Sandra Haynie - Part 1 (The Early Years and the 1965 LPGA Win)

Intro Music 0:07

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

Mike Gonzalez 0:13

Then it started to Welcome to another edition of FORE the Good of the Game and Bruce Devlin. I think the only thing I can say about this Hall of Fame guest is, well, I could say a lot, I suppose, but but one thing that comes to mind is she must have been Kathy Whitworth's nemesis on tour.

Bruce Devlin 0:33

Well, she she's she's got a lot of other attributes too. You know, she she turned pro when she was uh 18 years old, and from 62 to 75, she won several uh a golf tournament at least every year. And during that stretch, she won four majors, and it is indeed a great pleasure to welcome Sandra Haynie to our podcast this morning. Thanks for joining us, Sandra. We look forward to this for a long time.

Sandra Haynie 1:05

Oh, you're very kind. Thank you.

Mike Gonzalez 1:08

So great to have you, Sandy. And uh, we look forward to telling your story, and we always start at the beginning. So uh we know you were born in Fort Worth, Texas.

Sandra Haynie 1:18

That is correct. I was. I'm still here.

Mike Gonzalez 1:21

Yeah, that's great. So tell us a little bit about growing up and then how you came uh to learn the game of golf, who got you involved, those kind of things.

Sandra Haynie 1:30

Well, of course, my father played, and he was a good player. I I always thought he could have played the tour had the tour really been something uh at that time in life. And uh but I would go to the club with him for him to play, and I would go to the pool. And uh one day the the pro, we lived in Midland at the time. Uh the pro came out and he asked, he said, have you ever asked me if I'd ever tried to play? And I said, No. I, you know, pretty good athlete, but hadn't shown any interest at that time. And he said, Well, would you like to try? Well, sure, I'll try. Um, so he took me to the range. Uh, he had a cut-off wooden six-iron, uh, gave me a couple of buckets of balls, and he said, This is how you hold it, this is how you stand. He said, Watch me swing. So I did. Um, he did that a couple of times, and then he went back to the clubhouse. And I was still there hitting balls when my father came in. And I instantly knew that being an only child, this was for me because I didn't need anyone else, and I was going to be responsible for my own success or failure, and that appeals very much to an only child.

Bruce Devlin 2:52

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 2:53

So, Sandra, you you mentioned the attraction of golf as a bit of a solitary game, and and and as an only child, that had some appeal. We've heard that from a lot of other guests, whether they had siblings or not, just the fact that while they enjoyed team sports, there was an element of golf that they really enjoyed, the solitude and being able to focus on your own.

Sandra Haynie 3:15

Well, I think uh yes, I think you have to be of that mindset that you're okay with being responsible for kind of your success or failure, uh, and not being dependent on other people. I mean, certainly we we have different, we have instructors, we have caddies that we depend on uh through the years, but um I still have to go home with my score by myself, and uh I have to be okay with that, whatever it is. And uh I always just kind of took the attitude that if I did my very best for that day, um it could be 65, it could be 75. I just you know, there's a lot of things that that change during your day. Um so as long as I was okay with that, that was the best I could do for that day. And you just have to be okay with that.

Bruce Devlin 4:19

So you mentioned that uh the local pro there in Midland uh taught you how to hold the club and how to stand. Uh was he a big influence going forward from the first time that he showed you how to stand and and swing the club?

Sandra Haynie 4:34

No, he was not.

Bruce Devlin 4:36

Yeah, that's interesting. Very interesting.

Sandra Haynie 4:40

Uh when I was 12, my father introduced me to um Mr. A. G. Mitchell, who uh who had been the pro at Rivercrest in Fort Worth. Okay, and Mr. Mitchell was 70 at the time when I started taking from him. Um, I was very blessed to have him for seven years in my life, and he is the one that absolutely molded my game, and probably me as a person, um because he just had very little subtle ways of keeping uh any possibility of me being overproud of my success. It was really something that he didn't want. Um and he just, you know, he he created uh, you know, a good grip, which I have to this day. Um he's just responsible for my goth, basically.

Mike Gonzalez 5:42

Would he just keep taking you back to fundamentals?

