Beth Daniel - Part 3 (The Solheim Cup)

1990 LPGA Championship winner, Beth Daniel looks back on her late wins on tour including her final victory at the 2003 BMO Canadian Women’s Open where, at age 47, she became the oldest winner ever on the LPGA Tour. Listen in as Beth recounts her final tournament, the 2007 Women’s British Open played at the Old Course at St. Andrews. She laments not winning the U.S. Open and takes us through her consecutive close calls with seconds in 1981 and 1982. She played in the first eight Solheim Cups and was honored with her selection as Captain of the U.S. side in 2009, a win at Rich Harvest Farms. Her crowning achievement was her induction into the LPGA and World Golf Halls of Fame in 1990. Beth Daniel concludes her life story, “FORE the Good of the Game.”

Transcript

Intro Music 0:07

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

Mike Gonzalez 0:13

Then it started to a couple of wins in 91, and then you skip to 94 where you picked up another four wins. So uh what was going on between 91 and 94? Anything special?

Beth Daniel 0:24

Well, I think driving and putting. No, I think what happened, um, what happened there is that after 91, you know, um 89, 90, 91, I got so much attention, and I never liked getting that much attention. So it's kind of like, okay, I don't want this much attention. So, you know, then you just don't play quite as well. Don't concentrate as much. And then it's like, so it was like this cycle of I'm not getting enough attention, I I want to play better, I'd play better, then it was too much attention, then I'd not play well. And I think that was more of the cycle for me there.

Mike Gonzalez 1:12

Had to be a lot of demand on your time back then.

Beth Daniel 1:15

A lot.

Mike Gonzalez 1:16

And as a as you know, as you're younger, more difficult to say no, isn't it?

Beth Daniel 1:22

Yeah, it was um actually I someone gave me a book when I was younger because I didn't say no to anything. And then they gave me a book, it says, when I say no, I feel when I say no, I feel guilty, I think is the name of the book. And it changed my life because it was basically it's okay to say no. And you don't have to give a reason why to say no. It's okay. And the LPGA in those days needed the top players to promote it. And in 91, after I won that many times in 90, I had to go back to all of those events that I won and do media days along with my sponsor days that I was giving. So, you know, I probably had 20 days out of the year that I had to I was giving back to the tournament and their charities. And you know, it's important that you do that, but those are days that you don't get off. So it gets it gets pretty tiring. And and you know, we talk to the LPGA a lot about you know, don't tire out your top players because if you don't have to, because then they're not gonna play as well. And yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 2:51

Bruce, we had the same conversations you'll recall with Bill Rogers. Bill back in his hot year of 1981, won seven times, including the Open Championship at uh at Royal St. George's, and and he was winning all over the world, so that next year he's going everywhere.

Beth Daniel 3:07

He's going everywhere, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 3:09

And at age 28, he said, I couldn't say no when I was that young. And uh in in you know, in terms of his personal story, uh you know, he burnt out.

Beth Daniel 3:21

Yeah, and you can't you can because it's not why you get in the game. You don't get in the game to do media days and things like that, but that's all part of it. I mean, you know, you look at Tiger Woods and Rory and guys like that, they're doing media every single day, no matter how they play. And they're getting asked to do other things, and you have to say no for your own sake.

Mike Gonzalez 3:52

Yep, yep. So four wins in '94, another uh solid year. You uh uh you know, including that playoff with Laura Davies, I think is probably the one she was talking about uh at the JL Big Apple in in 1994. You won your third world championship that year as well, didn't you?

Beth Daniel 4:12

Yeah, yeah. I I liked the world championship. It was always one of my favorite tournaments, but it was um, I think because it was so few players, but they were the top players you know of that year. You were so I was always so motivated to go in there and play well and prove that you know I was indeed one of the top players.

Mike Gonzalez 4:38

Yeah, yeah. You picked up a win in 95 over Colleen Walker and uh Meg Mallon at the Welchers Championship. Was Meg Mallon any good?

Beth Daniel 4:47

Good, good play, good, solid player, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 4:51

She sure was.

