Laura Davies - Part 2 (The Majors and More Career Wins)

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

So Laura, tell us a little bit about the equipment that you were playing back at this point in your career because as a male player, I guess I always assumed that they had specially manufactured, designed equipment for women, but you were essentially playing the same equipment that men played, weren't you?

Laura Davies 0:32

Yeah, like I said, it was um and in those days I was with Maroman up until I was with them my first 15 years. So till 2003 I was with Merriman, I think. And yeah, I was essentially using the same clubs as Woosnum and uh and Elazabelle. Obviously their shafts would have been tiny bit stiffer, but all the heads were the same. The you know everything was everything was the same. Some of the the less powerful players the girls that had to use they wouldn't have used women's clubs, but they would have used more regular, regular shafted clubs and stuff like that.

Mike Gonzalez 1:03

So uh tell us about your putters. Uh have you gone through a lot of putters in your career? Have you always stuck with uh one friend the whole time?

Laura Davies 1:11

Yeah, I had a I had Marriman putter that I used um the for a long time. It had a glass face, uh it um I had four or five of them because they were they're very soft metal, so that they were prone to being in travel, being knocked over the place. So I ended up using quite a few of them. But yeah, I won a lot of tournaments in that period I had that and I I've still got them at home. And um, to be honest with you, I looked down on it and I don't like it at all. Wouldn't use it today. I love all the modern, you know, all the modern putters, the mallets, the huge. So but back then it was well, it it was the best best putter for sure. But um I've I think other than that, I was probably one putter every six months or so, probably on average. So I used to change them a lot. I'm a great I'm a great fan of if something new comes out, I want to use it, I want to try. Even to even today, being with Callaway, um yeah, anytime they've got something new out, I want a piece of it. So uh yeah, I I do change putters especially, but uh mainly equipment moving forward with the technology.

Mike Gonzalez 2:13

Yeah, maybe a question for both of you. How much better is today's putter technology than what you you had to play with early in your careers?

Laura Davies 2:23

Oh, I think uh everything's everything's better, yeah. I mean there's no question. You when you go to these studios, I've seen or I've to be honest, I've never been, but one of the one of the putter manufacturers came out with a laser thing and a bird belt. Funnily enough, I was using it and it showed how poor your alignment was, this, that, and the other. Um and yeah, so everything's moved forward, and and you're a fool if you don't move forward with it, because it can only help. And you see with the other equipment, not just the putters now, the how far these guys are hitting. It doesn't help the girls quite so much with distance, but it's it's incomparable now that how far these guys are hitting the golf ball, and and it's helping the girls be more consistent and longer as well, a little bit longer, but not not to the extent the guys are.

Bruce Devlin 3:06

Well, I'd say I'd I agree with Laura there that uh the first time that I realized how poorly I aimed my putter was when they put the laser on the putter, and you know, you you line up and then they turn the laser on, and I was aiming about nine inches left from about 12 feet, so no wonder you couldn't make any putts. But the technology itself, uh you know, like Laura said, the uh all of this technology has certainly been great for the average player, but the professional players, I believe, has have received more benefit than uh than the average amateur player. Uh I mean look at look at how far they're the guys drive it today, you know. 320 yards is something that, you know, we never even thought of that. I mean, Nicholas was Nicholas was uh, you know, about the longest player we had there for quite a while. And if he hit at 270, that was a pretty good hit.

Mike Gonzalez 4:06

Laura, how far were you driving the ball back in your 87 uh US Open win?

Laura Davies 4:13

I'm gonna say I'm very similar now off the T. Anywhere from 265 to 275 would be kind of in my in my area of distance. And it's kind of been like that for years. Obviously, when I was a lot younger, younger and stronger, and the equipment wasn't quite up to it. So maybe if I'd had that equipment, this equipment back then, maybe I'd have touched 285, 290, maybe. But yeah, so certainly the equipment has has allowed people to um to maintain the older players in my age to maintain what they had before. Whereas if we kept going with the old equipment, 230, 240 now, probably for me.

Mike Gonzalez 4:50

Yeah. Yeah, Bruce, weren't you saying up until fairly recently you were hitting a ball as far further than you were in your prime with the old equipment?

Bruce Devlin 4:59

Well, I I can assure you, when I was when I turned 70, I could hit the ball further with the new technology than I could when I was 25 years old, which is quite remarkable when you think about it.

