Joyce Ziske Malison - Part 1 (The Early Years)

Intro Music 0:10

It went straight down to the door.

Mike Gonzalez 0:14

Welcome to another edition of FORE the Good of the Game and Bruce Devlin. This young lady we've got this morning plays golf more golf than you and me combined.

Bruce Devlin 0:25

Whenever the sun's out and there's no rain, she plays golf every day. And it is a pleasure to have with us today Joyce Ziske Malison, who won the 1960 Western Open, which in those days was a major, and some other tournaments on the LPGA. Thank you, Joyce, for joining Mike and I. We look forward to chatting with you about your career in this wonderful game of golf.

Joyce Ziske Malison 0:50

Well, thank you for having me, and thank you for thinking of me.

Mike Gonzalez 0:54

Let's take a trip down memory lane, Joyce. Uh of course, we're talking to you. Uh you're in the Badger State, and uh I think we mentioned to you we've talked to some other great badgers, but you were probably the pioneer, and then after you came people like Andy North and Martha Nousey and Sherry Steinhauer and Stricker. We've talked to all of them. We haven't talked to Jerry, but we've talked uh all the ones that came after you. But uh Bruce and I are really looking forward to uh having you tell your story. So let's just start at the beginning back in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Tell us about growing up in Milwaukee.

Joyce Ziske Malison 1:32

Well, I started on a farm. I'm a farm girl. Uh nobody in my family played golf. Uh none of my relatives played golf. They didn't even know what golf was. And we had a farm, and uh they put a driving range, Dick Swift put built a driving range right across the street from us, which would have been north of us. So Howard Avenue went in between, and the slicers would slice the ball into the cow pasture. We had greenhouses, we had cows, we had a goat, we had chicken, a lot of chickens, uh flowers. It was sort of a multi-small farm. So then uh I would go and pick those balls up and I took them back to Dick. And then he let me hit them out again. So that made me more energetic to go and find more balls. I could hit more balls that way. So that's how I got started, and then he started teaching me sort of liking to me, I guess. And I was a pretty good athlete. I'd played baseball, I played volleyball, I played basketball, but all in you know, grade school level. Then high school we didn't have any sports, no sports whatsoever, except in Girls' Athletics Association. And I played volleyball, basketball, and but no golf. But then I when he started teaching me, and I'd hit buckets and buckets of balls, and um I'd have to go and pick them up, but then I picked them up on the range itself. Yeah, and we had no protection. We'd go out there and with a can at the end of a stick and scoop them and carry a bucket and put them in there. By the hour I would do this. So that that's how I really got started. And then uh he just kept teaching me and I kept hitting balls, but the only thing I would do was hit a driver. I didn't know anything about irons or anything like that. So then uh slow but sure, when he took me to a golf course. Well, that was a mistake because I didn't know how to hit an iron. Well, then we got a whole set of pieces, you know, old clubs laying around. And finally he bought me a set of irons and woods.

Bruce Devlin 3:55

How nice.

Joyce Ziske Malison 3:56

Lady Burke Irons and uh Wally Quant Woods, who made them they were they were handmade, I mean really, really pretty clubs. So that's what I start, that's how I got started. And then uh, of course, then where am I gonna play? My m my family isn't no members, no golf course, no way. So we went up to the old Tuckaway, just uh about a mile right away from us, uh south. Well, they wouldn't let me do it because I my parents weren't members, and they'd wouldn't let me play as a junior golfer. So I just kept playing municipal courses and uh and then he bought Rivermore in the fall of 48, and that's when I had a golf course to play, and I'm still playing it.

Mike Gonzalez 4:54

I was gonna say, that's your home club now, just uh in the little town you live in, south of Milwaukee, right?

Joyce Ziske Malison 5:00

That's correct. That's it's it's 18 holes, it's not real long. It'll fool you though, it'll eat you. Small greens, and then I uh would go out on a Friday night. Uh members pick me up and uh take me out there, and I'd stay with Dick and the family, and uh and I'd get home Sunday night. One of the members, or what somebody would bring me home.

