Jane Blalock - Part 1 (The Early Years)

Music playing  00:00

Mike Gonzalez  00:15

Welcome to another edition of FORE the Good of the Game and Bruce Devlin, as you know, we've been looking forward to this interview for a long time. And I don't purport to be an English major, or an expert with the English language, but I tried to come up with one word that might describe our guest today. And the best word I could come up with is "resilient."

Devlin, Bruce  00:38

I think that's a perfect word. So let me just say a few things about this young lady. Babysitter caddie, consultant to Merrill Lynch, a teacher, been I think, an entrepreneur, all her life. 34 professional victories, 27 of them on the LPGA Tour. And as Mike said, we've looked forward to Jane Blalock joining us for a long time. Welcome, Jane.

Blalock, Jane  01:13

Thank you, Brucey. I guess my life has not been dull.

Mike Gonzalez  01:19

Jane, thank you so much for for joining us today joining Bruce and I on for the good of the game. And as we've said, we've looked forward to this for a long time. There's so much to talk about. And as you know, in telling your life story, we like to start at the very beginning, of course, we're going to talk about your playing career, we're going to talk about a lot of the things you've been involved in post golf. But the fun part for a lot of our listeners is just hearing about you growing up how you came to learn the game and sort of how you developed yourself and made that decision to turn professional. So there's a lot there. Let's just go back to Concord, New Hampshire, where you were born, and take us through your early years.

Blalock, Jane  02:02

Oh, It's a pleasure in my not your typical journey to professional golf. But yeah, I'm a New Hampshire girl. I was born in Concord moved to Portsmouth, my father was in the newspaper business. And so I've lived in Portsmouth since oh, gosh, I was probably six, seven years old. My parents were not golfers. Like many other young people. Growing up, I played all sports. In my neighborhood, I was the only girl so there were, you know, five or six boys around my age. And so you know, I took them on at basketball. I still have a photograph of my father bought me shoulder pads and a football helmet. So I could go out and compete with them and not get injured. And, and I actually pitched on the grammar school baseball team. So I was I was pretty good. Golf was not even on the radar screen, until I must have must have been, you know, 12, 13 when P 04. Spaces, you know, obviously the big Air Force base now in Portsmouth, and that used to be the Portsmouth Country Club. It was now the Air Force Base. And the government came in and eminent domain just took over and gave the Portsmouth Country Club, some funds, and they built a new one. So it was the talk of the town. And all my my boyfriend's who went up to caddy. And as always, they dragged me along with him. So, you know, nine, this, you know, 12, 13 and the Golf Professional at the Club, his name was Tony Locke, he had nine kids. So obviously, he supported young people playing golf. And he started, you know, for the caddies, those these clinics on Saturday morning. So imagine in that era, young kids taking up the Golf Course on a Saturday morning. So as always, which would continue throughout my life, I was the only girl participating. And so I learned to play you know, with the boys and and then I did not have golf clubs, they you know, let us use some. And then I remember, some a friend of my mother's telling her she ought to take up the game. So she bought an old secondhand set of women's clubs. Louis Suggs, Patty Berg, of course, which were the only ones available at that time. And so I just took the clubs, the backyard, you know, with a wiffle ball and just kind of, you know, beating the ball around and and then a neighbor, a gentleman who played at the Portsmouth Country Club, came over and said, Wow, you know, she's really got some talent. And so anyway, I continue to play and the men at the club took me under their wing as did the women. And so I that's how I learned to play. And my mother never touched the set of golf clubs, never gave them back. And eventually, you know, I would play in some of the local, you know, the Club Championship. And in this is one story I'll never forget, because it kind of stayed with me the rest of my life is that I somehow got to the finals of Club Championship when I was 14. And I was five down with six holes to play. And I took the woman to the 18th hole. And my parents were there watching which they didn't do that much of my career. And at the end of the round, I kind of walked up smiling, and you know, just was was very happy. And so they rewarded me with a new golf bag, because my attitude of losing and losing gracefully, was so good. And that's the last time I lost in a club championship, though I will I will have to say. So that's kind of the I mean, I could I can expound, you know, beyond that. So, you know, I'm 13, 14, I played in the state. It was the State Junior, but I was in the junior junior division. And actually, they ended up winning the whole thing. But remember, my mother had said, no, just go have fun, don't have any expectations. You know, you don't have to win. And I came home with this big trophy, and another big smile on my face. And I said, I said, my I won, and I was the whole thing. And so that was, you know, that was my entree to golf with complete support from my parents, but no one, if anything, they tried to have me dial back did not force me to not push me, just allowed me to play in some of those, you know, ladies, Tuesday events, and some of the women that the club would kind of become my foster mother and drive me to, you know, tournament to tournament. And so my introduction to golf was, was nothing but, but positive. And I just felt lucky. Because that, during that era, there were not nor other opportunities for young girls. You know, we didn't have soccer, lacrosse and, and basketball. And so Golf was something that I couldn't do. And so that was probably the you know, it's it's taking a negative and turn into a positive there was nothing else. But, you know, golf became my Savior and my outlet for my, my desire to play sports.