Sandra Haynie 5:46

Absolutely, yes. That's all that's all it was, just very basic, basic fundamentals. Grip, stance, posture, alignment. That's it. Go with it. Um he uh actually he worked also with Babe Saharius, Betty Dodd, Polly Riley, he worked with all of them, so I would periodically see them. And when I was 12, he gave me the opportunity to play Nine Holes with the Babe, and which was you know, I you know, I kind of knew who she was at 12, but certainly through the years have grown to more than appreciate that opportunity.

Bruce Devlin 6:33

What a great opportunity, too.

Mike Gonzalez 6:36

Were there other opportunities subsequent to that where you had a chance to spend some time with the babe?

Sandra Haynie 6:41

Um, I uh would see her. I saw her maybe one other time after that, and then just before she passed, um I my father made it available for me to go down to Beaumont to see her in the hospital.

Mike Gonzalez 6:58

Yeah. You know, it it it we we that name has come up uh often on our show, as you can appreciate, just one of the original founders of the LPGA, and and uh it's just uh tragic that she lived such a short life, but she influenced a lot of people and uh quite an athlete.

Sandra Haynie 7:15

Uh an amazing athlete. I mean, you just you know, those kinds of records don't come along very often.

Mike Gonzalez 7:21

Yeah. So did you play other sports as well?

Sandra Haynie 7:26

Um sort of, I mean, you know, team sports. Um, you know, I I have to say I I learned a lot. I mean, you know, I would play, you know, a little bit of soccer and you know, uh just just stuff. But no, I didn't once I started playing golf, that kind of became my my true interest. I mean, I really didn't want to do much else. I mean um after, you know, I was very fortunate because we had moved to Austin by the time I really really started playing golf. And I was so fortunate to have um been able to grow up with some guys that could could really play. Um our junior high team, I think our fifth person scoring average was like 77. Uh so we had some some really good players, and you know, after we would get out of school, go play nine holes, uh chip and pull a little bit, then we would get a football. We start playing, you know, football out on the range. I mean, so uh sports has always kind of been my thing, yeah.

Bruce Devlin 8:44

Yeah, that's great.

Mike Gonzalez 8:46

Well, you had uh you had a lot of success uh at a fairly young age. Uh uh I know you won five city titles in a row in Austin. You you had success uh in the Texas State Publinks uh winning a couple of years, as well as the Texas Amateur winning a couple years, won the Trans-Mississippi. So there was a stretch there before you've decided to turn pro at a fairly young age where you just your game must have just continued to advance and and develop as as you got older.

Sandra Haynie 9:16

It it did. Again, with with uh Mr. Mitch's guidance, um the I don't know, the good thing, whatever. Um golf came pretty easy, you know. I didn't I didn't find anything really difficult about it. And um as long as um I had good direction um I was okay. And again, I think growing up in Austin, I was around the young guys that played well, I was around a lot of adult women that could really play. So I I I was in good company.

Bruce Devlin 10:03

So during that during that four years from 57 to 60 with the Publinks and Amateur and Transmiss, when when during that period of time did you really think about turning pro? Was it early in that amateur career or was it later?

Sandra Haynie 10:20

Oh, I had already decided. I just after I uh had the opportunity to play with the babe, I went home that night and said that's what I was going to do.

Bruce Devlin 10:32

Oh wow. Very interesting.

Sandra Haynie 10:34

I I never wavered. And uh I was fortunate that when uh I after I won the Transmiss, I I I knew that my time was there. Um I really had no interest in going to college. And uh so I just said I'm I'm gone. I'm gonna go join the I'm gonna go join the tour. And you know, fortunately my parents said okay. I mean, um they said, well, I guess you can find out something else to do later in life if that didn't work out. And oh okay, but I knew it was gonna work out, so off I went. And again, I was I was fortunate because um I had had the opportunity to play with some of the women professionals due to my association with Mr. Mitch. So I wasn't a stranger.

Mike Gonzalez 11:34

So that led you I I guess that allowed you to sort of uh benchmark your game against uh some of the best just to see whether you were going to measure up if you did make that jump.

Sandra Haynie 11:44

Oh, absolutely, yes. I mean, and that's you know helped in making me comfortable with my decision. You bet.

Mike Gonzalez 11:52

So uh, you know, you and Bruce, uh a little bit of parallel here with your careers, because about the same time you're making your decisions, right, on what you want to do for a living. And and uh, you know, I Bruce, you can speak to this in terms of your timing, but pretty similar in terms of uh when you decided, when you came out on tour, and so forth, wasn't it?

