Dirty Diapers Are Part of the Glamour
Traveling from tour stop to tour stop included dealing with dirty diapers, cheap food, and budget motels for young players and their families
The PGA TOUR was in Silvas, IL for the John Deere Classic and congratulations to Sepp Straka for winning his second PGA TOUR title. Straka, on a 59 watch, stood in the middle of the final fairway, 181-yards away from the hole, needing to get down in two strokes to shoot a 59. He was trying to become the 13th player in tour history to shoot that number and just the third player in history to secure his victory with a sub-60 score in the final round. He then dumped his approach shot into a pond and took a double-bogey. With his closest pursurer, Brendon Todd, falling victim to a balky putter down the stretch, Straka’s final round 62 was good enough for a two shot victory.
With the John Deere being a non-elevated event with a field lacking big name players, and with the U.S. Women’s Open being played at Pebble Beach, most golf fans were more focused on the latter. Congratulations to Allison Corpuz for capturing the title becoming the first American player to win the open since Brittany Lang in 2016.
Charley Hull provided the most excitement during Sunday’s final round shooting a 66 to rocket up the leader board. In the end she finished three shots behind Corpuz, tied for second with Jiyai Shen. Hull’s swashbuckling style reminded one of a young Arnold Palmer.
In last week’s Tour Backspin Poll, we let you predict which players who are “on the bubble” to make the U.S. Ryder Cup team would actually make the team. Cameron Young received 26% of the votes as did Keegan Bradley. Dustin Johnson got 21% of the vote while Sam Burns got 16% and Russell Henley got 11%.
Weigh in with what live golf you decided to watch last weekend in this week’s Tour Backspin Poll.
Tour Backspin Poll
What live golf did you spend the most time watching this past weekend? John Deere Classic or U.S. Women’s Open?
Clip You Might Have Missed
This week the PGA TOUR is in Nicholasville, KY, for the Barbasol Championship, a tournament that started in 2015 and shares no historical DNA with a tournament in the 1960s or 1970s—our window here at Tour Backspin. Many top players will warmup for The Open Championship at the Genesis Scottish Open, but again, not much DNA to our time period. Watch for our Open Championship special edition next week.
When we are unable to link to the 1960s or 1970s with our main story, we try to bring you a story of life on tour during that time. This week, we try to highlight the challenges, as well as the joys, of traveling by car from tour stop to tour stop. I hope you enjoy it and that it may bring back memories of spending time in the family station wagon or at the pool of a kitschy motel. Scroll down to read.
One of the stars of our feature story, Dick Lotz, is featured in the Vintage Ad this week. Scroll down to see.
Let’s hit the road with these 18 songs that are inspired by the PGA TOUR players who drove to play. Listen HERE.
The awesome power of Arnold Palmer is on display in this week’s Swing Like a Pro. Scroll down to view.
Get the Tour Backspin Newsletter delivered to your email inbox for FREE.
Listen to The Tour Backspin Show podcast HERE or on Spotify, or on Amazon Music and Apple Podcast.
If you like golf history, check out the Your Golfer’s Almanac podcast. Host Michael Duranko celebrates birthdays, milestones, and other accomplishments that occurred on the day in golf history. Listen HERE.
We tried to juice the involvement with the WHAT HOLE IS IT? contest last week, and boy, did it work. We promised to send out a tee prize to each correct answer and we’re sending out 18 packages this week, including one Grand Prize to Mike Hromowyk who won the random draw for the Grand Prize. The hole was #17 at Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, CA. A signed copy of Uncorked, The Life and Times of Champagne Tony Lema is in the mail to Mike. Check out the 2023 leader board and scroll down for your chance to win in this week’s WHAT HOLE IS IT? We’ve got some new prizes to hand out!
We’re playing Kentucky Fried Chicken Trivia in this week’s Tour Backspin Quiz. Scroll down to play.
Did you miss a previous newsletter? You can view it HERE. Forward this email to a friend. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? You can sign up HERE.
Okay, we're on the tee, let's get going.
Enjoy!
Larry Baush
The Traveling Circus That Was the PGA TOUR in the 1960s and 1970s
Bruce Devlin, on Fore the Good of the Game, the podcast that he co-hosts with Michael Gonzalez, told Dave Stockton about traveling from one tour stop to another on a Greyhound bus—with his wife and baby. Imagine a long, hot bus ride complete with dirty diapers and a crying baby. Dave Stockton only had one question.