Beth Daniel 4:53

She drove the ball extremely straight. Like, I mean, she drove it on a string. She hit a lot of greens in regulation, and she was she would tell you she was a streaky putter, but man, I I mean she was good, she was a good putter, good short game. So, you know, just always kept the ball in place. She was always in it, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 5:16

Yeah, I'm sure we'll get her chance our chance with her at some point to uh to tell her story.

Beth Daniel 5:21

She said she wants she wants to do it, she wants to do the pot.

Bruce Devlin 5:24

Good. Good, good, good, good.

Mike Gonzalez 5:27

So uh kind of an eight-year stretch between wins, 1995, then you go to the BMO in 2003. So, what's going on at that point in your career?

Beth Daniel 5:34

Well, the the Yips came back at that point, and that was almost it almost retired me even earlier. Um and um I, you know, I worked hard on it and kind of overcame that. And I think also, you know, just the fact that it's funny because Mike McGetrick always told me, he goes, you know, when you hit 45, you you know, you lose your fast twitch muscle, you start losing your fast twitch muscles, and you know, you everything's slower in your swing because I started to lose distance, things like that. And I'm like, I'm like, Mike, you're crazy. You're crazy. I can work out and I can do this and whatever. And um, yeah, I think it was just kind of an adjustment. And I think as you get older too, you it's hard to focus for four days in a row. Um, you know, so you have days where you really lose your focus. Um it it's you know, it was it was not a fun time to try and play the tour, but I wasn't ready to quit either. Um and I had a lot of good like top 20 finishes, but I went from top five and top ten finishes to like top 20 finishes. And so, you know, I kind of like, and then I'm like, all right, I gotta, you know, I gotta end well. And I I just kind of um in 2007 I was we were playing the British over at uh St Andrews, which I just loved. I played seven days that week. I flew in. I well I I walked it the Sunday before, and then I played Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then because I just I love the golf course. I mean it and um at St. Andrews, and and on the weekend, I I said, you know what? I'm ready to I'm ready to stop. I played, I'm at St. Andrew's, I'm gonna stop. And I didn't tell anyone, but the problem I did I told one person, I told Meg Mallon, and she told Louise Suggs. And then I think Meg told Judy Rankin, who was commentating. So then the word got out on Sunday, and all these people were standing around the 18th green, and I'm like, and a camera showed up as I as I'm going across the bridge.

Bruce Devlin 8:13

Oh, yeah.

Beth Daniel 8:13

And I'm like, all right, they all know this is crazy. So, but I you know, I decided that was my last tournament, and I never looked back. I mean, it was just I had talked to a lot of time. It was the time, and I had talked to players, and they said, you know. I talked to tennis players and golfers, and they said, You just know, you'll know. And I I did. So that was my last tournament, and um, yeah, and it was fine.

Mike Gonzalez 8:43

What a way to wrap up a career at the old course at St. Andrews.

Bruce Devlin 8:46

Yeah, how about that?

Beth Daniel 8:48

It was great.

Mike Gonzalez 8:50

So uh uh just briefly mentioned the playoff record, which is as every player we've talked to will tell you, once you get to a playoff, it's a crapshoot. It's just it's it's more a roll of a dice, you know. So you had some uh you had a five to six record, which is pretty credible. Um, and uh um, you know, so you had six others that uh woulda, shoulda, coulda, but uh yeah.

Beth Daniel 9:15

Yeah, I didn't exactly have a winning record for for someone who was considered to be a good match player. I didn't have a good winning record in uh in playoffs, but yeah, I agree. I think it is it is a crapshoot, and I think a lot of it depends upon what hole they pick to, you know, the holes they pick to play. Like I always hate seeing a playoff where they play the same hole over and over and over again because I feel like there's a possibility that one player might have you know like that better than the other. And so I don't like that. I like switching up the holes, but um yeah, and that's TV controls it. TV controls it. Sure do.

Mike Gonzalez 10:05

I'll tell you what, Beth, I think we've interviewed now 21 Hall of Famers. If you laid out their entire playoff record for those 21 players, I'm not sure it's a winning record.

Beth Daniel 10:14

Really?

Bruce Devlin 10:15

Yeah, no, it's amazing, really. It is.

Beth Daniel 10:18

Yeah, that's surprising.

Bruce Devlin 10:20

There's one there's one lady player who who really who really uh I don't know. The first person we talked to was Kathy Whitworth, right? Yeah. And and do you realize how many times she finished second?