Bruce Devlin 12:11

Yeah, well, I turned I turned pro in uh in 61. Uh but in Australia in those days, you had to play 12 months without taking any prize money, and I got an invitation to the Masters that year and had to turn it down because uh you know I didn't have enough money to travel. But but yes, I remember during my career seeing Sandra Haney's name, winning golf tournaments every year, uh, you know, up until the time I quit.

Mike Gonzalez 12:43

Well, let's talk a little bit about your game back then, Sandra. I mean, for our listeners, it they uh particularly the younger listeners, they find it hard to relate that uh this could have been pre-Big Bertha. But uh, you know, you two were playing certainly different equipment. You you're playing these little butter knife irons and these small wooden-headed clubs. Just take it, take us through your game a little bit in terms of uh how you drove the ball compared to your peers, your putting, your short game. Where where were you really good? And and if you had to look back on your career, what was there one area that you probably wish you would have gotten a little bit better at?

Sandra Haynie 13:21

Um, well, I'm sure that we can always always look back and say, I wish I had done something different. Um I kept the ball in play. Wasn't particularly a long hitter, but not short either, just somewhere in the middle there. Um, but good at keeping the ball in play. Um I always felt that there were that my putting was probably something I really depended and relied on a lot. That's probably one of my strengths. Uh Fairway Woods always seemed to be kind of a strength as well, because we needed the what length we could get. Um I I think my strong suit was the mental side of the game, uh of learning to accept um you know, good, bad, whatever for the day, uh being able to um stay focused um because you're you're out there for a long time, your mind's gonna kick in, kick out, and to understand that um I think helped. I think that was in my early training as well, uh, somewhere along the way. Um and um I I meditate as well. So I think all those things bring to having some some kind of a quiet mind, if you will. Um and just I I think basically learning acceptance is huge in the game. Uh, because not every day is going to be good, not every shot's gonna be good. And what do I do with that information? Yeah, and how do I react to it?

Mike Gonzalez 15:01

Did you recognize early on as you looked around uh the locker room that that mental approach that you had was an asset and an advantage that you had over other players?

Sandra Haynie 15:13

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Um because I, you know, I wasn't in the locker room. I I would hear players, you know, fussing about their round and you know, going over that did didn't do anybody any good. Um first of all, nobody wanted to listen to it. Yeah, and they're really, you know, there's points that you can go back and learn from, but to just kind of keep rehashing that just doesn't do any good. And so um I think that my quiet side always came out at that point.

Mike Gonzalez 15:54

You know, that's true for amateurs too. I'll just throw this in quickly and you guys can relate. But uh uh particularly in America, uh you find a lot of uh locker rooms and people are sitting around rehashing the round. And as you said, there aren't too many people sitting around that table that really care other than the person talking. But I contrast that with my experience playing in the UK, where you very rarely see that. The round is finished and they're off talking about whatever. Having a beer. Yeah, having a beer. It's just a whole different mindset, isn't it?

Bruce Devlin 16:25

Right. Yeah. Well, you know, a lot of times somebody will come in and uh I've I've heard this said many times. You walk in and he's standing by the locker room, and somebody will say to him, Okay, tell me about your round start at the 18th T, please. Get it over quick.

Mike Gonzalez 16:46

Well, so you you you make the decision at age 18. Uh, of course, you made it when you were nine, but I mean officially uh 1961. Sandra Haney turns professional. Quite a record, as Bruce mentioned, some of this 44 professional wins, including 42 on the LPGA Tour, which is ninth on the all-time list, uh, joining the tour in 61. Sandra was the player of the year in 1970, probably should have been player of the year in 1974, because we'll talk about that terrific year you had then. Uh top 10 on the money list, uh, 13 straight years, I think, from 1963 to 1975, winner of four majors. We're going to talk about all of them. Uh, the thing we like to do with our guest, uh, Sandra, is just take you on a little trip down memory lane. And we we would hope that some of these names and courses and tournaments that we mentioned might spark some things you haven't thought about for a while. We don't know, but uh, you know, we probably don't have time to talk about each one of your 42 LPGA tour victories, but uh uh there's a lot of them that stand out. And I think the first the obviously the one that stands out to to many is that first one. Why don't you tell us about that first win in your second year on tour?

