Meg Mallon - Part 2 (1991 LPGA and U.S. Open and the 2000 du Maurier Classic)

Lee Trevino 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle.

Mike Gonzalez 0:13

Then it started to Well it didn't take you long to uh validate that victory, did it?

Meg Mallon 0:20

Yeah, so I I a friend of a family member friend, I mean I had no sponsors or anything, and a family friend member who is a lawyer said, you know, I'm gonna go out and get IZOD to at least put clothing on you. And um, so Izod sent me clothes the the first day of Wycliffe, the first win that I had. So I had Izod, and so I win my first thing, and a couple months later I'm like to the uh his um to the to the lawyer, I said, you know, what uh what do I get? What sponsors do I get now? And he says, there was a long pause and he goes, you know, Meg, why don't you just win another tournament?

Bruce Devlin 1:02

And I Good idea.

Meg Mallon 1:03

Ah, okay, I get it. All right, all right. This is how this works. I needed that. Yeah, it humbled me. So um my next two wins, uh, two out of three weeks, I win the LPGA championship of the U.S. Open, and so I call him up. I go, is that what you meant? Is that enough?

Bruce Devlin 1:23

Boom, boom. That was good. Yeah, that was good.

Mike Gonzalez 1:26

Yeah, it was 1991 LPGA Championship at Bethesda Country Club. This was a win by one over Pat Bradley and Ayako Akamoto with uh, you know, I'll tell you what, you know, you look back at your your major wins, you knew how to close them out. This one was with a final round 67.

Meg Mallon 1:50

Yeah, and I still only won by one. I mean, it was a heck of a final round with the three of us. You have Ayako, and I mean there were thousands of Japanese media there because Ayako had not won a major yet. And and then Pat Bradley, who is arguably the hottest player, she was actually player of the year that year at the time.

Bruce Devlin 2:08

Yeah.

Meg Mallon 2:09

And I had I three putted the 17th hole um to allow the other two in. We're all tied going in, going on to 18T. So I was a little hot under the collar about a three-put. And um I I went to hit my T-shot on the 18th hole and a car horn honked right in my backswing and I kind of flinched. I kept it in the fairway, but I was like 30 yards behind Pat and Iako Pat Nayako. So I had a five-iron in, and those two were hitting eight and nine irons in. So I hit first, I hit a five iron, I hit it to ten feet. Just you know, the shot of my body.

Bruce Devlin 2:46

Pretty good. Yeah, pretty good.

Meg Mallon 2:48

And and those two were about 30 feet away, and and they both like literally almost slipped out. It was such a great finish, it was really fun. And and Bethesda back then, I mean, people were six or seven deep. We had huge gal rays, so it was just a wonderful atmosphere, and it was about 99 degrees with about 100% humidity in Bethesda, Maryland. So, yeah, so you had that dream moment, right, where you have a 10-footer to win a major championship, and um, yeah, and I was fortunate to make it, and it was just it was a great, great way to win a tournament.

Mike Gonzalez 3:21

Describe the pressure you were feeling over your first putt for a major.

Meg Mallon 3:26

Yeah. Um that that comes back to practice, right? It comes back to repeating and repeating and practice and having a routine. And Mike and I had developed such a good routine that I, you know, it just that moment I was ready for, which um sometimes you're not and sometimes you are. And I remember I had gone around and read the putt, it was a left or right, downhill slider, and I went back to I was a spot putter, so I went back to look at my spot, couldn't find it, but I was like, you know what, I know where it is, and I just hit it and and it went in the hole. So that confidence only comes from you know, repeated practice and and um knowing you know you're ready for that moment, and it was you know it was great fun. I embraced it, it was really fun.

Bruce Devlin 4:17

And then you come to Texas. Texas again, hot Texas again.

Meg Mallon 4:23

Yeah, yeah. Well, and you talk about humbling moments. So between so you go from Bethesda, and then I went back to Toledo. So it was Bethesda, Toledo, and then down to Texas. So Toledo, I go back home, my family's there, all my friends are there, you know, we're we're celebrating the victory of the LPGA championship, had a big time. And I they announced me on the first tee, and then the announcer was great there in Toledo because he'd always say, from the Ohio State University and the great state of Michigan, because I at both ends of Toledo, Meg Mallon, and he announces me, and boom, I hit it straight out of bounds.

Bruce Devlin 5:03

Oh, yeah. And here she is again.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Here I am. You know, I said, is this not golf the most humbling game in the world? Like I think I'm the greatest player in the world, and bam, it just shuts me right down.