Devlin, Bruce  08:01

So Jane, earlier you said that, that you played all the sports and that's been a common thing with all of our great players that we've interviewed. They all felt like that the the early days of playing competitive golf and having people other people that rely on them has taught them something. And did you have any? Anybody really instill your competitiveness in you? And I know you had an early idol in Wilma Rudolph.

Blalock, Jane  08:34

Oh, man, because everything I just, you know, she was winning so much and reading her background and how difficult it had been and you know, how she just how hard she worked and her ambition. And you know, she set her goals and rose to the top and she was just so graceful. And that's the one thing I remember. And I did end up meeting her many, many years later, at a Women's Sports Foundation dinner in New York. And I think she was shocked when I went up to her and told her how excited I was to meet her and that she, you know, she was my idol growing up.

Mike Gonzalez  09:12

That's great. Another thing you mentioned, I'll take you back to you talk about growing up with a bunch of boys in the neighborhood and you know, he ended up playing football you got you got a helmet, you got shoulder pads. I can remember a conversation recently with Jerylin Britz talking about growing up in Minnesota and she said yes, she said she said we had a helmet and  shoulder pads so my brother let me wear the helmet. But she learned to be hard nosed and tough if you're having to compete with the boys at that young age in a sport like football.

Blalock, Jane  09:48

Oh, absolutely. And just the fact they invited me to play you know, they loved it because I was good. And they would always say you know when you you know you pick sides lineup the teams and they always pick me up and I credit. My short game has always been excellent in the game of golf. And I credit that to boy, I could I could shoot some baskets. I could shoot free throws all day long. And we did have a three point line there. But I credit that to having a good short game having that, you know, excellent touch.

Devlin, Bruce  10:23

Yeah, that's good. So high school, right that Portsmouth.

Blalock, Jane  10:29

Yeah, Portsmouth High School. Again, so no more baseball, no more football. But I continue to play golf in the summer. But today, as you can imagine, this is before global warming. You know, our golf season was about three months. And it would quite often snow in October, and you wouldn't want to play golf in that cold rain in May, particularly with the leather grips in the steel shafts. And so, you know, I just had a normal life in high school and up, you know, as class president, I was a cheerleader, you know, I lead a very normal life. No, unlike, you know, today, these young women were, they're kind of singled out, and they barely have an education and barely have that socialization and, you know, the camaraderie that, you know, young girls should have going through high school. I had, I had all of it. And, you know, I would watch some golf on television, like, babes a hilarious and meanwhile, she was she was cool. They weren't on television very often. But I certainly would, would read a lot about it, and you know, would watch the Olympics. But it was, you know, Golf was just, I played one state championships when I was 15. But that was, you know, my summer activity. So I played golf in the summer, in order to, you know, to pay that $5 entry fee, and, you know, to buy golf balls, I would babysit him my, you know, off time to try to earn some money because my parents made sure that I earned everything and nothing was was given to me.

Devlin, Bruce  12:20

Perfect. So, after high school, you went to Rollins College, right?

