Joyce Ziske Malison - Part 2 (Winning the 1960 Western Open)

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it started to pull just a little bit.

Mike Gonzalez 0:16

I want to go back to that first uh paycheck that you got from the win. And uh uh records show that it was thirteen hundred and sixteen dollars. But were were you guys kicking back 10% back into the tour to fund it back then?

Joyce Ziske Malison 0:31

Oh, definitely. We uh in order to run the tour, you need to be something to work with. So all the girls every time checked they won, they gave 10% back for expenses, and uh we did our I did the scoring averages. Bev did the publicity, uh we marked the course ourselves, right? We put uh told them where the T markers, we did that all ourselves and uh money average and then I had to get that all done so that Bev could get to the press either that night or the next morning early, depending you know, where we were. Uh and then that ten percent to get give it back, you know, when you don't have much to start with. But without that, we wouldn't had a tournament, you know, we couldn't run the the tournaments. So it uh in a long run I mean the girls couldn't wouldn't do that now.

Bruce Devlin 1:36

Right.

Joyce Ziske Malison 1:37

That that's for sure, because that it wasn't it's not their forte to give something back. They won it all, they but they you know you have to give back. Yeah, same way with the all the pro ams. We played uh we get in, say if we got in Monday, Tuesday was our practice round, Wednesday was a pro am. We'd have to give a free clinic, all the girls involved from the LPG, free clinic, go to a uh dinner that night and tee it up Thursday for the tournament. It's amazing. And that you know, you had to you had to take care of your sponsors and you you know all the members and uh let them know that you're we appreciate what they were doing for us. Yeah, but then our purse was five thousand dollars, and then we worked it up to seventy five hundred. I mean, those are big purses.

Bruce Devlin 2:34

Yep.

Joyce Ziske Malison 2:35

That wasn't first place, that was uh is down. Yeah, you spread it out, right?

Mike Gonzalez 2:42

Yeah, well, you know, you talk about uh all that you players had to do to run the tournament. I mean, you guys were chief cooks and bottle washers, you were doing everything. I can remember uh Bruce, it might have been Gloria Eric that talked about Sandy Haney back when she was the tour treasurer, right? Which meant that she was the one that had to figure out what everybody makes at the end of the tournament so they could hand out the money. And the problem was Sandy was always in one of the final groups, so everybody had to sit around. They couldn't wait.

Bruce Devlin 3:11

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 3:13

Yeah. That uh we we had a schedule more or less, so when we did it, uh we gave it to the one that was running the tournament. So if there were ties or anything, they they could get a little start on it, but by the same token, then you had to still wait for all the people to get in.

Bruce Devlin 3:32

Sure.

Joyce Ziske Malison 3:33

Who won one and then get it on paper and give it to the press. Uh it was and the speaking of the press, uh, love them dearly, but they never came out to see us. No, we had to go to the stations.

Bruce Devlin 3:47

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 3:48

They never had uh, you know, where they could uh record anything. We had to go drive down to the stations, and some of those weren't in the you know nicest areas.

Bruce Devlin 3:59

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 3:59

Uh so it was always a challenge. And now who wants to go? I don't want to go, I gotta do this.

Bruce Devlin 4:05

Yeah. Everybody had an excuse, huh? Right.

Mike Gonzalez 4:09

But you're right. You had to either go report the the results directly or or phone them in. Uh there weren't a lot of on-course reporters that were following the action live, were there?

Joyce Ziske Malison 4:19

No, and then at interviews, you know, they want to interview the leader at the end. Well, if they're not there, you have to go to the where they are. Yeah, that's maybe that was at a station.

Bruce Devlin 4:31

Yeah, yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 4:32

So uh, you know, it was it's so much different now than what it was. That uh I I credit the ones that know all the technology that is out there now. That uh it's amazing. I mean, I there's no way I kept up with it, I'll put it that way.

Mike Gonzalez 4:52

Yeah. You you guys really didn't need a track man, did you?

Joyce Ziske Malison 4:58

Track man, uh range finder, you step it off, you know.

Bruce Devlin 5:02

Amazing.

Joyce Ziske Malison 5:03

Find a marker and know what it is, and and we also didn't have our own caddies.

Mike Gonzalez 5:07

Yeah, that's right.