Meg Mallon 5:26

So it that was another, you know, again, those are those experiences you need to be successful, right? You need that.

Bruce Devlin 5:34

Come back down to earth. Yeah. Come back down to earth.

Meg Mallon 5:38

Exactly. So um, you know, I strolled into Texas with no expectations whatsoever. So excited to play Colonial. It was the first time the women had played there.

Bruce Devlin 5:48

Correct, yeah.

Meg Mallon 5:49

Got to meet Ben Hogan. I mean, just a fabulous week of just great golf history, right? So I'm just muddling along, you know, throughout the week. I had two doubles. Um, so you know, I think we can't have two doubles in winning US Open, but it just was playing if the course was playing hard and I was staying close enough to par to be in the last couple of groups. Um it was so hot. They had to ice the greens at night. They had to put literally put ice the greens at night um because the course just dried out like crazy. And also they had had the men's event six weeks prior there, so it was already a stressed golf course.

Bruce Devlin 6:32

Yeah.

Meg Mallon 6:32

So we didn't get the best condition colonial, but it was still colonial. I mean, it was a it was incredible. So I I'm playing with Dottie Pepper um the last round, and you know, we're contemporaries, we played together a lot, and Dottie really wanted to win the US Open, and and literally I said hello on the first T and I just got the stare down, straight stare down, like, okay, Dottie's gonna, you know, Dottie's focused kind of thing. And I just started out, I birdied the first hole, I you know, just had really a a great solid round of golf. Didn't make a bogey and shot four under, I believe, that day. And I had to wait almost an hour to see if I'd won. Um, because we were the I think the fourth or fourth group, you know, fourth to last group T and off. So um I had to wait for Alcott and Bradley, who were behind me, who were playing, you know, really well too. But I just, you know, I was the only player under par and won the event. It was incredible.

Mike Gonzalez 7:33

Yeah, rounds of 70-75-71, again, a closing 67 for 283 total of one under. You were uh two shots back after the third round, and then uh you're still three back with ten to play.

Meg Mallon 7:48

Yeah, caught a little fire there on the backside.

Mike Gonzalez 7:52

So as I go back and read some of the press clippings from that win, one of the stories that uh caught me was uh this one, which you can validate that play was so slow. You know what I'm gonna say. Yes one of the players, Caddies, orders a pizza while playing the 14th hole, and it was delivered to the 17th T where she had plenty of time to eat it.

Meg Mallon 8:22

That was true. That is that is true. People like players were us actually bringing their books out, like to read, because they were three, three, you know, it it was something the USGA needed to figure out because it was unacceptable how slow it was. But it was Lori Garbasy who ordered actually, and that's back when they had banks of phones. So there was banks of phones off the 12th T there, and there was such a long wait. She's like, and that's just how Lori thought. I mean, she's a brilliant player, but she just, you know, her mind, you know, would do things like this where she'd say, I'm gonna call and order a pizza. And she told the guy, the pizza guy, she said, Don't worry, just use my name, just say you're delivering it to Lori Garbasy and meet me uh the 17th tea. I mean, that she was like trying to figure out what was closest to the clubhouse.

Bruce Devlin 9:09

Right, bye. Sure enough.

Meg Mallon 9:11

Sure enough, he showed up on the 17th T with a pizza.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

You couldn't get away with that today for sure.

Mike Gonzalez 9:19

No, that is absolutely. Of course, now she'd probably call Uber Eats or something, too.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Mike Gonzalez 9:25

Yeah. Well, so you and Bruce Devlin, I think, both have your name etched on the champions' wall, then, right? Yeah, we do.

Meg Mallon 9:32

Yeah, that's the only the only female there on the champions wall. Oh, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 9:38

Yeah. How cool is that.

Meg Mallon 9:39

It's really cool.

Mike Gonzalez 9:41

So I was gonna I was gonna ask you how that first major changed your life, but you really didn't have time for for any life change because you you went right out and and won your second one. But by this time, now the world's probably changing a little bit for you.