Sandra Haynie 18:02

Oh, my first win? Uh yeah, that was very memorable for sure. Um it was at Austin Country Club, which uh growing up in Austin, I had had the privilege of being able to play there. Um and the last day I was playing with Mickey Wright, and who can think of a better way to win a golf tournament than playing with Mickey? And um, so I was fortunate enough to play well and um win my first event. And I had always heard that okay, you can win your first event, but the second one is harder. So we went to Rockford, Illinois the next week, and I made sure that I won that one. So I got the second one out of the way, so I didn't have that hanging over me.

Mike Gonzalez 18:48

Yeah, we always talk about validation, and that came pretty quickly, didn't it?

Sandra Haynie 18:52

It did. You know, when when you're when your game is on, when you're playing good, you just want to keep playing. Um, at least I did. And it's interesting to me now. Sometimes you see a player, especially with majors, or or just basically any good win, and they go home. And and I'm afraid I don't understand that. When you're playing good, go play.

Mike Gonzalez 19:18

That was in your mindset for sure. How about it? Well, let's take you a week back. Let's go to that first win again. Uh, took home a big check. You remember how big it was?

Sandra Haynie 19:27

I don't. It was probably twelve hundred dollars, maybe.

Mike Gonzalez 19:32

Exactly. Winner winner chicken dinner. Uh you led by three after 54 holes, and uh you're cruising along quite nicely in that last round, and all of a sudden on number 15, you kind of get in the woods. You remember that?

Sandra Haynie 19:47

You know, I don't. I'm not surprised at that point.

Mike Gonzalez 19:52

Well, as legend has it, as legend has it, uh uh my research shows that you tripled 15 with three shots in the woods. Okay. But you got yourself out one by one, and that's what matters. Uh, that was the only time that event was held. So what do you remember about these Civitans opens? Because I I see that they were kind of all around Texas during that time. Do you you remember much about the history of that event?

Sandra Haynie 20:18

The which one?

Mike Gonzalez 20:19

The si well that there were several Civiton opens in different cities in Texas. I don't know that they were related necessarily, but uh no.

Sandra Haynie 20:28

Uh well the Civitan that that I'm most familiar with is the one that we had in Dallas.

Bruce Devlin 20:34

Yeah.

Sandra Haynie 20:35

Um, and we uh played a golf course uh that is not there any longer, but um Yeah, I don't think that they were related, but yeah, uh I don't know why that event in Austin was just one year because it was a good event.

Mike Gonzalez 20:53

I guess I should have researched the origin of that name, but I think one was played in Corpus Christi by that name. Um but anyway, you mentioned your second one. That was uh that was by two over Ruth Jesson, and uh you opened with a 66 in your validation tournament, and uh so that second win came uh quite quickly. Uh and then uh uh in 1963, you won the Phoenix Thunderbird Ladies Open at the Arizona Biltmore by four over, and this name's gonna come up a few times, uh Bruce. Isn't it gonna come up a few times? Whitworth Kathy Whitworth.

Sandra Haynie 21:34

Yeah, we we uh we bumped into each other more than once. No kidding.

Mike Gonzalez 21:39

No kidding. Why don't you tell us how many times they bumped into each other, Bruce?

Bruce Devlin 21:43

Sandra finished uh second to Kathy Whitworth 15 times, and Kathy Whitworth finished second to Sandra 11 times. But but here's the here's the key one, and we we don't see This very often. In four playoffs, Sandra Handy won all four against Kathy Whitworth. Against Kathy Whitworth.

Sandra Haynie 22:11

Interesting. I don't think I knew that.

Mike Gonzalez 22:17

Yeah, some interesting things that pop out of the internet. But you won a couple of times in 64. One was at the Baton Rouge Ladies Open. And uh that was the first playing of that event. And then later that year you won the Las Cruces Ladies Open. That was by two over Betsy Rawls. The Baton Rouge one was another win over Kathy Whitworth.

Bruce Devlin 22:39

By five. Huh? One by five over Kathy Whitworth. Yeah, it wasn't even close that week. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 22:47

So you're off to a pretty good start, aren't you, at this point? I mean, you're still fairly young, and and uh I you can probably take us back to that first year on tour where you're just learning to get around. How do you find these cities, where to stay, learning the golf courses? Tell us a little bit about that experience just early on as a young woman on the tour.