Beth Daniel 10:37

Isn't it in the 90s?

Bruce Devlin 10:40

It is, it's 95 times.

Beth Daniel 10:42

Wow.

Bruce Devlin 10:43

That's a fascinating.

Beth Daniel 10:44

And she won 88 times and finished second 95 times. Yeah, I mean, Kathy Whitworth's just an incredible talent. Yeah.

Bruce Devlin 10:54

But but I think Mike's right. I think if we looked at everybody, we'd they'd be it'd be hard to find a winning record overall for all the great players.

Beth Daniel 11:04

Yeah, yeah, that that surprises me. That really surprises me.

Mike Gonzalez 11:09

Let's just uh spin through the majors uh briefly. Of course, we talked about your win uh at the LPGA in uh in 1990, but uh starting with uh what was the Chevron, the ANA Inspiration, the Kraft Nabisco, the Dinosaur. I mean, it's had a lot of names, but that particular tournament at Mission Hills, which has been a major since '83, you only missed one cut there at three top fives and eight top tens.

Beth Daniel 11:33

But not miss the only missing one cut is good because in the latter years, um, we did have, well, we always had a cut, but it was a small field. So in the early days, it was kind of hard to miss the cut. You had to play pretty poorly to miss the cut there. You could, but um, and then as it went on, the field got bigger, and so then it was easier to miss the cut. Um, and that's pretty good because I always felt like that was a tough golf course for me. It just didn't um there were a lot of holes there that didn't set up to my eye, so I always kind of fought with it a little bit from a uh uh you know a golf course standpoint, but um but it was a good solid golf course. You had to you had to play well to play well there, you had to you had to drive it well, you had to think well, um, and you definitely had to keep your iron shots on the proper side of the hole to play well there.

Mike Gonzalez 12:43

Yeah, Bruce, uh a little bit like the masters on the men's side, in that it's uh the course that repeats every year. And as we've learned from talking to a lot of great players, uh a lot of times Augusta Nashville didn't necessarily suit their golf game either.

Bruce Devlin 12:58

Yeah, like uh one Lee Trevino.

Beth Daniel 13:01

Yeah, he never he never liked it.

Bruce Devlin 13:04

No, he never liked it. I'll tell you what, though, as good a player as he was, I you know, I can't understand why he couldn't win there too, because what a great player.

Beth Daniel 13:13

Yeah, he he was. And then, you know, now you see some faders that that win there. Um but yeah, that I mean, I guess, you know, really you can win anywhere if you put your mind to it, but I you know, I think he just had an attitude about Augusta Nashville that it doesn't suit my eye. And I and I get that. I mean, they're you know, they're definitely horses for courses, and um, you know, you run into that in in a career.

Mike Gonzalez 13:49

If you look at the U.S. Open, uh you had a couple of seconds there. One of them was uh real close to where I was living at the time, back in 1981. You were at Le Grange Country Club, and uh you had a nice little wedge shot to have the get into a playoff, I guess, huh?

Beth Daniel 14:06

Well, I birdied the last two holes of that open and still lost by one. Um Pat Bradley and I had quite a battle that day. We both shot in the 60s, and um it, I mean that that one hurt. That hurt for years. I I'll say out of all my losses, that one hurt the worst. And Pat and I have actually talked about it. Um and I I came out of that and I thought on Sunday, I thought I played my best golf and I lost. So my conclusion in my mind was therefore I'm not the best. It was a it was a very immature conclusion, and it it actually set me back for a little bit. Um but I would say that that loss stuck with me for probably five or six years before I could work my way through it. Um, I just wanted it, I wanted to win an open so badly that I think I basically stopped myself from ever having a chance because I wanted to win one so badly.

Bruce Devlin 15:24

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 15:25

Well, what you told yourself uh is exactly what Jack Nicholas told Tom Watson walking off the 18th green in 1977 at Turnberry. He told Tom, I played my best golf. Yeah and you beat me.

Bruce Devlin 15:38

You beat him, yeah.

Beth Daniel 15:40

Yeah. It it just yeah. It was uh that was that was a tough one. But I look back at it now and I I think, gosh, I played so well under pressure that I'm actually proud of how I played, but it it's taken me this long to kind of get through that.

