Mary Bea Porter-King - Part 2 (Playing the Tour and Saving a Life)

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it started to.

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

So Mary B with the generosity of the Karsten family, off you go to the LPGA tour where you turned professional in 1973 at the age of 23. We'll talk about your medalist performance at the tour school that year. But just to recap their career, this is sort of unusual, Bruce, because most of our guests were going to spend the majority of the time talking about the LPGA years. Right. In the case of Mary B, we're going to be talking a lot about the other category, which is all the wonderful things she's been able to accomplish in her life post-career. So uh on the on the tour, as I said, joining in 73, she had one win, which we're going to talk about. Uh she had one sort of very interesting life event in 1988 that I'm sure we'll talk about. Um we'll talk about her experience uh on the LPGA tour and all that comes along with that, but we're anxious obviously to get to some of the other things that uh she's been able to do in her life. So um let's just start off, Mary B, with uh uh something Bruce and I were sort of interested in going off on the tour is that you s you roomed at least uh for some of those uh some of that time with uh Jan Stevenson, a fellow Aussie for Bruce.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Yes, Jan and I, so I went to qualifying school in July of 1973, and and uh Laura Baugh and I were the only two, and Barbara Frey Bodie also, who went back to be an amateur, qualified. Jan Stevenson was there, but Jan did not make it that year, and she went back to Australia. And uh she tried again the following January because we in those years we had two qualifying schools. So uh I was medalist in that, and um Laura Baugh was the highlight because she was under Mark McCormick's uh IMG management and had all sorts of contracts and everything, and and uh she just struggled. We we had to shoot a certain score in those days as opposed to finishing first, second, or third or taking X number of players, depending on weather. Well, we had horrendous weather in Atlanta, and it poured rain, and every putt and every putt was squeegee. And uh I I managed to be medalist, and and uh it was interesting. Carol Mann was the president of the LPG at that time, and of course, when we finished, I was not the story. Laura was the story because she did finish second and she made it on the last day. And Carol came out to get me, and of course, being the big mouth I was, I went back into the media and she said, the media want to speak to you, and I said, Okay, and so I just let them know that I would win before Laura won. And uh that did come true. So I did win before Laura won, and she because she never won. But um, and then Jan did come out the following January, as I said, and um I don't know, she you know, you Australians, you have a great sense of humor, of which I I enjoy. Can be very sarcastic, and I can be very sarcastic. And um ended up, Jan and I went on a trip to we used to go to Japan after the end of the season, and uh we ended up having to room together. It was kind of our first time being forced into um clo close quarters, and in Japan they're very close quarters. I mean, you can touch almost every all four walls sitting on your bed. And so we each had a little tiny bed with a little cubby hole behind us, and I was not crazy about Japanese food, and neither was Jan. I mean, and this was in '74, I believe. And and uh so we found a Dunkin' Donuts, and we were all elated that we had Dunkin' Donuts, and I think Sandra Post went out and got everybody Dunkin' Donuts, their favorite. And so I had that for dinner, and I saved, we each saved a donut for the morning uh before we played, because we had to take a bus to go play wherever we were playing at that point. And everyone had told me, said, Oh, geez, you're rooming with Jan. She's just, you know, gotta watch her. She's very selfish, and I'm like, okay, whatever. Well, we get up and she says, Do you want to go shower and get dressed first? And I said, Well, that's really nice. Sure, I do. Yeah, I'll go get dressed first. So I go in, shower, get dressed. I come out, and I liked uh lemon meringue powder, lemon meringue filled with powder on top, and I come out and Jan's face is covered in powder. And I said, Did did you eat your donut? She said, Yeah. Did you eat my donut? She said, Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

You're kidding me. You ate my donut too. And for whatever reason, uh we became friends at that moment.

SPEAKER_04 5:02

But um, that's funny.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

And uh she, you know, she was great. Um, and uh I loved her sense of humor. I loved uh her parents came over once a year, and and she was a lot of fun, and she was highly misunderstood because I think a lot because of her sense of humor that it was very dry. And people she would say things to people that I thought were quite funny and they didn't find it funny, and and uh she um and they didn't understand her, so I uh and she's still a friend today, so I'm in touch with her quite a bit.

