Meg Mallon - Part 1 (The Early Years)

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Welcome to another edition of FORE the Good of the Game and Bruce Devlin. I gotta say, uh this is our 32nd Hall of Famer we're interviewing this morning. I've probably looked at all of the Hall of Fame acceptance speeches, and I think it's fair for me to say that hers was one of the best, no questions.

Bruce Devlin 0:34

Well, she was one of the best uh with a golf club in her hand, too. Four-time major champion winner, 18 LPGA tour victories, and it is indeed a pleasure to have Meg Mallon with us this morning. Meg, thank you for joining Mike and I. Uh we've looked forward to this for quite some time.

Meg Mallon 0:52

Well, thanks for having me on you too. I really appreciate it. I've been uh listening to some of the podcasts, and they're absolutely terrific and really so important for the game of golf that you guys are doing this. So thank you for that.

Mike Gonzalez 1:05

Well, you're very welcome, as you can imagine, and we've talked about it. Bruce and I are having so much fun doing these. As a matter of fact, we did to yesterday, we did Joyce Ziske Mallison, 90 years old in April, still plays golf in the summertime every day.

Meg Mallon 1:22

And then about that. Yeah. Well, I don't know if I'll make 90, but I'm gonna tell you for sure I won't be playing golf every day. I don't even play golf now, so I I told her she's my new hero.

Mike Gonzalez 1:37

If I make 90, I want to be just like Joyce.

Meg Mallon 1:39

No kidding, isn't that the truth?

Mike Gonzalez 1:41

Yeah. Well, you've got a spectacular career that we're looking forward to reviewing with you, but uh before we do that, we always like to start at the very beginning because it's fun to hear from our guests about their families, and of course, growing up in your household had to be a real hoot anyway.

Meg Mallon 2:01

You know, it really was. I I I loved being the youngest of six kids. I think because we were so spread out in age, um, we all were very close. You know, by the time I was three, um, two my two oldest siblings were already out of the house in college. So they were really more like an aunt and uncle um coming back to visit every once in a while. And so it was always so fun when when they would come back and come back from college or when they went off into their careers. And I was still a kid in the house. So it was it was a really fun environment. We had a you know great, big, loving, uh, fun family.

Mike Gonzalez 2:39

So you were born in Massachusetts, but that didn't last long, did it? Because you uh you you headed to the Midwest pretty quickly.

Meg Mallon 2:46

Yeah, the the three oldest kids were born in New Hampshire, and the three youngest kids were born in Boston. And my father worked for Ford Motor Company, and of course, you know, the the center of Ford Motor Company is in Detroit. So we moved to Detroit when I was about three and a half years old, and that's that's where I spent the rest of my my uh young years uh and um formative years in in Michigan.

Mike Gonzalez 3:10

You still got those ties to the East Coast that come through occasionally too, though, don't you, in terms of things you do, teams you root for, so forth.

Meg Mallon 3:19

Oh, for sure, yeah. We um it was really fun. Um my because my dad worked for Ford, he did promotional work for him back in Boston, and so um he got to know the Boston Celtics um at the time. They did some um commercials for Ford then. And you know, back then it was more of a family atmosphere, and so for like for example, my christening party in 1963, the entire Celtics team was in our house. So you had Bill Russell, Casey Jones, Bob Coozie, all those guys in our house, and and my my 15-year-old brother was parking the cars. Um and and like 15-year-old boys would do, he took off with Bill Russell's car and decided to drive around the block. And of course the police pulled him over because there was a Cadillac with the number six on the back and uh and this you know little white kid driving around a car. So, you know, we we had uh quite the memories with those guys, and and my parents were godparents to one of Casey Jones's children, so we remained very close with Casey. He is one of the most influential people in my life that that I had and and just loved him dearly. So it was just it was really fun to have all those guys around. And when we moved to Michigan, of course, they played, you know, in Detroit, so they'd always come through the house. And we had, you know, people like Carl Yastrimsky, and you know, it was it wasn't uncommon to have you know some of the Detroit Lions, uh Mel Farr and Lem Barney came through the house all the time. So it was just I was really surrounded by great athletes as a young kid, so it was a fun environment.