Joyce Ziske Malison 5:09

We weren't even allowed they weren't allowed. You could not bring your own caddy from course to course, right?

Mike Gonzalez 5:15

When do you first remember stepping off yardage before, you know, before it before a tournament started?

Joyce Ziske Malison 5:25

Uh first tournament we played in you had to step off the yardage, you know, but technically we I never kept like a book. I I kept a scorecard because I didn't keep a book of uh from year to year until I think I was two years into it, that I would keep records of you know, this course, what to do, what to do. Um but there were markers usually at 150 mark yards and a hundred yards, and then you have to work off of those, but you had to do that work yourself. You know, and it uh the caddies sometimes you couldn't trust them. I mean we had caddies that were not the kindest to us that uh I'll put it that way. You know, they'd bet against you or they bet for you, and uh but I always made sure I I knew the yardage. Once in a while you get some good at Worcester, Massachusetts, I had the nicest boy, it was a high school boy, and uh he felt so bad when I lost it, but it wasn't his fault. I just hit the shot too good. I mean he gave me the right yardage, I was just too charged up.

Bruce Devlin 6:45

Do you remember a man in Worcester by the name of Cuzzy Mingola? No Oh, okay. I thought you might have known because he he was he was the guy that was uh the head of the uh the tournament that we used to play up there in Worcester too. I thought you girls might have known him.

Joyce Ziske Malison 7:08

Probably if I see him I would remember him, but you know, right offhand I my mind is blank.

Bruce Devlin 7:16

That's all right. So it took uh what three more years, I guess, uh for you to win at the Howard Johnson invitational in uh mid-pines, right? You said you love to you love to play in the Carolinas.

Joyce Ziske Malison 7:32

I love the Carolinas. Yeah, there I played very well. I I think it was like 69, 70, 71 or 69, 7170, uh my three rounds. And uh I love I love those courses. You had to position the ball, uh you had to hit it in the right spot to get to a green, and I it just uh appear appealed to my eyes.

Mike Gonzalez 8:02

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 8:03

Good.

Mike Gonzalez 8:04

It took a while for validation to come. How did that second one feel? Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 8:09

I thought it'd never come. You know, the first one it's bad enough, and then you got well, you gotta do it again. Well, who knows when that was gonna happen, but uh luckily it did it did come.

Bruce Devlin 8:25

It must have done something to you because the next year you just you just showed everybody what a great player you were. Tell us about 1960.

Joyce Ziske Malison 8:36

Well there uh yeah, I sort of turned on the afterburners. I uh did a lot of practicing uh on a hundred yards in and my putting. I felt that I was leaving a lot of shots out there from a hundred yards in. When I got home and uh thought about it, I started working on it. And then when I went out in uh January again, I continued working on it, and then the greens in Florida, uh Bermuda, they're I couldn't putt those. I know I was uh not playing off break and they were s they were just different. And I just kept working on it and I was determined that this it wasn't gonna stop me. And uh the short game got better, the putting got better, and it just uh I guess I lucked out and hit the right shots at the right time.

Bruce Devlin 9:44

You started off in 1960 by winning at the uh Wolverine Open at Hillcrest Golf and Country Club in Michigan, right?

Joyce Ziske Malison 9:51

Right, right. That uh that was a I wasn't feeling real good at that time. I had a little appendicitis going on. And uh but I played that tournament and when the Western Open came to Madison and Wisconsin, I I couldn't play that one because I had my appendix out at that point. So uh so I was off for uh uh it was only three weeks. Actually I came back the third week after having exploratory surgery and found they found my appendix around in my back someplace, I guess. But uh I there it was one of those that you look at a shot and I just hit it and I said, let's keep going, you know. I I'm gonna make it through this round. And uh I went home and it was one of those really hit the shot and keep going. Don't worry about anybody else. It was it was a fun round, fun course too.

Mike Gonzalez 10:58

Yeah. Yeah, you shot 299 to win twelve hundred and forty-seven dollars, just to remind our younger listeners what kind of money we were playing for back then.

Joyce Ziske Malison 11:07

Those were big checks. Well, you know, they they they really were. If you got a thousand dollars, usually it came out to be eight seventy-nine or eight seventy-five, I think it was when you take the ten percent out. Yeah. But if you got twelve hundred dollars, those are those were your bigger tournaments. You have to pay a little more attention when you get the money up there to try and do better in those.