Mike Gonzalez 5:35

So we we certainly enjoyed visiting with her and telling her story, and the uh I guess the the takeaway I got from Jan, I don't know if you'd agree, but she struck me as a bit of a maverick, certainly a non-conformist, particularly in her early days.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Very much so. Um you know she did so much for our tour, as did Laura. You know, they both were the so-called glamour girls of our tour. And at that time, Ray Volpe became our commissioner, and and he thought that we needed to help change the image of and no one loves Patty Berg more than I do, but to change the image of Patty Berg um to a younger, um, more athletic players. And that was really kind of his mission for us. And um, and of course, Jan and and even I was good looking in those days. The three of us were sent to a lot of things for the tour to promote the tour in those days. And uh Jan did so much for us, and yet sometimes the players would be jealous of her because of the attention she received. And I think at this point, I hope in their lives that they realized how much attention they did bring to us and um in promoting our tour because people did come out, and by chance, if they watched Jan, they would be watching us. So, and I think that we gathered many fans because of her.

Mike Gonzalez 6:56

Yeah. Well, remind us to come back to Japan, because you brought it up, and we've talked a lot about Japan and the bus rides, but before we get there, let's just we want to take you back to 7374. You're just coming on tour and and set the stage for our listeners a little bit in terms of what the tour was like back in those days. You know, you're coming out of the 60s. I think the the purse, total purse for the year 1970, I'm gonna say was was a little over half a million dollars for the whole year. Uh the dinosaur hadn't happened yet, David Foster, Paul Molav hadn't shown up yet. Take us through what life was like on the tour then.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

So if I'm correct, the tour when I joined in 1973, total purses, 38 events, was 1.2 million. Um and and I think uh I know at the US Open at that point was 50,000 and the men was 500,000. And um the tour in those days, uh and even today, um, it's a lonely place. It can be a very lonely place. And especially in our day, because there was no social media. If you wanted to communicate with people, you were writing letters and you were anxious to get to your locker and find that someone had responded to your letter, um, which was great. Um we did have a really nice core of of fans that enjoyed coming out and they would travel around to watch us in different areas. But we were a smaller group of people. We um we didn't necessarily travel together because everyone kind of had their own thing as they still do today. But we drove a lot, it was all driving, and um stayed in no-tell motels uh because life was so expensive, uh, everything was expensive. And uh you obviously being a professional golfer, you're guaranteed zero money at the end of the week, but you still have all your expenses of the week. So and playing for such small purses um was difficult. So I found myself doing a lot of off-site proams wherever I could get them, wherever I could get guaranteed money for the week was a big thing. Um and you know, you'd do it for a couple hundred dollars even, just to go play in a pro am and drive two hundred miles out of your way and and then come in and and get to the tournament and tee it up and and go. Um and so and again, because we're all professional athletes and want to beat one another, that's our goal. Um, it isn't easy having relationships. You know, it's it's hard to have relationships because yes, they're your friends to a certain degree, but you still want to beat them every week. And uh and for me, I think the the loneliest part was having relationships and having friendships. And in those days you couldn't go out as a single female, go out and sit at a bar and have order dinner and have a drink or whatever you wanted. It because you were there apparently they thought for different reasons. So um it made life really difficult. Um so you did pair up with somebody that could go have dinner with you or um but i I say it was really hard. It was a difficult time.

Mike Gonzalez 10:22

How did you survive without Google Maps?

SPEAKER_00 10:26

That's funny. I have a great I have a great sense of direction and I don't know how, tell you the truth. Um I always managed to find wherever we were going. Yes, exactly. Uh always managed to find it, and I do have a great sense of uh if I've been there I can get get back to where I've been, and uh so it was difficult um trying to get there. And uh I had um you know I had a a caddy that was driving um and I would go other places and he would go to the tournament and do his work and um you know it it was week after week after week and um it was sort of we'll see you next week when you left on Sundays and you might take a long drive somewhere and sometimes across country to get there and stay. I look back at some of the things that that we did in those days, you know. I remember having to pull over at a roadside stop and have to sleep because I was too tired to keep driving. Um especially in even later years when I was a single mother. That was even more difficult. But that that happened later uh after I had my son.