“Why?”
Devlin brought his young family to America from Australia to take a shot at the PGA TOUR. He valued the support of his family but with limited funds, they had to travel the cheapest way possible, hence, the bus. Devlin made his trip to the U.S. in the early 1960s, a time when the tour was still very much a car-caravan traveling circus from one stop to another. It would be quite a few years before plane travel would become the norm for more than just the upper echelon stars.
The value of having your family on the road as a support system was not lost on Stockton who most years elected to skip The Open Championship because he couldn’t afford to have his family make the long trip.
It is fascinating how the players, and their families, handled the weekly travel. The glue that held the whole thing together was usually the wife who had to fulfill many roles. She would have to be a travel agent, cook, childcare provider, mental game guru, psychiatrist, superfan, and highway navigator among other chores. The tour wives joined forces to get things done and help each other see the country.
Unlike today’s PGA TOUR player who has a wide array of travel infrastructure at their disposal, the pros of the 1960s and 1970s had to handle everything on their own. To ease the burdens of travel, the players joined forces. Everyone stayed at the same motel and the players would man the barbecue grill to save on the expense of dinner. Wives would provide childcare for one another and help each other with all the other mundane tasks on the road.
With drinks in hand, the players would fill their evenings with silly little gambling games on the makeshift course in the sand.
And the camaraderie amongst the families helped forge friendships that have lasted a lifetime. In that same interview with Devlin, Stockton recounted how the players fashioned a pitch-and-putt course in the dunes behind the motel players were staying at during the Azalea Open. With drinks in hand, the players would fill their evenings with silly little gambling games on the makeshift course in the sand. Good times.
In the January 1971, issue of Golf Digest, Larry Sheehan authored an article on Dick Lotz who was awarded the Most Improved Professional for 1970. Sheehan spent time with Dick, and his wife, Sharon, while they were staying “in room 114 of a south Minneapolis motel” along with their two kids. Lotz had just missed the cut in the 1970 U.S. Open at Hazeltine and the family was preparing on making the long drive back home to the Bay Area.
While the oldest child, Bryan, was off to visit the local zoo with the reliable, 20-year-old babysitter who worked for Frank Beard, Sharon was battling a balky washing machine in the motel’s laundry room. Dick was left in charge of the youngest child, Kara, as she slept. The reporter and the player had a conversation while a womens roller derby played on the television with the sound turned down.
“I made a total of $11,000 during my first four years on tour.”
Lotz finished 1970 ranked 7th on the official money list and won two times, at the Kemper Open and at the Monsanto Open. He also finished second at the San Antonio Open and had five other top ten finishes. This strong year resulted in his Most Improved award.
But he also had a few lean years when he first came out on tour in 1964. He spoke to Sheehan about the challenges that he and Sharon faced during that time.
“I made a total of $11,000 during my first four years on tour,” Lotz said. “Sharon and I, during those years, we’d look for $1.49 fish-fry dinners at places like Howard Johnson’s on Friday night. Or we’d buy a bag of Kentucky Fried Chicken, or McDonald’s hamburgers and bring them back to the motel.”
“I’d rather live with Dick in a motel than at home without him.”
Since they were married in 1965, Sharon traveled the tour with Dick who believed that his wife was a great source of support to his playing career. Sheehan described the life that the Lotz family, and the other young pros on the tour, had fashioned as a “kind of mobile suburbia” with bridge games, cookouts, comparison shopping and babysitters.
“I’d rather live with Dick in a motel than at home without him,” Sharon said to Sheehan.
The group of players that Lotz travelled with included the Stocktons, the Laurie Hammers, the Frank Beards, and the Steve Sprays. Lotz drove a four-door Buick Electra from tour stop to tour stop. In the trunk he would squeeze three suitcases, two hanging bags, a double stroller, a child’s car seat, a sack of toys, a spare carton of Pampers, and his golf clubs.
Sharon handled most of the travel details for the family and ticked off the names of the motels they stayed at, which she knew by heart.
“In Palm Springs, we stay at the Descanso Lodge,” she began before continuing. “In Tucson we always stay at the Imperial 400, and in San Antonio there is the Aloha, and in Greensboro we stay at the Manor Motel—it’s the size of three apartments! In Pensacola the Circle Motor Lodge, and in Jacksonville, there’s the Golden Sands, which is on the beach.”