Bruce Devlin 11:31

Yeah, yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 11:33

But uh, you know, like when I started first started out when I went out there, I live on a hundred dollars a week. That's the motel, gas, food, and uh caddy. We couldn't we couldn't practice because we couldn't pay the caddy.

Bruce Devlin 11:55

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 11:56

So we'd find a spot, you know, someplace else and hit go hit some balls and pick them up ourselves. We had shag bags, yeah. But then we'd just loosen up before we play. But to stand there and hit balls, we didn't have ranges. We didn't have where they uh throw all the balls out there and you hit them and don't have to pick them up. I mean, even home here, uh, I'd hit like four or five, six hundred balls a day, and I'd pick up, hit them out, pick them up, hit them out, pick them up. Pick them up again.

Mike Gonzalez 12:28

So, Joy Joyce, are you saying that for every tournament you played, there wouldn't be a bag of the balls of the brand you played ready for you on the practice team?

Joyce Ziske Malison 12:39

No, in fact, um it was that bad that uh I played for McGregor. I played Wilson Staff, and then I played McGregor, and the balls weren't really that good. Uh not to criticize McGregor, but we'd have one of these circles and we'd check the balls to see if the ball goes through a circle. If the ball didn't go through the circle, then we throw it on the side and throw it either shag bag or we autograph it and give them away. But uh we we'd have to struggle to get you know good balls to play with. But that's that's the way all the balls were at that time.

Mike Gonzalez 13:21

Yeah, don't correct. Don't feel bad. Uh don't take it personally that you got bat some bad balls from McGregor because I can remember Bruce uh uh David Graham telling us about he and Nicholas in a hotel room in Augusta every year, taking a shipment of about three dozen McGregors, then putting them all through the ring and putting them in three different piles.

Bruce Devlin 13:42

That's right. Yeah. Well, everybody had a uh 2.68 uh ring of metal that we used to try to put the ball through on two different axes. You'd take it one way and then turn it and put it on another axis. If it wouldn't go through both ways, like you said, sign it, give it away, or put it in a shag bag.

Joyce Ziske Malison 14:03

That's that's exactly where they went. And you know, sometimes you you get a little short on bars and they said, we just send you three dozen, or we just send you six dozen. But you know, there's some that we couldn't use.

Mike Gonzalez 14:17

Yeah, send me six dozen round ones, would you? Yeah.

Bruce Devlin 14:21

Right. Well, there was one one other aspect to it, I might as well talk about it. You could have a good golf ball, hit a drive on the whatever hole, hit your second shot on the green, caddy cleans the ball, and you go to try and put it through the ring, it wouldn't go.

Joyce Ziske Malison 14:38

That's right. Not only that, uh you have a smile on it. I remember getting a ball. Dick Swift gave me a ball. It was uh McGregor, uh the staff, the uh promo the one that sells McGregor was out there, and he gave Dick a sleeve of McGregor balls, and Dick gave me one, so I had a new ball to play with. And I went out on the first tee, and I was talking to the guys uh that were teeing off ahead of me. And one was a good amateur, uh Teddy Levinhigan from Milwaukee. And uh he said, Joyce, he said, Okay, what kind of ball are you using? I said, I got a brand new one today. I haven't played with a brand new ball for I can't remember when. He said, Let me see it. I said, No, you're not gonna touch my ball. He said, Oh, come on, give it to me. He said, I'm gonna hit a driver. He said, I'm not gonna hurt it. Well, he swung at it. He caught the the ball on the top of the club, and he threw it back to me when he got out there. I was behind him, cut it right through the cover.

Bruce Devlin 15:52

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 15:53

There was one of those balladas, yeah, and uh put a new name on his club, and there went my new ball. I never gave somebody a new ball again to play with.

Mike Gonzalez 16:05

Well, let's take our listeners back. This is again, we're still back in 1960, and we're gonna go down to an old Donald Ross track on the south side of Chicago.