Mike Gonzalez 16:02

Yeah. So how did you carry that experience to the next open? Because you got right back up on the horse and we're right there again in 82.

Beth Daniel 16:08

Yeah. Um is 80 82 was Del Paso.

Mike Gonzalez 16:14

It was.

Beth Daniel 16:15

Yeah.

Bruce Devlin 16:15

Yeah.

Beth Daniel 16:16

82.

Bruce Devlin 16:18

Well leading after 54 there too.

Beth Daniel 16:21

Yeah, I was leading after 54 and on the is it that was it the eighth green? Um I marked marked my ball, put it back down, and went to line up a pot, and the greens by Sunday were very flaky and crusty. And I came back and the ball had shifted and I called a penalty on myself. And I think it was the A-pole. I'm not positive about that, but even the the USGA official in the group is like, Are you positive? And I said, I always put the ball down the same way with the logo facing the same way, and the logo has moved like a quarter of a roll. And so I I called a penalty on myself, and then was a little bit rattled after that, didn't play as well, and I finished second. Um so that's another one that got away from me that I felt like you know, I should have I felt like I should have won that. So I had two years in a row in the opens that were very disappointing finishes. And uh, yeah, that one kind of that one stuck with me for a little while too.

Mike Gonzalez 17:49

Yeah, the the the British Open uh didn't come on stream as a major uh until 2001. So that was really deep into your career. You still played in a few. Uh you've played a lot of golf in the UK. What are some of your favorite venues over there?

Beth Daniel 18:03

Um, well, the ones that we played the open on at the time, uh, we didn't play. I mean, we played Royal Letham St. Ants, um, Sunningdale. I had played Sunningdale quite a few times. Um I just recently went over for Solheim Cup and I played some golf before, and I played Muirfield for the first time and just loved it. So I think now my new favorite is Muirfield, where they played this year. It's just right in front of you, good golf. Um, nothing tricky about it. Um, and I also love Turnberry over there, and I did play, I played a British over there at Turnberry.

Mike Gonzalez 18:49

Yeah, and it is fabulous since they did the changes there, too.

Beth Daniel 18:53

Yeah, yeah. And then, of course, St. Andrews. I I'm one of the ones that loves St. Andrews just for its oddities.

Mike Gonzalez 19:04

I like it too. I like it too. It kind of grows on you too, doesn't it? It does.

Beth Daniel 19:10

I think the more you play it, the more it grows on you. The first time I played it, my mom and I went over to I played the British Amateur because I was a U.S. amateur champion. I wanted to try and win the British Amateur. I lost in the semifinals. But my mom went over, and and my mom and I went and played St. Andrews afterwards. And that was a special time that you know I got to play it with my mom.

Mike Gonzalez 19:36

Yep. Yeah, I guess. Uh well, let's talk a little bit about the Solheim Cup then, Beth, because uh as a player you were there eight times. You got to play in the first one. That was in 1990 at Lake Nona with uh a couple of terrific captains. We've talked about Kathy Whitworth, but also Mickey Walker.

Beth Daniel 19:54

Yeah, Mickey Walker was captain for the the European team for quite a while. Um yeah, you know, that first one was kind of more like an exhibition. Uh, you know, we didn't have a lot of fans, it was mostly family and some other people that really knew the LPGA. Uh Lake Nona was a great venue. Uh Betsy King was my partner. Kathy Weber's like, okay, Beth, you and Betsy are gonna play, and we were undefeated. Um and um Allison Nicholas said we played Allison Nicholas and Laura Davies and we beat them. And Allison Nicholas was quoted as saying that it was like playing God and God, because you figure in in 1990 I had a great year, and so did Betsy King. Um and you know, that it was kind of the Americans were we were so confident, and the Europeans came over not quite knowing what they were getting into, I think. Um but after that Solheim Cup, a lot of Europeans wanted to come over and play in the United States, play the LPGA after that. So that kind of brought a lot of them over, and then you know, the next one in '92 was over at Dalmahoy. And Kathy Whitworth again was the captain, but her mother passed away once she got over there and she had to leave. And that threw us into a bit of a you know, an upheaval on our team. And um Alice Miller took over because she was president of the LPGA and she took over for Kathy, but it there was a lot of um arguing within the team as to who should play next and who should sit. And it didn't fare well with our team. We lost that one, which I think ended up being very good for the Solheim Cup that we lost that one.