There were certainly many hassles to face traveling as a family from one tour stop to another, but the players felt that the support provided by their families was worth it. Sharing the experience with other young families made it as fun as possible. Although changing diapers on a Greyhound bus doesn’t sound like much fun.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube
Tour Backspin Playlist
Thanks for reading! Please let your family, friends and colleagues know they
can sign up for email delivery of this free newsletter through this link.
Bonus Story
While the camaraderie of traveling together on the PGA TOUR led to lifelong friendships, there could still be the inevitable clashes between some personalities. Dave Hill and Chi Chi Rodriquez were two pros who clashed more than a few times.
The two players were paired together in the Kaiser International Open in late October 1970. Hill officially protested to PGA officials that Rodriguez’s “clowning” with the gallery had disturbed him. Hill finished one shot out of the playoff that was won by Ken Still.
“Look,” said Hill immediately after finishing his round. “I like Chi Chi, too. It’s just that this was one of the few days I was really trying to concentrate. I could have won out there. I know that.”
PGA officials fined Rodriguez $200 which he paid and then released a statement saying he didn’t agree with the ruling.
“All I did was humor the fans who pay a lot of money to see lucky guys like me play golf for a living,” Rodriguez said. “In my opinion, pleasing the fans is being a true professional. I never have, and I never will, interfere with a pro while he is playing a shot. If a certain pro can’t stand my clowning with the crowd when he is not playing a shot, that is unfortunate. I do not intend to alter my belief of helping to make the fans happy.”
It was clear that these two players would not be going out for dinner together anytime soon. In fact, Rodriguez requested that he and Hill not be paired together in any future events. That request was turned down by the PGA.
WHAT HOLE IS IT?
Are you on the leader board?
Tour Backspin Quiz | Kentucky Fried Chicken Trivia
When and where was the first restaurant going by the name Kentucky Fried Chicken opened?
Scroll down to for answer
Swing Like a Pro
The powerful swing of Arnold Palmer with his famous helicopter finish. (Photo: Leonard Kamsler | Getty Images)
Blind Shot
Click for something fun. 👀
Check It Out
With this new team thing in golf, there can be some contentiousness between teammates. Especially if Brooks Koepka is your captain. Read how he and Mathew Wolff are getting on in Golf Digest HERE.
Uncorked, The Life and Times of Champagne Tony Lema tells the story of one of the tour’s biggest stars in the mid-1960s. A fascinating glimpse into the traveling caravan that was the PGA TOUR during an era where the fields were full of “Mad Men” era personalities. From a hardscrabble youth spent on the “wrong side of the tracks” in the Oakland suburb of San Leandro, to the temptations of Elko, Nevada, to the bright lights of the PGA TOUR, Uncorked tells a story of determination, redemption and, above all else, a love story that documents how Betty, Tony’s new wife, provided the direction and motivation for him to become a top star. Order on Amazon.
What is Hip?
Look at these prints from Lilly Pulitzer in 1978.
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
The first restaurant to operate under the name of Kentucky Fried Chicken was opened in Salt Lake City in 1952 by Peter Harmon, a restauranter that Colonel Harlan Sanders met at a food seminar.
We love feedback! Send us your comments to larry@tourbackspin.com.
Larry,
Each year in the week before the U.S. Open, I re-read The Massacre at Winged Foot.
In the week before the British Open, I re-read your book Uncorked: The life and Times of Champagne Tony Lema.
Joe W.
Thanks, Joe! Proud to be in such good company.
Thank you to our paid subscribers who have renewed their subscrptions. Your support helps us do the work we do here at Tour Backspin. If you’re not already a paid subscriber and you’re enjoying Tour Backspin, I hope you’ll consider upgrading your subscription. I understand that not everyone can or wants to buy a paid subscription. I’m happy to have you here either way. I’m glad you feel that the stories of these players from one of golf’s “Golden Ages” are important to document before it is too late. Thanks for reading.
Vintage Ad
Final Thoughts
How cool were Charley Hull’s hot mic moments with her caddie during the final round? “Shy kids don’t get sweets,” she said when explaining a high risk shot on the final hole. Good stuff.
As much as Sepp Straka wanted to shoot a 59, I think that holding the trophy and check for $1,332,000 alleviated the disappointment of a final hole double-bogey and score of 62. $1.3 million for a non-elevated event!
Be sure to check out our Open Championship special edition next week. Now that’s a tournament with plenty of DNA for us to work with.