Meg Mallon 9:54

It it it did. Um, I, you know, you do your schedule ahead of time, and and so I had planned on um, you know, playing because I played Toledo in between those three weeks, and then I took I was taking the next week off, which was New York, um, back at um Waikagill in New York. I loved the golf course, but I just couldn't, you know, you in your schedule you just have to with those majors so close together. So and I had already decided I was going to visit my dear friends up in Montreal, Canada. Um, and for me personally, that that could have been the best decision in my life because because I didn't realize how much my world was going to change after winning that US Open, and I had that week, and this is back when no one had cell phones, no one could get a hold of you. Um, but the New York media was furious that I wasn't playing in New York, and I had no idea. So the next event was Boston, and I show up in Boston, and I I mean, all these media are stuffed into a room coming to talk to me, and I it was it was really something. And and the New York media was so mad at me that they had to go from New York up to Boston to do the interviews. Um but anyway, it that's where I realized why this is things are gonna be different from now on, the the attention. Um and that's a lot, that's a lot you have to deal with. And you also feel so responsible for not only, you know, what your surroundings are, but for the tour itself. Like the LPJ players just have the sense of responsibility to do the right thing and and promote our tour, and we're always in that state of mind. And so that adds an extra layer of work and time and effort and taking away from your game. And so you really have to learn how to balance that. And I went through a uh, you know, uh uh tough time with it a little bit, but I I got uh you know good advice from players and and got through it pretty well. But it was exciting, but it was also exhausting as well.

Mike Gonzalez 12:01

Yeah, your your time operating under the radar was gone. Gone. Yeah, and you you know, you at this you're just starting to get a small taste of what life must have been like for people like Nancy Lopez, people like Jan Stevenson, who we just talked to, who, you know, was really put out there by the commissioner of the LPGA to really promote the tour back during that time. And as she said, she said, you know, uh I did some things that in retrospect I probably wouldn't have done them because I think it probably detracted from my playing record.

Meg Mallon 12:32

Correct. But we didn't have that luxury, right? And we knew that. We knew that pro-am day was the most important day of the week, and then you got paid on Sunday. But pro am day was why you got paid on Sunday, and that was drilled into us, and we took that seriously. I mean, those are the people that are paying for us to to be there, and and we are supposed to entertain them. That's their day. And I learned that from the Nancy Lopez's of Jan Stevenson's and Patty Sheehan's and how good they were with with um with just people in the galleries and and sponsors. And that was our that's what we had to do. That was important to us.

Mike Gonzalez 13:09

Yeah. Before before we leave that 1991 U.S. Women's Open victory, I just mentioned that it was by two over Pat Bradley. You mentioned Pat as being the player of the year. So, you know, here Pat finishes uh second, and at least these two that you won. Um, but uh you weren't done winning that year, were you?

Meg Mallon 13:26

No. We uh made uh my first trip down under to Australia.

Bruce Devlin 13:31

Yeah.

Meg Mallon 13:31

And um once again playing a very difficult golf course up in Cairns, and uh I was the only player under par again that that and won the tournament. The the greens were gosh, some of the best screens I've ever played on. And I don't think that course is there anymore, Bruce, is it? I think they think so. Yeah. But those greens were so pure and so beautiful, and I just, you know, I somehow somehow was the last person standing on it. But it was a great way to end it the season.

Mike Gonzalez 14:01

Yeah, that was the the uh the dyke is it? Pepper. Of course, we mentioned you playing with Dottie in that final group in the open and being quite focused. That doesn't matter.

Bruce Devlin 14:18

Was she talking up there?

Meg Mallon 14:20

No. Well, I I wasn't even paired with Dottie in the last round, I was paired with Daniela Maccapani, who was a great putter as well. So the two of us were loving these greens, putting putting on these greens. But yeah, it was it was windy there too, so I guess I like wind. I don't know.

Bruce Devlin 14:34

Yeah, yeah. So a little off year in uh in '92, no victories, but then you came back in '93, win the uh Ping Welsh Championship in Tucson at the uh Randolph Golf Course by one over Betsy King, another great player that you beat again.

Meg Mallon 14:52

Yeah, a good friend too. Betsy was a was a bit of a mentor to me. I had moved to um uh Phoenix, Arizona um early in my career, and Betsy kind of took me under her wing a little bit, which I really appreciated. And um, you know, and then you're competing, you know, you know, you're competing with your friends. You want to beat them, but I respected Betsy so much, and and it was funny on the last hole. I uh I missed a little junior putt. And and Betsy goes, if I had known you were gonna miss that, I would have tried harder on my last putting. Whatever.

Bruce Devlin 15:29

So anyway, um beat her by one. Yeah.

Meg Mallon 15:32

Yeah, only beat her by one there. But um, yeah, it was uh it was good to get back into to the winner circle.

Mike Gonzalez 15:39

Yeah, w were you were you coming close? Were there some close sets of things?

