Laura Davies - Part 1 (The Early Years and the 1987 U.S. Women's Open)

Intro Music 0:06

It went straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Let it start.

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Welcome to another episode of FORE The Good of the Game and Bruce Devlin. This has been a great week for us because uh as we've said before, this is the week when we start telling the ladies' stories. We started with Kathy Whitworth the day before yesterday, the number one player in the U.S. So who should we start with for our second interview?

Bruce Devlin 0:33

Well, wouldn't it be obvious that we went to Europe and picked the greatest player that's ever come out of Europe? And uh a lady that has won 87 professional golf tournaments in her career, uh the great and wonderful dame, Laura Davies. Laura, great to have you with us. It's a thrill to have you on our podcast. Thanks for joining us.

Laura Davies 0:54

Well, thanks for inviting me. Yeah, I was excited to do it. Very nice. And I think you missed out by one. I think maybe Annika Sorrison will be having argument with the greatest European player. But anyway, I'll let that one slide.

Mike Gonzalez 1:06

You sound a lot like Kathy Whitworth, who uh, you know, she's on record as saying Mickey Wright was the greatest ever. Uh but uh Kathy Whitworth's got a heck of a record as well. Um so uh Laura, as we talked about a little bit before, we're here to tell your life story. And uh Bruce and I normally like to start at the beginning, so uh we always like to hear about uh what life was growing up as a young lady in in England and and uh telling us a little bit about how you came to learn the game. So I understand you were born in Coventry, Warwickshire, England. Um tell us about early life there.

Laura Davies 1:44

Well, um we I was actually born in Coventry, yeah, but very soon after that we moved down to London, which is where I've lived basically my whole life. So I am I am registered as born in Coventry, but I consider myself a bit of a Londoner. Um and really and truly it was um I didn't start playing golf till I was 14. My dad moved, we we all moved to America when I was three for three years, and my mum came home with me and my brother Tony, and dad used to come over in the summer holidays and and take us up to his family up in back up near Coventry in a small place called Market Harbor. And at that point, my dad was playing a lot of golf, so my brother got really interested in golf, and and at that point I started tagging along. I was probably a bit of a nuisance, I'd be probably dragging behind them, holding them up, and I started hitting some putts, I remember. This is when I was about, oh I don't know, eight, nine, ten, eleven years old. My brother's three years older. And then by the time I was 14, I'd I'd done that enough in the summer holidays to say to my mum and stepdad back in England, you know, I'd really like a set of golf clubs. So my 14th birthday, I got a set of clubs, and the proudest moment of my life seeing those tawny McGregor irons on the carpet in my living room. They stayed there. And that was me off and running, really. Um, and just loved it. I love the fact you could go on the range, you you didn't like all other sports, you needed lots of people to play football and tennis, and well not tennis so much, but all the team sports that I love to play in England and golf. I could just go out there on my own and I could practice, or I'd be there with my friends or my brother and practice, and and it just um it just stuck really. And from that point onwards, when I left school at 16, I left school to become a professional golfer. It took me five years, uh turned pro when I was 21, but yeah, that that's how it all started, really, uh just in the summer holidays when I was younger.

Bruce Devlin 3:26

Laura, um, you just said something that we've uh found with a lot of our great golfers that we've interviewed in the past 12 months or so, and that is that they all seem to play in other sports, and they felt like that was a a great thing for them. Learn learn how to be a part of a team, and then uh then then they've gone from team sport to to being the individual that you need to be when you play golf.

Laura Davies 3:50

Yeah, without a doubt. Like I said, I having the older brother who was mad sportsman, really good sportsman, and and I just had a really good hand-eye coordination. So whether we were playing cricket or or football week or soccer, obviously, an American audience, um all the games really at school. I played field hockey, I played netball, and I think all of that helps your hand-eye. And I think when you when you got that still ball, it's it's a lot different to having someone kick something at you or throw something at you, and and yeah, I think it definitely helps in the long run.

Mike Gonzalez 4:21

Yeah, I do too. So tell us a little bit of how your game developed uh as a as a as a kid. Uh who were some of the major influences that really helped you shape your game as a as a young lady.