Laura Davies 5:12

Yeah, it's incredible. It really is the difference and the ball and everything. It's it's amazing how the games come on.

Mike Gonzalez 5:18

Let's just talk about a few of the other uh LPGA wins quickly, and uh you can uh reminisce about uh just what you remember about some of these. Uh the the 89 Lady Keystone open at Hershey Country Club. That was a victory by one over one of the ladies you mentioned before, Pat Bradley.

Laura Davies 5:39

Yeah, that was uh that was one of the most dramatic and enjoyable wins I've ever had because obviously Pat I I mentioned there earlier and formidable competitors. And I think we're both on the 18th green. She I think she had about a 10-15 footer, and I remember I had a 35-footer across that 18th green at Hershey, there's a big sloping green, a little bit but left uh back to front. So you when you when you were pin high, you always had a big left to right or if you were on the left edge, which is where I was, or a big right to left or the other way around. And I've set this putt out and uh somehow it went in and I went absolutely mental. We used to get really big galleries in Hershey, which was fun. And and poor old Pat, her face dropped, she she mentions that one now and again. Um, because it was for me, it was the m the most dramatic win I probably had at that stage of my career. So I I always think of that one with great fondness.

Mike Gonzalez 6:27

Yeah, I'm gonna jump ahead a little bit. Uh obviously, as we said, we we probably need days to talk about each one of your victories, but I want to jump ahead to 1993 because uh this one came on a golf course that you must have really come to like, and this was the McDonald's Championship at DuPont Country Club.

Laura Davies 6:44

Yeah, that was uh there were a couple of courses. I won seven of my 20 LPJ events. There was in in uh Phoenix a golf course, Moon Valley, I love there. But that that DuPont Country Club, for some reason, it was a long golf course, and there were a lot of dog legs, and there was a lot of corners I could cut. 18 I could take it over the trees and hit a wedge in, and the others were having to lay up in front in a creek and leave themselves a long iron or a wood in there. Um so that course set up really well for me. Part threes were really long as well, really strong holes. And yeah, I think I won three of three of five, three of four, and finished second in the other one to Kelly Robbins. So, yeah, a course, a course that really set up for my game.

Mike Gonzalez 7:22

Yeah, Bruce, to my point. I mean, we're talking about uh the 93 McDonald's championship. Of course, that then evolved into another McDonald's event uh which was called in '94 the McDonald's LPGA Championship. But uh just listen to this record that Laura had at DuPont Country Club starting in '94. When, and and by the way, this was a series of years when that championship was played at DuPont. Win second, win T4, uh, not a top ten, T7, T6, T6. How much money did you win at DuPont Country Globe?

Laura Davies 7:59

It was like I said, it it suited my it suited my eye. Um again, luck went my way. I can remember a couple of holes where I got away with murder and actually nearly killed someone down the tenth. I or no, down the ninth one day. I snapped up to two eye and part five. I was going for it and hit this poor guy in the back of the head, and he rushed off to hospital and but the ball came in the fairway. So stuff like that. It was just it was just one of those courses where things happened for me. And uh when we moved, we moved away to I think a course called Bully Rock. And I never did quite so well there, so disappointing that we moved.

Mike Gonzalez 8:32

Yeah, yeah.

Bruce Devlin 8:35

You mentioned you mentioned two things, uh Laura. Uh, number one about how how consistent and solid a player Beth Daniel was, and you love Moon Valley uh Country Club in in uh Phoenix. Uh in 1994, you did what you like to do with Beth Daniel. You actually beat her there by four shots at Moon Valley.

Laura Davies 8:58

Well, I I've I'll be honest with you, I d I don't remember that, but I would have been very happy because you know she was she was one of the ones that, like I said earlier, she she was scary out there on the course, she never gave much away. And yeah, if I ended up beating her by four, I I'd say I must have played very well, or she she must have had some sort of off day. But yeah, no, that's nice, obviously, to to to do that uh to not to her, but obviously she was she had a great week herself, but it's nice to come out and top against the great ones.

Mike Gonzalez 9:26

Let's take you back to DuPont Country Club then in ninety-four, winning the your first LPG championship. Uh this was by three over Alice Ritzman.

Laura Davies 9:38

Yep, I remember that. Alice um Alice was one of those players. She she was again she was quite a small lady, but uh really dogged, a bit like a bit uh hit the ball not quite as well as Patty Shim, but you knew she was always there for the fight and she was never gonna back down. So I think I hold about a ten-footer to win that and and obviously win by three, but it was a lot closer than that coming down the stretch as I remember because it was a big celebration when that ten footer went in. Uh I think it was for a birdie as well. Um so yeah, an another another major in the in the bank and uh yeah, it was lovely.