Mike Gonzalez 11:35

So well early on, uh I guess uh the Jane Blaylock incident would have occurred. It uh forced the LPGA to become a much more professionally run and governed organization. So I think for most uh observers that was good news, I mean a good outcome. Uh what's your take on all that?

SPEAKER_00 11:56

You know, Janie um uh the the incident happened before I came on tour, and um and I knew Janie and she was always nice to me, and um, you know, she explained how it happened and what happened, and and I don't really know all the details enough to speak about it, but um the tour did become more professional, and and I think a lot because of Ray Volpe and and his his desire to to help us. Um and he brought out um people to do hair and makeup and different things, and he um uh he wanted to make sure we were on television, no matter what what it was, um, because it ended up uh the first time I worked television was on a PBS show, so uh which sounded very odd, but he got us on television and and that's when I got to work with Jimmy Demerit. And and uh so it was you know it and the tour progressed from there. But the only mother at that time, uh mothers would be uh Kathy Corneus and and Judy Rankin were the only two. And Merle Brer's daughter had grown up a bit, but there were a couple children early on, of which I enjoyed hanging out with Kay and Tooie, so because they were kids.

Mike Gonzalez 13:12

So yeah, and they've come up a number of times on the program, not just with with Judy and Kathy, but with others as well who remember them on tour with you.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Yeah, they were great. Uh it was it just great energy, you know. It and uh if you could afford to travel with an animal, that was even better. But in those days, not many people did. Later on, I did. Um, Dottie Pepper did. There were several of us that that had animals but had dogs, and uh, but yeah, it was uh it wasn't as all glamorous as everyone thinks it is. Um it's a lot of hard work and a lot of um a lot of lonely times, really.

Mike Gonzalez 13:51

Bruce uh Mary B's win uh came a lot quicker than uh it did for a lot of our guests.

Bruce Devlin 13:57

Sure did. 1975, the golfings of America in uh Whispering Pines, and uh She made a pretty good player by three shots in that tournament. Donna Capone, I mean that had to be a terrific day, Mary B.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

It was a great day. Um it was just one of those weeks and and um I I you know I have I had a lot of ability. Um and my ability was really just natural. And I think where I went wrong, and I know where I went wrong, was um thinking that I needed help. Um because I saw all these other players going to teachers and doing this and doing that, and I thought, wow, I I guess I better do that if I'm gonna be a better player. And uh I I w was very gifted with natural ability. And I from the very beginning, from Betty Hicks' time, you know, she gave me that gift, and it was all about feel, it was all about you know, seeing things and and hitting the shot. I I was probably a great trouble player because I did tend to hit the ball left sometimes, but um, you know, I figured if I could hit it in there, I could hit it out of there too, because I could still hook it back out if I same shape. Yeah, same shape. I can get in, I can get out. But if I miss it right, I have no idea how to get it out. So it's a long journey back. But um that was really where my my my career went south, I have to say. Um and uh uh and and I don't even want to get into who the teacher was, but I called him that night to say that uh I had won. And uh his comment was that I didn't deserve to win because I don't work hard enough. And uh nice. Yeah. So that was a very uh congratulations. Yeah, it was a very difficult time. Uh he said that Jan deserved a win before I did uh because she works harder. And I thought, well, okay, I guess I must have to go work harder, of which I I didn't enjoy hitting balls after ball after ball after ball. I enjoyed playing golf, I enjoyed creating shots, I enjoyed if you you know, Bruce and I want to go have a game around the putting green and and have a game around the putting green, I'm gonna learn more from that. And uh playing, you know, uh yeah, just playing games with it. So yeah, so it it was unfortunate looking back of uh that I I bit that bullet. And I've seen a lot of players do that.