Joyce Ziske Malison 16:15

Oh, I love Donald Ross. Won a lot of tournaments there. That was uh uh a great win for me, and it was a great I came from behind. Uh Barbara was leading, and I finished strong on that tournament to tire. Uh but it was the thought that I could do it. I could come from behind and win. And it got to the point that you know leading or being up there and not always finishing second was getting in my skull a little bit. Yeah. So I finally did it on a major. I came from behind and I won it, and I played Bar Barbara Romack in the playoff.

Mike Gonzalez 17:06

Of course, we're talking about the 1960 Western Open at Beverly Country Club, and uh Joyce won that in the playoff with Barbara Romack. Your rounds were 78, 75, 76, and then whoosh, you come in with a 72.

Joyce Ziske Malison 17:22

Right. Yes, that uh that that put the kibosh on it. I mean, I I just I hit the ball, it could have even been lower. I I just hit the ball that well and that close. If I would have knocked in a couple more putts, it would have been in the 60s. But when you get our day when he chewed 72 or thereabouts, it was good golf. Yeah, you know, that was good for us because we played the tease a lot, we played them back pretty much. We'd start at the front of the men's and then we moved back every day till the last day we were sort of towards the back.

Bruce Devlin 18:02

Yeah, yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 18:03

And the courses played long. Uh they they they weren't and then our equipment.

Bruce Devlin 18:10

I was gonna say, especially with those balotta golf balls and wooden heads.

Joyce Ziske Malison 18:15

That's right. Yeah, you couldn't hear them out of your shadow.

Mike Gonzalez 18:19

Well, just uh to remind our listeners, the Western Open was a a major championship uh in professional golf for women dating back to 1930, and and it was a major until 1967. And then there was a stretch. Uh, I think you might have had wound down your career by then, but there was a stretch then for a few years where uh you women were only competing for two majors, where today they've got five.

Joyce Ziske Malison 18:44

Yeah, they they added to it. We used to have the uh the Western Open, the US Open, the LPG, the title holders. We had at least four that we considered our majors. Uh the title holders, which is like your uh masters.

Mike Gonzalez 19:04

Right.

Joyce Ziske Malison 19:05

We played at the country club.

Mike Gonzalez 19:06

At Augusta Country Club, yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 19:08

We we could uh see the course, the masters, you know, from across the fence, but uh never had the opportunity to uh play there. We were supposed to play it one day on a Monday. We had open time, so we go in there, and it's just all it is is misty, it's not raining, but it was dew on the ground, and we drove up there and he said wouldn't let us out. Yeah not till dew gets off. Well, then by then it was too late. The course is too wet, so we never got to play it.

Mike Gonzalez 19:45

That that that major tournament, the title holders, uh, as Joy said, was uh conducted at Augusta Country Club. That that was through 1966. Of course, they came back for one year in 1972 just to give it another go. I think that might have been at mid pines, is that right?

Joyce Ziske Malison 20:01

I I think or Pine Needles. No, I that that I don't remember, to be honest. Uh I know the title holders that that was a tough course. That's where Wiffy uh hurt herself, that uh she never played that well after that. Uh we had a snowstorm and uh the day that we were supposed to tee off, we couldn't tee off. But uh we went up to the club and it was it was pretty well thought off. You know, the roads were a little wet and there was snow in the uh uh woods and uh a fellow somebody came up with one of these little moped motorcycle type things and she says, I know how to ride those. And she jumped on it and she took off. Well, she came up behind a a car and instead of hitting the brake, she hit the gas. Oh boy. She hit the back end of the car and she went and she jammed both wrists. Uh and uh after that her wrists never uh were the same. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 21:16

Well, what do you remember about that playoff? It was a two-hole playoff, as I recall, against uh Barbara Romack in that 1960 Western Open. Uh just take us through those couple holes.

Joyce Ziske Malison 21:25

Well, the first hole, we both hit good drives down there. Uh we were both close to the green or on the green, I remember, and uh we parted. And the second hole, she didn't hit a real good drive. And uh, but she knocked it short of the green, and I was fortunate I hit a real good drive and I knocked it right on the edge, and I two put it. I got a four and she bogeied the hole. So it was over there. But uh it was one of those uh I don't know how he s it was like my way. She it nothing went her way that day. She said that's what she said. I I didn't see her play. But we didn't I didn't know that I won or tied her score, except I know I I played very well until I got in and then I saw the scoreboard there that I tied, but we didn't have scoreboards out there to tell you where you sta stood or anything like that. You just kept playing till you got in or somebody gave you a message.