Blalock, Jane  12:25

Yes, yes, it was. My father was a native Floridian. And my mother was a native New Hampshire person. But no one in my family had ever gone to college before. And I was looking at various schools, I looked in North Carolina, my father thought that it was part of part of an educational experience should be a geographical change. And I did not have a golf scholarship, because I don't even think they had the college. But he thought that was important. And remember, we visited the campus and I fell in love with it, it was a smaller school, small classes. And I got in. So I got accepted. And you know, that was just thoroughly enjoyed my, you know, my four years at Rollins and played up played some golf. When I first arrived, there was not a formal golf team. So actually played on the tennis team. And I was not number one or two. I did travel with the team some but the kind of the tennis, the head of the tennis team tried to convince me to leave golf and to move toward tennis. Obviously, I did not make that mistake, I stayed with, you know, with a game of golf. But it was fun to compete and it kept the think it was good for my legs good for timing and coordination. And, and that eventually we ended up we did have a golf team. It was not, you know, Stanford or Duke or Arizona state by any means. Because you know, women's golf in college was certainly not a big deal by any means. During that era.

Mike Gonzalez  14:22

Yeah, we're just you know, providing our listeners some context. And, Jane, you can appreciate how this has come up a lot with some of the, the your contemporaries in talking about their careers, and that's that we're talking way before Title Nine.  

Blalock, Jane  14:37

Oh, yes.

Mike Gonzalez  14:38

So the opportunities for women, as you said, few and far between whether we're talking about the work world, or we're talking about the athletic world, there were things that were deemed to be proper for women to participate in, and things that were deemed to be proper, and we're talking now about late 50's. We're getting into the early 60's. A whole different time, wasn't it?

Blalock, Jane  14:59

Oh, Absolutely, you know, said he felt lucky to have played, you know, some golf and tennis during college. But he had mentioned, you know, the workplace and sports, they really parallel each other. I think as far as the measuring and the advances and and the opportunities, but in our air, we had to make our own opportunities. And so it really I think it, it gave us a little more drive. I had a passion for the game of golf, I love competing. I think it didn't really matter what I just, I just thought competition was really fun that just always made you better. You know, whatever you were doing.

Mike Gonzalez  15:44

Was that innate? Or was that something you had observed with others that you sort of picked up on your competitiveness?

Blalock, Jane  15:51

I think it was innate. I forgotten some of the stories my mother would tell me. She did the one story that stands out, I guess, when I was in a still in a carriage. I had this little rock. And she said, will you do with that rock? I said, That's my "in casen" rock. And what do you mean, in case in, well in case someone comes after me. So I was I was prepared for whatever, you know, may come but you know, also going back with competition. Now, remember the days of those fairs. And we would have like the sack race, we'd have relay races. And I mean, I had a stack of blue ribbons, and was actually mortified when I'd get a red one. Which made it wasn't, it was either second or third. So if it was, you know, running a race or whatever it was, I just I loved winning. And and I said, because of the way I was raised, I was never upset. When I when I lost. You know, I'd go oh, you know, I didn't win, but then I would always have the smile on my face.

Mike Gonzalez  17:04

Yeah, I could see you though, coming back from that when at age 13. Bringing that big hope trophy home and thinking. I want some more of this.

Blalock, Jane  17:12

Oh, precisely. Yeah, it tasted at a young age. And fortunately, I did have some more of this.

Mike Gonzalez  17:19

Absolutely. You sure did. And so, you know, we talk again about the contrast and eras and you know, most of our younger listeners find it hard to relate to the fact that there weren't athletic sort of opportunities available for women. So for example, as you mentioned High School. The boys might have had a team the girls didn't have a team generally. In college sometimes that was true. I know some of your contemporaries played ended up playing on the men's team in college if there was a team but oftentimes not a women's team so you finally get to compete on a team in college. Tell us a little bit about how your game was developing in other words, you said there wasn't a lot of television yet so you couldn't observe level at a high I mean play at a high level back then necessarily too often but you must have been able to hear or read about see other good players to learn from.