Mike Gonzalez 10:11

So you must have been playing pretty good coming into that week because I think you won the previous week's event.

Laura Davies 10:16

Yeah, I think that was Nashville, wasn't it? Was that in Nashville? Pro pretty sure, yeah. I beat Michelle McGann. I went down the stretch with Michelle and came out on top and then went straight over to uh straight over to DePont and obviously ended up coming out on top there. So yeah, i I didn't often win back to back weeks, but that was certainly one of them. Um and I I had a run I think I went first, first, second, f first or something like that. It was it was a really incredible run in the in the middle of the season. But uh where like I say, this game's weird. When when you're playing really well and when you're winning, it seems very easy, and then when it goes the other way, you can't understand how you've ever won a tournament in your life, and it's it's hard to explain.

Bruce Devlin 11:01

So you continued in uh 1995 too, uh winning at the Standard Register, the ping tournament, again at Moon Valley, and then uh the Chick fil A charity championship at Eagles Landing when you went when you won by four over Kelly Roberts. So you continued winning there in 1995 as well.

Laura Davies 11:22

Yep, yeah, it was just that purple patch, it was that putter. That's that was the key to everything. I've never put, like I said earlier, it's the ugliest putter you'll ever see in your life now. But back then, and and it's it's all about all the great players can play golf. It's who holds the putts at the right time, and we all know that. It's no different, you know, at the PGA last weekend, uh a few of the players that probably could and should have won didn't hold the putts. So yeah, if you hold the putts, you could definitely win the tournament. You you never really win a tournament with with great golf, but you can always win a tournament with with the with the putter and the chipping.

Mike Gonzalez 11:53

Yeah, well you it we'll go to 96 now. So you went win-win-win at Moon Valley, because this was three years in a row, and you won by uh one over Crystal Parker Manzo.

Laura Davies 12:04

Yep, yeah, again, uh I think that was the week when uh one of the players jumped in a swimming pool. I'm trying to remember her name. She was a lovely lady, she saved a little boy in a swimming pool halfway through the qualifier. And uh she didn't she didn't get because it was the qualifier, um she didn't finish her round because obviously she's been in a swimming pool. Um but that that was a notable week, obviously, for that. And Crystal Parker was a was a good friend of mine and played on uh played on the tour with her uh for a while. And yeah, it was obviously nice to beat her. Um anytime anytime you win, it's nice to beat the first day. They don't think so so much, but yeah, yeah, Crystal was a really good player.

Mike Gonzalez 12:44

So the LPJ Championship again comes to uh DuPont in 1996 and uh Laura Davies prevails again. This was an event that was reduced to 54 holes because of weather.

Laura Davies 12:58

Oh yeah, I didn't remember, yeah. That I I forgot about that. Yeah, I mean uh to be honest, I don't remember that one quite so well. The other ones kind of stand out against Alice and um yeah, I wouldn't even know who was going down the stretch in that one, to be honest.

Mike Gonzalez 13:16

Your final round in that uh 1996 uh McDonald's LPG Championship was a bit Faldo-esque in that you started that round with 15 straight pars. Do you remember that?

Laura Davies 13:27

No, I've done like I say, that one for some reason, I don't know why. I don't I don't I don't remember who I was playing with. And normally I'm really good for stuff like that. But yeah, 15 pars, that sounds a bit boring. Must have uh must have lost me put it for a while.

Mike Gonzalez 13:39

I guess that's what happens when you go to some place you just win all the time, Bruce, huh?

Bruce Devlin 13:46

Yeah, that's right. And win. She kept winning in 1996, too. You won another major at the DeMoria Classic in Edmund and Country Club, and you beat two pretty fancy players that week, Laura.

Laura Davies 14:00

I think I could name them.

Bruce Devlin 14:01

Carrie Webbon, and that's yes, you can.

Laura Davies 14:06

Yeah, I always say that was my best round I ever played in a in a or to win a tournament to certainly to win a major. I shot 66, it was really cold, it was really windy. Nancy and and obviously Webby by that time was establishing herself as one of the, well she'd go on to be the number one player for many a year until Annika turned up. Um but yeah, to beat Nancy in that fashion. I posted a number and they just couldn't get to it because it like I say it was a really tough day. Uh my dad was there, I remember dad being there and um and it was just a fantastic finish because it was uh it was a it was a tough course as I remember, but everything went my way that day. And like I said, I remember Nancy coming down the line. I'm not sure if she still had a chance to force a playoff on 18, but she didn't do it, and yeah, that was a nice win.

