Judy Rankin - Part 2 (The Tour Life and Wins)

Lee Trevino 0:07

Down the mid of this made down the mid of that it started to play.

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Well let's recap the professional playing career briefly for uh Judy Rankin uh, as we've mentioned, turning professional at age 17 in 1962. Judy had 28 professional wins, including 26 wins on the LPGA tour, which is tied for 21st on the all-time list. I think the only player, there's only one golfer who's who's won more times and is not yet in the World Golf Hall of Fame. And I wanted to ask you about this. Jane Blaylock. Um Jane Blaylock wins 34 times as a professional, 27 times on the tour. No majors, but uh she was quite a player.

Judy Rankin 0:51

She was a very good player. And um uh there is uh there is no doubt that um a little bit of history has what is what has kept her out of the hall of fame. And um uh I am I am not on one side or the other of that argument because um I I mean um I I would be okay if she were in the Hall of Fame, but I know many people who would not be. And um uh it's it was uh it was a dark time for us and it was a it was a bad time for her. Um and yeah I I guess it's one of those times when um quite honestly, I think if it had been men, they'd have stuffed him in a locker and said, Don't ever do that again. But it was women and they became emotional and I warned them, I said, This is not gonna end up well. And because you know, you can't you can't do these things on emotion. And you know what the judge said in that case, and um, and I'm friendly with Jane, so uh I I'm I'm not grinding any acts, but the judge said in that case, I will not inquire as to the reasonableness of the decision. I only rule that you cannot make the decision. Um you can leave it there.

Mike Gonzalez 2:31

Yeah, of course we're talking about uh incident that happened in the early 70s involving Jane Blaylock and uh uh allegations of uh of bending the rules, I guess would be a way to say it, uh uh uh uh ultimately uh ending up in a litigation with the LPGA tour. And and uh it was a it was sort of a difficult time. I hope we have a chance to have Jane on the show uh because she's got quite a record, quite an accomplished player. The thing that most amazes me about her record, 299 consecutive cuts made.

Judy Rankin 3:05

Yeah, no, I take nothing away from her as a player. Uh and I I will tell you in the in the life after the tour, she's done a lot of things for uh a lot of the a lot of the women who are retired and senior golf and so on and so forth. And she's she's brought some things to the forefront and some opportunities. So um you know, I don't know. You know, I I've been lucky, and I'm not gonna say that anyone else shouldn't be lucky.

Mike Gonzalez 3:37

Yeah. Well, back to the record of our guest here today, money leader on the LPGA tour in 1976 and 1977, LPGA player of the year those same two years. She won the VAR trophy for lowest uh scoring average in those two years as well as in 1973. And uh, you know, we probably don't have time to talk about every win, but there's quite a few fun ones we certainly want to talk about. Uh let's talk about 1962. First year out, you play 15 times, you win$701.67 66 cents.

Judy Rankin 4:16

I don't think there's much you talk about. You know, I I you know what people always people think, um, you know, maybe you just maybe they played easy golf courses then, whatever, whatever. Well, the first thing I learned is almost every place you go, you're gonna have at least one or two parfurs you can't get to in two. That, you know, and that was part of Mickey Wright's edge. She could, but not everybody could. And so we basically played golf courses from the men's regular tees, and there wasn't much fudging here and there. Um, so um that was the first awakening. Yeah, no. Um the next one was and this is true still today, you get there and you start watching all these other good players on the practice tea or whatever, and um you lose a little confidence because you thought you were really good, and maybe you were the only good one, you know, where you lived or whatever. And I I know that's that's like true in every sport. I know it's true with high school football players who maybe make it to college and it's overwhelming to see that you know there were so many from so many parts of the state or the country that are as good as you are or better. So but that holds true today. Um so the first thing you have is a crisis unless you're unless you're Nancy Lopez or Jack Nicholas, first you have a crisis of confidence. I think when you're very young. Um and if you don't have at that point in time, you are very lucky. It's different today. Kids they train differently, they have experiences before they turn pro, and they're generally raised to be more self-assured.

Mike Gonzalez 6:26

Yeah, a lot of these kids come out of the box, they're ready to win.

Judy Rankin 6:29

Yes, absolutely.

Mike Gonzalez 6:30

Yeah. So the first victory comes in 1968. That's a six-year stretch. Uh money's tight. What what was life like back then?