Laura Davies 4:34

Well, it was all from the TV and going to watch local tournaments, watching Sevi Balasteros. I I used to as many times as I could watch him. I was fascinated with his game, the way he played, and I'd I'd I'd watch that. I'd also watch Langer and Wu's and I've never had a coach, so all my golf is uh is just from mimicking the others. I was out there today and Justin Thomas's wedge game last week fascinated me because I was out of the PGA and I was just trying his rhythm with the wedges, and to be honest, I hit them really well. So I need to rethink the numbers a little bit, and and that that's the way I've learned the game, and I think a lot of youngsters should try and do that. Find someone that has an affinity with them and and try and mimic what they do. And like I said, Sevi was uh so influential on my um on my early game, and and like I said, I wasn't as an obviously never as good as him and had the feel he had, but I put myself in his position to look like he did hitting shots, and and that's pretty much how I started um to learn the game.

Mike Gonzalez 5:31

And was the development of your game sort of a steady rise, or did you take different steps as you had breakthroughs in your in your T game, your short game, your putting, what have you?

Laura Davies 5:41

Yeah, well at 14 when I like I said, I joined a golf course called Guildford Golf Club in Merrow, near where I lived. My uncle was a member there because my mum and stepdad didn't play. So at that in that stage, you had to have someone that could put you in as a junior member, and luckily Uncle Les did that for me. Um, and so I started there with a 26 handicap straight away. That was my first handicap, and and to be honest, I struggled a bit for the first couple of years, and then when I got to 16 and leaving school, I was off an eight handicap. So it was a bit of a bold prediction to tell my headmaster who said you'll never earn any money at that game, you know, you need to get a proper job. I I was on eight and I couldn't get off eight, and and all of a sudden, I don't know what, but something clipped, and I rapidly got down to to uh to scratch after about when I was 17, 18. And then by the time I turned pro three years later, I was off plus five and playing, you know, pretty steady, solid golf. Again, uh dreams of going on the on on the then WPGA, now the the now LET tour, um, but with not much um behind me with the with knowledge from professionals and coaches, just a few helping words from my head pro at West Bifleet, which was the club I then joined, uh Dave Regan. And Dave wouldn't give me lessons, he'd just we'd just play golf together, and and he might suggest, you know, a hole like this, play like this. So it's more course management that I was taught by him than than actual technique.

Mike Gonzalez 7:01

I I see as a as a young lady you also played a little bit at uh Sandown Golf Center and at St. George's Hill, one of my favorite spots.

Laura Davies 7:11

Yeah, my nan in the summer holidays used to take me and my brother down to Sand Down and we'd play on the we'd be on the range and we'd go out and play. There's a there's a nine uh I think actually it might be an 18-hole course that we used to play in the summer holidays. And St. George's Hills used to have a little nine-hole course. It's no longer there, unfortunately. And my brother and I spent hours and hours up there playing, just going round loops of the nine-holes, and and again, that was uh that was a good learning ground, really.

Bruce Devlin 7:37

So Laura, it took you quite a while when you were when you were an amateur, but boy, uh it didn't take you too long to start winning on the on the on the ladies' golf tour. I I mean you jumped right out there, didn't you?

Laura Davies 7:50

Yeah, that was uh that was 1985, like I said, turn pro and uh my second ever tournament. Jan Stevenson came over for the Hennessy Cup, and obviously Jan was and her Nancy Lopez were the two greatest players at the time in the women's game, the most well known for sure. Um and I finished second to Jan in the Hennessy Cup, and that obviously that the prize I'll always remember it, £9,000 was my first proper paycheck. And those days, £9,000 was a lot of money as well. It was what it was one of our bigger events, the Hennessy Cup. And um, and that was it. And a few weeks, I think it was two, three weeks later, we played actually in Belgium. That's one of the reasons I'm here this week, because my first ever win was the Belgian Open, and they invited me back to play this week. I mean, I wouldn't normally have played here with a busy schedule at the moment, but I thought, yeah, why not? It's a nice memory of those years ago. And yeah, so I won Belgium and and had a few more wins that year and was rookie of the year and also won the money list. So yeah, it was a quick start.

Bruce Devlin 8:47

It sure was.