Bruce Devlin 5:28

I don't know.

Joyce Ziske Malison 5:29

And I'd go to school all week and then I'd go back out on the weekends.

Bruce Devlin 5:32

What an interesting thing that is.

Joyce Ziske Malison 5:35

But to earn my keep out there, I had to water the greens, I cut the greens, I did a lot of work out there too. Yeah, that's great. Break the traps.

Mike Gonzalez 5:45

Now, was Dick a golf professional or just uh just owned the driving range to begin with?

Joyce Ziske Malison 5:50

Well, he was a bowler and a golf professional. He he taught, he was a good, good teacher. He didn't have uh a real solid game, he wasn't real long, but he was a good good teacher, good eye of uh golf uh problems. Uh he could pick it out like nothing. And I always stayed with him, I never went with anybody else.

Mike Gonzalez 6:14

Really? Uh you see, I would have thought uh well, it probably m Manuel de la Torre came came came uh probably after your career, I suppose.

Joyce Ziske Malison 6:23

Yeah, man Manuel came after me. We we were good friends, you know, and uh played with them and so forth, gave a couple exhibitions, but he uh I stayed with Dick. I uh Manuel taught similar to what Dick did, so we could communicate you know, different ways. I talked to different people, but uh I always if I had a problem I'd go to Dick.

Bruce Devlin 6:50

Yeah, that's very interesting. So you uh that was when you were 14 years old when he bought that golf course, right?

Joyce Ziske Malison 6:57

So that's correct. That's when I started playing my first tournament. I was 14 years old, 1949, and I gave an exhibition uh with Pattyswerg, uh myself, and uh Patty Berg. And uh Patty didn't like to be outdriven.

Bruce Devlin 7:18

Oh, so you were out driving her, huh?

Joyce Ziske Malison 7:20

Right off the bat, I hit one on the first hole and I blew it by her, and she said, Joyce, she says, I'm the pro here. I said, Sorry, Patty. And we played nine holes, and uh we had a great time, and we were friends forever. Great gal.

Mike Gonzalez 7:42

So, how did that come about, that exhibition with Patty Berg?

Joyce Ziske Malison 7:45

It was at Lincoln Hills, it was uh Alice Chalmers uh factory deal, and they had an exhibition. Uh the pros would come out, and they had Patty. Patty was doing a lot of clinics and because making some money because we didn't they didn't have a lot of tournaments in. Right. And uh that I was an amateur then. So uh they picked the amateurs to play with the pro.

Bruce Devlin 8:11

Right.

Joyce Ziske Malison 8:12

And uh that's how I met her, and that's how I really got interested in golf. She she put a challenge out there that uh I think I can beat her.

Bruce Devlin 8:22

Yeah, so what you gotta tell us, you gotta tell us what the scores were that day. Did you actually beat her or not?

Joyce Ziske Malison 8:32

I don't remember to be honest. It was uh it was one of those things I was so thrilled to play with her. It was killed.

Mike Gonzalez 8:42

Now, did she get you converted to Wilson that back then?

Joyce Ziske Malison 8:46

No, it that was uh I went, I was playing McGregor uh when I started the tour, and I was so short of money. I had no money, and uh Wilson came along when I turned pro on uh in February there, and they offered me $500 to play their clubs. Well, to me, that was a lot of money. I mean, that was five weeks worth of what I could spend.

Bruce Devlin 9:15

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 9:17

So I went with them and uh we had a little misunderstanding with a club. I broke a club on in March, uh four iron, in fact, on our tree file on a follow-through, and they never got one back to me. And I got a little my German got a little uh upset and uh I said, I can't I can't do this. I can't play golf missing a foyer and that's one of my most important clubs. So I said, sorry, I'm not gonna resign with you. Uh we it was mutual agreement, you know. So then uh I uh went with McGregor after that.

Mike Gonzalez 10:03

Gotcha. Yeah, yeah. So you played it.

Joyce Ziske Malison 10:06

And that that's who I played for to begin with. I played the equipment to begin with, but uh it was just that five hundred dollars looked like thousands to me.