Mike Gonzalez 21:59

Yep. Because then you then you went on to win the next three and then it then you start alternating and the home team won for a few years. Uh um of all of them other than your first one, uh what what what's the one or two that really stand out for, either from a competitive standpoint or just a personal experience standpoint?

Beth Daniel 22:15

Well, I think um, you know, the one that's popping up in my head right now is Cricket Stick, where Nancy Lopez picked me um, you know, older player, but she picked me to um, you know, as a captain's pick. And so that one was really special to me. And then and the first morning, I was actually supposed to sit. And uh Julie Inkster and Paula Creamer, who was a rookie for Solheim Cup at the time, were supposed to play together. And on Wednesday or Thursday afternoon, um, I was on the range and Nancy Lopez and Donna Caponi was her assistant, came up and they said, How do you feel about playing with Paula tomorrow morning? Julie's got an ingrown fingernail, and they've had to take her nail off. She's not gonna be able to play in the morning. And I said, All right. And they said, Well, Paula wants to play a few holes with you because it was alternate shot, too.

Mike Gonzalez 23:21

Yeah, sure. That I had to step in.

Beth Daniel 23:24

And um so I stepped in and played with you know the rookie, and we ended up having that match. Um, but I felt like you know, for stepping in at the last minute, I I did pretty well and and you know, introduced Paula to Solheim Cup.

Mike Gonzalez 23:44

Yeah, that was kind of fun. A great record across those eight times, and then you were honored to be named captain for the and I'll remember this one. Uh again, it's a a club I know up in Chicago where I live for a long time, but uh 2009 victory at Rich Harvest Farms.

Beth Daniel 24:02

Yeah, Rich Harvest Farms was it was really cool to be the captain. Um, you know, I had um I had Michelle Wee was on that team. She was a captain's pick. So my two captain's picks were Michelle Wee and Julie Inkster.

Mike Gonzalez 24:22

And um really went out on a limb there, didn't you? Yeah, yeah.

Beth Daniel 24:25

So I went veteran and rookie, and Michelle Wee played great for me there. Um, but she's just so good at match play and so intimidating. And well, you know the second hole there, the par five. I think she eagled it like two of the four matches. Um and it's not an easy hole, but she played really, really well, and um just the whole dynamic of learning what goes behind the scenes from a captain standpoint, as far as you know, designing the clothing, designing the golf bags, head covers, all of that. You do it all. And I just I just loved it. I just embraced it. And dealing with the players gave me a chance to kind of do what you know, I my major in college was coaching and administration. I got to I got to do both of those as a captain. And um, but the captain's picks were by far the hardest because there were um you know players that just weren't playing well going into it. The two players that were 11 and 12 on the list that I didn't pick, I thought were gonna be really hard to tell them. And they're both like, we're not playing well, I don't blame you. And I'm like, they just made my job so much easier, but then you know, some of them were tougher. And you know, as far as Michelle Wee goes, you know, a lot of people were saying you can't pick her because her parents are overbearing and that sort of thing. So what I did is I I took Michelle's parents aside and I just said, I want to explain this to you. I want to pick your daughter, but these are the things that I need you to do to make life easier for me and the team and everybody. Her parents were fabulous, they did everything I asked them to do. Um, they never got in the way. And I said to her, I said, I know you trust me with Michelle because I was friends with Michelle. I was kind of you know, had met her when she was young and had known her all that time, and I said, You have to trust me that I'm gonna take care of your daughter. And they said, Okay. And they let me have her for you know the week of the Solheim and actually before. And I'm so grateful to them for being that way. And Michelle played great.