Mike Gonzalez 8:49

I don't want to gloss over your amateur career because you had quite a bit of success as an amateur as well, including uh being a member of the GB and I Curtis Cup team back in 1984. You used to travel around in a blue Triumph, as I uh understand it.

Laura Davies 9:03

Yeah, Triumph Herald, my favourite car, until some stupid lady pulled out in front of me and I tea, it wasn't my fault. I ended up getting a green Allegro, which is a horrible car. I mean, they don't even make well, that's how awful they were. So I lost my beloved Triumph Herald. Um, but yeah, that that the amateur days were fun because I had lots of good friends from Surrey that I used to play, and I was good friends with some of the Sussex girls. So we just used to all pile into a car and off we'd go to all the various championships. And I wasn't a prolific winner by any means. I I won very little, but I'd done enough to get in that Curtis Cup at Muirfield in '84. And that was my first um real go at team events again, uh, you know, since I'd left school, and I really enjoyed it. And so when the Solheim Cup came along years later, it was a nice fit.

Mike Gonzalez 9:49

Yeah, and of course, Kathy Whitworth, uh, I think Mickey Walker perhaps were the uh the initial captains of uh the inaugural uh cup, which we'll talk about uh a little bit later. But uh take us a little bit through the decision process, Laura, that you would have gone through as you had some success as an amateur and you start thinking about playing professionally. Uh when did that finally just sort of lock in as a goal for you?

Laura Davies 10:12

Well, uh one of my best friends on the amateur scene was a girl called Julie Brown who lived in the Midlands. And for some reason, Julie and I we were playing somewhere and we both kind of had enough of all the the amateur tournaments and we wanted to make some money, or we thought, you know, that time let's go and try and make some money. And Julie and I uh got the forms, and you had to be very secretive back then because if the amateur bodies got knowledge that you were gonna go pro, you know, you could you might miss out on a team and and stuff like that. So we both uh got the forms. Um we couldn't get them offline by then. I don't even know how we got them, probably had to have them sent through the post and the WPGA, and we went and posted our form off together, and and that was it really. And a couple of days or weeks later, you know, we were accepted because our handicaps were low enough, and at that stage there was no tour school, nothing like that. And we were pros. And um, very luckily I got a sponsorship deal with IBM. Um with and there was Alison Nicholas, uh Diane Barnard, and Julie Brown all on this IBM team. So m money-wise, uh I can you know my family did everything they could to help me and they would drive me everywhere, but didn't have huge money, so that sponsorship kind of took a little bit of the pressure off in that first year, which really helped.

Mike Gonzalez 11:24

Oh, I'll say. I should have known that, Laura, because I was working for IBM at the time.

Laura Davies 11:30

Oh, all right. Well, there you go. It was a lovely thing. We had to go and learn about computers and stuff, which was a bit of a chore that was there for a week. We were all wanting to kill ourselves by the end of that, but you know, it gave us an understanding for big business, and and you know, it was uh it was all right. But uh yeah, that was the fond memories of those days.

Mike Gonzalez 11:47

Let's just talk a little bit for our listeners about the the career of Laura Davies as as uh as she mentioned, turning professional uh in 1985 at age 21. 87 professional wins, as Bruce had pointed out, including 20 on the LPGA tour, 45 wins on the Ladies' European Tour, which ranks first all time. Uh you also won in uh Australasia, you won uh in Japan quite a few times, uh first European player to be ranked number one in the world. Uh just so many things that we could recount. I mean, one of the amazing things was uh you winning an event uh every year except 2005, from 1985 to 2010, which is what a sustained record of great golf. Uh you know, we've talked to David Graham and and others who have won on all five continents. You just happened to do it one year, didn't you?