Judy Rankin 6:40

Um, I had a baby. And um Yippy and I decided, you know, that maybe Well, I won twenty eight hundred dollars in Midland, which was a shocker because I hadn't I'd been having a baby and all those things. And um but we could use the money for sure. And we got to thinking, you know, maybe maybe we should go play while he's a baby. 'Cause you know, there'll be someday when he's in school and I couldn't do that. And so we started I played a few times that year and um I won in corpus and uh and I I really had taken on I promise this is true. I had decided, you know, I'm a bit of a moneymaker and uh just put winning aside, just go make the most money you can. And don't you know that's when I won.

Bruce Devlin 7:38

So there you go.

Mike Gonzalez 7:41

That was the the 1968 Corpus Christi Civitan Open at Pharaoh's Country Club in a playoff with Sandra Spusick.

Judy Rankin 7:49

Uh-huh. Yeah. Spoozick. Yep.

Mike Gonzalez 7:53

And it was a playoff. It wasn't easy.

Judy Rankin 7:55

No, no, nothing's easy. But yes, it it was a playoff, and um uh and Sandra um would be one of the nicest people I ever knew on the LPJ tour, also. Um but uh it was I I would tell you, it was very gratifying to finally win. And um, I don't think I won again the next year, but in 70 I had a good year.

Bruce Devlin 8:21

Yeah, you sure did. Three time victory. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 8:26

Yeah, so validation came at the George Washington Golf Classic at Hidden Spring Golf Club in Pennsylvania by one over Sandra Haney.

Judy Rankin 8:36

Yes, yeah. I remember that golf course actually. Um but um I don't know, we were we were muddling along and um my my little stepsister Lizzie, she would travel with us some in the summer summer, and we'd have Tui with us, and we'd all four be in the car with all our stuff. And go into a motel, and we were all four sharing a room, because that's that's how we did. That's how that's how that's what you could afford. And every now and then we'd get to a place where you'd have a little, I don't know, a two-room place or an apartment, or or even just a motel that had a lot of green grass where your kids could go play. And we were so glad. And there was a place, there was a place in Louisville, Kentucky called the Melrose Inn. I think it was the Melrose Inn. I know it was Melrose, and um, it had great green space and the few people who had children, oh gosh, we looked forward to going there.

unknown 9:40

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 9:40

Did you travel in groups uh occasionally and and uh sort of all cook out and well we stayed in a lot of the same places.

Judy Rankin 9:49

I mean, once you once you were married, um you weren't traveling in groups, but before then, certainly, you know, we were and um uh it was um was very different than it is today. Oh and you can't really describe it to people who aren't kind of near your age.

Mike Gonzalez 10:10

Yeah. Certainly more more friendly, I guess. I mean, you were.

Judy Rankin 10:14

Well, and nobody had the money, so we had to be.

Mike Gonzalez 10:17

Yeah.

Judy Rankin 10:17

You know. Um now everybody goes off to their own special place with their team.

Bruce Devlin 10:23

And team, that's right.

Judy Rankin 10:24

You know, and my sports psychologist was Yippie and my caddy and my father, and I wanted to fire them all the time.

Mike Gonzalez 10:36

It sounds like Nancy Lopez talking about wonderful fire her caddy a zillion different times. And uh Lanny Watkins talking about his uh his team was uh the bartender, whatever town he was in. That was his sport psychologist. So you win a couple of times in uh in 1970, uh uh three times after including the Springfield JC Open uh and the Lincoln Mercury Open uh at Round Hill in California. And then uh one time uh beating Kath uh Jane Blaylock in a playoff in 1971 at the quality first classic at Lake Waco, uh, and then you get to 72, and I I just get the sense things are really starting to build now in your game, you're you're probably confidence growing, you're having more success. And you come to the 1972 Lady Eve Open, winning a playoff with Kathy Whitworth, but please tell our listeners how you got in the playoff and how you won the playoff.

Judy Rankin 11:36

I think this was Houston. Is it Memorial in Houston?

Mike Gonzalez 11:40

Memorial golf course.