Mike Gonzalez 5:05

Oh, yeah. You were probably uh well, you were very young. As a matter of fact, you were four years old when the Red Sox uh played against my Cardinals in the World Series.

Meg Mallon 5:14

Oh, I am not a Cardinals fan, Mike. I'm sorry. Both because of Boston and Detroit, but we did get you in 1968, so that was that was fun.

Mike Gonzalez 5:26

You did. Mickey Lowlitz, Denny McLean, and that bunch of.

Meg Mallon 5:29

Oh, what a great team. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 5:31

I actually camped out at Bush Stadium before game six of the 1968 World Series, camped out for standing room only tickets. Uh the Cardinals got down like 11 to nothing or something early, and we ended up sitting right behind the dugout because everybody left. Oh yeah, there was a big rain thing and everybody left.

Meg Mallon 5:51

But uh who do you remember who pitched that game? Did Gibson pitch that game, or did he pitch game seven?

Mike Gonzalez 5:57

See, I would have thought Gibson was one, four, and seven, but I'm not sure. I think Lowlich pitched game six.

Meg Mallon 6:03

Okay, and he was amazing. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 6:05

Yeah.

Meg Mallon 6:06

And Denny McLean was amazing too. So yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 6:09

Yeah, yeah. I actually played golf with Denny McLean down in Florida at a place called like Walden Lakes, maybe. Um really? Yeah, and this would have been oh I don't know, this track quite a character, right? Late 70s. I think it was before he went to prison. I don't remember. But we digress. Uh let's get back to let's get back to growing up to Detroit. And uh uh were your parents athletes? I think your mother was was certainly an athlete, wasn't she?

Meg Mallon 6:36

Yeah, um both of my parents love sports, but my mom um grew up in Oregon where she played tennis, and um she actually won the the state championship in tennis, but um she was offered a scholarship to play tennis in college and her and her dad said no you have to stay home. It was during the de you know after the depression and you know the family needed money, so she couldn't even afford even with a scholarship to to go to college and play tennis. And and I think really the big reason why she was so behind um me in my career and my my athletic um career, uh she was gonna make sure that that I had the opportunities that she didn't have. And then my dad was just a huge sports fan. I mean, he brought that to the house uh as well, and he loved to play golf, and they both played golf and um, you know, put me in lessons as a kid uh in junior golf, and so you know, uh growing up in Michigan, you know, the the golf season's pretty short. So it was pretty much my fourth sport growing up as a kid playing golf. It was just something else I did. But they gave me that foundation of giving me lessons when I was seven or eight years old, so I had a really, you know, uh a good foundation with the game and was fortunate to carry that with me into my professional career.

Mike Gonzalez 7:57

Yeah. Pretty typical, Bruce, that uh these great players were multi-sport athletes, many of them uh growing up.

Bruce Devlin 8:04

Isn't that interesting? You're absolutely correct. Most of most of our uh folks that we've interviewed make uh they've all been uh, you know, in the younger days played different sports, and mm, a lot of them saying how how important it was for them to understand that they were a part of a team. Uh you know, golf golf really hadn't, I don't think, until the last 20 or 30 years we ever talked about a team in golf. But today, all the kids, uh both men and women, have got teams with them, you know, psychological folks and people that look after them from a physical standpoint.

Meg Mallon 8:40

So well, I'm glad we didn't have that, Bruce. That that would have been too much.

Bruce Devlin 8:46

I think too much, yeah, but yeah, still.

Mike Gonzalez 8:50

So you got started, had some lessons. What were the what were the first golf clubs you played with, do you remember?