Laura Davies 12:40

Yeah, that was that was interesting. I just really enjoyed playing everywhere. I mean, obviously the LPGA is your main focus when you get out there. It has to be because it's so hard just to keep your cards. So once you once I'd done enough, I I'd I'd I just enjoyed playing. And if if the Thai would Thailand Open or the you know somewhere in anywhere really, if they if they showed an interest and me playing, I I would go because I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed seeing all the different places, and and that's just how that came about. And that year in uh 96 when I won, I won everywhere, I won ten times, I won this I won Skins game, which doesn't count as a tournament win, but it was nice for the money, I can assure you. It was a year you uh 10 wins in 30, one in three was was extraordinary. And and when you're doing it, it seems so easy, and then you look back on it and think how hard it is to win now, and you think, well, how did that happen? But yeah, things fell into place. I was in the right place at the last right time. You need all those elements. You need the luck as well, and I I had plenty of that.

Mike Gonzalez 13:41

Laura was rookie of the year in 1985 when she came out on uh tour in Europe and uh was player of the year in in 1996 and 1999 on the Ladies European Tour, seventh-time order of merit winner, just sensational, uh ranging from starting in 85 all the way through 2006. And then on the LPGA tour, which she joined in in 1988, we'll come to that. Uh leading money winner in 1994, player of the year in 1996, winner of four majors, and and we'll talk about each one of those. But uh uh you started us off by talking about win number one, as we mentioned. That was the 1985 Belgian Open, which is where you're at right now. That was at Royal Waterloo Golf Club by one over Maxine Burton, and it was your first professional win.

Laura Davies 14:28

Yeah, I upset Maxine that day. I finished uh Eagle Birdie Birdie, and uh she and I think she might have even bogeied 18, so it went from a dramatic, you know, I was just playing for second, thinking, oh, this would be a nice week. And all of a sudden uh I just had a crazy finish, and and yeah, um it was it was a lovely way, it was a nice way to win because I didn't have the lead, and I think that was important. I think so many players when they're on the lead first time winning, it's I think it's very difficult. You're better off posting a number, coming with a big rattle like I did that week, and and I always think that that made my first win a lot easier than it could have been.

Bruce Devlin 15:04

A little later there, uh Laura in 1986, you uh you won the Women's British Open at Royal Burkdale and uh beat Peggy Conley and Marta Figueres Dotti by four shots. That was uh that had to be a big win for you.

Laura Davies 15:19

Yeah, being being such a fan of the men's open, um it didn't have the major status for us back then, but in my mind that was a a major championship because we'd sometimes we used to play the the women's British open on inland courses, and that was one of the times we played on a Lynx course, so it made it all the more special. And I remember that week, um, yeah, it was just I think I shot 15 under, was um something like that. And just one of those weeks around Birkdale, you don't normally shoot 15 under, it was just meant to be, and yeah, it was it was just uh a great thing for me. And and there was obviously no TV, so my family. I went, I remember going to a payphone out of the golf club on the way home, and I rang my mum and said British Open. It was so it was, you know, just things like that. It's so different now. Everyone can watch everything, and there's FaceTimes, and and it's very easy. But yeah, that phone call out of that phone box, putting me 10 pence piece in to tell the family I just won the British nothing.

Mike Gonzalez 16:14

The kids today they just can't relate to some of these stories of uh you know what we what we had back then. So was was that your second win? I know I we didn't try to we we weren't going to be able to talk about every one of your professional wins. We'd be here for days, but was that your second win? And if so, did that feel like validation?

Laura Davies 16:32

Um no, I think I won about four times in '85. Um, I think I'm not 100% sure. I've got this little thing at home that's got all my wins listed, which is always nice to look at, but I haven't seen looked at it for a while. But I've got a feeling that first year I might have won four. The second year, maybe only a couple, but the big one, the British Open. And and you know, all those years ago, now I'm thinking now I'm able to play every year up until I'm 60 in the British Open. That win counted for that. So uh Okay, yeah, good.

Bruce Devlin 16:57

Ah, that's great.

Laura Davies 16:58

When the RNA took over, they brought that rule in because I did actually I've played in the last 42 British Opens, but I did have to do a uh Monday qualifying one year because that rule wasn't actually in. So uh yeah, that that's uh that's helped me now, and I can play I think I've got three more opens in me before I'd have to go back to qualifying again. So it's just an of all those years ago.

Mike Gonzalez 17:21

Yeah, well, to be fair, you shot 17 under at Burkdale. That's some serious playing on that golf course.

Laura Davies 17:28

Okay, there you go.