Judy Rankin 11:41

Yes, which has been redone, but what a great public facility. And um uh well the best I can remember is uh we had a couple of par fives that were a little shortened. And um did I make two Eagles? You might have. I might have, yeah. I remember it. I remember I had been in Midland. It was winter. I mean it was like March or it was cold. And um I'd been in practicing in Midland, and I was I played with one of the assistant pros, his name was Randy Geiselman, and he had played the Asian tour and stuff. He was quite a good player. We go out and play one day, he plays the back tees and I play the men's tease, and it's kind of a crummy day. And um he shot 74 and I shot 71, and it like puffed up my confidence. I don't know what it was, but I went from that experience to going to Houston and winning that tournament, and um you know it doesn't sound like much to go shoot 71, and of course you know really well, but um it was a big deal on a windy day, and it I saw for the one of the few times I went somewhere thinking I might could win.

Mike Gonzalez 12:58

Yeah. So I you know, I wonder uh, you know, if either of you have heard of this has ever happened, but but um Judy Eagles the 72nd hole to get in the playoff, and then Eagles the first hole to win the playoff. Have you ever heard of that, Bruce? Anywhere? No, no, I have not.

Judy Rankin 13:19

Well, if you would like to know, I didn't ever do it again.

Mike Gonzalez 13:23

Well, that's okay because I don't think anybody else has ever done it.

Bruce Devlin 13:26

No, I don't think anybody has. That's right. I mean, that's pretty impressive. Then one more win that year, Bruce. Yeah, and uh Heritage uh Village Open. You won uh beat uh Betty Burnfight there by five shots.

Judy Rankin 13:38

Yeah, that was up in Connecticut. Um and uh it was a it was a really it was a nice place where we played there. And um I don't remember much about my golf, but I do remember the place for sure.

Mike Gonzalez 13:55

Well, in 1973, uh you started terrific run uh four wins that year. You win the Vare Trophy, um, you win the American Defender Raleigh Classic, you win the Lady Carling Open at Pine Ridge, which uh is a golf course you must have liked because you won there before. Uh you won the Paps Ladies Classic at Riviera, another golf course I think you won more than once. Um, and the GAC Classic at the 49ers Country Club in Arizona.

Judy Rankin 14:23

Well, I have a couple of stories in that regard. Um the brilliance of golf professionals. I used a ping putter in Raleigh and won the tournament. I'd never really been a ping putter person. I was more of a bullseye kind of person. I like the bullseye with the flange on the back. And um anyway, I used this ping putter, I believe it was an answer putter, I'm not positive. And um, no, it was not an answer putter because it didn't have the the offset hazel, it was a straight line ozzle, and um I win the tournament and I go the next week and I decide it's too long. This is the brilliance of a golfer. Oh, yeah. Cut it off an inch and it never made a putt again. So that's that story. And then um uh Pine Ridge, um, our son had a whopping case of chicken pox. And we could not find a babysitter who had had chicken pox until we found this boy, uh Sean, who was 14 years old, and somebody said he could do it. One of the best babysitters we ever had. We saw him for a number of years when we would go back there. So um, I was I so obviously you don't need a lot of sleep to win a golf sentiment either.

Bruce Devlin 15:53

That's for sure.

Mike Gonzalez 15:55

Uh so uh uh I understand from our earlier discussions that that's uh that year was kind of the year the the back issues started raising their ugly head.

Judy Rankin 16:06

It it's true, and it it's a bit of a funny uh it's not funny, but it is funny. Um we we had our first big match play event. Sears was putting it on at Port St. Lucie, and um about I don't know, 10 days, two weeks before the tournament, these seeds came out. Who was gonna play who? And don't you know I drew Laura Baugh. And all of my dear friends um build it as Beauty and the Beast.

Bruce Devlin 16:36

Lovely.