Blalock, Jane  18:18

Yeah, I was kind of a scrapper I guess. And and as far as college we didn't have any real teens it was always intramural. So you know played intramural softball team and intramural basketball team. So that was that was the extent of of other sports. But is it golf as far as developing and won in college? I think this is if this is an interesting tidbit too. If you remember the name Bob Lewis. Bob was one of the U.S. Amateur one year he was captain to the Walker Cup team. We lost him a few years ago but he was a very close friend of mine in college and it was Bob because we you know shoot hoops together and and you know, we'd play some golf and he said boy said you know you've got such talented in golf that you really need to take some lessons because I had just kind of made up my own swing from playing with you know, with the guys really at Portsmouth Country Club. I had just watched them observe them and yes, I did watch golf on to on television. I'm not old enough to say I had watched Bruce Devlin But I would watch you know, primarily men's golf and try to you know, try to copy what they were doing but I definitely had a homemade homemade swing and and always dependent as on my short game. You know, I was an excellent chipper and putter and you know, just never wanted to miss a three footer. Wish that was the case their entire life but and so, yeah, but you didn't have the magazine articles you didn't have the you don't have Golf Channel. It's probably an advantage because I didn't get so confused watching all those different tips and contradicting one after another. But it was Bob Lewis who suggested that I I meet Bob Toski That was in college? 

Devlin, Bruce  20:32

Did you meet him before you one to 65, 66 and 68 New Hampshire Amateur or after?

Blalock, Jane  20:42

After I met him in 69. Okay, yeah, I had I had won the, you know, our competition Bruce wasn't quite like it is in Texas, in New Hampshire. You know? Yeah, that's right. And, yeah, so I was I was fortunate winning those. And I remember one of my teachers in high school. She may have been our physics teacher. And she played during the summer, you know, she was in that group that played on Tuesdays. And she pulled me aside, she said, you know, you may think you're a hotshot in New Hampshire, but waiting to get out into the real world. And you compete against those from, you know, from warmer climates. And, and I remember, I was so well, when I was 17. My parents, we jumped into our plumber station wagon, and drove to Albany, New York to compete in the National Junior. And I was the only person there without a coach without a caddy, with this little carry back. It was like the hip from New Hampshire until until I made it to the quarterfinals. qualified, but everything that, you know, teacher had said, came to fruition. And oh, yes, my This is big, big competition.

Mike Gonzalez  22:10

So was it then that you, you sort of felt that even at that young age, at least at this level, my game is standing up to my peers.

Blalock, Jane  22:21

Sort of that I realized I had a lot of work to do. And I didn't have some of the advantages they had, as far as you know, again, three, three months season. We didn't have the great teachers. Yes, I had our Tony Locke our golf professional, who would give me a few tips every now and then. But you didn't have those advantages of the young girls and other parts of the country. So it was really not, it was not a dream of mine to become well, professional golf wasn't terribly sexy at that time, either. But it was not my dream. I always thought wouldn't it be great to make the Curtis Cup team to represent the United States in some type of competition like that. But well, that never happened. But I was not recognized on the national stage.

Mike Gonzalez  23:16

So you think it might have been little easier growing up in Texas and having Harvey Penick teach you?

Blalock, Jane  23:21

I don't think so. I probably wouldn't love the game of the punches I do now because I probably would have played too much. And you know, but if people asked me, it's, gosh, you just you still play and you still work on your game. And I said, Yeah, I love it. Because I did not get burned out and at a at a young age, you know, from from not playing year round. And here I am back in, you know, in the Boston area. We don't get to play year round. But and again, I wasn't I played the game because I wanted to not because anyone told me I should.

Mike Gonzalez  23:56

That's a great place to be, isn't it?

Blalock, Jane  23:58

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Just I feel so fortunate that I do continue to love the game and to stay involved in it.

Mike Gonzalez  24:06

Yeah. So you're finishing college. I don't believe professional golf is yet in your sights. So you go on, you go on and you teach school for all your teaching history. A lot like other teachers. You know, contemporaries of yours, Sandra Palmer, Betty Burfiendt, Jerilyn Britz, they all came out of college to teach for a while, didn't they?