Mike Gonzalez 27:14

Yeah, yeah, it was a very memorable Solheim Cup. So, Beth Daniel, outstanding career. I mean, we didn't uh highlight some of these statistics at the top, but uh um Bruce had mentioned 41 professional wins, including 33 on the LPGA tour. That's 15th on the all-time list, by the way, for our listeners. And uh we'll see where that is in 50 years. Hopefully, it's still 15th on the list. Uh but uh uh she was the rookie of the year in 1979, tour money winner, leader in 80, 81, and 90, player of the year in 1980, 1990, 1994, the Vere Trophy winner in 89, 90, and 94. So quite a record of accomplishments on the LPGA tour and across professional golf. And you know, since retirement, uh uh uh she's been honored uh quite a bit. I guess uh probably the capstone of the career being uh uh inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame and the LPJ Hall of Fame in 2000. That had to make you feel quite proud.

Beth Daniel 28:16

Yeah, that was uh that was pretty special. I remember when I I um you know got the call about World Golf Hall of Fame and and the LPJ Hall of Fame, and it was it, you know, it it's it's a nice feather in your cap, I guess. Um is the way to say it. It's um and World Golf Hall of Fame has really done a good job of kind of making us feel like we're a family. And so when we have the gatherings for the inductions, it's always fun to see everybody and talk to them and catch up on our lives, and yeah, it's a it's a nice gathering there.

Mike Gonzalez 28:59

Yeah, and uh uh one you're probably uh proud of as well, the Beth Daniel Award uh honors the best junior female golfer in South Carolina.

Beth Daniel 29:09

Yeah, that one's kind of fun. I I uh Jay Haas does the men's side and I do the women's side. Oh, great. And um, you know, South Carolina Golf Association has done a great job of of bringing up um these young kids, and it's fun to watch their careers. And I've had some um award winners go on and play the tour, like Austin Ernst is currently on tour. She's a past winner. Um, Christy McPherson, who played on my Soul Hunt Cup team. It's kind of kind of neat to have a South Carolina native on my Soul Hunt Cup team when I was captain. So uh yeah, so I've had some had some good players win the Player of the Year award and go on to do some really good things.

Mike Gonzalez 29:57

Yeah, yeah, one person, Bruce, and I want to give a shout-out to is Hart Brown, uh Hart longtime pro at uh Country Club of Charleston as well. And and as you're getting to know, we do some deep research on our subjects, Beth. So uh uh confidentially, he gave us some good stuff, didn't he, Bruce?

Beth Daniel 30:14

Oh, I bet he did. I bet he did. Yes, he did. Hart and I used to spend a lot of time together. Um, when I was in college and I'd come back home, Hart was playing a lot of golf at the time, and he's a good, good player. Um, and you know, we'd go out and play golf. And um I just saw him at my junior tournament two weeks ago. You know, he retired from the country club of Charleston, and Matt took over for him. Yeah, and I just texted him and I said, Boy, we're missing you out here. And so he came out one day and he makes me he makes me laugh. He um he's getting back into play, he's playing a lot of he's hitting balls every day, and he wants to start playing in some things. So I'm excited for him that he's now getting back into playing golf.

Mike Gonzalez 31:05

Yeah, well, tell our listeners about what you just alluded to, the Beth Daniel Junior Azalea Tournament at Country Club of Charleston.

Beth Daniel 31:12

Yeah, so um let's see, I think um that Hart and Hart called me and he said, you know, we've had this. It started as the Al Esposito, which I played in, and then became the Junior Azalea because Country Club of Charleston every year has the Azalea Tournament, which is the top amateur men players in the country. They come and play. And back in the day, they would play, the amateurs would play at the Country Club of Trust and then go on and play in the in the Masters. Um, so it's got really good roots. And so what we're trying to do is grow the junior Azalea into the same type of tournament as the Azalea. So it's an invitational, it's based on junior rankings, and it's uh boys and girls. And um it's um so Hart called me and he said, Boy, I'm having a hard time with the the um the junior azalea. I'm having a hard time keeping it going. Would you be interested in coming on board and helping? And I said, Absolutely. And he said, I'm also thinking about talking to South Carolina Golf Association about having them come in and run it. So the three of us all got on a phone call and we decided to give it a try, and it was a big hit. So um it, you know, we're going on, I think it's the fifth, this was the 15th year of it, and I I fly into Charleston for the week of the tournament. We do a sponsor day on the Monday morning, and then the kids play their their um practice round in the afternoon, but in the morning we do two sponsors uh and two of the kids playing in the tournament, and the sponsors just love it. They love playing with these kids. And we raise money just for junior golf, so we raise the money to keep the cost down for the tournament, but we also um give away money to South Carolina Golf Association, First T, USGA, LPGA, Junior Girls Program, and the junior program at the country called Charleston. All the money that we raise goes into to that. And um so it's become, you know, it's become pretty popular, and it's popular with the kids, and we're starting to get kids from from out of state, like Nick Gross from Pennsylvania won last year. Um and this year we had two North Carolina kids winning. So I told the South Carolina kids, I'm like, you better get going. North Carolina kids are passing you. So it's fun. And I get to watch their I get to watch their careers, I get to watch them move on, and um it's it's one of the most gratifying things that I've done in golf.