Mike Gonzalez 14:52

W was this one of these where you kind of sat yourself at the clubhouse for an hour or something, waiting for all the leaders to come in to see what happened?

Laura Davies 15:00

Yeah, yeah, I don't know how well I can't. Again, it's we're talking a long time ago here. I don't remember exactly, but I do remember being in the clubhouse with my dad and we were watching it on TV, it was being broadcast and then. Um but yeah, it was just seeing them not quite get to that number. It was yeah, it's a weird way to win a tournament. It's more fun if you do it in the last group and hold apart. That that's when the excitement's there. But I'll take any win, any way I can get it.

Mike Gonzalez 15:26

Yeah, you you came from five back. Uh Meg Mallon was actually the leader after 54 holes, uh five-stroke deficit, with which what was it, six under 66. So uh quite a performance uh in that tournament. Later that year, you win the Star Bank LPJ Classic at Country Club of the North by three over Patty Hurst and Maggie Will.

Laura Davies 15:47

Don't remember that one at all. I really don't. It's strange, isn't it? It sounds a bit blase, but I really I really don't remember that one. That could have been that could have been the one that had uh a bonus because I'd won another tournament. I know one tournament I won. That that could have been the the second leg of the of the bonus. And back then I got something like a hundred thousand dollar bonus. I'm pretty sure that was that was it. So that that would have been a cute so I should remember it better than I do, but yeah, it's uh it's a bit fuzzy now. I've I've uh what's that 96? That's uh 26 years ago.

Mike Gonzalez 16:20

Yeah. Nice problem to have all this winning, Bruce. What do you think? Huh?

Bruce Devlin 16:24

Yeah, not only that, but you know, then in 1997, guess where we won again?

Laura Davies 16:30

Yeah, that'd be Phoenix again.

Bruce Devlin 16:34

Moon Valley. Yeah, four fourth time winning at Moon Valley in a playoff with Kelly Robbins.

Laura Davies 16:42

Yeah, Kelly and I had a lot of really she beat me at the LPGA championship. I won I won at DuPont '93 as not as a not as a major, and then 94, and then I finished second to Kelly in '95, and then won it again in '96. So Kelly and I had a lot of really good battles, and I remember winning Phoenix, thinking, oh, she's gonna get me again. And luckily I held on to win it uh win it the four straight years, so so that was a huge accomplishment at the time. Because I think there was only like three or four blokes that had ever done it, and they were great names. I I I'm gonna sp I'm gonna I'll be guessing if I said who they were, but Annika since and a few other players, Tigers obviously gone on to win some tournaments crazy amounts of times on the trot. But uh at the time it was quite a big deal.

Mike Gonzalez 17:26

And this is where Annika shot her 59, right, when she won there in 2001.

Laura Davies 17:32

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it was it's one of those courses, it's not a course that really should have suited me. It was round a round a I'm not gonna say a housing estate, but it was a golf course that was in in amongst a lot of houses. So it was a lot of OB. And I I'm I'm notorious for hating white stakes. So anyone that knows me knows if there's a white stake about it, it gets my attention and it shouldn't do, obviously. We we shouldn't even look at them. We know we've got to think of good shots, not bad shots. But yeah, that was it. And funny enough, in the next year at Phoenix, they offered a million dollars bonus if I won it five, because that would have been the first person ever to win five on the trot. And um I had a chance on Sunday to do that, and a million dollars five hundred thousand for the local charities for the tournament, and the other five hundred thousand would have been for me, and I hit it out of bounds on 16 when I was probably a couple of three back at the time, and then I that was it gone. But it lasted nearly nearly 70, nearly 65, 70 holes before I finally blew out. But yeah, that was exciting. They they made a big deal of it. At the time it was a big deal. Uh now you talk about a million dollars and it's nothing to to some of the players on these tours.

Mike Gonzalez 18:36

Yeah. You you won at the Desert Inn in 1998. I assume that's the Desert Inn that I remember from Las Vegas.

Laura Davies 18:43

Yep, yeah, it's uh would have been the Tour Championship, I think.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

It was, yeah. It was.