Bruce Devlin 17:30

That's a lot, a lot under around there. That's a great track.

Laura Davies 17:35

Yeah, oh I like it. My favorite, it's my favorite of the I mean St. Andrews is my favorite golf course, but I think for my game, if ever we play Burkdale, I've done well. I finished I think about ninth or tenth there a few years ago, obviously towards the end of my career, and that's a decent finish in a in an open against these great young players. So, yeah, again, I did well at Birkdale, so hopefully there'll be one more, but I don't think there is going to be another one in my in my last few I play in.

Mike Gonzalez 18:00

So uh I have to ask you this how many of the 14 venues that have hosted a men's open championship have you had a chance to play in your lifetime?

Laura Davies 18:10

Oh, quite a few of them. Haven't played Port Rush. Is it Royal Port Rush they've played? And there's another one in Ireland, isn't there? I haven't played someone else.

Mike Gonzalez 18:18

Yeah, Port Port Rush is the only one in Ireland that we've got.

Laura Davies 18:20

Oh, Port Rush, okay. So I haven't played that. Um yeah, I've played St. George's. I only just recently played Royal St. George's. A couple of years ago we had a Rose Series event down there. One day only a one-day one round I've played that. Yeah, I think all the mainstay British Open courses I've played, but uh I'm not sure. Maybe a few. I heard I heard a couple that were in the early days that I haven't played. I can't remember. Musselbury one of them or something.

Mike Gonzalez 18:44

Royal Muscle Brew, the nine-hole course in the racetrack.

Laura Davies 18:47

Yeah, I haven't played that one, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 18:49

And uh Prestwick, have you been up to Prestwick?

Laura Davies 18:51

I haven't played Prestwick, yeah. So it's more the older ones that uh that that haven't I haven't actually played, but obviously, St. Andrews, and obviously this year, Muirfield. But I played Muirfield in the Curtis Cup, so it's not like when we play Muirfield this year, I haven't played that.

Mike Gonzalez 19:04

Did you get to Deal when you were down at St. George's?

Laura Davies 19:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's where we stay. Lovely, lovely little town. Yeah, uh Royal Sinkport's in Deal was one of the open venues early on, as was uh You know, I think I did play that years ago as an amateur in a in a pro am format thing, so I think I have played that one.

Mike Gonzalez 19:22

Yeah, as as was Prince's. I'll I'll uh if you've got nothing going in the first half of October, something you ought to try to do is get to Prestwick. They're setting up the original 12-hole layout that was for the first open championship in 1860. Oh, really? They're preparing the course right now, and for two weeks they're gonna be playing the 12-hole original layout at Prestwick, so it's kind of neat.

Laura Davies 19:43

That'd be great.

Mike Gonzalez 19:44

So let's move on to the big first one, which uh I don't know, maybe came at a at a time in your career where it was still early. Maybe you were weren't expecting to win yet on that large a stage, but you come over here and win the 1987 U.S. Open at Plainfield Country Club. And uh it didn't come easy because it came at a playoff with uh Ayako Aquamoto and Joanne Carner.

Laura Davies 20:08

Yeah, that that was basically the start of it for me in America. That was I I had played the British, the US Open the year before because I'd won the money list and that got me in it um at Dayton, Ohio, where we're playing the senior US Open this year. So that's a that's come full circle. Now I'm looking forward to seeing that course again. So I go I finished ninth in that, which got me an invite the next year. Turned up in plain field, my brother was caddying for me, my dad was there from South Carolina, my cousin flew over with us uh to watch. Uh he was a keen golfer, and we just had a great week, and and all of a sudden, um well what happened was I won it on a Tuesday because um because there was a a huge storm on the Sunday, so we played Sunday on the Monday, and then Iako myself and um Joanne Carner played the 18-hole playoff on Tuesday. I I won it and had to fly straight back to London to play the women's open down in um down in Cornwall. So I didn't have much time to enjoy that. Um but what a it was one of those weeks where I played really well, don't get me wrong, but I never never was thinking about winning. I didn't eat I don't even remember feeling any pressure. And all of a sudden there I was, stood on the 18th screen with a two putts, or I could have I think I could have three putted the last and white, but I hold, luckily hold the ten footer for par to win. So yeah, it was uh it at that point I thought, oh this is easy, this game, I'll and I'll probably win a few more years. I didn't even really get that close. The one year in Chicago when Curry Webb won it, I I I probably played some of my best golf that week and didn't win, which was disappointing.