Meg Mallon 15:44

92 was probably one of the best years I've golf I played. I think I had one second lowest scoring average that year. I just didn't win. And I think that was the year where Dottie won um Dinah Shore. She won by six shots over me, and I won by six shots over the rest of the field. So it was really I had played really well, and I actually had had like the second lowest four-day total in in in um Dinah history, but Dottie just you know destroyed everybody. She had three hollouts that week. So um, yeah, so I I had played really well. It was just never it was just, you know, my number wasn't up that that year to be in the winner circle.

Mike Gonzalez 16:29

That was the year Dottie won, and then you mentioned Betsy King. Uh uh she won at Bethesda in the in the ladies' PGE that year. Patty Sheehan won at Oakmont to the city.

Meg Mallon 16:39

Yeah, I finished fourth there. Yeah, at Oakmont. I loved Oakmont.

Mike Gonzalez 16:44

We had talked to Sherry Steinhauer, who got her major at the DeMore that year.

Meg Mallon 16:48

That's right. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 16:49

Yeah.

Meg Mallon 16:50

Yep. So uh my class as well.

Mike Gonzalez 16:53

You went to Tennessee to the Sarah Lee Classic later that year and won in a playoff with Tina Toomes.

Meg Mallon 17:00

I did. I chipped in on the playoff hole to beat her.

Mike Gonzalez 17:03

So, was it the first playoff hole?

Meg Mallon 17:07

Let's see. Yeah, I think it was. Yeah. We played the ninth hole as our first playoff hole, and I chipped in from the side of the grain.

Mike Gonzalez 17:14

I'm gonna jump ahead, but you had uh I think you had a winning record, weren't you two and one in playoffs in your career?

Meg Mallon 17:20

I I was. Uh I beat uh Tina and I beat Dotty again. Here we go with Dotty in a playoff in uh in Ohio, in Dayton, Ohio.

Mike Gonzalez 17:30

Yeah. Uh and uh all these greats that we've talked to, you would have expected they would have had a pretty good winning record in playoffs, but uh our research has shown that playoffs are nothing but a crapshoot.

Meg Mallon 17:45

Right. For sure. And I mean uh in the playoff I lost, I in Youngstown, I bogeied the last hole in regulation to allow three other people in for a playoff. So um, and Betsy King ended up winning that one. Um but yeah, their playoffs are are are a crapshoot. You just don't you don't know. I mean you look at uh what Kathy Whitworth, what did she have? Something she had 88 wins, but didn't she have 92 seconds or something?

Bruce Devlin 18:14

95. 95 seconds.

Meg Mallon 18:16

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 18:17

Isn't that amazing? And her playoff record was eight and twenty. Yeah.

Meg Mallon 18:22

Wow.

unknown 18:23

Wow.

Meg Mallon 18:25

Well, she had the great Mickey Wright probably most of the time that uh were part of those playoffs, I would imagine.

Mike Gonzalez 18:32

And what several of our guests have told us, if if Mickey Wright could putt, she'd have won a zillion tournaments.

Meg Mallon 18:38

Well, you could say that about a couple players, couldn't you? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, yeah. Well, and that honestly that weren't the greatest greens back then either, so you don't know, you know.

Mike Gonzalez 18:48

Right.

Meg Mallon 18:49

It was kind of more luck than skill at that point.

Mike Gonzalez 18:52

Yeah, kind of like putting on our today's tees, maybe.

Meg Mallon 18:56

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 18:57

Exactly. So uh we we go to 96 to pick up your next victory. You won a couple times there. So what happened between 93 and 96? Anything noteworthy?

Meg Mallon 19:08

Um, no, I think I there was maybe some equipment changes. That's the other thing you learn too when you're uh getting success, is everybody wants you to play their equipment and people come in with all sorts of ideas. I I think the smartest and best thing I did was I had the same teacher for 30 years. Um I didn't do that. I remember Ian Baker Finch came up to me in Australia when we were playing, and it's when Ian, you know, had the unfortunate duck hooks uh that affected his career, and he said, Meg, the only advice I'm gonna give you is that don't switch teachers. If you have a teacher that you love, stick with him.

Bruce Devlin 19:48

Yeah, good.

Meg Mallon 19:49

And I said, I I like mine, Ian, I'm sticking with him. And it he was true with that. He said, he said he won the British Open and he thought he could get better. So he kept tinkering and tinkering and tinkering and going to getting different advice from different places, and you know, just about ruined him doing that. And so it was a great lesson to learn, and he good advice that he had given me as well.