Bruce Devlin 16:30

A lot, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Um my advice to them is yeah, whatever you got right now, trust it and go with it. You got here because of it. So anyway, kind of went downhill with my career after that. I did have some seconds and and thirds and things and shot 63 and you know, but um it was uh kind of downhill after that. I I didn't believe in myself.

Mike Gonzalez 16:55

Were your memories of that week as vivid as you'd like for them to be at this stage?

SPEAKER_00 17:00

Yeah, I could probably recall every every shot. Um really okay. Yeah. Um unf that's a a gift golfers have sometimes and recall those things. And uh I played with Donna and Hollistacy that day, and uh we were the two rookies basically, and and uh nervous coming down the stretch. I do remember topping a ball coming down the stretch and getting on the last screen, and Donna was Donna Donna was fun to play with and and she's still grinding away. And uh we had someone in the gallery at one point that had too much change in their pocket, so she went over and handed them a dollar bill and asked if they could buy their change because they were rattling their change every time she putted. And she just had rabbit ears, and and uh so I um you know I I I don't know, I when I I I my parents were there, which was interesting because they never watched me play um growing up uh because they lived nearby. But um, yeah, I ended up winning by three shots, never thought much about it, and thought I'd go do it again until I sort of got put aside.

Mike Gonzalez 18:12

Um so well you uh you you sort of commented on what the question I was gonna ask, which was, you know, typically players they come off that green, they they they sink that putt to to win, and that's their thought is well, I'm gonna do this again. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Yeah, and I right, and uh that was my thought. And uh, but again, I just f I bit into the bullet of uh believing that I didn't deserve it and that I needed to work harder, and um I guess I wasn't willing to do that, or working harder wasn't that much fun. And I I used when I played golf growing up and and through college and every day I played it, it was fun. And it ceased to be fun at that point. Um You know, I remember Jan always showing me her hands and that they're all like bleeding and callused and everything, and I'm like, that doesn't that doesn't look like fun. I had calluses, but not like she did, you know, and and she'd stand there and you know just beat ball after ball after ball after ball, which I didn't I I still don't find that exciting. Um and some people do.

Mike Gonzalez 19:16

So yeah, yeah. So it it it sort of became a grind for you, I guess. Uh you you left the tour uh for a for a while from eighty-three to eighty-five. So sort of bridge the gap from that first wind to eighty-three. What was what was happening, and then what made you decide to just step away for a while?

SPEAKER_00 19:38

Well, it motherhood is what stepped aside. That's what we assumed. Life life crept in.

Mike Gonzalez 19:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

So uh I married um a gentleman who's no longer alive. He passed away several years ago. My first husband, and Bruce probably would know who he was, um, Bob Cheney was his name. And um he um he was around, he picked up our tour in the when kind of the tour had an issue uh in 19 uh it would have been 75 or 76, right before Volpe came in to help us, and that we had a tournament in Houston, uh, it was the S and H Classic, I believe. And um we had a program in Houston, as you know, Bruce, uh they do everything big and and the program was big, and we um we got there, and after we played the Pro Am, uh Bud Erickson, who was the executive director at that point, sequestered everyone into a room to tell us that they didn't have the funds uh to pay us. And uh it was our choice. Um we could keep playing with no guarantee of ever having any money. Um, and uh my choice was to go home because I couldn't, with no guarantee it was a four-day event, and no guarantee uh I went ahead and went home. And uh when I got home, uh a friend of mine called me and said, Hey Mary B, there's a guy here in the tournament that that uh put up I believe fifty twenty-five or fifty thousand dollars, a lot of money, and guaranteed us money to come back and play. And I said, Well, I can't afford that. I had I flew home and I couldn't afford it, and I didn't come home. Well that guy was Bob Cheney. And so he he came in and helped the tour quite a bit, and I became friends, and and of course those were years I was running with Jan and of and like every man they were all looking at Jan all the time. So um the commissioner asked us, Bob went down to Atlanta to help that tournament, and he he offered us help, whatever he could do, and so he flew, he went to Atlanta to help run that tournament. Ray Volpe asked us after the dinosaur if Jan and I would fly out to Atlanta to promote. That event. And uh we did, and that's where I got to know him, but um he was more interested in Jan than than me, and um and so long story short, he sort of disappeared for a while. We he was around, he um made a bet with both of us um that if I had already won, and if Jan won, what did she want? And uh I told him I wanted a Rolex and uh a gold Rolex, and he said, and Jan wanted this diamond ring of sorts, and so ends up we hadn't heard from him for a while, and Jan ends up winning. And uh we're at Wycigale, and she gets a package from a Houston jeweler, and uh, or like I think let me back up just a minute. It was before that because it was Hershey. I shoot 63 uh in the opening round, and I get a telegram that says your Rolex is waiting. Well, of course, I sh I finished second. And then fast forward back to Wacagale, um Janne gets a package, and uh we we run in the we're in the men's shower. We always used men's locker rooms in those days because they were larger. There were they weren't big enough for for us. And we go in the shower and we open open this package, and sure enough, he had given he had sent her the ring. Um and he then he disappeared for a while and and um resurfaced at a a dark time in my career when um I was promised by someone to uh help sponsor me, and uh they reniged and uh anyway, he and that's when I ended up he resurfaced and came to my aid and and helped me and and then he offered to sponsor me, and then you know how that goes. So anyway, I ended up marrying him and uh got pregnant um two months later or three months later, two months later, and uh that's when I stepped off tour to have my son.