Meg Mallon 8:55

Oh gosh. Well, I know they were too heavy uh for me. So they had to have been my dad's clubs because every uh my swing as a kid, I had this pause at the top um because I was trying to hold on to that heavy club. So I it really developed kind of my my rhythm and and um form in the golf swing because I'd set it at the top and hold on to it and then go go back down, kind of like a Bob Murphy move that I had as a kid. And uh so yeah, so I had to grow into my clubs. I didn't have any cutoffs or anything like that. They were kind of uh pretty pretty heavy.

Mike Gonzalez 9:32

And and golf's a rather solitary game. Uh uh a lot of our guests have talked about relishing that time by themselves, just hitting balls, maybe walking the course late at night by themselves. That even as a kid, they they seem to take some solace in having that alone time. Uh did you find that as well?

Meg Mallon 9:54

I did. I and actually even more so, just like throwing, you know, your bag on your back and playing nine holes with my mom late in the afternoon. Um, those are some of my best memories, and so thankful and grateful that I did that. Um, because she was just such a lovely person to be around and and to be able to have that, you know, when you have five other kids in the family, you don't necessarily get all the attention from mom. So when you get those moments like that, you really appreciate it, and and I love that. And when when and you talk about solitary golf, when when I would go and get lessons, I loved going off by myself and just, you know, feeling that lesson out, going on the golf course by myself and just having that, you know, good self-talk and and working your way through that. Um, then those are some of my best memories as well in the golf game, because you don't get those moments all the time.

Bruce Devlin 10:46

So mom and dad were great influences, uh, Meg. Who else? Uh any other people that you look back on and say, boy, it was nice to have them around and what they taught me to how to play this game?

Meg Mallon 11:00

Yeah, so I I um I was lucky. I had a lot of great influences from, like I said, this the athletes that are were around our house to my parents being uh huge fans and my mom especially, you know, really getting involved. But I would, you know, read books about Babe Diedriksen as a little kid because I thought for sure I was gonna be in the Olympics, because for me that was the only thing that a girl could do was play in the Olympics. And so the fact that she like played golf at w as well as you know, she was probably one of the greatest athletes in the you know, the 20th century, but um just to know I kind of learned about the LPGA through her and reading books uh, you know, that way and and um knowing that what she accomplished after she had become a great Olympic athlete. So um that was that was a big thing for me as a kid to see another, you know, woman being successful in sports because we didn't have a whole lot of that. And I was also really lucky to be when I was eight or nine and when Title IX came along. And that opened up a whole world for me as well. I was able to play in, you know, I played little league baseball with the boys, I um played, you know, tennis, swam, basketball, I did all the I was able to do all these things much more freely, um, and I feel really lucky that I was part of that era as well. Um, so as far as uh who influenced me early on in my golf game, I had um Paul Van Luzen was my first teacher, really first teacher that I had. Um, and he gave me a great foundation of the golf swing at at our club. I was a member at Edgewood Country Club. And then my parents just felt like I needed to, you know, go to the next level. And I don't know if you remember the name, Elmer Priestkorn, but he was uh a teacher that um taught a lot of the women on the LPGA back in the 60s and 70s, and he was uh local pro at um Pine Lake Country Club in outside of Detroit. And so I started taking lessons from him uh when I was about 16. And he, you know, just taught me even more about the golf swing and the game and and got me to where you know I could play at the collegiate level at that point.

Mike Gonzalez 13:23

Yeah. Very interesting. So you talked about working with him at 16. That's about the time you had your first hole in one, wasn't it?