Mike Gonzalez 20:12

You you mentioned uh equipment uh changes as well, and and you know, you you played during an era where there were dramatic changes in equipment. I mean, you know, completely.

Meg Mallon 20:23

I I went to Zivo. You remember Zevo? Their their philosophy was it had to be four to five degrees upright, you know, the clubs, and Julie Inkster and I are trying to play these things, you know, and we'd go to the equipment guy and say, bump these things down. So, you know, yeah, people were throwing all sorts of experimental things our way, but yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 20:44

Yeah, yeah. We've talked to players that you know were were were part of the small ball, big ball thing, and and and then you go from the the you know the the small wooden-headed drivers to the the big berthas and the atoms and the you know the other metal makers and uh and shafts change and it's just uh the the golf ball, you know, you you probably saw a lot of that you had to adjust to, didn't you? Some of these changes.

Meg Mallon 21:07

Exactly. Yeah, there was. There was a lot, there was a lot going on there with equipment and um, you know, and I love playing with blades, I love the feeling of playing with blades, so I always wanted that and and with with fought the whole big, you know, giant head thing uh for all really all of my career because uh, you know, I knew what I liked, I knew what felt good, and I knew what I could hit. Um some players got forced into equipment companies that were saying this is what we're doing, you know, and I didn't I didn't really fall into that trap too often.

Bruce Devlin 21:41

Yeah. So in 96 you uh you win at the uh Cup Noodles Hawaiian Ladies Open at uh Kapoli golf course by one over Carrie Webb.

Meg Mallon 21:52

Yes. Yeah, so Hall of Famer. I I I'll never forget I said uh after that tournament, I said. I'm glad I got this one because now that this kid is on tour, I'm not going to win many. She was something special. And just, you know, confident. It was fun to watch her play because she'd swing those arms and just, I mean, she was in her element in her zone on the golf course, and she was really, you know, top three best player I've ever played with on tour. Just incredible ball striker, short game, even better. Um, bunker game, you know, the typical Australian fabulous bunker player. She had everything and uh and the confidence to go with it, and it was really, really fun to watch and play with. And I'm glad I snuck one in on her there. Yeah, she won a lot.

Bruce Devlin 22:45

And then that year you uh you won the Sarah Lee Classic again for the second time.

Meg Mallon 22:51

I did. I did. I had a special bond with Sarah Lee because um Heather Farr was one of my dear, dear friends on tour, and um we lost Heather when she was 28 years old, and she was the main reason why we got one of the main reasons why we got even Sarah Lee as a sponsor. She's very close with um the owner of Sarah Lee, and then of course uh the people in Nashville, and she was a big um country and western fan, and it just fit right in with that that whole crowd, and she kind of dragged me into the the whole scene there, and and um just so and they have a beautiful statue of her on the golf course there at the Hermitage. Um and it just so it just became a real special place for me. I don't know, I had this kind of divine intervention from Heather whenever I played there and won there three times. So it must have been something out of something, yeah.

Bruce Devlin 23:45

Yes.

Mike Gonzalez 23:47

And we jump ahead to 1998 and you had a couple of wins. Uh one was at the Star Bank LPGA Classic at Country Club of the North in Ohio in a playoff with Dottie Pepper. That's the one you'd mentioned. And then also uh uh in sort of a I I guess an unofficial event, uh we won the JC Penny Classic paired with Steve Pate.

Meg Mallon 24:06

Yeah, my man Steve Pate. I was just with him the other night. Um he uh he's a great friend. He uh he lives close to where I live here down in South Florida, and um we had a lot of fun. We had played nine years together and didn't know if we were gonna win it. And uh second to last year of the event, uh we we won it and it was uh great fun. I love playing with Steve, the volcano. The the he had a couple of good eruptions and we played. And what's great about Steve is that it's he just gets mad at himself and it happens so fast. And then he's laughing about it ten seconds later. So it's not like he's taking his anger out on anybody. It's just he just had that explosive, you know, um bit of perfection in his soul that he needed to get it out of him. But just a great guy to play with, and and we have been longtime friends since.

Mike Gonzalez 24:57

Uh sometimes you just gotta vent. Doesn't have to take long.

Meg Mallon 25:00

Oh, I had to. I mean, I I'm Irish. I I've got I've gotta let it go. And it's it's funny, people say, Oh, you're so you know pleasant on the golf course. Oh, no, no, no. I I can throw a club here and there. I it's you've got to let it go. You've got to get it out of you.