Mike Gonzalez 21:38

Yeah. Well you you mentioned something, Laura and Bruce, we've heard this before. Uh here you go, you it's the biggest winner for life by far, uh, you know, up to this point. And yet uh the way the the professional golf world works, you don't get to lay on the beach for two weeks and celebrate it, do you? It's it's just off to the next event. Yeah.

Laura Davies 21:56

Yeah, without a doubt. Yeah, I actually held the British Open and the US Open. Uh for six days because I had run it. Obviously, I was still defending I was defending in Cornwall. Yeah. Trying to think of the same Semeleon it was we were playing the British Open down there. And yeah, for six whole days, and I finished second to Alison Nicholas. Otherwise, I'd have had them both for a year. But Ali beat the shots. Uh played, she played great that week.

Mike Gonzalez 22:18

Well, at that US Open, you shot 72-70, 72-71, 285, 3 under. And uh you were the 36-hole leader. Uh you were one back after 54. And so tell us a little bit about what it was like that uh that final day before uh the playoff.

Laura Davies 22:35

Um I I'll be honest, I don't remember much about it. It was it's all a bit, it's one of those tournaments that it it happened. I won it. I don't I remember one shot in the final round, and uh I told the story at a US Open um dinner we went to years later. My cousin Matthew, who I mentioned, I hit a drive down 15 and it I hit it in the trees. Uh and I think at the time I was probably one ahead or le maybe level. Um anyway, it was it was towards the end of round path, I think it was path five. And all of a sudden my ball comes back out, just not in the fairway, but it wasn't dead in the trees, it was on the edge, and I got up and down and made a birdie. Well, my cousin never told me for about five years, but that that didn't hit a tree, that hit him in the chest, and he had the dimples of my goalkeeper. And it was it wasn't like he threw himself like a goalkeeper to get there. He was just walking up the fairway and heard four and turned around and hit him in the chest. But he never told me that for years. So I told that at the uh at the dinner when we played at uh Pinehurst, not all that long ago, six, seven years ago. And uh yeah, I was I was hoping they weren't gonna take the trophy back for interference from my cousin, but that I do remember about that that day.

Mike Gonzalez 23:40

From what I remember, uh uh Joanne Carner three-putted the final hole uh to slip her back into the playoff. And uh uh you shot 71 in the playoff. I think Ayako shot 73, Joanne shot 74. So take us through that uh just last little bit of the playoff.

Laura Davies 23:59

Yeah, well, I I I remember um I had that lead and I hit a three-wood into 17, and and Kana came up to me and she kind of said, Why did you do that? Because I I was kind of in control of it, and I hit it out to the right and I didn't get it. I don't think I'd birdied it. And she said, you know, because she was kind of just about out of it by then. And she she was almost saying to me, lay up, you don't have to hit every shot, go for everything. And I always talk to her about that. But yeah, I I I parred the last, hit a nine-in, hit a really good drive and a nine-on. Um didn't hit a particularly good first part, and and had to hole up, I think it was about eight or nine feet. I never forget Dave Ma said his commentary on it was brilliant, and and and I always enjoy watching that. Someone sent me the um the clip of me playing the last two holes, and yeah, it was just nice um just to watch that all those years ago. And he said, make make the first one, don't two-put it, make it like a champion or something woods, you know how good he was and all that. Uh it just sounded ugly, I hold the putt straight after he said that, and it was uh yeah, it was what just a great day, and it and it it made me believe I could win in America, which at that stage had no reference because there were no Europeans playing out there. Okamoto was probably the only big international star at that point, apart from Jad Stevenson, obviously. Um but yeah, it was a huge day for me.

Mike Gonzalez 25:15

Yeah, do you consider yourself a pioneer uh in that you you really were the first uh great European player to come over and and make uh the LPGA uh you know uh an important part of your playing career?