Judy Rankin 16:37

And so now I'm getting kind of hyped up about this thing because I don't want to get beat. And um I Laura and I have laughed about this so many times. I went out, I must have been on some sort of mission, I don't know what it was, but I did not want Laura to beat me, and I beat her six and four. And um I apparently got into physical and emotional distress over the whole thing. So the next day um I'm going to play. I can't remember who I was gonna play for sure, but all I know is I was on the practice tee, and um it was kind of sandy, like it is so often in Florida, and I hit some kind of shot and my right foot slipped in the sand, and it's kind of like I had a catch in my hip. You know, I didn't know what it was. So I went in the locker room and I tried to kind of work it out or whatever, and um I I tee off, and as I'm playing, my back just goes into these massive muscle spasms, and I keep getting lower and lower. And I won the match, but I really don't know how. And um it I could not straighten up and I could barely walk the next day. Um Jocelyn Barassa had a friend there, a gentleman who was a chiropractor acupuncturist, and he tried working on me and everything anyway. I I eventually lost um in the match play. And um I think my best memory is that I went and saw a doctor, but I rested for a couple of weeks and I recovered from it. So it's kind of like it was a one-time thing. But then it started happening more and more, and it was not my hip, it was a disc in my lower back. And um uh I would have, you know, and and I doctors would tell me, you know, you're gonna have good times and bad times. And um uh whether they called it a herniated disc or a rupture, you know, I don't know, but I um uh I managed with it for 13 years, and then I had I had a procedure done that was somebody might have ever heard of it or done it called papaya enzyme injections that I was really hard on me. Just near I it I made me worse. It's helped a lot of people, but it made me worse, and I don't believe they do it anymore. Um, but I did it at a Houston hospital, and I eventually had conventional back surgery in the summer of 1985, and I was very, very successful. Um, but that's the day it first started when my foot slipped the end.

Mike Gonzalez 19:28

Interesting, interesting. Well, you won uh uh you won in in 1974, the Baltimore Classic. This was uh going back to back because I'd mentioned you winning at Pine Ridge uh there the year before, and then you get to 1975. Uh while you only had one win, you had seven runner-ups that year. You so you must have been playing well. Yeah, yeah.

Judy Rankin 19:49

75 was um a funny year with my back, too. Um at the end of the year, I it's funny, at the end, I think it was 75. At the end of the year, I had seen a quite famous doctor in LA, Dr. Curlin. And um he thought that possibly if I took a really long rest, you know, maybe three months, that this could, you know, heal itself and buy me time or whatever. Um at this point nobody had ever suggested anything like a CAT scan or any of that. And I quite honestly, I don't know when the CAT scan came to be.

Bruce Devlin 20:35

Um I don't either.

Judy Rankin 20:37

But uh anyway, so I was gonna I did that, I was gonna do that. I don't know if I did three months, but I did something. And it's uh the first time I ever worked in television because I got asked to go to the mixed team and um I sat with Jack Whitaker and I did nothing but answer his questions, which was so great. Just great. Yeah. And uh actually uh I'm pretty sure Ken Venturi was on the ground. So yeah, so that was that was an interesting experience, and it came about because of my back.

Mike Gonzalez 21:14

Yeah, so it was the 1975 National Jewish Hospital open, was the the one win there at uh Pinehurst Country Club in Colorado by two over Sandra Haney and Chain Blaylock. Uh Bruce, 1976 wasn't a bad year.

Bruce Devlin 21:27

What a year, what a year, huh? February, Birdine's Invitational, and then uh one I'm sure you love winning, the Dinosaur, right? Then the Cast and Ping open. Yeah. And then the Babe Zaharias open. And then finish it off Colgate Hong Kong Open. Five victories. Boy, what a year.

Judy Rankin 21:50

Well, the first one, let me tell you how the year started. Uh we had Tui with us, he was in Florida with us. And um playing in Miami and I teed off my first hole of that year was off the tenth tee. It was a par five and I hit my third shot and buried it in the face of a bunker. Um really buried. Um I get up there and I take a big hard whack at it and it comes down and hits my club. And anyway, uh end of story, I make eight on the first hole of the best year of my life. So don't ever give You never know. Don't ever give you never know.

Bruce Devlin 22:40

That's great.

Mike Gonzalez 22:41

So the win at uh at the Dinosaur, that was in 1976. Of course, uh this was a real important time for women's golf as you got in the 70s, and and uh you went from sporadic TV, I guess, in the 60s, to all of a sudden uh uh David Foster, Colgate, Dinosaur come on the scene. They come up with this wonderful tournament in 1972, and and uh that changed the world, didn't it, a little bit for women's golf.

Judy Rankin 23:06

Absolutely. Um David Foster, you know, is kind of forgotten now, but um he did he did change our world. There there were different things along the way, but um he changed our world dramatically, and he gave us he gave us a presence, you know, with commercials and all those kinds of things for Colgate that was outside of golf that really helped us. And then um it wasn't the first year, but I'm not sure which year Dina Dinah came on, but the second or third, and um she was fabulous. She um she had the respect of all of the entertainment world, and people generally loved her, and she kind of brought that with her for us and helped us tremendously, and um I I I can't tell you how important that was, and how um sincerely she threw herself into it.