Meg Mallon 13:34

So my brother my both my brothers love to play golf. They're not very good, but they love to play. Um, and oh, they're gonna hate it that I said it that they're not very good. But you know, they they they have you know, between like a 12 and 15 handicapped. They love to play golf. But yeah, my my one brother, my oldest brother, John, um wanted me to play in this. It was like a fundraiser pro-am, something going on. I don't know, one of his buddies was putting it on, and it's this big thunderstorm's coming across, and I was scared to death of like like I'd heard, you know, saw the little Lee Trevino stuff, and I was scared to death of lightning on a golf course. And he's like, No, no, no, we gotta finish this. This is our last hole, we gotta finish this par three. So I, you know, I had the big spiked shoes on. I took my shoes off and I ran up to the T, hit my shot, and ran back to the golf cart. And my brother's jumping him down, going, It went in, it went in. I said, get in the cart, let's get out of here. We're gonna get struck by lightning. So, yeah, that was that was an eventful hole in one, for sure.

Mike Gonzalez 14:36

I bet it was. Uh, and and you mentioned lightning. Bruce was actually there at the Western Open and at Butler National that year that uh that everybody got hit.

Bruce Devlin 14:46

Standing on the 14th T and saw those guys get zapped down on the fairway. We thought we'd lost all of them. It was quite amazing.

Meg Mallon 14:54

Yeah, it's no joke. I I bet and I sure I'm sure that affected you for the rest of your life too. I mean, I anytime anything comes or I hear thunder, I'm gone. I don't mess with it.

Bruce Devlin 15:04

You talk about the spike shoes. Now, I've been knocked over because of lightning in Florida. Yeah, you know, you felt it, yeah. Went through the ground, hit the spikes, and and uh it was it's scary. I I don't blame you for feeling that way.

Mike Gonzalez 15:19

But uh Yeah, the upside of that day at Butler National, as Bruce would tell you, it sure changed how the PGA behaved around weather. Yep, yeah, sure.

Meg Mallon 15:28

No doubt.

Mike Gonzalez 15:29

Yeah, yeah.

Meg Mallon 15:29

And I think and I think the USGA is well, I think everyone took you know the right precautions after that. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 15:35

Yep, yeah, no doubt about it. So at what point did golf go from your number four sport to your number one sport?

Meg Mallon 15:45

Well, I was the captain of my basketball team at at uh Our Lady of Mercy High School, and I was thinking, what am I gonna I gotta play something, you know, going forward. And I got uh one letter from a small college in in Michigan about coming to play basketball there, and it was like, oh, I don't think I want to do that. And I had played in some state tournaments, um, played golf in some, you know, just local state tournaments, and um, you know, got a little bit of recognition from uh a couple schools in Michigan. So the Michigan State coach contacted me and uh I went there on a recruiting trip um and she offered me a three-quarter scholarship. But during the recruiting trip, she had talked about Ohio State and how they're the best team in the Big Ten and you know on and on. But she said, you know, if you come to Michigan State, you'd you know, definitely close the gap for us, or whatever she was saying. So she just put Ohio State in my head, so I so I sent a letter to Ohio State, and the coach said, I've got seven freshmen coming in. You're more than welcome to come down um and see the program, but I don't have any scholarship money for you. So my parents and I went down there and I played golf with a coach and and we finished the round and he said, I really, really, really want you to come here to Ohio State. I can't offer you any money. Um and you know, my parents were and this is another moment, you know, you have forks in the road where you, you know, uh you go back and look at it, and my parents were like, It's up to you, which you know, God bless them. They were probably ready to retire by then and and move off into the sunset, and and here's their last kid, you know, having to pay out of state tuition to play golf. And uh so I decided, yeah, why so I decided to walk on at Ohio State, and um fortunately I earned a full ride by my senior year, so it was uh it was a good a good bet that paid off. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 17:49

Yeah, your folks felt like they got a raise.