Sandra Haynie 23:06

Well, again, um, as I said, I had had the good fortune of being able to know some of the players before I ever uh joined the tour. And they were really very kind. Um at that time, you know, we were still looking for warm bodies to come onto the tour. Um, and they uh, as I said, they were so kind and they made sure that that I got around okay and I knew where to stay and I knew how to get around. And I cannot tell you how helpful that is uh for a rookie to go out there and to be able to have someone like Mickey Wright, who I had known a little bit, Betsy Rawls I had known a little bit. Uh when I joined the tour, also Carol Mann joined the same year, and we had been friends since teenagers, uh several years through Junior Goff. And so we were rooming together, so we were finding our way together through all this. And so that was all so helpful and just made life a little bit easier.

Mike Gonzalez 24:18

Yeah, you know, of course, the we're talking about the 60s now for our listeners, and just to sort of relate, uh, you know, the the tour was really still in a developmental sort of uh uh stage, I guess. It would, you know, it had been really founded uh the successor tour after the WPGA was founded in 1950 and 60s. You had a little bit of TV coverage. Uh I suspect that from year to year the tur there was a lot of uh uh fluidity in the in the schedule, meaning that uh events just tended to come and go. A lot of them didn't last maybe more than three or four years as you got new sponsors and so forth. Uh and then it, you know, probably wasn't until the 70s when Colgate came around that things started getting a little bit uh more stable on tour. Would that be a fair statement?

Sandra Haynie 25:05

Absolutely. Um, you know, we somehow we were always able to uh you know get a bit, but um there were there was a problem in stability a little bit. Um but we we were fortunate. I mean we we would, you know, a player would know somebody and you know we'd get a tournament, and then you know, maybe that one would go away and somebody else would know somebody's and then you know we just we were fortunate. We you know had some, like you said, we had Colgate come along, which really, really kind of made the tour something. Uh what David Frost did for the LPGA will probably never be done again in that way to really give us a place and um give us give us a voice, I guess.

Mike Gonzalez 26:05

Yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah. How did you get around back then? Were were you driving? Were you riding? Were you busing?

Sandra Haynie 26:11

Oh we drove.

Mike Gonzalez 26:12

Yeah.

Sandra Haynie 26:12

We drove every every place we would drive, we would, you know, uh play our Sunday round. We were all packed up, ready to go, and if it was you know, if it was 300 miles or 1200 miles or whatever it was, off we'd go and we'd not always drive completely until we get there, but just depending on what what else we had the first of the week. Because you know, we usually would get in town, you know, Monday and probably try to do some PR and something Tuesday, and then you've got practice, you've got proams, and and to uh parties to to thank people for for having us there. So uh every week was very full.

Mike Gonzalez 26:57

I I don't know if this was a fair characterization about life on the tour in the 60s, but certainly in the 50s, as uh this tour got kicked off, uh it seemed like the players were all chief cooks and bottle washers in that they played uh a number of different roles, had to wear a number of different hats. They they had to handle the rules, they had to handle the score sheet and the scoring tent, they had to mark the golf course, they had to, you know, it almost to me it I've used this before, but almost sounded like a a a local uh uh circus that would just move from town to town and they'd put on their show and then they'd pack up and they'd go on to the next town, and everybody had to sort of pitch in to make sure the event uh got pulled off.

Sandra Haynie 27:38

You know, and and s we didn't feel like that. Uh we we were uh we were doing what we loved, so it didn't seem like that. Um but uh yes, we we had to do a little bit of everything. We had to serve on committees. Uh I think my most famous memory of one of those things is I served on a lot of the committees at different times. And we were, I think we were like in Boise, Idaho. And uh we would take turns getting up at like four in the morning to go set teas and pins. So I it was my turn, so I did it, and I had low score for the day, and so I caught all kinds of flack because they said, Well, you knew where everything was. I said, Trust me, you can get up at four in the morning tomorrow. I had no problem with that at all. But that quieted the conversation because nobody wanted to do it.