Mike Gonzalez 24:10

So, seven seven years after you won that tournament, of course, it becomes a major on the LPGA tour in 1983. You won that Carl Karsten Ping Open at McCormick Ranch that year. You won it by seven over Sandra Post, Bruce. 68, 68, 69.

Bruce Devlin 24:25

Pretty consistent, great scoring, 11 under pas.

Judy Rankin 24:29

That's when confidence gets you. It was the next week.

Bruce Devlin 24:32

Yeah.

Judy Rankin 24:32

And you know, I was once again puffed up. And um, I I was not somebody who always played with a lot of confidence, but I look back on it now and I can see when it was higher than other times.

Mike Gonzalez 24:46

Yeah. Yeah. Uh one I think Bruce skipped over was the Borden Classic, which gave you six wins that year, and that was by five over Pat Bradley and Hollistacey. So, I mean, you're you're talking about a pretty good stretch of golf where it's six wins, player of the year, VAR trophy winner. Pretty good year.

Judy Rankin 25:04

It was a good year, and um uh I'm I'm grateful for it. I've spent all that money, and um uh and I'm not capable of uh a redo, so there you go.

Mike Gonzalez 25:18

Well, you were the first golfer to win over a hundred thousand dollars in a year that year, 151,000, which doesn't sound like a lot today, but it's all relative, right?

Judy Rankin 25:26

Yeah, you bet. You bet, it's a big deal.

Mike Gonzalez 25:29

So weren't you also elected as president of the LPGA about that time as well?

Judy Rankin 25:33

I was the president of the LPGA that year and the next year, and uh our son was eight, maybe. Um, and I decided that I've decided then and looking back that you have no time to be self-absorbed, you know, and that's probably really good for you, particularly playing a solo sport.

Bruce Devlin 25:54

Well, you you certainly proved that to be the case because after all those wins in 76, you added five more in 77. More. What a couple of years.

Judy Rankin 26:06

Yeah, it it it it was, and and I do remember it um fondly. Um I think it took a lot out of me. Um, I was still struggling with the back here and there, and um uh you know, I'll tell you one of the things though that started that had something to do with that good play. In 1974, my father, who was an amateur engineer or something, I don't know, he gets a bunch of golf clubs and he's trying to find a driver that I can hit farther. And he he and um uh gets all these things put together. And I go out at Midland Country Club, he and I and the golf pro and maybe my husband too, yippee might have been there, and we're hitting these about four different drivers, and there is one driver that consistently goes twenty yards farther than all the rest, and it's a kind of funky looking thing. It was a real deep face Tony Penna driver, black head and little tiny head, nobody would even want to look at it today, but it was deep face, had a red insert, and my father had put a carbonite shaft in it. So I really think I might have been the first golfer ever to be really successful with graphite. And um uh I used that driver until 1978 when I don't know what happened to it, but it almost seems like something had to have happened to it because it just was not the same. I still have it. Uh but that driver was a big reason because I hit the ball farther and I was really good with it. And Bruce, it only weighed 11 and a half ounces.

Bruce Devlin 27:58

Man, yeah, that's amazing.

Judy Rankin 28:00

Man, that was that was a big deal, and so it really helped me. Oh, and it was um um 44 inches inches long, so that extra inch, well the the the light weight helped me to have the extra inch, and it just worked. And I will tell you, the first the first week that I played with it, I topped it twice. You know, sometimes how you don't feel a club head or whatever, but after that I never ever did. I had a thing going with that driver. Um, it's part of why I played so well.

Mike Gonzalez 28:33

Well, you started off uh in February that year, back to back at the Orange Blossom Classic, and then at the Bentry Classic, uh two wins in two weeks, and then you added uh three more. Uh the Mayfire Classic, the Peter Jackson, which we want to talk about a little bit, as well as the Colgate European, which is probably a fun one to talk about. Uh I should add, though, that uh you won a sixth time at the LPG Team Championships with Joanne Carner.