Mike Gonzalez 25:15

Yeah, luckily I got I got most of that out of my system as a kid, the club throwing, because uh you do that very often as a kid, and you're not gonna play on the golf course anymore, are you?

Meg Mallon 25:24

No, they will not let you out. That is true.

Mike Gonzalez 25:26

Right. At least in my my back in my era, they they wouldn't put up with that too much. So we're gonna jump ahead to 1998, another couple of wins, uh, or sorry, uh 99, another couple of wins, the Naples LPGA Memorial at the Club at the Strand in Florida by one over Kelly Robbins and Helen Alfredson. What do you remember about that one?

Meg Mallon 25:46

Um, again, Wendy, Naples. Um, I just you know what I the most vivid memory of that is when I finished um Patty Berg presented me with a trophy.

Bruce Devlin 25:58

Ah, cool.

Meg Mallon 25:59

And um, I remember saying to her, you know, pretty good for a couple freckled-faced kids, and she loved that. And she was a great, you know, ambassador to the LPGA and obviously a great player, but just I loved that the fact that I got to know Patty a little bit, and the fact that she handed me the trophy was just a cool moment for me.

Mike Gonzalez 26:19

Yeah, having heard so much about her and about her shtick, you know, I would have loved to have seen her do a clinic.

Meg Mallon 26:28

Oh, I know. Those clinics were amazing with Kathy Whitworth. I mean, they all had to go, you know, to boot camp to do those clinics, and yeah, um, apparently they were great fun. Did you ever see one, Bruce? Did you ever get to see one of those?

Bruce Devlin 26:39

Never got to see one. I wish I had. That would have been great.

Mike Gonzalez 26:44

And Kathy, Kathy told us about them. You know, uh Patty, Patty would be sort of the the general. So when they're doing one and they had a line of players, and she decided, okay, you're hitting a hook, you're hitting a cut, you're hitting a hike, you go to whatever height draw.

Meg Mallon 26:57

I bet.

Mike Gonzalez 26:58

Yeah, I bet.

Meg Mallon 26:58

I bet that spunky little, yeah. I mean, you could not say no to Patty.

Mike Gonzalez 27:02

Oh, I would have loved to have met her.

Bruce Devlin 27:06

So then again in uh '99, we go to Sarah Classic again. Sarah Lee Classic. Third time. Third time.

Meg Mallon 27:15

That's right. The um Gibson Company Gibson guitars. Um, the last two wins gave you a specially made Gibson guitar. And it's still, I have the two of them. They're absolutely beautiful. They have a pearl inlay of the golf swing on the neck of the guitar, gold strings, um, diamonds, diamonds on the little, I don't even I don't play guitar, but I it's it was incredible. It was like better than the winner's check or the the win. It was like this guitar is amazing. So Nashville and they really got involved in that. It was really fun. Fun to go to that event. They always had music, you know, playing all week, and it was it was a great tournament.

Mike Gonzalez 27:54

Yeah, you must have liked that.

Meg Mallon 27:55

I missed that tournament.

Mike Gonzalez 27:56

Must have liked that golf course.

Meg Mallon 27:58

I did. I I don't know. I the greens were always great. Like for me, when we got on good greens, I just I it raised me another level because I wasn't I didn't hit the I didn't hit putts. I I you know I stroked the ball. So I liked feeling the speed and and um you know being able to putt on greens like that, I just kind of got excited to be on them. So that's usually what happened at Sarah Lee.

Mike Gonzalez 28:23

Well, 2000 was a good year. We're gonna start out in Rochester, New York at the Wegman's Rochester Invitational, Locust Hill Country Club by two over Wendy Doolin. One thing I remember talking to Kathy Whitworth, and I think this was in our audio test, Meg, so you can relate to this, because you know, you end up chatting about things. And uh she talked at length about just what a great time it was for the women back in that day to be welcomed as they were in Rochester, New York for that event up there.

Meg Mallon 28:53

Oh yeah, that was a special event. And I had um housing that stayed there with with a woman that's still a dear friend today, but um it was just such a community uh event. Every it was the biggest deal of the year for the people of Rochester, and and everybody came out to that event and they knew the players, they knew you know what our careers were, they they um were so supportive of us, and it was it was a great atmosphere to go to and a good event, a really fun one to win, um for sure.

Mike Gonzalez 29:26

Yeah, Bruce, uh you I'm sure you recall from your playing days, there had to be some of these community events, smaller towns where the the the townsfolks were so welcoming, and that was the big deal for them, wasn't it?