Mike Gonzalez 28:46

That reminds me of something. Uh I remember Bruce when we talked about Dean Beaman, and and he sort of claimed that back in the late 50s he was one of the first, if not the first on tour, to get out in the early morning hours, and either he or his caddy would not only check pins, but they'd walk off yardages. So back when we didn't have any guns or anything else, and people really weren't looking at that kind of stuff, he did that sort of detailed work. Was that done on the women's tour by then as well?

Sandra Haynie 29:15

Yes. Yeah. Um you know, it had to be done. Um and uh, you know, our our caddies would be there long before we were to, you know, go out and check ever, you know, check it, make sure their yardages were correct for the day. And um then, you know, we were on rules committees at that time. So, I mean, after we played our round, somebody may need a ruling that we had to go back. They had played two balls. I mean, kind of did everything.

Bruce Devlin 29:49

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 29:51

You you mentioned some of the players we have already come up just in the few tournaments we've talked about back then. Kathy Whitworth, Mickey Wright, of course, the two uh uh biggest winners of all time on the LPGA tour, but Carol Mann, um Althea Gibson came on the scene in 1963, Renee Powell came on the scene in 1967, and then we haven't really even talked about the founders, and there were several of the founders that uh uh were playing still back when you came along. Tell us a little bit about some of those uh ladies because uh they are some amazing individuals, some of the people that were involved in founding the tour.

Sandra Haynie 30:27

They each and every one of them amazing, uh, to have the foresight to to want to take 13 women and say, this is what we're gonna do. Uh obviously way ahead of their time. And I think uh one of my favorite stories is it was I think my first year, I want to say, maybe second, but I think it was my first year. And we were playing in Sea Island, Georgia, early in the year. It was so cold, and it was raining, and we were miserable. And I came in, and Marlene Hagee had shot 72 in this mess, and I go in and she's sitting there and she has on a turtleneck and two cashmere sweaters, and I go, and of course, the rest of us have all of that plus rain suits. And I said, Aren't you cold? And she just looked at me and said, Yeah, aren't you? And I thought, yeah. Why have I got all these layers when she played better? And I just carried that the rest of my career. I thought, you know, I'm I'm miserable, doesn't matter what I put on. So just go play. It was just a great lesson.

Bruce Devlin 31:53

You're talking about Marlene Hagee. Uh in 1965, you went back uh to the Cosmopolitan Open again at Mactown, and guess who you beat that year? Marlene Hagee and Kathy Whitworth.

Sandra Haynie 32:08

Uh Marlene did once said she didn't want me anywhere in sight of her on Sunday.

Bruce Devlin 32:16

I understand why.

Mike Gonzalez 32:19

Uh well, let's talk about that first major championship, which came in 1965. It was the LPGA championship at Stardust Country Club. It was by one over Clifford and Creed and uh five under Parr. Must have been a pretty good pretty good tournament for you.

Sandra Haynie 32:40

I you know, I liked that golf course a lot. I love Vegas. So it was a it was a good match. Um and um, you know, just again, just I you know, it's been a long time ago, so I certainly cannot uh recall many shots, but um I remember just um being happy that I, you know, was able to win a major. Um and it it was special, no question, and to happen in a one of my favorite towns. So it was a good good week.

Mike Gonzalez 33:17

Let's see if we can jog your memory. Uh the the newspaper says it was a windy final round. Probably you were you were tied for the lead after 54 holes. Uh, and you were you were tied for the lead through 13 on Sunday when uh when Clifford and Creed three-putted 14, and then you left a chip short uh shot short in a bunker on 16 for bogey, but Creed bogeyed 17, and so it all kind of worked out, but you were the only two players under par that week.

Sandra Haynie 33:53

Well, some of us played maybe a little better in wind because we'd grown up in it. Uh I know Clifford Ann had as well. Um, and uh, you know, that's one of those things where players say, you know, I don't like to play in the wind or I don't like to play in the rain. Well, you're gonna play in all of them. So find some acceptance. Uh every day's not gonna be sunny, sunny and calm. And um as soon as you heard a player say, I don't like, you knew that you had just a little bit of an edge there.

Mike Gonzalez 34:30

Sure, yeah. And Bruce, uh, you know, I don't know, we've probably talked to 15 Texas Golf Hall of Famers, I think, on the show. And and so this subject of wind and and excelling in the wind has come up a lot.

Bruce Devlin 34:43

Yeah, the Texans don't mind playing in the wind because they get to do that often.