Judy Rankin 28:58

I did. And it was the most fun because um we could actually laugh at each other. And I didn't do a whole lot of laughing when I was playing. But Joanne took one of these wild swings on the 17th T in one round, where she kind of, you know, she has a tendency to fall back on her right foot. She fell so far back on her right foot she whiffed it. And I could not control myself. Anyway, uh, because she, my gosh, she was a good ball striker, uh really good ball striker. And, you know, to this day, at a later age, she still is to a great degree. Um, but we we had fun playing as team teammates, we did.

Mike Gonzalez 29:43

Yeah, that was out in Portland. Uh-huh. So the Peter Jackson, which uh uh was sort of the precursor to the DeMaurier. And so uh two years after you won there at Lachute uh golf club, it became a major. It was a major on the LPJ tour uh from 79 up until 2000, I think, when the British Open, the Women's British Open started taking over. So uh you missed a couple of majors by just a few years. Yeah.

Judy Rankin 30:10

You know, and I'm over it. I just uh it it it's okay. A lot of people, but you know, I think at the time maybe they should have been grandfathered. It's too late now. I'm fine. Everybody's fine, and it's a it's a whole new world. But the LPJ did have a bad habit of kind of making the rules as they went along. And uh one of the tournaments that I won somewhere wasn't counted as official because it didn't have 50 players in it. And you know, we've had we've had events now with 10 players that are official. So, you know, it things change, but it's okay.

Mike Gonzalez 30:50

Yeah, it just uh from the outside casual observer, as you've looked at the history of the ch majors come and go. And and by the way, you you mentioned Mary Mills and some other uh ladies earlier that that played back well when you played uh early on in your career, when you you're only competing for two majors.

Judy Rankin 31:08

Much of the 70s. We only had two majors, that's true. And um that that changed the landscape for certainly Hall of Fame things.

Mike Gonzalez 31:17

Yeah, yeah. I mean, Western went away, title holders went away, and it was just the LPJ championship in the U.S. Open for a while.

Judy Rankin 31:23

I just did something with the Women's Western Golf Association, and they are really trying to um uh revive the Women's Western Open. So we'll see in the next year or two.

Bruce Devlin 31:36

Yeah, that'd be great if they did.

Mike Gonzalez 31:38

Such a great championship on the on the men's side. Uh so uh in addition, I mentioned you win the Colgate European Women's Open at Sunningdale, so that had to be a fun experience because it's a great track by six over Nancy Lopez.

Judy Rankin 31:52

My very favorite golf course in the world. Love the place. In fact, I got a little spot in their hundred-year anniversary book. They wrote a little bit about me, but um, my husband, my son, I, everybody I know, we loved Sunningdale. And um uh I continue to love it if I ever get to stop by once in a while. But it's just uh to me it's the way golf should be or could be. You know, people walk their dogs. Um uh when we first when the LPJ first played there, there was no irrigation system at all. You played it the way you found it. As we played there over a number of years, first the irrigation system happened at the greens, and now of course everywhere. Um, but it remains just a great place and it has a lot of it, it has a lot of links characteristics, but it is not a lynx course, it's a Parkland inland course. And um uh anyway, I just loved it. And you I it's the first time that I had this realization that um a piece of land kind of gets weathered by time and you just put holes there. You know, you don't move a lot of dirt, you don't do any of those things, and it's uh it's it's completely friendly if you play well at all. And if you don't, it is not.

Bruce Devlin 33:15

Yeah. So you you mentioned links. Did you ever play or like to play the old course?

Judy Rankin 33:23

You know, I played it only once. I've certainly watched a lot of wonderful golf there when I'm in my working days, but I only played it once, and it was the day after an open championship. And to tell you the truth, about the 14th hole, I was so tired. I just didn't know if I could keep going because I'd already walked, you know, 30 holes some days. Oh, that's right. So on. But um, I love that place too. I do love that place too, and it's yeah, because I don't think it is linksy, and there is uh I just saw Tiger talking in a video about how you can play it backwards, and he's never done that, but he would really like to. Um yeah, your first look at St. Andrews, you're thinking, well, that's not that hard. And then go play it a few times.

Bruce Devlin 34:13

That's right.

Mike Gonzalez 34:14

You know, Judy, we visited with Bob Charles and the the the open championship came up at St. Andrews, and he mentioned that desire to play it backwards is one of the things still on his bucket list. He says, I don't know if I'll get a chance to do that, but it's something I've always wanted to do.