Blalock, Jane  24:32

Yeah, I mean, it was not like I remember after college, writing letters. One was to Peggy Kirk Bell at Pine Needles. I thought wouldn't it be fun to get a job around golf? And I wrote a couple others and I don't remember to whom those were those were written but said okay, I don't have a job. I have a college degree. And and I want to play golf in the summer. So what am I going to do? So I did get a job. Teaching School. I also worked as a waitress in the evenings, and to earn some some extra money. So, yeah, I still wasn't, Oh, I'm going to be a professional golfer.

Devlin, Bruce  25:13

So Big Daddy hadn't come along with all that money to send you out.

Blalock, Jane  25:18

No, but the, you know, the change in life for me really came, I had been teaching school for about a year. And it was just my mother pulled me aside. And she said, you know, you're a pretty good golfer. And you don't ever want to go through life ever wondering what if? Or what if you didn't try something? And so with that, she, well, I had, I had my little pot of money that I had, you know, from waitressing. But, you know, she gave me a probably another couple of $100, which was like, you know, $10,000 today. And then, remembering the whole introduction to Bob Toski, from, you know, from Bob Lewis. And my father, and I jumped into our little Volkswagen bug was a red one, and drove to Florida to take a lesson from Mr. Toski. And you may recall, he was, he was a New Englander, who's from Massachusetts. And so, I took a lesson it was $15. And he said, you know, you really, I think you've got some talent. And I said, but I really, I can afford one more lesson. So I have another lesson. And then so before I left, he said, Well, you know, he was always told and I can't remember now who it was but it said once you are have the opportunity to succeed in something it's your responsibility to give back. And so I'd like to give back by offering you the chance to he was Ocean Reef Club in North Key Largo I shouldn't leave that one out. It was not quite the fancy resort it is today. And he said, I'd like to offer you a job here at Ocean Reef. You can you know, pick up the range and work some of the pro shop and you know, starter on the first tee. And and then I love to work with you. So it didn't take long I said, Yes, sir. Drove you know, went home, it kind of finished so my teaching responsibility came back down. And for a year and a half. I worked with Bob, I made some really good money a starter on the first tee. I had a little war chest. Cheap tab you wanna you want to play now? You better grease the ball. Yeah. And but the the opportunity to you know, to hit balls with Bob into it. A lot of the Judy Rankin was my predecessor there. So a lot of the you know, top professionals would Jim Colbert used to come down so a lot of you know, I was around a lot of golf professionals, which was really fun and we'd go out and play and five sons and six sons later in the afternoon. So it was just I mean, I was an absolute heaven. I mean, just you know, what an opportunity to be exposed to those types of players and and to take lessons from Bob. But the you know, my friends later on the tour would say no, you're always performed pretty well under pressure. I said you know, nothing of pressure until you give a demonstration with Bob Toski. So you had you know, all these spans of spectators around and Bob is saying, Okay, now okay. Janie, you get up and you hit some balls now and then he totally humiliate you. criticize you add like, he always does his form of teaching. So I said, if I can do that, make contact with the ball and not embarrass myself. I can do absolutely anything in this game. So, you know, the year and a half at Ocean Reef was was so special. And I had it not been for Bob. I would be. We wouldn't be having this conversation today.

Mike Gonzalez  29:37

Did you have some birth?

Devlin, Bruce  29:39

I was just gonna ask Jane if she knew who built the Ocean Reef Golf Course.

Blalock, Jane  29:45

Was that a Devlin design?

Devlin, Bruce  29:48

That was a Von Hagge/Devlin design

Blalock, Jane  29:52

oh gosh. Well, you know the course I play now, the Rich Club in Sandwich on Cape Cod is a Bruce Devlin, Von Hagge design?

Devlin, Bruce  30:04

How about that?

Blalock, Jane  30:05

Yeah, I did. Oh, gosh. Yeah,

Devlin, Bruce  30:08

that was a long time ago. I must admit

Blalock, Jane  30:11

Ocean Reef, we had 18 holes then.