Bruce Devlin 10:17

If you go back though, after after joining this club, uh you you went to a little uh high school called Pulaski, correct?

Joyce Ziske Malison 10:26

And then uh Yes, I went to Pulaski High School, no golf team, right, no golf, no women's golf, and we had one gal, Nadine Granick from Washington, another high school, wanted to play golf, and I wanted to play golf. And uh the coaches tried to get us on the golf team, and they would not allow it, absolutely not allow it. But then I would go and practice with the boys. I would take my get my dad's car, big borrow it, you know, and I'd go out after school, and then I'd uh drive down and practice with them. And that's I got to know the boys on the golf team, you know, and uh worked with them, and uh but I never did get to play high school golf, and neither did she. But nowadays they would have sued, they would have everybody plays golf.

Mike Gonzalez 11:24

Yeah, Title IX sure helped, but that came way later, didn't it, uh, for the women.

Joyce Ziske Malison 11:29

Oh yeah, that's for sure. That's for sure. Now now uh everybody's playing. I mean, it's such an opportunity for the kids and uh grown-ups, the girls' scholarships. Uh there was nothing like that out there for us. I mean, we I was lucky to play, that's about it.

Bruce Devlin 11:50

And you showed you showed some uh serious uh potential there early in your career. Of course, in uh in 49 when you were 15 years old, you won the district junior girls golf invitational tournament, which which uh that had to be a thrill for a 15-year-old, huh?

Joyce Ziske Malison 12:09

Yes, uh it uh I won the the county, and then I had a teacher at Pulaski that found out I wasn't going to college. And that didn't sit real well with her, and she was a golfer. And the following year I went into the regular division. And who do I meet right off the bat, right out of the chute, is my teacher that wouldn't that tried to flunk me. I had to go to the principal with my grades and homework and everything to get my grades. So right off the bat I clashed with her. Well, needless to say, I sort of got a little revenge. So uh it it was a pleasure putting it to her. But then uh after that, the same way with state, I played the juniors one year. And then uh the following year I said, I don't want I want to win the state, the state championship. And uh so I went into the regular division. Well, everybody thought I was nuts. I'm only 16 years old and I want to go in the regular division. Well, it was played at Merrill Hills in Waukesha, right out of Milwaukee, and it was a hilly course, very hilly. And um I got through it all the way to the finals. Marion Kirschner beat me and she gave me a little lesson, you know, of how to accept the vic uh beat, beating. And but I did knock a couple of the contenders out. So I thought this this isn't too bad, you know. I I'm doing okay.

Intro Music 13:59

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 14:00

So the following year we go to Kenosha to play, and I lost in the semifinals. I said, boy, maybe I made a mistake. Yeah. And uh then I we went to Ozaki Country Club the following year and I won it there. And then uh Blue Mound, I lost in the semifinals again to defending champion there. Uh uh front up to the champion anyway. Then I won it again at Blackhawk Country Club in Madison in 54.

Bruce Devlin 14:36

Yeah. That was a women's amateur then, right?

Joyce Ziske Malison 14:39

Right, that was match play. They didn't have metal play, that was the only tournament they had. They had the women's county, was with which was match play. We didn't have metal play tournaments. And they had the Wisconsin State women's amateur match play. We didn't have any opens, we didn't have any uh metal plate tournaments. It was just look forward to those two tournaments, and then uh that's then the the the uh year was over.

Bruce Devlin 15:13

Well then in in uh in 1954, I believe you you moved uh went quite a ways from Wisconsin down to Florida and won a uh four-ball tournament there, right?

Joyce Ziske Malison 15:25

With Wiffy? Uh Wiffie Wiffy and I uh we played, I went down there, I graduated in 52, and Dick Swift and his family went down to Florida and went out to California and I went with them that winter. 53 I did uh I went down there it was it 54. No, 54. I got my mom dad, I talked them into buying me a car. It was a four six cylinder, no air conditioning, it had wheels on it, but it was one day and I took off the next day. I had I think it was like about five hundred dollars in my pocket, no credit card, no nothing. I took off by myself.