Sandra Haynie 34:49

Very often. You know, you just you grow up in it, you don't think anything about it, you you just don't think about, oh well, I need to hit it low here, uh, you know, and keep it out of the wind, or or or whatever your method is. Um, it's just nature have you know, just nature to to do it.

Mike Gonzalez 35:12

You had a wonderful year in 1966 with four wins, including uh the Buckeye Savings Invitational, which was by five over Susie Burning at the time. And uh we had Suzy on the show uh this week as well. Uh the 1966 Glass City Classic, which was in a playoff that you won over Gloria Eric, and then uh you won the Alamo Ladies Open at Pecan Valley, which I think is where is that where Julius Boros won a PGA championship, Bruce? It is, yes, you did. Yeah, and then uh also the 1966 Pensacola Ladies Invitational at Cena Kills in Florida in a playoff with Guess who? Kathy Wentworth. But she did win two years later, so I don't feel too bad for her. So pretty good year in 66. Do you remember much about those?

Sandra Haynie 35:59

I don't. I you know, um you know, you're just uh I I don't, but uh it's it's nice, nice memory, and you know, again, you know, the the honor of being able to do something you love.

Bruce Devlin 36:18

Yeah, yeah. I do have a comment on that, and it's a very simple explanation. When you only when you only win five or six times on the tour, you remember every damn one of them, right? And when you win 44 times, it's hard to remember every one of them. So I understand that, Sandra. I don't blame you for not being able to remember them.

Mike Gonzalez 36:41

So I've got a question. Uh we're gonna go to 1967, a couple of wins, but I want to take you back and see what you remember about the 1967 U.S. Open at the homestead. All right, because there was a um there was a young lady from France, an amateur, Catherine Lacoste, that played quite well and won that tournament. There was a short little girl by the name of Susie Burning that finished second. And my understanding uh of this event is at some point Susie Burning might have showed up at your hotel room requesting to have your Lacoste shirt or shirts. Do you remember any of this?

Sandra Haynie 37:31

I do not.

Mike Gonzalez 37:32

Come on, come on. You're not holding back on us, are you?

Sandra Haynie 37:36

No.

Mike Gonzalez 37:38

So here's her recollection. I I I don't I'm not sure the chronology. It almost sounds like maybe this might have happened after Lacoste won. I'm not sure, but she said that she went around to everybody that she knew and asked them for their Lacoste shirts, because a lot of people had Lacoste shirts. And she said you had one that you were particularly fond of and not anxious to give up. But she reluctantly gave it to her, and she then proceeded to go. They had some uh they had some uh big barbecue bonfire going on that night, and she threw all the shirts into the bonfire.

Sandra Haynie 38:20

Oh wow, that's a new story to me. Oh you know, it it kind of sounds like something Susie might do, though.

Mike Gonzalez 38:31

That's right, it does. We kind of got that impression as well. But uh uh, you know, I'd read a lot about that tournament and and Catherine winning. And of course, uh Bruce, you guys got a lot of this. When you foreigners came into America and started taking money off the table, the American players weren't too happy about it.

Bruce Devlin 38:48

No, they weren't too happy about it, no. Uh yeah, I think that subject is probably better left alone, to be quite honest with you. But no, you're absolutely right. Well, you know, and you can understand that. Uh you know, you come ask, you know, three or four of uh, like you take George Newson and Crampton and Jacqueline and myself and David Graham, you know, a lot of players from from outside the United States decide to come here and sort of settle in and play the American tour rather than play around the world.

Mike Gonzalez 39:28

And you know, this was uh this was still long before you had foreign players coming and and really making their mark on the LPGA tour.

Sandra Haynie 39:37

Yeah, we we had um our first influx was kind of more with the Japanese players. Um and um we were we were at least I I'll speak for myself, I was thrilled to have them because they were such good players, they were absolutely the politest people in the world, and um I had the good fortune to get to know some of them. Um early on in the 70s, um I signed a contract with Dunlop, and I would go to Japan twice a year, and so I really got to know the Japanese players and just really enjoyed them, and um that's where I learned the power of meditation, uh, because they were kind enough to share that with me. And um so um that was our first influx, and then you know, later we started getting some some European players, and and I always just thought it was just healthy to have growth in the game and different personalities and different people.