Laura Davies 18:49

That's when we used to play at Desert Inn, I think. Yeah, okay. Yeah, and and and and that was a that it's no longer it that course no longer exists the way it did, because I think Wynn Wynn redeveloped it and it's a complete I've not played it since, but for a golf course in the in the parking lot of a of a casino, I think that was a really underrated golf course. I really used to love playing there.

Mike Gonzalez 19:11

Yep, yeah, that one's no longer, but there's a lot of great stories from that place. Uh we move on to 2000, won a couple times in the LPGA tour. The first was the LA Women's Championship at Wood Ranch Golf Club, and that was a a win by three over Karen Coke. How'd you pronounce it? Karen Coke, Karen Coke, yeah. That's a name I didn't know. Janice Moody, of course, and Michelle Redmond. Names I did know.

Laura Davies 19:32

Yeah, well good Karen, you would know uh she she's Solheim Cup captain, but her what's her she's gone back to Karen Yalmuson. She was uh married to married to uh Stefan Coke. So yeah, she was um she she was a she was a very good player. And that that actual week was a strange one because I played the Pro Am with an eye doctor, and it was just at the start of laser, you know, the laser surgery for the eyes. And it was on the Wednesday I played the pro-am. The tournament was a three-rounder, and I played with this guy, my caddy Terry Mundy, actually caddies for Ian Poulters, caddy for Poulter for the last two. I don't have any of it, but Terry was a bit of a wheeler-dealer, and he says, says to this guy, uh, she can't she can't see. Could you do anything with her eyes? And and I'm sort of joking because I'm a chicken for anything, I don't want to do anything like that. So, anyway, he was renowned as the best of the of this new procedure. So Terry arranged for me to go about an hour's drive to this guy's surgery up a bit north of where we were playing. And anyway, they did the test, and the guy says to me, Yeah, I can do it, I can do it now. And I'm thinking, what? I'm playing golf on the tournament because it was a two-day pro am, so I played the Wednesday one, Thursday was going to be another pro am which I wasn't in, and I'm up in this eye, and he said, Oh, you'll be alright by Friday morning. I was I think I was playing at midday. He said, Oh, you'll be fine when we take the banner. So, anyway, for some reason, Terry convinced me that I should do this. So I had the laser surgery on the Thursday. Terry had to drive us back because I had patches on my eyes, couldn't see any, wasn't allowed any light. Woke up Friday morning, and I remember taking these patches off, terrified that I was going to be blind because, like I said, I'm a chicken. But anyway, I never forget I Sports Centre, I was obsessed with and I could actually read the ticker tape along the bottom. It used to have all the report from yesterday's sport, and I could read it clear as a bell. And I went out on the course on the Friday, shot, I think I shot three or four under the first day, can't remember, but anyway, won the tournament on the Sunday. So that was the most bizarre thing that I think I ever did. And I I can blame Terry for that because he was bolder than I was. I I said, I can't do this. And and to be fair, the doctor said, You'll be fine, don't worry about it.

Bruce Devlin 21:39

So they that's quite a story.

Mike Gonzalez 21:43

Yeah. Um, we'll go on to to uh also later in 2000, you won the Phillips Invitational Onion Creek uh Country Club by two over Doddy Pepper. That was an event in Austin that uh honored Harvey Peanick.

Laura Davies 21:56

Yes, yeah, that was um I've still got the statue, it was a Statue of him, the trophy, his heaviest trophy. I don't know how much it cost them to send it back to England for me. It's the most beautiful thing. It stands about two feet tall and he's just leaning on his puffer. So that's a a treasure possession. And yeah, I played really well that week. Uh um, and yeah, it's just nice to win something. So the only bad thing about the whole week, they maybe put a Stetson on on the 18th green, standing behind this trophy, because you couldn't lift it. I mean you couldn't have lifted it. So I'm there in a Stetson and I don't do hats at all. I'm not I'm not good in hats. I I wear a visor, that's what I wear.

Mike Gonzalez 22:30

So there must be photographic evidence of that.

Laura Davies 22:34

Oh, I guarantee it. There'll there'll be a photo out there somewhere. I've I've always uh if anyone's ever sent it to me, I've deleted it immediately off my phone because yeah, I can send it to They forced me to do it, but to be fair, my dad loved it. I gave it to my dad and he he used to wear it sitting out on his deck and uh in South Carolina, so he loved it, so he was a beneficiary of the hat. And he wasn't apparently it was a really nice one, so yeah, it all worked out in the end.