Devlin, Bruce  30:14

Yeah, now it's 36. Right?

Blalock, Jane  30:17

Well, there's there actually. The original course is now called Card Sound. So it's the private club. And now there are two other courses at Ocean Reef. And now it's, I went back with Bob. Three years ago, we did a tour to go back we played, you know, nine holes. And he took me to there's a Toski at the turn a little, you know, halfway house and he gave me the entire tour. So that was really special going, going back in time with him.

Devlin, Bruce  30:53

Perfect.

Mike Gonzalez  30:54

That's perfect. So let's get you on the tour. How did that all happen? Because it you know, back then it happens a lot differently than happens today.

Blalock, Jane  31:03

no idea. Yeah. So while I was there, some of the, in the players that were confounded Jan Ferraro shoes to come and take lessons from Bob, Beth Stone was also there. And if there would be some of the players that I would go out, and you know, and join, and they said, you know, you're really a good kid, but you're, you know, you're not done, you would never be good enough to play on the LPGA. So, you know, I thought about that. And just before this all happened after my first season there, but I had gone back and I had finished runner up in the North and South that Pinehurst so again, which was a big tournament, then, so Wow. I mean, I have arrived. That again, no one's ever heard of me. They don't remember they went to the quarterfinals at the National Junior. Yeah. And, and then that summer, I finished second to JoAnne Carner in the Eastern Amateur. I almost beat her. So at Rhode Island Country Club, I remember that well. So all of a sudden, it's like, wow, now I'm, you know, I'm starting to creep up on that radar screen of others know, who is Who is she, I was tuskys. pupil. That's was headlines. Toschi is pupil, you know, runner up in the eastern amateur. So then I, you know, went back down and said, to add those back to Ocean Reef, and, you know, continue to play with some of those players. And then, once again, was Beth and Jan, and they, you know, challenged me saying, you really wouldn't be able to make it and I just thought, Okay, I really want to go to graduate school. And I want to teach history and government in college, that was my ultimate goal. I'd actually had some interviews when I had driven back to New Hampshire, from, you know, from Ocean Reef. And so Bob, you know, would talk to me and mentor me, and I was, you know, I was improving. And one day I said, you know, again, going back to our mother said, You don't ever want to look back and regret anything, only because you would, you never tried. And so I chat, and I said, Well, maybe I could try this for a year, then I could, you know, go go back to graduate school. So with that said, the way we qualified, you say, Okay, I'm an entrepreneurship professional. Now, you write your letter to the USGA, and to the LPGA, and said, Here I am. And you had to finish in the top 75 percentile of three out of first four tournaments, right. So I made the first two, and I missed the third. So now what is it Pleasant Valley. Not too far from my hometown. And we talked about experiencing pressure. So obviously, I made it. And so it was really, you know, trial by competing against those who were already on tour. So I earned my LPGA card and my my fourth attempt,

Mike Gonzalez  34:33

Interesting how we we come to these forks in the road in our life, you know, graduate school ...professional golf.

Blalock, Jane  34:42

Right, and so remember, this is just going to try it for a year. Let's see what happens and maybe I can earn a few shekels and, you know, so I can, you know, pay my, you know, pay my expenses to go to graduate. School. And so let's see now where we are in 1969.

Devlin, Bruce  35:06

You messed that up by the way you realize that, don't you? What's that? You miss that you miss going up to the graduate school? Oh, yes. You become the rookie of the year on the LPGA.

Blalock, Jane  35:21

I do but I hadn't totally erased that idea yet.

Devlin, Bruce  35:24

Oh you hadn't?

Blalock, Jane  35:26

No because you know Rookie of the Year, I think I want about 4,000 that year as in dollars.

Mike Gonzalez  35:33

Thank you for listening to another episode of Fore the Good of the Game. Please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify. If you like what you hear, please subscribe. Spread the word. Tell your friends down until we tee it up again. Fore the Good of the Game, so long everybody

Music playing  36:12