Meg Mallon 17:51

Yeah, oh I know. So, you know, going to Ohio State was sort of going south for me. I mean, Columbus, Ohio actually had spring where I grew Michigan, we didn't we kind of miss spring. We go straight to summer. So I you know, I really was even though I had played since I was seven, I was so raw. I I mean I didn't know how to putt. I didn't have a short game. I just, you know, I just hit the ball well and I hit it a long way at the time. And and so I was so raw going into Ohio State. And, you know, that program I'm you know sure you're familiar with. You have you have, you know, big posters of Jack Nicholas and Tom Weisskopf and Ed Sneed and Joey Sindelar and John Cook. I mean, it was just you know, Rosie Jones, Kathy, Kathy Kratzert. I mean, it just you know went on and on down there. So it was just a really great um influence to see those successful people coming out of you know such a great program. Plus, you have an Alistair McKenzie golf course to play on every day, too, which isn't so bad. So it was just it was really good, good for me and and a stepping stone for me for the next level.

Mike Gonzalez 18:57

Yeah, that's uh uh you had some success. You were all conference 84-85, uh runner-up in the Big Ten Conference Championship in 1985. What other um amateur competitions were you getting into in your college days? Much?

Meg Mallon 19:13

You know, not much. I won the um Michigan amateur when I was a sophomore at Ohio State, and that got me um an invite to play in the Jamie Farr Toledo Classic. So that was my first professional event that I played in. Um and it was Cheryl Stacy and myself that were invited to play as the amateurs, and uh we went up there to play a practice round, and um Joanne Carner was playing by herself, and the two of us were behind her, and she she waves us up, and I'm like, that's Joanne Carner, you know? She she probably wants us to play through and leave her alone. And sure enough, she wanted us to play with her and she wanted to take some money off of us. So um it was it was a good that was another great experience. I mean, I and um and and I won a dollar off of her, which I still have to this day that she signed for me. So she yeah, she was a great influence. As far as players on tour, man, I want to be just like Joanne. She was awesome and just uh just a great influence. She would spend so much time with the young players where you know, if someone was having a bunker problem, um, you'd see her over there in the bunker with a young player for an hour teaching them how to hit bunker shots, you know, and she just was just an incredible ambassador and just a great influence in in my career for sure.

Mike Gonzalez 20:30

There's a woman that could have been a career amateur player. I mean, she was an amateur for a year.

Meg Mallon 20:34

Well, she kind of did. I mean, really, she had a you know, she did that, and then she came on uh tour and you know played awesome on tour. So she was a heck of a player.

Mike Gonzalez 20:44

Had you had much exposure to other LPGA players before this experience at the Jamie Farr?

Meg Mallon 20:52

No, no, hardly at all. We uh there was uh one um uh Bonnie Lauer who played at my club that I grew up at was on tour, and I I my parents were good friends with her parents. So that was really the only I I didn't know her well at all. She was um you know a good bit older than me, but um that was really the only person that I kind of knew that was on tour when I was a kid.

Bruce Devlin 21:18

So the trip to trip to the Jamie Far, was that uh was that the uh influence that decided you to take a shot at playing as a professional?

Meg Mallon 21:28

It definitely helped. Um that that you know you wet wet your whistle a little bit with that. I mean, I was nervous as I'll get out playing in it, but it it was good to learn how to play with nerves like that and see how you respond and react. It's not for everybody. And uh, you know, I I certainly took to it. I thought I loved the experience and my brother caddied for me there, so it was a very comfortable um, you know, environment. And the players I played with were terrific, you know, with me too. That doesn't always happen. So I was I was fortunate for that.

Mike Gonzalez 21:59

But

Meg Mallon 22:00

I, you know, I got out of college and I all my friends were going out on the mini tour and I thought, well, I'll join them. Again, another thing my parents let me do, they they got um my dad got five of his buddies at Ford Motor Company um to put up five grand each to help me go out on the mini tour. And uh I think I spent twenty-four thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars that year and didn't make much money. But I sure had a lot of fun. I uh a little too much fun, but I decided at that point, I'm like, okay, you know, I I'm gonna get put myself on a five-year plan, and if I'm not making money by then, I don't want to be at home living with my parents, so I've I've I better figure something out here. So that's that's really when my professional career turned around when I met Mike McEtterick and started um taking lessons from him. And that's when I really actually took the game seriously and and really knew that I wanted to be out there professionally.