Bruce Devlin 16:24

That's crazy.

Joyce Ziske Malison 16:25

Because at that time you had change oil at 200 miles, so I I said, wow, I don't want to change oil too often, it costs money. But uh, you know, everything was irrelevant irrelevant. Uh the gas was less. Uh I made it down the floor. I played at uh Sea Island, Georgia, and I went down to Tampa and played the amateur there, and then I got an invite over to Miami to the Miami shores. It was an amateur, bigger tournament for the amateurs, and Wiffie and I got together and we played the Hollywood four ball together. And we should have won that. I mean, Wiffie and I were we're just great friends. I met her out there, and that's we just became good buddies, huh? Typical, typically the same, you know, rough uh edge, didn't know what we were doing out here, and blue jeans and uh no golf shoes, tennis shoes. Everybody's looking at us, who you know, what are you doing out here? But that's the way I was, you know. I had nothing. So uh we we lost in the finals, and then we said, Wifi, I told her, I said, we're coming back next year, we're gonna win it. And she said, Okay, I agree to that. So we stayed amateur and I played the rest of the tournaments there. And I was fortunate enough I put won the Palm Beach that year, and went up and won the North South. Uh, and I won a couple of the where I entered as a pro uh amateur in the pro event. I won the amateur division of it. Uh, and it it really the game butt bit me. I I couldn't stay away from it. And it from there on it just uh snowballed.

Bruce Devlin 18:22

So how did you find out that you were gonna be on the Curtis Cup team in 1954?

Joyce Ziske Malison 18:29

Well, there I I went home and uh it was it was quite late and they finally notified me that I was gonna be on the Curtis Cup team. And I thought, wow, on the Curtis Cup team? I don't know any of these girls. And I didn't. I mean I I was I was really raw out there. And uh so it wasn't like it is now where they suit you up. I I my sister went and bought me a a top. I had to buy a white jacket to go with the team. They didn't buy it, but they gave me an L emblem to put on the jacket.

Bruce Devlin 19:12

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 19:13

So I had to have that suit on. And then uh that's what I owned, a white jacket. And then they put we went out there, I played a practice round, and Mrs. Finney was uh the captain, and I heard her in the background. She said, We won't play Zisky in the f matches the first round. We we don't know what she's gonna do out there, she doesn't know much. And I thought, hmm, okay. So then played the next round, and she put me in, and then she said, uh, well, we're good, we're gonna have one loss here. So she put me against their top player, and that was the loss that we were supposed to have. Well, I took her to the 18th hole, but I did lose.

Bruce Devlin 20:03

Oh, boy.

Joyce Ziske Malison 20:04

But uh other than that, we did win the Curtis Cup Cup.

Mike Gonzalez 20:08

Yeah, that's right. And there were a few players on that team that you came to know probably pretty well, didn't you?

Joyce Ziske Malison 20:14

Oh yes, Barbara Romack, Kirby. Yeah, I I played with them after that, you know, quite a few times, but up to that point, you know, the north-south was really the only thing that I played in, and that one down in Miami. I mean, where I mixed with any of the outsiders. And everybody was so strange. And I mean, I I was just uh hillbilly coming into a modern, you know, climate tell. I d I didn't know anything. Yeah, didn't know where the clubhouse was or where the locker room was, and you're supposed to change shoes in the locker room. And in fact, uh I have a picture of it, uh I laugh when I see it. I played Tamu, they had Tamoshanner then in Chicago. Right. They had the All-American and World.

Mike Gonzalez 21:02

Yeah, Dorcas May. Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 21:04

I got in it because of my record. And so I go down there and I thought, God, I had the only thing I had was blue jeans. So I'm walking off this first tee. I have a shirt on and the blue jeans, and I had a pair of shoes that had a hole in them, and here I'm walking strutting off the first tee like I'm the queen of the crop. It was a challenge, it was fun.

Mike Gonzalez 21:34

Well, some of these players you played with, uh, Barbara Womack, for example, uh, she won the U.S. amateur that year. Uh Mary Lena Falk won the 1961 Western Open the year after you.