Mike Gonzalez 22:57

Uh uh, you won a Rochester that year as well, up at the Wegmans.

Laura Davies 23:04

Yeah, that would that would be my last win. That would be I beat um Maria Hearth. Um in I think I I I think I made a six or a seven at the last. I I kind of limped home and and unfortunately that would be my last LPGA win in 2001. And uh I'd at the time and in a million years I would never have thought that had been the case, but the doubts start creeping into the back of your mind and uh and the game becomes a lot more difficult. But I do remember yeah, just crawling over the line for that one. But a win's a win.

Mike Gonzalez 23:36

You know, you you you talked about uh the Wegmans being your last LPGA tour victory. You did win a few more times around the world, but uh as you get to that point in your career, and Bruce, you can comment on this because you went through the same thing uh uh as winning becomes a bit more difficult. For you, Laura, was it more mental or more physical?

Laura Davies 23:55

Ment mental, 100% mental. I started seeing I mentioned the OB stakes on uh uh in Phoenix and weird that I won so many times around there. Um yeah, I just started seeing bad shots instead of good shots, and um I like you said I did win. I had a really good year in 2010 where I I won I think five tournaments or four or five tournaments on the LET. But um yeah, once you start playing with any doubts, um oh Bruce will know you you it it's it's becomes a hard game. From what was an easy game, became a bit of a chore, and then and then you start doubting everything, and and you're still on the range, probably one of the best ball strikers. Um well definitely, but you can't transfer it to the course, and if you can't do that, then then you don't win, you don't really compete, you miss a lot of cuts, and and it was an adjustment.

Bruce Devlin 24:44

Yeah, uh that wasn't the case with me though, uh Mike. I I just um I got to a point where I was doing other things like uh television and golf course architecture, and uh I was in my early 40s and decided that I'd yeah, I'd had enough of uh traveling around playing golf, so I concentrated in two other areas.

Mike Gonzalez 25:07

Yeah, Laura, I think Bruce had a few more wins in him, but he gave it up early.

Laura Davies 25:12

Yeah, without a doubt. Great play, fun to watch.

Mike Gonzalez 25:16

Uh as I mentioned, a few other wins, including um uh you won uh the A and Z Championship 2004. Uh or I'm sorry, uh uh uh you would have liked to have won it, but you were the first woman to compete in a European tour event. That must have been pretty cool.

Laura Davies 25:31

Yeah, that was uh down in Australia. Um it was it was it was it was a shame really because I was still playing well at that point and and the game was decent. I was starting to have the doubts creep in, but that was a really late invite, and it was off six weeks off at home, not really playing, because when I went home after a long year, I played 33, 34 tournaments every year, and I don't I used to leave the clubs for it. So about two weeks before that tournament, they ring me up and say, Would you want to come down and play in a men's event? It's a point system, which kind of I like because I thought you know, you if you do have a big number, it's not going to finish your week off. Um, but I turned up there, um, not having practiced much, not having played for eight weeks, and I finished second last in the end. It was disappointing. If it had been more in the middle of the year and I'd been playing well, I'm I wouldn't have probably wouldn't have made the cut still, even obviously, because these guys that that's what people don't seem to understand the difference at the top level of the women's game and the men's game, the power side of it. It's it's less comparable now than it was back then, but it was just a shame that I got the invite. If I'd got the invite before I had my winter break, I might have practiced a lot more and turned up at least playing some good golf. I didn't I didn't play well. Paired with Jean Vandervelde and Peter Sr. the first two days, which was great. Um but yeah, it was a shame, but I didn't get many cracks in the men's in the men's tournaments, but it was just a bit of fun. I wasn't trying to prove anything, I just wanted to have a bit of fun.

Mike Gonzalez 26:52

Laura, let's fast forward to the 2004 ANZ Championship down Australia. That had to be pretty cool to be the first woman to compete in a European tour event.

Laura Davies 27:01

I hadn't played tournaments and I turned up, to say the least, a little bit rusty, so I didn't give the best performance. I'm not saying I'd have made the cut by a mile anyway, but I um I was uh completely underprepared. It was really hot. I know I do remember that. Newcastle that time of year is a very hot place, and overall it was a shame because I I finished second last. The poor bugger that I beat, he would have been very mortified about that, I guarantee you. But I did beat hot enough. I don't really I can't remember who it was. But yeah, it would have been nice if it had been in the middle of the year and I'd been playing some good golf going in just to see, you know, how how I could have done. But certainly I wasn't trying to prove anything, I was just there having a bit of fun, and and a few of the guys probably that weren't keen on the idea. I remember there was some bad press about it, but you know what, you only live once. You get a chance to do something, why not have a go?