Mike Gonzalez 24:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

Long story, long answer for that.

Mike Gonzalez 24:13

Well, uh so how tough was it getting back? I mean, uh did it take a while just to get back into golf shape and conditioning-wise and mentally get prepared to compete again.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

Correct. So what was difficult and different in those days, um I had asked for an exemption to extend my uh because I had a ten-year exemption for Dinah Shore, uh, to extend it because uh I ended up having to have a a C emergency C section for my son. So I wasn't in great shape. Um and uh but I was told that giving having a child was a choice and that I made that choice and I I lost uh I lost my exemption, my year exemption. So I did try to go and play, and um that was difficult. I wasn't I wasn't ready, I just didn't want to give that up. And uh not long after that the the marriage only lasted um three years total. So um I then tried to get back on tour at that point with a two-year-old and my two Labadors, the only assets of my marriage. And uh I uh I um I managed to to teach and do some side jobs and and unfortunately he also put me into bankruptcy for a million five. So I had to kind of figure out life quickly and figure out how I was gonna pay bills or feed my son and feed my dogs and make sure they had um health of some health care, because we had no health care on tour, um, that he made sure he had his checkup. So I managed to get enough money together to um buy two tickets to Hawaii uh because my son was four at the time, and uh um probably three at the time, and uh I couldn't afford to take my caddy, and that's where my life ended up changing quite a bit. Um I did I then had to have local caddies, as Bruce can tell you, that's not a lot of fun. No. Um it can be great, can be awful, uh, because you spend half the time worrying that they're gonna do something that's gonna cause you a penalty. Um so I ended up with a local caddy. We played over at Turtle Bay the first week, and I stayed with one of my girlfriends, Kathy Mant. She and I had gone to college together, and um she just had a baby, and she and I were going to play here on Kawaii at Princeville, the Kemper Tournament, which was a really big tournament for us. It was televised and it was great. And um, so we managed to play Turtle Bay and pack up and fly here to Kawhi, and all all I could afford to rent was like a a Geo Metro that we couldn't even fit the one staff bag in. Plus, she had, you know, she had a baby playpen and strollers and you know, and so we had to make two trips to the airport out to Princeville, and by the time we got there, um my caddy had gone surfing. So, and her caddy was there, and uh so there was one guy sitting in the caddy yard reading a book, and I thought, well, geez, he can read, which is better than most of our caddies at that time. And uh I said, well, okay, come on out. So out he came and and you know, training a caddy and just stupid little things that become part of you when you play and how to even hand a ball to one another, and so you don't drop it and it falls in the lake, you know, and silly little things, where to stand, what to do, don't touch the clubs, I'll pull the club. I'd gotten this guy pretty trained after nine holes and and was busy talking about my awful divorce and bankruptcy and all of that to Kathy and catching up, and and at this, at the turn, the surfer dude shows up and I thought, oh geez, I've got this guy trained, so whatever, you guys work it out, and and whoever shows up, fine, I'll train him again. Well, ends up the the original caddy that could read uh kept going. He he told the guy he's gonna take the bag. So and that's who I married two and a half years later. He uh I when I asked him what he did, he said he sold cars. He just forgot to mention he owned the dealerships. And uh so details. I love it. Minor details. Details, yeah. Yeah, minor details. So we married two and a half years later, and he adopted my son and at age six and and uh living happily ever after. So it's all right. It was a good thing.