Bruce Devlin 29:36

Yeah, most most really, if you go back uh back into the early 60s when I first started, just about every golf tournament uh was put on by a local organization, whether it be the 100 club or the you know right. Yeah, they were all all different. Uh and they were just you know people of that community that decided that they wanted to have a golf tournament there and they raised all the money.

Meg Mallon 30:04

Didn't you have a tournament in it was it Endicott where you played?

Bruce Devlin 30:07

Endicott, we did. BCO that was called for a while. Yeah, yeah, it was.

Mike Gonzalez 30:13

I think that's where uh Andy North broke the nine-hole record with like a 28 on one of his nines one year.

Bruce Devlin 30:20

Nice, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 30:21

Yeah, and you know, Greensboro, Hartford, uh just some of these smaller towns that really, really rallied around the tournament.

Bruce Devlin 30:28

Yeah. So third major, Miss Meg, 2000 Demaria Classic at Royal Ottawa Golf Club, uh, one by one over Rosie Jones.

Meg Mallon 30:40

Correct. Um one of the only times that I felt like I was not being cheered for on the golf course because Lori Kane was in the last group with Annika Sornstamp. So you had two, you know, favorites, but really the you know, the pride of Canada playing in in the back there. And uh I just think the pressure was just too much. It was a lot for her, and and again, it was you know, not a situation where I necessarily went out and won that event, but I just was the last person standing. Um the the they were struggling behind me and um, you know, again just hanging around enough just to have a chance to win and and um closed it out in the last couple holes to do it. So I was really happy to get another major because I hadn't had a major in a l uh I had so many close calls at majors. I you know had two seconds of the open and um so it was just it was great to get that third major after, you know, kind of splashing on the scene so to speak with the two majors in a row and um and I think that was the last year of the Du Maurier, I think.

Bruce Devlin 31:44

It was, yeah.

Meg Mallon 31:46

Yeah, and I I made a plea to all the Canadian people that you know we need to have golf in Canada because they're such great fans. And so we we did get a sponsor for the event, but the uh we moved our major over to the women's British Open, which I think was a great move, and and um, you know, even though I won the DeMorie, I really wish we had been a part of this rota that they are now for the women in the British Open for much longer in my career because I just love playing over there and and love the golf golf courses we played over there. So but DeMaurier was a great sponsor and a sponsor we needed at the time and and they really stepped it up for us um all those years they had it.

Mike Gonzalez 32:29

Well you took care of business again in round four with a final round sixty-nine and uh this gave you your third different major, which uh uh you joined Select Company doing that, didn't you?

Meg Mallon 32:44

Yeah. Um yeah, it was exciting. It was it was really um you know, it was a special event to win. I f you know, you feel bad. I had to be very low-key about it because it was, you know, everyone was sad for Lori and everyone cheering for her, and you know, I'd and uh so it was um but it was, you know, still a great event to win. I I had I won three times in Canada, so I you know felt um a special bond there as well.

Mike Gonzalez 33:12

Yeah, you know, had they stretched that out another four years, you might have had another two majors, right?

Meg Mallon 33:19

I liked moving around to new golf courses.

Mike Gonzalez 33:22

Yeah, uh because you know, two years later you you win uh the Bank of Montreal at the time it's called the Canadian Women Open at uh Summerley Golf and Country Club by three over Michelle Redmond, Katriona Matthew, and Michelle Ellis.

Meg Mallon 33:37

Right, right. Um another another good golf course to play on. Um and you know uh I I had a good putting week that week, I remember that. Um, but I just you know played solid golf and and was able to win that one as well. So Canada was very good to me.

Bruce Devlin 33:57

You you had to like Canada and uh and uh you had friends too in Montreal, so that that must have been good to have them around too when you won there.

Meg Mallon 34:06

And they they watched me win those events. Yeah, they sure did, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 34:10

And the Canadian Open was a big deal for the men as well. It wasn't a major, but it was a near major, wasn't it, Bruce?

Bruce Devlin 34:16

Yes, it was, yeah, it sure was. Yeah, as a matter of fact, it was so close that if somebody won two major championships that year, the Canadian Open champion got into the into the the uh you know the four major winners at the end of the year. So it was sort of right, it was the backup.

Mike Gonzalez 34:35

Gotcha, yeah, yeah. Well, let's go to 2003 then. Now we're at the ADT championship at Trump International by one over Miss Sorenston.

