I mean, that had to be a big part of your life as a professional to win that tournament.

Helen Alfredsson 20:37

Oh no, it was it was huge. And I remember, I mean, talking about not playing well out leading up to it, and I was out hitting balls on the other golf course and playing with Leo, and and he all of a sudden hit it longer than me. And I'm like, I might as well go home because this is not if you can hit it further than me, how the hell am I going to be able to do anything here? And then I just got in the in the zone that we talk about, you know, that all of a sudden you just something happens and I stay there. And I remember, but one of the funniest stories, I don't know, now it's so many years ago I can say it, but it was so hot in Palm Desert, and and uh I was late. Obviously, I had no priority tea times or anything. And um, and on the tenth hole, my my Leo came up to me and he goes, Are you thirsty? You know, we've been drinking gallus of water at this point. And he's like, Well, have one of those, you know, lemonade, you know, frozen lemonade that have thawn. And I said, Have a sip. And I took a sip and he had spiced it with tequila. And uh and I made three birdies, and uh and I came in four under and I stayed four under. But that talk about being in the zone. When I when I'm on 18 and I look at my caddy and I go, Are you sure we're done? Are you sure we're done after this? I and I, you know what, I've never been in the zone.

Mike Gonzalez 22:03

That's focus.

Helen Alfredsson 22:06

Yeah, it was.

Mike Gonzalez 22:07

Well, uh 11 years before or so, uh it was or 10 years before, it was Amy Alcott that made the first little dip into Poppy's Pond. Did you find yourself going into Poppy's Pond as well? And if so, what was the condition of the water in 1993?

Helen Alfredsson 22:27

No, sadly, I didn't get to go, but there was a reason for it because Amy and I were very good friends. And uh and she had done a year before then with the with uh Diana, Dinah Shore.

Mike Gonzalez 22:38

Yeah, that was her third time in Poppy's Pond.

Helen Alfredsson 22:41

Yeah, they did. And for me, for me, boy, I felt it was their thing because Diana was, you know, so I didn't want to be a copycat and take their thing. Uh besides Diana was sick. Obviously, I was the last one that won when she was still alive because she died later that year. So she was sick. So I never I never got to do it. It was more in respect for Amy and and Diana because it was their thing. Uh but now everybody goes swimming. But maybe I should be happy I didn't have to go in in that water.

Mike Gonzalez 23:13

Yeah. It was really your master's, wasn't it?

Helen Alfredsson 23:16

Yeah, it was. It was uh it was beautiful to come back to the same place. It was always in great condition, and the weather was uh always nice. Well, except some some wind that could really be wreak a havoc too, actually. But but in general, it was uh just a beautiful place and it was fun, you know, being a foreigner to meeting all these other celebrities that got to play in the thingy, you know, as a as guests. And no, we always look forward to that week. It was a very, very special week.

Mike Gonzalez 23:47

Yeah, I know a lot of the ladies were sad to see it move. I'm sure they'll try to carry on with some of the traditions, but uh no matter what name it's under, I think it will forever be referred to as the Dinosure. Yeah.

Helen Alfredsson 24:00

Well, for us, but you know, these young kids they have no idea, and I think it's good. I mean, it's the same with the Bob Hope and uh and up in um uh up in Pebble. Um, yeah, Bing Crosby, you know, so it's yeah, so it's it's it's vi is important for us because we know them, but they have no relation to that. So I'm as much as we find it sad to see it go, it's just the evolution of of everything.

Mike Gonzalez 24:28

Um Mr. Devlin won the Bob Hope one year and uh had a pretty nice fancy partner at the Bing Crosby for about ten years, didn't you, Bruce?

Bruce Devlin 24:38

I did, yeah. I got to I got to play ten years with Mr. Dean Martin at the cross which was which was a lot of fun for me and and my wife she she enjoyed him too. So I think anybody ever met him fell in love with him.

Helen Alfredsson 24:57

Oh my you know what it's funny because I I miss sense of humor. So I usually I have still the uh tapes, or now I can watch it on YouTube. Dean Martin roasts.

Bruce Devlin 25:06

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

Helen Alfredsson 25:09

I love those things, they give each other such a hard time, and today they would have been, you know, they would have been bleeped the whole show. But uh correct. Yeah. But I mean, just a sense of humor you said about Bob Hope. Uh when he ended up at the end, uh one of the best lines I've ever heard that uh Dolores had asked him where he wants to be buried when he passes away, and he goes, uh, surprise me.

Mike Gonzalez 25:39

Surprise me.

Bruce Devlin 25:41

That's a great line. Oh, that's great.

Helen Alfredsson 25:45

I know I think it's a fantastic line.

Mike Gonzalez 25:48

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. Whack down the fairway. It went smack down the fairway. And it started just like 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.