Joyce Ziske Malison 21:46

Yeah, I beat her in the finals of the North South.

Mike Gonzalez 21:49

Yeah, and then uh Dorothy Kirby, you mentioned, who was really a lifelong amateur and won both the U.S. amateur and also won a couple of title holders as an amateur, didn't she?

Joyce Ziske Malison 21:58

Yes, she did. She was she was Quite a player. Very, very, very nice player.

Mike Gonzalez 22:02

So Marion is a pretty special place, great history. Mr. Devlin had a chance to play in a team event as well in 1960 in Marion. And I'm sure you both enjoyed those experiences.

Joyce Ziske Malison 22:15

Oh, definitely. I know I I enjoyed everything I ever played in. It was just always a challenge. And I played always good around uh the Carolinas, Nashville, Spartanburg, Pine Needles, Mid Pines. That area, that area, I I just it was my liking. I I really played well there.

Bruce Devlin 22:42

So so uh George, when when did you decide that you were gonna bite the bullet and be you know turn professional and go out there and slog your way around in that car for years?

Joyce Ziske Malison 22:58

Well then uh the following year, which was 55, I told Dick I'm gonna go down to Florida again, test the waters. Said, you'll back me. Uh and I said, uh, Wiffy and I are gonna play in the Hollywood four ball together again. I said I'm gonna play the same tournaments that I did last year. And uh I was low amateur and two of them with the pros. And I got the chance to play with actually Babe at uh Miami. I'll never forget it. Uh we teed off and I hit the first green, I hit the second green, I hit the third green, and she looked at me, but I three-putted them all. And finally, the fourth green, it was uh I said to myself, I said, I can't three-putt anymore. I said, This is terrible. Uh I hit the green and I made a putt. And she said, Okay, Joy, she said, now let's play golf. It was, I mean, uh, we we had a real liking to me, George and her, and uh as I was amateur, she was a pro. That's probably why it was because we were in different uh you know competitive stages.

Mike Gonzalez 24:26

Yeah, unfortunately.

Joyce Ziske Malison 24:27

I was very, very, very fortunate there.

Mike Gonzalez 24:30

Unfortunately, you didn't overlap that long, did you? Because uh she wasn't gonna be around for too much longer.

Joyce Ziske Malison 24:36

Right. And then I stayed when I played in the open that year, uh, I was still amateur. Uh the last time she played where she won it by 12. And I was playing a practice round and Babe came out and she said, Can I play with you? I said, Sure. George was with her. And uh she was hacking. I mean she she was really having trouble. She knocked it in the water, she knocked it out of bounds, she hit another ball and she knocked that in the water. And then she came in, I'll never forget it, and she pressed, you know, they get all over them, and just they said, Babe, what'd you have out there? Say, probably about 70 or 71 at the most. And we walked in the locker room, and I said, Babe, I said, How can you tell the press that? You didn't even break 90. I said, They don't want to hear that. And she just kept right on walking.

Bruce Devlin 25:45

That's funny.

Joyce Ziske Malison 25:46

I never forgot that it was the funniest thing that I have ever experienced.

Mike Gonzalez 25:51

She was uh she was a big personality, wasn't she?

Joyce Ziske Malison 25:55

Right. And then she went on and she won that tournament by 12 shots, and that that was her last tournament, too. Yeah, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 26:02

What a special memory. Yeah, you also had a chance to play uh uh at least once in the in the women's amateur, did you not?

Joyce Ziske Malison 26:12

I played uh the amateurs, but I I never did well in those. I went all the way out to Portland, I remember one time and didn't even qualify. I thought that's a long way to go for one stupid tournament, you know. But just put a little more grit in me. I played the Western, like the Western juniors. But there again, I was limited till Dick Swift stepped up to the plate and he had to join the associations, the Western Golf Association, the USGA Golf Association, so I could play in these tournaments. And the first couple years we didn't know why I couldn't play. They just rejected me. Well, then we found out and we joined it, and then I got to play. I played in some of the Western juniors, where they had the stymie rule, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 27:02

Oh my.