Judy Rankin 34:27

That's what Tiger said in this video. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 34:30

Interesting. And I think they they set it up uh once a year, uh, maybe for a day. Um, so it's probably difficult, uh, much like Prestwick has set up their original 12-hole open championship layout beginning this beginning this week, uh, and they're gonna do that for a couple weeks. And I was really tempted to go over and do that uh with my hickories, but uh I just look upon it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Judy Rankin 34:55

I saw that and I did play Prestwick um once and was fascinated by you know the kind of dog leg part three up the hill and all kinds of fun stuff there. Um but I happened to play there on a day when I hit my driver really well, and what the caddy told me to do, I could do. I yeah, and um so I really had fun.

Bruce Devlin 35:17

Yeah, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 35:18

So you had a couple more wins in you, and they were back-to-back wins at the WUI Classic. So you won that uh first at North Hills Country Club in New York and then at Meadowbrook uh club. The first one over Pam Higgins and Debbie Massey, and the second win was uh by two over Beth Daniel. That was in 1978, 1979.

Judy Rankin 35:38

Yeah, well, um Meadowbrook, which I know the champions tour played for a number of years, is was a pretty big golf course. Um so that was a that was a good win for me, but I was um I was starting to play erratically and then not well not long after that. And I fought it for a long time with my back and playing so poorly, and um you know, I think when I finally left the tour um for good in '83, um not only was I physically not well, but I think I was a little crazy in the head, because um golf will do that to you. And um I had I had for a long time tried to blame everything for my poor golf other than my physical condition. Um looking back now, I I can see where that was changing everything. But um uh it all turned out to be a blessing because I ended up being around a lot while my son was in high school, and um I got a crack at television.

Mike Gonzalez 36:49

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, this has come up before with a few of our guests, but most fans forget this, and that's that you can look at the record of a Sandra Haney or Kathy Whitworth or Judy Rankin, and year by year you see the wins and the stats and everything else. What you what you f forget sometimes is that while you're doing that on the golf course, you got this other thing called life that just continues to happen. Yeah.

Judy Rankin 37:15

Yeah, absolutely. Um you know, I told this to David Faraday on his show, but when I really had my final collapse, I was at Toy Pines and um you know, every now and then there would still be a pay phone on a golf course, or at least near the practice tee or something. And I went to the pay phone and I called home and I got yippie and I just I don't know if I cried, I don't know what I did, and he just he didn't say much, he just said, Come home and it was the best thing he could have said and um I needed that for a while and uh who knew sure I didn't know um that I was gonna have new life with golf and you know love it instead of being tortured by it.

Mike Gonzalez 38:11

Yeah, yeah. So I I I think we want to just uh touch back on a little bit of your other major champion experience experience because you had some really close calls, but before that I know Bruce wanted to ask you about your playoff record.

Bruce Devlin 38:25

Yeah, I did. Pretty poor. Well, here's here's the question. What do you think of all of the great players that we've interviewed, right? Yes. What do you think their winning percentage is?

Mike Gonzalez 38:41

In playoffs.

Bruce Devlin 38:42

In playoffs.

Judy Rankin 38:48

Great players. Um 58 interviewers.

Mike Gonzalez 38:50

All the all the world half of them Hall of Famers, all major winners. All major winners playoff records.

Judy Rankin 38:57

70 percent.

Bruce Devlin 38:59

Would you believe it's less than 50 percent?

Judy Rankin 39:04

Makes me feel better.

Bruce Devlin 39:06

Ah, well, I thought it might. Yeah, that's that's it is remarkable, really, when you look through the history of all these great players that we've talked to. Their playoff record is is under 50. I think it's like 43 percent.

Mike Gonzalez 39:21

43 percent, Judy, and the men and the women, there's like a three hundredths of a point difference.

Judy Rankin 39:26

Really?

Mike Gonzalez 39:27

Fast.

Judy Rankin 39:28

There's some sort of relief when you get in the playoff. Uh, I think there's for me, there was like some kind of letdown. Because I felt like the playoff is one hole or two holes was a crapshoot.

Bruce Devlin 39:43

Um, it is a crapshoot.

Judy Rankin 39:45

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Uh I and so um, but I'm uh uh I lost a number of my playoffs with my putter. Um so whether I don't know if that's nerves or what that is, but I did.

Mike Gonzalez 39:59

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.

Lee Trevino 40:23

It went smack down the fair way.