Mike Gonzalez 28:53

Yeah, so so when was that? Was that sort of the eighty-nine time frame we're in now?

SPEAKER_00 28:58

I married in eighty-nine, right. So I I came back out and played through the through the eighties, and then now with my son in school living in Hawaii, it became more difficult to play full-time, and I was pretty part-time at that time, and it and it was very difficult to come out part-time. Yeah. Yeah, so but I kept giving it giving it a a try and and um fortunately just the the the story of being told that I wasn't good enough and um that I didn't work hard enough, but uh at the end of my career I got to spend time with Harvey Peanut, and who to me took me back to who I was as a child, um with the game that I had. So um but anyway, those years went away.

Mike Gonzalez 29:47

Perhaps too bad that uh that Harvey wasn't the guy you were working with back in 1973.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

You're correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 29:57

Yeah, yeah. So we want to take you back to uh a year before you're married, 1988. I'm sure it's something you've talked about a lot, but it for me it was a fascinating story because it's kind of come full circle with you reconnecting with this this young fellow. And we're talking about the Samaritan Turquoise Classic in 1988, and uh you're just kind of minding your own business, uh playing in a golf tournament, and all of a sudden you hear this ruckus.

SPEAKER_00 30:26

So uh the qualifying, I went to qualifying school, not qualifying school, it was a qualifier at Moon Valley Country Club, ironically owned by Carsten Louise Solheim. And uh it was played on a Wednesday, which was odd as well, because the next tournament was in Tucson the following day, of which I was exempt for that one. So I was just going along, singing a song, doing great, and it was a reachable par five. It was um it was our that we played the way we played, it was a par five, number 13. And um, of course I was gonna go for it in two because I was even par at the time, and and I popped up my t-shot. So at that point, I'm not a very good person to lay up. I was never a great layer-upper, and uh and somehow I short-sighted myself as well. But anyway, I went to lay up and I pulled the heck out of it and went so far left of my target that of course my caddy and I had no yardages from there. And uh, so we both stepped it off, and it was like 101 to the to the hole, and he stayed at the green. I walked back, and as I walk back, I see a man fully clothed jump into a pool. And um and as I run forward, I see a child floating face down in the pool in front of him. And uh, so for whatever reason, you know, in those years we wore cleats, this was in '88, and I flipped off my cleats and I ran, and these were wrought iron fences, and the only crossbars were maybe at six inches and at about six feet, so there was nothing in the middle to try to get over. And I tried to get over and my caddies at the green looking at me like, what are you doing? You know, there's a restroom right over here, and the other two girls I'm playing with are up at the green and they're caddies, and and they're all looking at me like, and so finally he comes out, and as he does, the father had the child out of the pool and was doing probably the worst thing you could do to somebody who's drowned is shaking him upside down, because you're then gonna suffocate him on his contents and his lungs and stomach. And uh so at this my caddy, uh Wayne Sharp, grabs me, who's like 6'4, grabs me by the shin and throws me over the fence. And um I land on what we call caliche in Arizona, it's the little pebbles in their backyard, and the father handed me. And uh no, you don't. You don't. And uh I ended up um he hands me a son, and this child looked exactly like my son. Um, and uh it was one of those things, you know, one of the things I know I should have done is that geez, when you have a child, you should probably take CPR, or all of us should take CPR, and I didn't and neglected it, and tried to remember what to do and how to do it, but I really was inept, I have to say. And so all I could think of was the breathing part of it, and I tried and um he had food content in his mouth, and I figured he'd choked on something, but uh he had not. Um he the parents were Amish, and they had rented a motorhome and hired a driver to drive them from Rocks, Pennsylvania to Phoenix, Arizona to visit the father's cousin, because the two boys grew up together in the Amish lifestyle back in Pennsylvania. The family that lived on the golf course um obviously were not practicing at that point. And they uh they arrived un unannounced the night before, and they were out laying by the edge of the pool, and their son Jonathan just walked into the pool and came up floating, and they were all asleep, and uh just so happened that I'd hit a terrible shot that ended up being the best shot of my life, and um so through much trial and