Mike Gonzalez 27:47

Gotta do it. Yeah. And you had a chance then to go up against the senior uh Euro senior tour guys uh in an event. Uh it was the Shipco Masters in 2018.

Laura Davies 27:58

Yeah, that was fun again. I um there were some good players there. Monty was there, Uzi was there. Um, yeah, quite a lot of Elazabella. I was paired with Elazabelle, which was brilliant. I knew Jose from years ago doing some stuff with Maroman with him. And yeah, I I I didn't again I didn't finish last. Obviously there's no cards, so I played all three rounds, I think. I think it was a three round tournament. Um don't remember where I finished, but I wasn't a disgrace. I I I I wasn't I was I wasn't at the end of the pack by any means as I remember it, but yeah, it was good fun. The only thing was by then, you know, when you're when you're trying to play out of your comfort zone and your confidence isn't great anyway, um you know it's difficult, but uh I I I didn't do too badly considering I I suppose. But I I enjoyed it again, uh same thing. Why not?

Mike Gonzalez 28:44

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Uh uh let's just finish up on uh on one event which I th I thought was amazing. Uh this was uh what you did at the 2018 Bank of Hope Founders Cup.

Laura Davies 28:58

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. That's disappointing to this day. Uh I I played so well all week, and and the trouble was I was up against MB Park. Well, actually more than that, um um Arya Jitanagan as well. She was right up there. There was some big guns, and I actually the amazing thing about that week was my driver in the first round, um, I had to stop using it after about six holes. I was four over after six or seven holes until we realised that there's something wrong with the driver, it had a rattle in it. So anyway, stopped using it. And from that point onwards, I shot something like 1820 under because I think I've I after I stopped using the driver, and then I changed it the next, you know, when I got in, we went the railway, we went to the court, the the club guy, and he sorted it out. And yeah, from that point onwards I shot nine under on Saturday, put myself right in position, played in, I think I was a second or maybe third or third last group, but Imbi was in that last group, and I I had a really good run on Sunday round the middle of the round, but she had four, I think she had four birdies on the trot, and you could just feel the wind coming out yourself. My last chance was on 16. I hit a lovely wedge out of a bunker to about four feet and missed it, and that's when I realised that probably wasn't going to win it, which was disappointing as at the time I I've I'd hit a lovely um rescue into the par 5 15th and birdied that easily, and that was my last, obviously, my last chance to win an LPGA event. Um, I still play the odd one again now, but not really competitive. But I'll I'll always consider that uh tournament with great fondness. And Imbi, um I'm not sure if it's true, but she said if they were tied at the last, she might have had a little three-pack to let me win it. You know, you never know with Imbi, she's such a lovely lady, and then one of her one of my best friends, uh Brad Caddies for her. Um, whether she'd have actually done it, if that had been, but I bogeied the last and it didn't make any difference. And she went on to win by three or four shots. So that was that's what Imbi does.

Bruce Devlin 30:48

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 30:49

Uh let's touch on the majors just briefly because we've talked about uh your wins. Um as you look back at your major career, um, what's the source of your biggest frustration? Something that you would have liked to have accomplished that you didn't?

Laura Davies 31:04

Yeah, well, I think four was nice, and I'm I'll never I'll never say that again. I'm not I'm not greedy. I it would it was nice, but the Nabisco in 1990, well, the the year Donna Andrews won it. I I bogeied the last, she birdied the last. I had a one-shot lead playing the last basically, and so that was one that got away. And in Canada, um the Du Maurier, which was a major at the time, Kari Reb beat me going down the last again. I had a one-shot lead, she birdied, I bogeied. So there's a couple, maybe three, that possibly I could have won. But the I think the overall disappointment is never winning Nabisco. It's now called the the Chevron, it was the A. But the Nabisco was the one that I love that golf course, and I had so many chances to win it, but just never won it.

Mike Gonzalez 31:49

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, tell your friends until we teat up again for the good of the game, it's gone.

Intro Music 32:13

It lets back down the fairway. Just make it off line. Like head it as long as you're still in the state, you're all casting down the middle.