Bruce Devlin 22:38

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 22:39

Some of it was probably just word of mouth through the caddies, right? That's correct.

Joyce Ziske Malison 22:43

There were some yeah the caddies or the uh a player would come out that you know you were close friends with and let you know that finished early.

Bruce Devlin 22:53

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 22:53

And they would come out and you know keep you informed, but that that's the only information that we ever had. We didn't have the scoreboards and communication like they do now.

Mike Gonzalez 23:03

In today's game, of course, uh winning a major is life-changing for these players. What was it like back in 1960?

Joyce Ziske Malison 23:13

Well, I I don't know if it was life it was life-changing because I got married after that, but other than that, yeah. Uh I uh it was funny with all even all the the tournaments that I won, I only received one trophy that I could keep.

Bruce Devlin 23:36

Is that right?

Joyce Ziske Malison 23:37

The Western, you had to give it back, and you've got no duplicate or it. And they said, Well, where are your trophies? And I look at him, I said, I don't have any. I have amateur tur, you know, uh they give you like uh silverware or a trophy for a medalist or something like that, you know, some little odd thing or a little pin.

Bruce Devlin 24:01

Yeah, yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 24:02

But I said, I don't have any. And the one that I had, it melted in the fire.

Mike Gonzalez 24:08

Oh my. Was that the one at the bowling alley?

Joyce Ziske Malison 24:12

Right. It was upstairs, and uh it was before we moved uh I moved it out of there, I should say, and it was pretty well dilapidated anyway.

Mike Gonzalez 24:24

Yeah, yeah. Well, as long as I brought it up, we might just mention because you you mentioned uh Dick being a bowler and a golfer. Um and at some point uh think you guys got into the bowling alley business then, didn't you?

Joyce Ziske Malison 24:38

Well, Dick Swift was a very good bowler. I mean, uh, and uh he introduced me to the Tom Allison who was ended up to be my husband at uh a bowl golf act actually it was a golf match. We were playing golf. He said, let's play together. We had foursome. And uh then I started dating Tom, but he had the bowling alley. He owned the bowling alley. Okay and uh I I I was not a bowler. I I had nothing to do with bowling, but golf you know bowling was the only thing I didn't I didn't really take a liking to because it was inside. I like to be outside. So then we met and uh and I started bowling a little bit. Uh but then we got married in 61 and I said I'd never go back on the tour. And he wouldn't he wouldn't let me anyway, because uh at that time you just don't do that. But anyway, uh so I got married in 61 and st uh started in the bowling business. So I had to learn bowling. So I got my average up, the highest I got it was 175 average. Uh now forget it. But I mean I'm having fun at it, I'm getting exercise.

Bruce Devlin 26:06

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 26:06

But uh I ran all the junior bowling leagues down there. Uh and there was um three nights a week and then all day Saturday. And I had all these kids or uh 40, 35 kids that I would run through uh on a one shift. And the people they were so good they they they would just drop them off. I was their babysitter, but I had the right to reprimand them too. So they uh if I said no, they just would look at me and they would they wouldn't do it. Nowadays the parents they they'd have connections. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had one little boy that came in and he said, Mrs. Mal, he said, they're gonna fight outside. I said, Who? And I knew who it was, and I said, It's not you, and it was him. Uh huh. And I said, Don't you go out there. No, I'm gonna stop him. I said, No, you don't go out there. So I went out and I took each kid by the neck, and it happened to be one of the cops' sons. Perfect. And he happened to go by, and I had the his kid by the neck. Well, actually, he he thanked me for I booted him out of the league, but he thanked me for somebody standing up other than himself and separate him and show him who was Boz. That's right.

Mike Gonzalez 27:45

Different times, different times. Well, uh that's right. You still had in 1960 one more win in you. Uh as I understand it, in 1959 when it was held, and Marlene Hagee won this tournament. It was an official event. In 1960, it was not, technically, but that was the Who's Your Celebrity at Fort Wayne Country Club in Indiana.