Mike Gonzalez 40:43

Well, as we go through the 60s, you had a couple of wins in 68. Um you had uh a couple of wins in 69 as well, a couple of wins in 70. So it just seemed like you developed that consistent pattern. You were winning every year, but at least a couple of events as we get into the early 70s, and uh as we get into 71, all of a sudden, boom, four wins. You win at uh the the Berdines Invitational at uh Miami in Miami. Uh you win the Dallas Civitan uh Open over Jane Blaylock, you win the San Antonio Alamo Open uh over Kathy Whitworth by six, and then the uh Len Imke Buick Open uh in Ohio by one over Marlene Hege. So uh uh what was going on in your game? Because you know you've been at it now a few years, and uh you're starting to really be dominant on the tour.

Sandra Haynie 41:39

Um just again, I think uh you you the for me the longer I played, the more comfortable I became. And um comfortable with the different strengths of my game, what fit, what didn't. Um you start finding the golf courses you like, you don't like. Um and you know, I think my life was just in a good place. And um I again I'm doing what I love, so things can't be too bad.

Mike Gonzalez 42:12

So in in 72 you have three good uh wins as well. I I saw something about an incident uh involving you in South Africa.

Sandra Haynie 42:22

Oh, yes.

Mike Gonzalez 42:24

What happened?

Sandra Haynie 42:26

Oh, well, Sally Little had joined our tour, um, I think that maybe a year or two years before, and uh we had kind of become acquaint good acquaintances, and she said that um South Africa didn't really know what uh a professional woman was at that time, and so she invited eight of us to go over for a month of exhibitions, which okay, we'll go, that was fun. Um we did some incredible, incredible things. Um went into down into gold mines, we went to tribal dance, we just did some absolutely incredible things. Then the uh toward the end of the third week we had finished uh doing whatever we were doing. We were in Johannesburg and we were doing some shopping, and um I was I don't know who I was with, but we were in a jewelry store and and the car was parked across the street, and they kept the people in the car kept saying, hurry, hurry, come on, we need to go. Well, they drive on the wrong side of the road in South Africa.

Mike Gonzalez 43:44

Look right, look right.

Sandra Haynie 43:48

And I did not look and I stepped off the curb and I was hit by a car. Now fortunately it was a small car. So the headlight only hit me in the hip, but it threw me in the air. And they said when I hit the pavement that I looked like I was trying uh that I was making a d a pipe dive to where I was doing everything I could to keep my head up from hitting the concrete. Um there was a truck coming the other direction but it stayed there and I hit on the center line and just spun right there. So they uh got me out of the street, took me to the hospital. I'm just laying there. I've got some open wounds. Fortunately I had on a long sleeve shirt and some jeans, but I still had some some sc pretty good scratches. Um kind of didn't feel too good. Um I'm just laying there, and so I kind of started going into shock and having chills, and so I said, Can I have a blanket? So they threw me a wool blanket over some of these sores, and I said, Well, no, that won't work. So I threw that off. And so the doctor comes in and he goes, Well, where's the lady that was hit by the car? And I said, Over here. And he said, Can you walk? And I said, Well, how about some x-rays, maybe?

Bruce Devlin 45:20

Find out if I got a broken bone.

Sandra Haynie 45:22

Right, if I can't see if I can walk. Um he said, No, no, no, let's just see if you can walk. I said, You know, I can. I got up and I walked out of the hospital. And one of my friends went back in and said, Can we have at least some iodine or something to clean the wounds? And um, so I went back to the hotel and spent five days laying in a hot bathtub. That was the only place that I could get comfortable. And so they went ahead and flew me home. Um, and I had to lay, I was in fortunately in first class, and I was laying on the floor. I couldn't sit in a seat. Um that was that was my story. I live with two fractured vertebras to this day, but no discomfort.

Mike Gonzalez 46:11

Yeah, so that probably reared its head then later, as we'll talk about in your career. But uh uh oftentimes they say it when it happens, it feels like slow motion.

Sandra Haynie 46:19

Is that your recollection of uh absolutely, absolutely. You know, I had the sensation of of you know going around, but it was all in slow motion. Um different things flash in your mind. You bet it does happen.

Mike Gonzalez 46:40

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 with the good of the game. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 47:01

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