Bruce Devlin 34:23

Yeah, that's neat. So, Beth, seeing as you have listened to some of our podcasts, you're you've got to know what's coming now, right? We get to ask, we get to ask our guests three questions.

Beth Daniel 34:38

Okay.

Bruce Devlin 34:38

Right, Mike? That's right. You can start. Go ahead. So the first question that I would ask you is um if you knew now what you knew when you I mean, if you knew now, what would you do if you knew today when you started? I mean, I'm not I'm messing with it. That's right. I'll let it all this up.

Mike Gonzalez 35:00

Go ahead and start again. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, go ahead, Bruce. Try it. Try it again. Try it again. Let me try it again.

Beth Daniel 35:07

What would I have done differently? What would I have done differently? Um We finished that off.

Mike Gonzalez 35:14

We'll let him we'll let him do that again. Let's let him do that again. Go ahead, Bruce.

Bruce Devlin 35:18

I'm not gonna do it again. I'll ask it. You can ask the next question. How's that? That's pretty good. Oh, all right, that's good.

Mike Gonzalez 35:25

Um well I So Beth, if if bet uh so Beth, if if you knew at age 20 what you knew today would have known now, what would you have done differently?

Beth Daniel 35:34

Well, I think number one, I probably would have not played quite as much. I would have given my body more time to rest between tournaments. Um and I boy, I mean, that's kind of a loaded question, but um just in general, I think that that, and I think I would have said I probably would have said no more often to things, especially things that were outside of golf. Because I think what you have to do looking back on my career is you have to decide, you know, what's the mark that I want to leave in golf? What is, you know, do I want to, you know, be a good player? Do I want to do this? Do I want to do that? And I I think you know, you have to kind of look at it that way. And I think I would have practiced my short game more. Instead of focusing so much on my long game, I would have practiced my short game more.

Mike Gonzalez 36:36

Okay, good, good answer. So, Beth, we're gonna give you one career mulligan. Where do you take it?

Beth Daniel 36:44

A career mulligan? Um well, I think at the 80 the 82 open, I'd take my mulligan for the ball that moved and not have the ball move. I think that open would have been a different uh outcome.

Mike Gonzalez 37:05

So that's the first time we've ever heard something about a non-shot. It was really more of a I want to replace the ball better.

Bruce Devlin 37:12

Exactly.

Beth Daniel 37:14

I would just not have the ball move on me. Yeah, that'd be my career mulligan. Um I I would actually like people to remember me as um, you know, someone that played good golf, someone that cared about the game and the history of the game, and someone that you know that cares about people, which I do. And I didn't always exhibit that when I was competing, but I do I do care about people. And I think the thing about me is that I'm I was totally opposite competing than I am off the golf course. I'm a totally opposite person. So when people meet me now, they can't believe that I was the way I was when I played golf. Um, but it's what I had to do to compete. But I would like people to think that I'm a I care about other people and I'm I'm a caring, caring person.

Mike Gonzalez 38:23

Beth Daniel, World Golf Hall of Famer. Bruce, it's really been a pleasure.

Bruce Devlin 38:28

It has. Beth, we we thank you so much. We've looked forward to this. We I know we had you scheduled uh quite a bit earlier than this, and we've been waiting to get over certain things, but it's been a joy having you with us today. You've been a wonderful player, and uh we thank you for your time.

Beth Daniel 38:46

Well, Bruce and Mike, thank you for having me, and you guys do a great job with this. And I'm looking forward to listening to more podcasts.

Mike Gonzalez 38:56

Thank you for listening to another episode of For the Good of the Game.

Intro Music 39:01

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