Mike Gonzalez 23:05

So at the time you came on the scene then, you turned professional in 1987 at age 23. I think it's fair to say you were still a relatively unknown, right?

Meg Mallon 23:14

Uh oh, absolutely, and no idea. Yeah, and which was which was great for me. So I could then just build a foundation, right? It there wasn't I one of my best friends was um Kay Cockrell, and we we traveled on tour together, and I always felt so bad for her because she was a two-time U.S. amateur champion, and she just it was just constant attention, you know, on her golf game from outside sources that just you know really put so much pressure on her. So I learned watching that, you know, as as uh traveling along with her and and what she had to go through, and I and I just kept kind of building a foundation underneath me of of learning how to play, um, developing a short game, you know, knowing how to play when your swings uh off and and all of those kind of things before I found success. And I think that's the reason why I lasted so long, because I was, you know, I was allowed that time to build a foundation to be ready for when success came. And and um, you know, and I just kind of learned from all these people around me and and what not to do and what to do. And I remember watching Pat Bradley, she'd be the last one on the putting green. Um Betsy King, last one on the putting green, most successful on the golf course. I'm like, okay, there you go. So I learned that, and then I'd I'd go in and listen to Pat Bradley's press conferences and how she handled that. And she was one of the best. I mean, she had one quote after another, and and you know, that's all that's all the media need. I mean, these these people have to write something every night, you know, and you and they just gotta give them something, right? Why fight it or why, you know, look at it as um something negative. So Pat taught me a lot about that. So I just kind of really soaked in a lot of what these you know great players did and tried to learn from them as much as I could.

Mike Gonzalez 25:07

Yeah. Interesting that you talk about uh almost like you could operate under the radar a little bit early on because you weren't coming in with that big uh resume, that amateur resume. Uh you think back to people, I guess, like uh Vicky uh Getz Ackerman or Laura Ball came in with just under the white hot spotlight because of a great amateur career, right?

Meg Mallon 25:29

Yeah. And like I said earlier, it's not it's not a life for everybody. I mean, you could play golf, amateur golf, and be home all the time, you know, and only play, what, seven, eight, nine events a year. It's a total different, you know, beast being out on tour, traveling. I mean, it's you know, it's like going to college for the first time. It's such a shock of everything that you have to do to take care of yourself and and get around. And, you know, the first two years on the mini tour, I put about 60,000 miles on the car, driving everywhere. I mean, you had no choice but to drive everywhere. So but that was also a great experience, a great learning, growing experience to do that. And I loved it. I embraced it all. So I think that helped as well.

Mike Gonzalez 26:12

Yeah, you you mentioned that first year or two, and we've had other guests talk about this experience as well. I know you can remember uh new cities, new hotels, new golf courses. It's everything's new, isn't it?

Bruce Devlin 26:23

Finding places to eat.

Meg Mallon 26:25

Oh, gosh, yes, I know. And and not spend too much money on it either. So yeah, yeah, maintaining a budget and all of that. It's yeah. I remember my first trip to Hawaii. I was like, woo, this is fun, and I was like, ooh, this is expensive.

Mike Gonzalez 26:43

Yeah, well, you come you come on the scene uh as you did coming on the LPG tour, and uh boy, there were a lot of a lot of great players uh already on the scene. Uh so you you're looking at Nancy Lopez and Amy Alcott, Pat Bradley, Beth Daniel, Julie Inkster, Betsy King, Patty Sheehan, Hollistacey, Laura Davies, Akamoto, Newman. I mean, my goodness gracious.