error as far as breathing for him, and but I couldn't get his heart started, and uh the only thing I could think of to do was to slug him, and um and I did, and it did stimulate him, but I lost him again and and I went back to mouth to mouth, and he's now got something going and I don't know what to do, and and my caddy at this point is trying to figure out how to get over the fence himself, he couldn't, and I will only tell you that two groups played through me, only one player stopped to help and uh the one player was Meg Mallon. And at this point I had gotten him breathing, and um I uh I my caddy tried to explain to the mother how to dial a telephone and she claimed that 911 didn't answer, and he just said, dial the zero, and the zero is fine, you get the operator, but they didn't know her location. So at this point, I handed Jonathan to the father and took the phone and they asked me my location, of which I had no I said, I'm on the 13th Hall, Moon Valley Country Club. I am yeah and I hit a bad shot, I have no idea what what their address is, and so I stepped outside to ask them and they didn't know either. And I thought I felt like Rod Sterling music was gonna start. It was so crazy. And um, so at this, and his two sisters were there, and they're all dressed in black and Amish, you know, their attire. And I really did think I was in a Rod Sterling movie because I thought, wow, this is really odd. Everything's odd. And um, so I then being a little girl scout that I was, I went back and found some mail in the house, and it was 117 West Boca Raton, and uh, and they said we're on our way. I said, What do I do? He said, make sure the mother's okay. And so the mother, anyway, I took the baby back and I took him out and um was met by four emergency vehicles as they all arrived at the same time. And um uh they whisked him away with a baby respirator. They were amazing, and I was met by a policeman um to interview me and asked me what I was doing there, and I told him I hit a bad shot.

Mike Gonzalez 36:54

And uh I was going for the green, I pulled it badly.

SPEAKER_00 36:58

I hit a bad shot. And he um and my caddy finally made it over the fence and uh it because he went to one fence and had a big dog barking at him, and then he found another way, and so he was there, and I was worried that uh they might not have the good smear-in-law in in Arizona, you know, because obviously I didn't know. And uh so I gave a report of who I was and what I was doing there, and um, like I said, Meg Mallon stopped to ask, but she saw I was on the phone, so she she took off and finished her round. She was trying to qualify as well. And um my I got back to play, and um I I stood there, I my glove was sopping wet, I had all that caliche in my right hand and in my knees, didn't even know I had it in there, I was so numb. And I must ask my caddy ten times how far it was, and he kept telling me, and and it made no sense. He could have told me it's you know, it's a telephone. I I just it didn't make sense. He said, Here, hit this. I said, Okay. And I hit it and um hit it quite well, but it got up in the wind a little bit and started started moving around, and I said, Oh, please God, let it get up. And it didn't, it went the bunker. And then I started laughing. He said, Why are you laughing? I said, Why would God even worry about my golf shot? That's the dumbest thing I've ever said. And uh I said, uh, and I ended up making a bogey there, and I finished one over and I missed it by one. And uh so at this when I got in, the parking lot was full of media because I had gone to school at ASU and and um they knew who I was and they knew this had happened, and I spent the next um probably five, six hours at the golf course, and I still hadn't packed to go to Tucson, and of course I have an early tea time in Tucson. Sure. And I have to go to private housing uh because I don't have money. And uh so and I saw the drive down there, and Meg Mallon was was my she used to babysit for my son, and uh they're still good pals today. So Meg Meg she took my clubs when she and she went and got my son from daycare, took him home and and they had dinner and all that, put him down to bed, and um I go to leave at ten o'clock after the ten o'clock news, and my keys to my car are in my golf bag. So Meg had to come back with my car keys and I don't I don't leave for Tucson until like one in the morning. And um I not much sleep. And when I get there, uh apparently it made a lot of news at that point. And um what was really cool was Alice Bauer was there, who's one of our founders. Yeah. And uh Alice had handwritten a petition, of which I have, and she had all the players there sign it, that I be made the 145th player to the field and the following week. And uh they did. John Lopheimer was our commissioner at that time, and and uh uh he signed it, and so I became the 145th player. So I did qualify. Jonathan Smucker's his name. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 40:19