Meg Mallon 34:45

Correct. I I I I played some crake golf on that back nine. Um I was uh the group in front of Anika. Um and um I just caught fire that day. I mean I was I was hitting it so close to the pin and and just you know finishing, I just really finished that event well. And I had to wait for Annika, she had a putt to tie me on the last hole. I think she had about a 15-footer or something to tie me and and miss that. So um, you know, it's always fun to to to uh nab a victory from one of the best players we've ever had. So it was yeah, that was a good win.

Mike Gonzalez 35:25

Yeah, I mean we didn't really mention it, but as as as you got into the nineties and now we're here we are in the early 2000s, and uh you know you got Anik on the scene. You mentioned Kari, Sari, Pac, of course Dottie's, we've talked about uh Rosie Joe.

Meg Mallon 35:40

Loreno Choa.

Mike Gonzalez 35:41

Laroa come up on the scene. That's right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Meg Mallon 35:44

Some crazy that was a good group. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 35:47

Yeah, that that's the thing is you know, if if you stay on that big stage long enough, the cast keeps changing you keep coming, these young stars keep coming up on stage, don't they?

Bruce Devlin 35:56

Yeah, yeah.

Meg Mallon 35:57

Yeah. I mean, I go from you know playing with um uh Kathy Whitworth to playing with a 12-year-old Morgan Pressell.

Bruce Devlin 36:06

You know, yeah, yeah, it was great.

Meg Mallon 36:09

I loved it. That's what's beautiful about golf, is you can have a very long career if you stay healthy enough.

Mike Gonzalez 36:15

Yeah, and then by this time, of course, the the the university system post-Title IX has uh developed and you've got some great women programs around the country, and and every year there's a new batch coming to beat us. I love it.

Meg Mallon 36:30

Yeah, yeah, it was good. It was fun. It was fun having that generational and then you you throw in the Solheim Cup, where then you really bond, you know, you're you know, 41 years old playing with you know your teammates that are 20, 19 years old. And you're all bonding in a you know in an atmosphere to to play for your country, and it's just a great experience.

Mike Gonzalez 36:51

Yeah, and we're gonna we're gonna come to that and talk about your Solheim Cup career. Uh you went low at the 2003 Welch's Fries Championship.

Meg Mallon 37:02

Help me with that one.

Mike Gonzalez 37:04

Became the first player in LPG history to shoot 60.

Meg Mallon 37:08

Okay.

Mike Gonzalez 37:09

Is that low enough for you? Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

Exactly.

Meg Mallon 37:14

I know, so I had you know um uh Captainica's scorecard when she shot 59. And um that was that was intense. Like the she she birdied the first eight holes. And I know she I I've heard her in an interview about this, but we were all relieved when she parred the ninth because it just got so intense, like so much pressure. And when she finally birdied nine, it was just like, okay, everybody can relax, okay, let's go shoot 58. I mean, all we were playing, her sister was in the group, so it was the three of us, and so on the back nine, it was like, all right, let's watch history. And it was like being, I'm sure, being with a pitcher with a no-hitter. You just, you know, I think Charlotta and I walked on the sides of the fairways to stay away from her. It was like that. And you know, the gallery was Let it be growing. That's it.

Mike Gonzalez 38:05

It's like sitting on the edge of the bench in the dugout, right?

Meg Mallon 38:08

Right. And it was um, you know, to see that up close and personal was a was an awesome experience. So now here I go to to Tucson and um, you know, have this great round going. I I didn't make an eagle in the round either. Um so it but at par was uh 70. So only two par five. So um I come into the last hole, which is a par three on the course, and and it's funny, all my playing partners in the caddies are like you know, 20 yards away from me. No one no one, oh here we go. Where's all my friends? Yeah, I had to wait a little bit to hit my shot, and I hit a five-aron over the pin about 20 feet above the hole, above the whole downhiller, and I can feel all the people coming out of the locker room and you know, media coming out, all these people I'm gonna, you know, I got a putt for 59. And um, and this is golf. This is so golf. So I hit my putt and I leave it two and a half feet short, and all I hear are moans and groans and people walking away. And I'm thinking, I'm gonna be the first person to shoot 60, and everybody's disappointed.

Bruce Devlin 39:20

Nobody cares anymore.

Meg Mallon 39:21

You know, but that benchmark of 59 was just so, you know, uh entrenched in gol in the golf mindset that you know 60 was was a letdown. So it was a funny moment.

Mike Gonzalez 39:34

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

Lee Trevino 39:58

It went smack down the fairway.