Joyce Ziske Malison 28:07

That's correct. Uh it was just it was a small tournament. It it was a fun tournament, more or less. And uh you played with the amateurs. Uh I think we played two rounds, and the final round was with you played by yourself. But we uh played with the amateurs and they counted as a tournament for us.

Mike Gonzalez 28:34

You might be the youngest retiree in LPGA history.

Bruce Devlin 28:40

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 28:42

Well, it was one of those things I I saw a lot of the girls out there that were married or they had children, and these little kids had the either father had to be out there with them or somebody had to be out there taking care of them. They had no uh place to keep them. You know, like now they've got uh they have everything given to them. Yeah, they have babysitters, they have uh you name it. And uh I just said if it comes to the point that I would have children, this would I wasn't going to do that to them. I wasn't gonna travel with them. And my husband said I wouldn't he wouldn't go out on a tour with me. I mean, we'd be separate, we'd be married, but we would be separate. So then I just decide that what's more important, you know, marriage and have the rest of your life with your family?

unknown 29:42

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 29:42

Or not getting married and being by yourself the rest of your life, like Patty Berg, Louise Suggs, and uh Betsy Rawls, quite a few other girls, Mickey Wright. And it came to the point that I made that decision, and once I made the decision, I just decided that that was it, and I wasn't going back out there.

Bruce Devlin 30:05

A lot of people, and thank you for even thinking that way. But uh there's one other thing I have to ask you, and that is where did you make the biggest check that you ever earned in your life? It came how many years after you retired?

Joyce Ziske Malison 30:26

Well, it came down in the Marilyn Smith uh the uh senior event that she had down in Las Colinas, Texas. Uh she had all the former LPGA players come back and play a tournament in her honor. Marilyn Smith uh and uh they had two divisions. The lower division, I think, went up to like 55, and then uh one above that. Uh two divisions anyway, and uh Marlene Hagee and myself and Louise Suggs, we were in the lower division uh older division, and the young ones, Kathy Whitworth, and those were in the younger division. So uh came down to Marlene and I. I was fortunate enough I I won uh at Las Galinas, and it was ten thousand five hundred dollars, and maybe more than I won in uh all the years probably that I was out there.

Bruce Devlin 31:34

Isn't that amazing? It's quite quite remarkable.

Joyce Ziske Malison 31:37

Yeah, yeah. And Kathy Whitworth won the other division, so uh that was that was the most fun time, I think, that uh and uh a thrill. I mean, to come back after being off all that time and uh come back and win a tournament against the same girls that you played with against all the time. It it was fun and we all got together. In fact, Ben Hogan g made a guest appearance there too, so I got had the opportunity to meet him and Valerie.

Bruce Devlin 32:09

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 32:10

So that was that was a great thrill.

Mike Gonzalez 32:12

Yeah. So hanging it up in 1961, were there uh did you ever look back with any regrets that uh you know, woulda, shoulda, coulda?

Joyce Ziske Malison 32:20

No, no. Uh not really. I uh once I made up my mind, uh there I had so much other stuff going on up here uh with the business, and uh I got into coaching the boys' golf team up at high school. Uh I got into the bowling end of it, uh bowling tournaments and uh running the leagues, cleaning, painting, uh taking care of the house, and then the three boys came along uh in 63, 64, and 66, uh, Michael, David, and Mark. And uh they kept me busy. Oh Ben.

Bruce Devlin 33:08

Oh Ben.

Joyce Ziske Malison 33:09

And then they got involved with bowling, and uh they all played high school golf, but uh I never pushed them into golf. At first they didn't like it, you know. But once they got to high school, then they took a liking to it, then we worked with them, and they all played today. So that's good. They've got something out of it anyway.

Bruce Devlin 33:33

Yeah, yeah. So there's one uh there's one other aspect of uh of your career that you you fit into a very small group of people that have won major golf championships that actually have a winning playoff record, which probably sounds funny to you, but you've you've got a one and zero record, so you're a hundred percenter. The average, and this may shock you, the average for all of our great major winners, World Golf Hall of Fame champions, their winning percentage in playoff is about 43%.

Joyce Ziske Malison 34:12

Oh boy. I'm glad I didn't get into the more playoffs. Yeah, you wanted to re-must managed to lose them some way, so I didn't have to play off.

Mike Gonzalez 34:25

Yeah, well.