That's pretty cool. I think as it turns out, too, Alice Bauer, along with six other founders, uh, will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame the same week we released this episode.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

Well, that's wonderful because they should all so be remembered because what my life was was a hundred times better than what their lives were, you know, in in the founders, and and uh I wouldn't be speaking to you without them.

Bruce Devlin 40:46

We're gonna get to go there and see them inducted, which will be nice.

SPEAKER_00 40:51

Yeah, that's great. That'll be really nice and so well deserved. I just wish I know they'll all be watching from heaven, but um, yeah, it's just and I hope their families come to appreciate them.

SPEAKER_04 41:02

Yeah, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 41:04

So uh all the players signed the petition, uh, which was a cool thing. Uh you were also recognized uh as the first Mary B. Porter uh humanitarian by the Metropolitan Golf Riders Association. I think that was later that year, which started a very nice tradition as well.

SPEAKER_00 41:25

It did. Um I received a call, if you all recalled, Greg Norman had an incident right after mine with the little boy Jamie Hutton, who had uh cancer and leukemia, I believe, and his make a wish was to be with Greg. And um I received a call from uh geez, the sports writer from the New York Times, but I'll think of him, and um asking me to attend the dinner, and I said I'd I'd be honored to attend the dinner, and they were gonna honor Greg uh Greg and me at the dinner, and he said, But I need your permission. I said, For what? And he said they wanted to name the award for me. And uh which, you know, if um I you know, I uh being honored to hit a bad shot that saved a life is is probably the best thing I ever did, other than being a mother. But um, you know, giving giving birth and giving life to two great young men. So yeah. And so I do go back almost every year to to try to give the award, and the stories are the stories are amazing of what people have done for others.

Mike Gonzalez 42:34

So in the meantime, uh you have at least on occasion reconnected with this young man, have you not? That that whose life you saved back in 1988?

SPEAKER_00 42:44

Yes, I have, and thanks to social media. Um he he and um his mother, his mother and two sisters came to the Metropolitan Golf Writers Dinner one year, which was which was interesting for them because they were still very much into the Amish lifestyle, and they come to this, you know, very golf-oriented dinner, and and uh it it was I think they felt very, very uncomfortable. But they uh later after the father passed away, they left the Amish lifestyle and they're practicing Christians and and just this beautiful family. And through social media, I reconnected with him uh just before COVID, actually, it was in the end of 19, and um he had three children at the time, and um he I invited him to I f I wanted to fly them all out, and I did, and they came out and spent a week in Hawaii with me, which was uh my treat, and um did to spend time with them. But before that, I had actually the uh PGA of America I had received an award from them and And uh they flew him and his soon-to-be wife out to that award ceremony too, which was uh I hadn't connected with them for a while from that time. So very nice.

Mike Gonzalez 44:13

Yeah, what a great story and a great tradition with that award. Thank you for listening to another episode of For the Good of the Game. And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 44:38

Whack down the fairway. It went smack down the fairway. Then it started to slice just smidge off line. It headed for two, but it bounced off nine. My caddy says long as you're still in the state, you're okay. Yes, it went straight down the middle, quite away.