Laura Davies 25:27

Yeah, I think what I did by winning that, there was Lotta Neumann, Helen Alfredson, Trish Johnson, Allie Nicholas. I think when they they were playing week keep week in, week out with me in Europe and beating me, obviously, and I beat them, and we were we were all much of a muchness at that point. And I think they very quickly thought, I'm going to America. And Lotta was Lotta was and Trish both got on on rookie status in that 88th season. I didn't have to go to the tall school because of the win. They came through the tour school. I think Helen Alfredson maybe a year after that, and Ali, big Al Allie Nicholas a few years after that again again. But it just made them think, right, and Lotta, funnily enough, in her rookie season won the US Open when I was defending up at Five Farms in can't remember where it is, but yeah, Lotta came out and did pretty much the same as I did. Uh won it in a rookie what won it in a rookie. Well, mine wasn't even my rookie season when I won it, but she won it very early.

Mike Gonzalez 26:16

When you won it, you were the only person in the field to have zero rounds over par, so you were at least level par all four rounds. Uh what some people forget is that you weren't a member of the LPGA. So they had to make some changes, didn't they?

Laura Davies 26:30

Yeah, and it wasn't voted for unanimously. Joanne Carn, I think she told me once I didn't vote for you, she said. You know, typical Joanne in the way she carries out she um but yeah, she thought people should earn things, and you know, it's a it's a it's a definite valid point. But now anyone that wins a tournament uh on the LPGA that's not a member gets on, so they can thank me for that one.

Mike Gonzalez 26:50

Yeah. I believe you were putting pretty well that week too, aren't you?

Laura Davies 26:54

Yeah, yeah. Practicing. I remember practicing the putting in the corridor of the hotel with my brother and my dad, who were having bets on who could, you know, the corridor was 60 feet, 60 yards long, and and that that particular week it was just one of those weeks with the putting. We'd you can't win the U. I remember my brother read one of the parts, it was a lady in a Brazil shirt, a Brazil football shirt, and he said, hit it on the lady in the Brazil shirt, and it was like a 20 in the playoffs this is, but 25-foot part with about a break, and it went straight in the middle. So we always thank that. We never met her, but we always thank the lady in the Brazil shirt.

Bruce Devlin 27:28

Yeah, that's funny.

Mike Gonzalez 27:29

If that would have happened to Bernhard Longer, he would have asked his caddy, which letter am I aiming for? That's true. Uh well, let's go on to uh uh 1988, and I'm just gonna highlight some of uh some of these wins that I I see uh across the world, including on the LPGA tour. You won the Circle K LPGA Tucson Open at Randolph Golf Course, the North Course by one over Robin Walton. What do you remember about that one?

Laura Davies 28:00

Well that that win, because some people weren't particularly pleased that I was given status, um that was that was the one I thought, right, well, if they think I'm a one-hit wonder to to get that fan, I think that was my I missed the first two cuts in Florida, and then you go out on the West Coast on the LPGO, used to. Um people were kind of saying, Oh, you know, miscart's rubbish, can't back up one-hit wonder sort of thing. But winning Tucson for me was me thinking, right, yeah, okay, I do belong. And that was so that I always think that Circle K win uh was a big one for me. And I know Nancy was up there in the running as well that week. I don't think she finished off particularly well, but I was paired with Nancy at least one round, and and yeah, to beat to to kind of beat my idol, that was that was a huge thing.

Mike Gonzalez 28:48

You beat her as well at the Jamie Farr uh later that year, I think. Uh uh you beat Nancy Lopez by three at Glengarry Country Club.

Laura Davies 28:57

Yeah, another another lovely win and paired with Nancy, and she always tells a story that her husband at the time, Ray, um Ray Knight. What was his surname?

Mike Gonzalez 29:07

Yeah, Ray Knight.

Laura Davies 29:08

Ray Knight, that's it, yeah. They came in and after the third round when we played together, I I at that stage I was a a fair bit longer than all the others. Um Ray was uh having a go at Nancy because she was being outdriven. She quite often tells that story that uh that yeah, she had to listen to Ray in the evening going on about how far I was hitting it past that.

Mike Gonzalez 29:27

Well, we're looking forward to having Nancy on the show in a couple of weeks. Uh uh one thing I did note that during that year, 1988, uh you won on all three of the major tours, didn't you? Europe, US, and Japan.