Joyce Ziske Malison 34:26

I was runner-up.

Mike Gonzalez 34:27

Kind of nice to finish with a perfect record. So Joyce got inducted in the Wisconsin Golf Hall of Fame in 1975, first woman inducted in that Hall of Fame, and uh a couple of the other folks that she went into would be household names, uh particularly for Milwaukeeans and Wisconsin Knights. Manuel De La Torre, who we talked about earlier, great, great uh teacher from Milwaukee Country Club who taught Sherry Steinhauer and Carol Mann, even worked with uh with Tommy Aaron uh later in his career. And then also you went in with Johnny Revolta.

Joyce Ziske Malison 35:03

Yeah, the John Johnny Revolta was needless to say, in memory of uh he wasn't there, but uh yeah, Emmanuel and I went in at the same time, and it was 1975, and I was just shocked that they elected me. I became of age, they said. How old do you have to be? I don't know if this is good or bad. But uh the uh only unfortunate thing there, I was elected in. My dad was always uh he didn't play golf, but he'd always carry a golf ball in his pocket, or he'd always uh he always carried a knife with him, you know, to whittle when he'd watch me, watch me from a distance. He know didn't know what was going on, just they stayed out of the way. But uh he passed away in 75 and I was the inducted in right after that. He knew mom did, but uh dad didn't.

Mike Gonzalez 36:03

Yeah. So tell our listeners a little bit about uh uh what you stay active with today, because as Bruce and I understand it, uh you're not one to just sit around.

Joyce Ziske Malison 36:14

I try I try not to sit around. I uh try the more active I am, the better I feel. Uh sitting around, your mind gets wandering too many directions that it doesn't belong there. I mean it you should take your head off and park it someplace and not let it think. But the more you sit by yourself and uh not be active, the more your mind says what hurts. Yeah. So I figure the more active I am, the better I feel, and that is true. I I bowl on twice a week and I play on the simulator during the winter three times a week. Uh we've got a group of guys that always play, we always have a foursome. And uh we play Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday mornings, and then Tuesday, Thursday I bowl. So the only day I've got to think too much is Friday, uh, Saturday, and Monday. So uh and then during the summer, then I play golf every day.

Mike Gonzalez 37:23

Yeah, so so to supplement that very large LPGA pension you probably receive.

Joyce Ziske Malison 37:29

Yeah, that's a joke.

Mike Gonzalez 37:33

You just have to take money off all those poor members at your club, huh?

Joyce Ziske Malison 37:38

Yeah, I I'm I'm very fortunate that the men out there accept me as uh, so to speak, one of the boys.

Bruce Devlin 37:46

One of the boys, huh?

Joyce Ziske Malison 37:47

One of the boys. Uh they treat me as that. I mean, I get harassed like uh I'd be one of the boys. And uh they're they show me no mercy. And uh I get along fine with them. Uh the girls, I never uh manage to play a lot with them because they're I intimidate them.

Bruce Devlin 38:12

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 38:13

You know, I think it's with all women when you they play with a better woman. For men it doesn't bother, just tee it up and hit it.

Bruce Devlin 38:22

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 38:22

You know, and uh that's the way I've been very fortunate that I can play every day. I've got a game of some sort out there.

Bruce Devlin 38:30

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 38:31

And we have we have, oh, like uh during the week we'll have eight, ten, twelve guys, and we throw balls and pair up and pair up and play. Right.

Bruce Devlin 38:43

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 38:44

And the weekends it can get as high as 30. Uh you know, we'll do the same things, throw balls. Everybody is always different, and uh you get to stay active with them.

Mike Gonzalez 38:55

Yeah, well, I'm sure your members are gonna enjoy listening to your story once we get it out on the podcast. Before we wrap up, uh, we always have a few questions we like to uh ask our guests, and so I'm gonna let Bruce start with this.

Bruce Devlin 39:13

Okay, my first Bruce. I'll be nice. My first question is if when you first started to play golf, and you know you knew then what you know now, what would you have done differently?

