1973-1976 LPGA                                     Home                         

    In the summer of 1966 the women's USGA held a major tournament at the Pekin Country Club's new course. I had grown up on the nine hole course on the east bluff but the Pekin Community High School had purchased the old PCC golf course to build a new high school in 1963, a year after I graduated from High School.

They built an 18 hole course northeast of town which was finished around 1965. My dad was still the greenskeeper and professional at the club. I was home for the summer from the University of Illinois and dad asked if I would help him out so I helped with the mowing of the fairways and greens. Dad acted like I was a lifesaver, but I think he was just trying to make me feel good.

I worked in the pro shop during the tournament and got to meet some of the girls. I particularly remember being surprised at how many of the girls knew my dad. I particularly remember dad introducing me to Kathy Whitworth, who was one of the top women golfers at the time.

     After my dad moved to Naples, Fl in 71, I followed in 72 and in 73 the LPGA held a tournament at Lely Country Club in Naples where my dad was teaching and working in the pro shop.

On the first day of the tournament I watched some of the girls warming up on the practice tee and noticed Carol Mann sitting alone. I went up and said hi and she said "If you don't mind I'd like to be alone right now." I said "OK - I understand." I thought about how determined she seemed and wasn't surprised on Sunday when she came out the winner.

The first three days I checked out many of the girls. I was fascinated with Jan Stephenson from Australia and was standing close to her and her caddy as her caddy seemed to be having some difficulty. When he dropped a towel in the sand trap that he was about to hand to her I reached down and picked it up and handed it to her and she thanked me. I shouldn't have done it because it probably just made the caddy feel worse, but I was in love. The next year Jan came in second behind Judy Rankin, but Jan won in 75 at the Golden Gate Course.

One day I followed Jane Blaylock. She had been one of the top money winners a couple of years earlier when she had been called for moving her ball closer to the hole when she replaced her ball on the green after marking it. I kind of felt sorry for her as she had been blackballed by everyone else.

     On Sunday I was watching a young black golfer (Renee Powell) from Canton, Ohio hit balls on the range when I was approached by someone in her party and asked if I wanted to caddy for her. I had seen her black caddy earlier, but now I saw him sitting up by the clubhouse. I asked about him and was told that he had stolen some balls from her.

I was thrilled with the opportunity even though I would miss watching the other girls. I had on my green bell-bottoms at the time and looked a little like a hippie. I couldn't believe how far she could hit the ball and she could certainly could outhit me. During the round we got to talking and got around to one of the other girls, (Joann Carner - from England) and I mentioned that I nicknamed her "Big Mama" after my dog.

Renee thought that was pretty funny. I explained that I had named my little female mutt Big Mama but she had been ran over. The next week on TV I heard the announcer calling Joann Big Mama and realized that Renee had told someone else about the nickname and it stuck.

As a boy growing up in the 50s I ate what every one else was eating and I was drinking the new soda pops available at my dad's pro shop. By 72 it had caught up to me. One night I had a dream that a giant man in a black robe was standing over me with a sledge hammer about to smash my head. In my dream I had frozen. I was waiting for the hammer to come down. I finally realized if I didn't do something I was going to be dead. I woke up screaming “NO!.”

As I did I felt the presence of the man withdraw. As I sat in the bed I got the strangest feeling that I had hurt the huge man's feelings. He thought I wanted to go with him or he wouldn't have come to get me.

I noticed that the whole upper left side of my body was numb. It took quite a while before I got some feeling back. I did not want to go to a doctor. I had had some experience with a health food store in my hippie phase in Urbana. I decided to check out what literature was available at Martha's Health Food Store in Naples. I found out about the new studies about vitamin E and the heart and my education concerning alternative health began.

Because of that I had already read about the negative effects of sugar and I noticed that a lot of the women golfers were eating sugary snacks thinking that that would give them an energy boost. I knew that it would cause their blood sugar to skyrocket and then collapse about 20 minutes later causing a low. I told Renee it would be better to eat protein that would be converted to sugar at a slower rate which would not cause highs and lows.

I think that information also got transmitted to the girls also as I noticed some time later on TV that several of the girls mentioned that they had stopped eating the sugary snacks. On the 18th hole there was a large gallery and Renee had hit her second shot into a trap some 50 feet from the pin. She asked me to tend the pin. So there I was in my green bell-bottoms tending the pin for her and another girl in front of this large gallery.

After we finished Renee asked me if I wanted to go with her up to the lounge where all the girls were, but I was I little peeved because instead of being paid for caddying she had only given me some golf balls. Of course I regret that mistake today. I could have met a lot of the girls. I guess I was pretty poor at the time and could have used a few bucks. But later I realized how poor she was herself. She had told me about her dad who was the first black to own a golf course in the country. He built a nine hole course in 1946 in East Canton, Ohio.

     At the award ceremonies when Carol Mann accepted the trophy the MC mentioned how happy the area was to have hosted the tournament, I yelled out that we had fallen in love with them. The next week in the paper I read in the newspaper where Carol Mann said she was going to marry a doctor. She was joking, but I wondered if she was talking about me because of all the health information I was dishing out.

I heard that Carol and some of the other girls had went to the "Open Hearth" on Sunday night before they left town. If I had known I would have sure been there. After the presentation ceremony as my brother Rick and I got in the car with dad to go home he was with Kathy Whitworth and said we were going to take her to the airport. I was pretty excited and peppered her with questions. I remember asking her about Babe Zaharias.

The next year (1975) all I remember is following Jan Stephenson and Judy Rankin as Judy won. I noticed Jan's boyfriend again and how he would hang back in the fairway quite a ways while she was on the green so as not to make her nervous.

The next year (1976) the tourney was played at Golden Gate Country Club and I was kind of torn between Judy Rankin and Jan Stephenson. On Sunday when I first got to Judy's group I saw Judy's husband and asked him how Judy was doing and he told me she was in the lead. She was playing with Jan though and as I watched the next couple of holes I began to root for Jan.

I think a lot of the gallery was starting to root for Jan and it was surprising Judy. Jan scrambled for a par on 15 and Judy seemed a little upset at the fans reaction. Then on 16 I was standing close to Jan as she hit a pitch shot to a couple feet and I said "Nice shot" to her and she said "thanks."

On the 18th hole I stayed back in the fairway as Jan putted out to win the tournament and I know she saw me. I was so emotionally involved that I thought it would be better to keep some distance and I was probably also being a little cute in letting her know that I had seen her boyfriend the year before doing the same thing.

     I think Whitworth won in 73, Mann in 74, Rankin in 75, Stephenson in 76