Laura Davies 29:39

Yep. Yeah, again, that's the travel part of it, and really enjoying being in different places. I I was with a Japanese um golf club manufacturer called Maroman. They're they're they're not really around as they used to be in those days. Wuzenam, Ian Wuzenam and Lazbell used to use their clubs and Curtis Strange, and and so any chance they got to get me in a tournament in Japan, that they would do it and I would go and play. So, yeah, that you know, if you play enough times and you and you're good enough, you will win the odd one. I'm not sure how many I won in Japan, probably eight, ten times over there, but love playing golf in Japan.

Bruce Devlin 30:10

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 30:11

Take us a little bit through sort of how your professional game is developing. You know, I mean, as you look at your record, particularly the majors, you really seem to sort of hit your stride in '94 when we start seeing at least a couple of top tens every year for several years. Uh, but you did have a top ten in 1989, and then uh went a few years where you didn't crack the top ten in majors, you're still winning tournaments. But just tell us a little bit how that professional game was developing. What were you learning about being on the road and and and and learning more about your game, what you had to develop to compete at an even higher level?

Laura Davies 30:45

Um, yeah, well, I didn't really look into it though. I know now it's all stats-oriented and everyone's got a track man or the new machine that's out. And but for me, it was just about playing and having fun. So I never really analyzed it too much. If I if I was getting in contention, I was happy with that. And and whether I was playing at the US Open or the Taiwan Open, the English Open, the wherever, the Australian, any tournament in the world, that was the most important tournament to me. I never used to I think it's disrespectful to say I played the few weeks before the open to to you know to tune my game up. Well, no, I'm I I played two weeks before the open because I wanted to try and win a tournament, regardless of where it was. And I think that's why maybe I won so many times around the world, and people say, Oh, they were easier fields. Well, yeah, they were, but you had to get there, you had to travel, you had to do all the go with it. And you know, maybe that's why I did win as many as I did, but not as many LPGA tournaments as I did. But I I was never one to think too deeply about it. I just loved to play and I love to play the way I played, and sometimes I finished on the 18th going for trying to win a tournament. I I I had I had two tens, one in Sweden and one in Japan, trying to win a tournament and and completely blew out. But that was the way I used to play. So I I I didn't learn that quickly because I did it more than once. So it was uh maybe not so bright, but if you're not if you're prepared to fail, then you're probably gonna succeed a lot more times, and that was always my mantra.

Mike Gonzalez 32:06

You know, as you look back at some of the top players that sort of uh hit the hit the LPGA scene, at least back in the 80s. Uh some of those you've already talked about, but uh Hall of Famers like Nancy Lopez, Pat Bradley, Beth Daniel, Julie Inkster, Betsy King, Patty Sheehan, Hollis Stacey. I mean, those are those are all just the ones in the Hall of Fame. And then you, uh Akamoto coming from Japan, uh Newman, you'd mentioned, uh all great players in their in their own right. Uh who gave you the most problems? Who were you who'd you most fear when you were head to head with them?

Laura Davies 32:41

No question. Beth Daniel. She was uh she was a steely competitor, she was a brilliant, she was the best ball striker on the tour. Um I always think I'm a really good ball striker too, but Beth was the one that you know, a lot of the girls haven't got the power of the guys, but Beth always that you just the way she hit it, and you knew that if if you're going down the stretch with Beth Daniel, you had your hands full, she beat me in White Plains, New York one year when I was playing some of the best golf of my life, and I think we I think it eventually went to a playoff, but I lost to her, and and she was tough, but great competitor. Love, you know, love Beth. She she really is uh a nice lady, but yeah, you didn't want her name. If you were up the top of the board, you did not need to see Daniel come on the board. But they were all great. Patty Sheehan, you different game to my game, but so good the way the way she used to play. Um Pat Bradley, another one, not a dynamic game, but unbelievably consistent. Yeah, I could just go on, I could say something about all that's why they were Betsy King actually had a lot of good battles with Betsy King, and for the most part, she came out on top, Betsy.

Mike Gonzalez 33:41

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.