Joyce Ziske Malison 27:04

Yeah, that was an experience in the USGA juniors. I didn't win any of them, but I it was competitive, you know. Yeah that's where I met a lot of the girls that I continued playing with.

Mike Gonzalez 27:17

So the process of becoming an LPGA professional was a little different back then, wasn't it?

Joyce Ziske Malison 27:24

Yes, it there's there's no comparison. We had no qualifying, we had just go to the first team and say, hmm, I'm a pro professional today. Pay your entry fee, and uh that was it. But uh the first tournament I played, it was at uh right after the Hollywood four-ball. I drove across state uh and played at Sarasota. And I cashed. It wasn't much, but then I had to buy a meal that's supposed to bring you good luck. I thought, if I buy a meal, I'm not even gonna have anything to take home. So I wiggle them into just buying a hamburger, and then uh we had a hamburger, and then I continued from there.

Mike Gonzalez 28:15

Yeah, so uh uh you mentioned life on the road uh in a Ford. You traveled with Jackie Pong for a while, didn't you?

Joyce Ziske Malison 28:23

The first uh first year as a pro, I uh met up with Jackie at Sea Island, Georgia, and uh we it got her down to Tampa, and we got down, we went together to Miami, and then uh her daughters came on the tour, and then uh she got a car. She always got to rental cars and stuff, but uh we did it for a little bit on and off, but not as a steady diet. Uh Jackie was she was a sweetheart, but one day Jackie was gone, and we were down in Miami. And I said, Anybody see Jackie? I'm supposed to give her a ride back to the motel. No, nobody saw Jackie. Well, I go back to the motel, here's Jackie. She got a ride back, and she went and bought herself a big banana split. And you know, Jackie was good size.

Bruce Devlin 29:27

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 29:28

And uh I said, Jackie, I said, you're not supposed to have that. She said, Choice. She said, I went in the room and I closed the windows, the blinds, and I ate it. I ate the whole thing. Nobody could see me. I said, but your stomach knows it. But we we had a lot of laughs that way.

Mike Gonzalez 29:52

Well, Jackie Pong won the 1952 women's U.S. amateur, and uh why don't you tell us a little bit about uh her big disappointment that happened at the 1957 U.S. Open that Betsy Rawls won.

Joyce Ziske Malison 30:07

Yeah, that that was a very, very sad situation. Uh she won the tournament outright. I mean, there was no ifs, ands, or buts. She was the player of the week. And when she came in, they ran late. Their group ran late. I think she was playing with Betty Jameson, if I'm not mistaken. And when she came in, the press is all over them, you know. We gotta get this to the press, we gotta get to this to the press. So he whisked her away, she checked the card, but she didn't go hole by hole. And what they she did, Betty they changed two holes, they flipped them so the card was wrong. But I blame I still to this day blame the USJ for not and the press for not like giving her a chance to sign the card, and she signed it. And about I would say half hour they said, Oh oh, we found a mistake. And they said, What's the problem? We have to disqualify Jackie. And we were all in a rage because we found we knew what happened. And uh but then the members got together. They they disqualified her, she lost the championship. But uh the members got together and they passed the hat and she made more money than winning the check. She won like about three thousand dollars, and I think the check was the championship was only about eighteen hundred or sixteen hundred, something like that, which was a big check for us, but yeah. But she made out financially okay, but heart-wise, she lost the championship because of an incorrect card.

Mike Gonzalez 31:57

Yeah, and you know, much like the Roberto Dianso Gold Tommy Aaron situation 1968, the Masters. Uh can you ever envision that happening today the way they do it? No way.

Joyce Ziske Malison 32:10

No, no way, no, no, because they they put you in a room by yourself. I mean, you they bring you in and you don't do anything to you sit down to the table, the the three or four, whatever you have in your group, and you go over that card, and then the caddy keeps a card, the caddy's right there all the time. Caddy's right at your shoulder. Right, he's breathing down your absolutely true.