Meg Mallon 27:07

Yeah, that was a great time to play. It really was. I loved it. I I called that that, you know, that uh the I think the greatest era in women's golf was that 80s group. It was Alcott Bradley, Daniel King, Lopez, and Sheehan. I mean, how do you win a major in in that group? I mean, they all dominated and they were awesome players. And you talk about athletes like Patty Sheehan and Pat Bradley. Betsy King was a three-sport athlete in college. I mean, they all came from athletic backgrounds. So, you know, just you know, not only great players, but great people, but so competitive. And it was really fun to get the chance to compete against them at the highest level for sure.

Bruce Devlin 27:46

And compete, you did. 20 professional victories, four majors, and uh boy, against all those great players, that's some record.

Meg Mallon 27:56

I snuck them in there, didn't I, Bruce? Oh, you sure did. Yeah, I liked, I really embraced the majors. I loved it. I, you know, um I grew up a half a mile from Oakland Hills in Detroit. So I knew what a great golf course looked like, and I knew what a good conditioned golf course looked like. So, you know, really for the women's tour, a lot of times we were just selling real estate, you know, we were playing golf courses that were just kind of very uninspiring. So when you got to a major championship, you knew you were playing a great golf course, you knew it was gonna be in the best condition, especially the US Open. So I got so excited to play in those events. And I just think with that attitude alone, I was beating half the field because you know, most people would trudge into a US Open going, oh God, it's gonna be so hard, and this and that. I was just like, I couldn't wait to get there because of that reason, because I knew I was playing on the best condition, you know, best golf course we'd play all year.

Mike Gonzalez 28:54

Yeah, you know, you say that uh that mindset that you took into a U.S. Open, for example, that gave you an edge. Uh we've heard the reverse, haven't we, Bruce? Uh some of these players that uh walked into Augusta National saying, you know, this isn't my cup of tea. That's a shame. I can't put the screen. Yeah, yeah. I mean I won't name any names, but but but you know, very famous Hall of Fame type caliber players that said, you know, I'd went in Augusta with the absolute wrong mindset.

Meg Mallon 29:22

Yeah, well, there's definitely horses for courses, as you know, and there's some courses that just don't suit your eye or fit you. Um but you know, I would say on the men's tour, there's very, very few of those. On the women's tour, we had a lot of those.

Mike Gonzalez 29:38

Yeah, let me ask you this. Uh at this young age, coming on the tour, did you yet have an appreciation for what a lot of women did in the years leading up to that in terms of how how you know how you got to where you got with the with the PGA tour on the LPGA tour, you think about the struggles in the 40s or 50s as the LPGA gets going. The the the view the the the typical societal view of women and athletics, it was so much different than what we're used to today. And then to to you know, to Waltz and the LPGA tour in 1987, and the world was still changing, but it had changed a lot from the beginning, hadn't it?

Meg Mallon 30:19

It had. I I had such a great experience as a female athlete as a young kid. So I I think I had um you know a much better time adapting than moving forward into a professional life of it as well, because you know, I felt like I was ready um and and and belonged there and she, you know, and should should be there. But uh you talk about the the earlier players. When I first came out on tour, Louise Suggs was still out there and she was playing a little bit. And boy, I learned hard and fast what those women went through through Louise, and and I so cherished, I became very good friends with her right up till the day she passed, and and um really learned so much from her and about everything that that they went through in that time period. So I so appreciated that relationship and that friendship that I had. She was tough. I mean, she had to be. You know, they had to be, right? And and you know, and they all didn't, you know, they didn't love each other. It wasn't a kumbaya moment with these women. They but they all had the same goal. And they all w made sure that they didn't get in each other's way to, you know, make sure that that tour stayed alive. And um they had obviously some great personalities and players, but if it weren't for players like Louise, who was I think president like five or six times running the running that thing and then also playing great golf along the way. Uh just incredible what they did. And I'm just so glad I had that had that relationship with her and learned all about what they went through in the early years.