Joyce Ziske Malison 39:37

I don't think personally I would have done anything different because I wouldn't have been able to do anything different. Um financially, uh you need money to play this game. And second of all, I was a farm girl that uh I was just so happy that I could play it. I couldn't change anything, I couldn't change anything. I was gifted with some talent, and uh I tried to put a good use, I tried to help Dick as much as I can in return for what he did for me. And uh I always represented the country club in thanks for what he did for me, and uh I don't think I could have done anything different because I w I wasn't born that way, raised that way. Okay.

Mike Gonzalez 40:32

So our next question, I I've got a feeling I may know the answer, but I'm not sure. We're gonna give you one career mulligan. Where do you take it?

Joyce Ziske Malison 40:42

One career mulligan. Uh it probably would be at the US Open. And it wouldn't be because I lost the tournament, it would be just to give myself the pride that uh I I could win that tournament if I I hit the ball too good, is what I did. I it jumped on me and I didn't uh know at that time how much extra adrenaline you get goal going when you win these turn, you know, play these tournaments. And I think I would have backed off a little more and played the front of the green instead of going for the pin, which was on the back of the pin. That's the only one that uh and I maybe would have bogeied the hole. It wasn't a matter of winning and losing, it was just a matter of hitting the shot too good, and I lost the tournament.

Mike Gonzalez 41:43

No, you're not talking about Worcester Country Club in 1960, are you?

Joyce Ziske Malison 41:48

Yeah, it's the one I'm talking about. A little Wooster. It was a two-tier green, and the pin was on the back, and I hit it on the back and hit a hard spot on the green, it jumped up into the roof. Yep. And I uh got it down to about oh six, eight feet, but I missed the button to tie.

Mike Gonzalez 42:08

Yeah, you had a putt to tie Betsy Rawls back in that uh US Open when you finished second. Um yeah, so anyway, that's uh that's the one I thought you might say.

Joyce Ziske Malison 42:19

Right, right. The only uh I played we played in that one out in Sacramento. That that was I had uh uh Susie McAllister. She played amateur golf, and then she turned pro and then she went back. I think she went back to she's the only millionaire that on the LPGA that uh never won a tournament. Or I think she won one tournament. But uh she married uh uh what the kick was his name, um Gary Mort Morton. Oh sure, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Well Susie, we we played up, we played golf up at uh Sacramento.

Bruce Devlin 43:04

Yeah.

Joyce Ziske Malison 43:05

And uh we're close. I I was leading the tournament, and I think she was behind me by one shot. She gets on the 10th T and they have the paramedics out for her. I thought, oh my gosh, what happened to her? You know. Oh, they work on her, they get her medicine, her heart went into arrhythmia, the fast heart, and she didn't have her medicine on her. So you run up and get the medicine, they give it to her. She buried the last two holes to beat me. To this day, uh, when I see her, I saw her down in uh Palm Springs uh when I was out there the last time, and uh I still kid her about that. You know, where's that medicine?

Mike Gonzalez 43:54

Was she the one that hosted that reunion you had of all the old LPGA players?

Joyce Ziske Malison 43:59

There were a Bunch of ones involved with that. But she she was one of them that was there in Joanne Prennis. She she voiced her opinion on that, and uh I I think most of the top ones were there at that time.

Bruce Devlin 44:21

So Joyce We have one more question, Joyce. Yes, Bruce. How would you like to be remembered?

Joyce Ziske Malison 44:32

I'd like to be remembered as a person that enjoyed the game, had fun with the game. Um like to help people. Uh money was not my my goal. It was just uh being able to play the game the rest of my life and have people play the game the rest of life, enjoying themselves.

Bruce Devlin 45:01

Well, you know, Joyce, our goal today was to have fun remembering all the things that you did in this wonderful game of golf, and from my standpoint, and I'm sure Mike's as well, we thank you for all your time today and all your great stories, and uh it was just great having you with us.

Joyce Ziske Malison 45:20

Well, thank you very much for having me, and I sure appreciate it. Good golfing.

Mike Gonzalez 45:26

Well said, Joyce. Thanks for being with us.

Joyce Ziske Malison 45:30

Bye-bye.

Mike Gonzalez 45:32

Thank you for listening to another episode of 4 The Good of the Game. And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 45:53

Whack down the fairway. It went smack down the fairway. When it started to slice, just smitch offline. It headed for two, but it bounced off nine. My caddies, as long as you're still in the state, you're okay.