Mike Gonzalez 32:38

Well, let's talk about win number one. How many events uh we're we're talking about Joyce's first win that came at the 1956 Syracuse Open Drumlins Country Club in New York. How many events had you played in leading up to that first win? You remember?

Joyce Ziske Malison 32:55

Well, that's uh how many events I played? Quite a few. I played in all the tournaments that they put out there. In fact, uh two weeks before that, we were in Waterloo, Iowa. Okay, we had a week off after that, and we had to go out to Spokane, Washington, and play there, and then come back to Syracuse without a with a week to spare in there.

Bruce Devlin 33:22

Wow. A lot of driving.

Joyce Ziske Malison 33:26

It was all driving, we couldn't fly. Couldn't afford to fly. So four of us got in the car. I had a station wagon at that point, and we put borrowed a top from one of the members to put on the top of the car to put our clothes in. And then our clubs were in the backseat, and then four of us in the car. So we take off and we're going, we go through uh Yellowstone, and I I happened to be driving at that time, and I said, Okay, girls, nobody opens a window. Nobody throws anything out because there's a bear around there. Yeah. So uh all of a sudden we get stopped and we're going slow and slow, and we see the bear. And Bonnie Randolph throws a cookie out.

Bruce Devlin 34:22

Uh-oh.

Joyce Ziske Malison 34:24

That's all that bear needed. It found the cookie and it came right up and put its paws on the car. I had scratches on the car, put the paws up, and it rocked the car.

Bruce Devlin 34:36

I said, Why?

Joyce Ziske Malison 34:37

You thought you ever do that again? She's on the other side of the car away from this bear, and we're laughing, but luckily nothing happened. And when we uh spend the night right out of there, and we did some fishing along the river, and then we went up to Spokane and played.

Mike Gonzalez 34:58

You know, these kids with their net jets and their fractional jet shares, they miss out on all this fun on the road.

Joyce Ziske Malison 35:06

Oh. Then coming back, we uh the last one had uh put the last clothes in the top and make sure the zipper was closed. Well, somebody, not mentioning names, didn't close the zipper.

Bruce Devlin 35:22

Uh uh.

Joyce Ziske Malison 35:23

So we're going down the highway out in North Dakota. How it staked that clothes that from that morning to then. Anyway, a truck goes by us. I thought, man, he's going, he's tootin' the horn. You know, and then one of the guys is going, you know, you have a problem. So I pulled over, and here I look back. Here's clothes lying out the the the top. We had to go back and pick up our dirty clothes before we could continue.

Mike Gonzalez 35:56

Oh, and no GPS, uh, you know.

Joyce Ziske Malison 35:59

Oh, no, no telephones, no GPS, no computers, no uh range finders.

Mike Gonzalez 36:06

If you're uh if you're caravanning, you had to have signals between cars probably for right.

Joyce Ziske Malison 36:12

Well, we drive so far and then you'd uh you know stop, meet, and then go again we had to do.

Mike Gonzalez 36:21

Yeah. Well, let's get back to that first win. Uh you shot 71-71, the first two rounds to lead by three over Louise Suggs. What do you remember about that final round or that experience winning your first tournament?

Joyce Ziske Malison 36:35

Not too much because uh the night before we had a uh banquet, and uh some of the girls decided to go out and party. Uh uh. And a couple of them were in my room. I'm not mentioning names, but oh, please do. Uh I said, okay, you guys, you're on your own. I'm going back to the room. So I went back to the room. Well, they came in the wee hours of the morning, laughing and hollering. Of course, they woke me up the next day. It was hotter than heck. It was so hot and humid. It was just absolutely ugly. And uh the girls come out, they had towels around their neck, you know, wet towel. They were they were suffering. I thought, good for you. But anyway, uh Louise had a tough day, and I did too. I I think I shot 79 last day, 78. And uh, but the course played altogether different. We had a different wind, but it was so hot that you couldn't breathe. It was down in those valleys.