Bruce Devlin 31:57

So, Meg, you went uh turning 87 and you had a three-year non-victory, and then I gotta tell you something. The very first victory that you had, I'm gonna take a little credit for it. Do you know why? Okay, good. Because you won on a golf course that I built.

Meg Mallon 32:18

At Wycliffe.

Bruce Devlin 32:19

At Wycliffe.

Meg Mallon 32:21

Did you really? Yeah, so I was telling you can you can take all the credit for that. I love my golf course.

Bruce Devlin 32:29

No, I thought that was very interesting that that was the first victory that you had. You won by two shots over uh Dana Laughlin. So that that had to be a thrill. After three years, you know, three years without winning, then bang, off, off you went, didn't you?

Meg Mallon 32:43

Oh, yeah, I did. Well, if you can indulge me in a in a story about this, because it's a pretty good story. So in the offseason, I had before this, so it was the first tournament of the year that year in 1991, but in the offseason I had let go of my caddy that I had had. You know, you know how it goes, Bruce. It's hard to fire a caddy. That's another experience you have to go through is fire a caddy. So I didn't I didn't have anybody starting the year. So the LPGA um communication communication staff calls me and says, Hey, um, Sports Illustrated wants to send a reporter out on the LPG tour to caddy the first two events of the year. Would you be willing to do that? And I don't know, for some reason I said yes. I don't know what I was thinking. So I and because, you know, I didn't carry my own book. I mean, I relied on a caddy for yardages and all that kind of stuff. So I I I don't know what I was thinking. Anyway, I I you know find out um they sent not only they sent a uh it was a woman that came out, her name was Sonia Steptoe. She knew nothing about golf, zero about golf. Like not never been on a golf course. So I'm you know putting the the light bag on her and and um throwing her out there and and sure enough, don't we get rain three of the four days, 30 mile an hour winds? I mean, just unbelievable weather. And and this, and I am so I'm playing my first two rounds. I played with Hollis Stacey and Nancy Scranton, and I was so worried she was gonna get in their way that Hollis at one point came up to me and said, Do you know you've made six birdies in a row? And I said, I had no idea.

Bruce Devlin 34:32

Really? Yeah.

Meg Mallon 34:35

And so it was like, so it but the distraction of her, obviously, I played, you know, some of my best golf ever. And you know, here I go into Sunday paired with Betsy King, you know, a soon-to-be Hall of Famer, trying to get my first win, and the it is blowing. I am not kidding, a steady 25 mile an hour wind. It it and that golf course, Bruce, as you know, doesn't block a whole lot of wind. It was it was all right there. So I am you know trying to figure out negotiate the win. Well, what happens? We get in a a delay and have to go to Monday to play.

Bruce Devlin 35:15

Oh boy. Oh boy.

Meg Mallon 35:16

So now we're going into Monday, it's still blowing us just as hard. I birdie the last two holes to beat to beat Dana Laughlin, um, who was a rookie that year, and um and I win the tournament with it with a caddy that had no idea what was going on the entire time. It was great, and and I ended up getting so sick from I didn't I couldn't play the next week. Well, she she was so relieved because she didn't want to go through that again, and so and she had a great story, right? I mean, it's a wonderful story she wrote about. So here she is caddying, and in one event she wins the event. So it was really something. But Dana Laughlin, yeah, Dana Laughlin's husband, and it ended up being my caddy for the next eight years uh from that from that tournament.

Mike Gonzalez 36:06

Wow, amazing! Yeah. Well, didn't you didn't you mention both of these caddies in your Hall of Fame speech?

Meg Mallon 36:13

I did. So I had I had I had which is funny, I had two Johns as my caddies. And they both were married to players on tour, and they both had two children while we were on tour together. So it was it was a good family fun experience to have them. Great guys. John Collane is still caddying out there. Uh he's uh caddying for uh Lizette Sallas right now. So he's been a long time lifer out there, and he's a he's a great caddy.

Mike Gonzalez 36:39

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 teat up again, for the good of the game.