Bruce Devlin 37:43

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 37:44

And I got to the last hole, and uh what I don't know who came up and said, Well, you have to power the hole and you win the tournament. I thought, oh sure, tell me now. So uh I got it on the green. I remember I hit a good drive, I got it on the green, it wasn't a real long hole, and I put it and I left it about four feet short naturally short. Of course I didn't want to get above it because then I it was above the hole, and then you had a slippery one coming down. Yeah. Well, I made that and then they all erupted with the spraying of the juice.

Intro Music 38:25

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 38:26

But it that that was exciting, and uh I finally broke it, but I think I had probably I know in 56 I had I think six or seven runner-ups on the second.

Bruce Devlin 38:40

Yeah. Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 38:42

And then then I had a couple more before I finally won that tournament. I mean, it was just one of those but I thought I'd never win. I was always runner-up. I I think the funniest story was I was playing at Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and I'm leading the tournament. Uh and I get it was a par four, and it was a drop-off on the right. You could play it from there, no problem. So I went down there and played it. You didn't want to go left. And I hit my shot, and I thought, oh, that's gonna be pretty good. And I hit a sprinkler hit or something right in front of the green, and it kicked straight left. So I get up there and I thought, oh where'd this ball go? Missed the trap and it went beside the trap and it rolled down the side of the mountain. On a big slope. And I go down there, it's it's easy to hit. I thought, there's a runway going up there. I can get it back up without any problem. I can make bogey, no problem. So I get down there and I hit it, don't quite hit it hard enough. And it gets all the way up there and it comes back. And it comes right back to at my feet. I thought, oh boy, here I go again. Hit it again, it does the same thing, and it stops just a little past where I was. I said, now it's going to get up there, and I hit it up there, and then I got an agreement. I took an eight on the bowl and lost tournaments by uh two pops.

Mike Gonzalez 40:30

Oh boy.

Joyce Ziske Malison 40:31

Well, uh I learned a lot from that one. I mean, you don't play a stupid shot and make sure if you can't get it out, take the penalty.

Mike Gonzalez 40:41

Bruce, does that sound familiar to you, Bruce? Uh going back to the Bill of Bong at uh Tory Points.

Bruce Devlin 40:47

Oh, I knew you'd have to bring that up. Yeah. Yeah. Memories. Uh yeah, memories. That's all right though. But you know, you hadn't finished uh, you know, you talk about oh, you know, that was bad luck, but you you weren't finished in 1956. You still won again, didn't you?

Mike Gonzalez 41:03

Well, she she almost won, and that was uh Oh, that's right.

Bruce Devlin 41:07

Yeah, you were lost the fight. Right, that's right. Yeah, I missed that. I'm sorry.

Mike Gonzalez 41:12

Beautiful track at Norwood Hills. Uh it used to be called uh the U.S. O or the St. Louis Open at one point. I think this year it might have been called the Norwood Hills Invitational in 1956, but you were in the lead after three rounds, and then uh Faye Crocker jumped up and got you.

Joyce Ziske Malison 41:30

Right. But there I there again I I played a stupid shot, and I learned from it. It was a power three, and I uh I should have went for the front of the green and I went for the back of the green where the pin was. And I caught one little branch. If I went for the front of the green, I wouldn't have hit that branch, and the ball just dropped down into a hazard. If I would have gone for the front of the green, it it wouldn't have been in play. So uh there's things when you make mistakes, you have to learn from them. And I made those two that cost me the tournament, and I learned from them.

Mike Gonzalez 42:13

Yeah, well you noticed you noticed Bruce changed the subject when I brought his situation up, didn't you?

Joyce Ziske Malison 42:19

Well, that's easy to do, you know. You you don't want to bring back those memories, but by the same token, you have to learn from them.

Bruce Devlin 42:26

Yeah. I don't know that I ever even learned from that, to be honest with you, but it wasn't.

Joyce Ziske Malison 42:33

I'm sure you learned something with all the wins that you have.

Mike Gonzalez 42:37

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 43:01

It went smack down fairwell. But it started just like just switch off line. It hit it for two, but it bounced off time. My daddy says long as you're still in the stage, you're okay.