Boone and Nichols have chatted inside LPGA media centers for years. Here’s what they’ve been saying.
For years, Grant Boone and Beth Ann Nichols have chatted inside LPGA media centers, sharing insider tidbits about the top tier of women’s professional golf.
Boone, who has been on-air for more than two decades and now handles LPGA play-by-play for NBC Sports and Golf Channel, has come to trust Nichols as a confidante, knowing he could bounce ideas off his friend when needed.
And Nichols, the first female president of the Golf Writers Association of America and a longtime Golfweek senior writer who is the only full-time independent LPGA beat writer, has done the same.
So, why not get two of the most important voices on the LPGA beat together?
That was the thought behind Golfweek’s newest venture, “The Big Pickle,” which will run on our YouTube channel as well as all podcast platforms.
Once a month, Boone and Nichols will dig deep into the women’s game, welcoming some of the top names to speak their minds about the direction of the LPGA and the season’s finest moments. For the podcast’s debut, World Golf Hall of Famer Judy Rankin hopped on with the duo, discussing this week’s first major of the year, the Chevron Championship, as well as Nelly Korda’s incredible run.
Aside from the monthly deep dive, on other weeks Grant and Beth Ann will drop an audio-only “Emergency Nine,” a 9-minute recap of the weekend’s events, to keep listeners up on what’s shaking inside the LPGA ropes and everything in women’s golf.
As for the name? Grant and Beth Ann will have to divulge that info.
Subscribe, comment and tell a friend. As the women’s game continues to gain momentum, “The Big Pickle” will be sure to keep you informed, enlightened and entertained on everything LPGA.
The former Duke player is now busy crisscrossing the globe making history in the commentary box.
Alison Whitaker was having lunch on her birthday in China at a Ladies European Tour event when someone from the television crew asked if she’d be interested in filling in during the coverage later that day.
The affable Aussie said sure, she’d love to. The crew member went on to explain that ideally, they’d like to have a European voice. Whitaker said no worries, she’d be around for another 40 minutes in player dining if they couldn’t find a better option. Either way, no hard feelings.
“Lucky for me, they didn’t find anyone,” Whitaker said with a laugh. By the end of the day, she’d been offered a contract for the following season.
That was a decade ago, and now Whitaker, the former Duke player with the razor-sharp mind and infectious personality, is busy crisscrossing the globe making history in the commentary box.
LPGA Hall of Fame player and television trailblazer Judy Rankin calls Whitaker the most versatile person in broadcasting. She can walk the fairways as an on-course reporter and serve as both an analyst and lead host – sometimes in the same week.
Whitaker, 38, will be in the booth at this week’s Blue Bay LPGA event in China but does most of her work in the men’s game on the DP World Tour and is mostly off-camera, making her a sneaky low-profile TV personality.
“She’s tremendous,” said Rankin, adding that “here, she’s definitely under the radar except for the true golf junkies who watch a lot of the European Tour and so on.”
Whitaker made it to Durham, North Carolina, via a 2005 American summer tour that culminated in a semifinal appearance at the U.S. Women’s Amateur, where she beat future LPGA players Ryann O’Toole, Maria Uribe and Amanda Blumenherst before falling to finalist Maru Martinez.
Alison Whitaker played for Duke from 2006 to 2010. (courtesy Duke athletics)
When Whitaker arrived at Duke, the mood of the team lightened, recalled Blumenherst. She’d be the one printing out the lyrics to the “Little Mermaid” to bring in the team van. When Blumenherst played her last competitive round at the Evian Championship 11 years ago, Whitaker was there on the last hole to give her a hug.
Blumenherst was actually working for the Golf Channel on set when she first heard Whitaker’s voice on a broadcast. She watched as someone hit a thin shot out of a bunker that caught the top edge, prompting Whitaker to say, “Oh, those lips don’t lie.”
Right from the start, Blumenherst said, it seemed Whitaker belonged on television.
At one point this season, it looked like Whitaker might be on the road working events for 17 straight weeks. She deleted a few in the middle so she’d remember where to put the coffee mugs at her home in Melbourne. She’ll typically work five to seven weeks in a row and then have a couple off.
Saying yes to television was made rather easy given that she’d been battling glandular fever and vertigo as a touring pro. Plus, she absolutely loved it, noting that her work ethic exploded.
For many former players in the commentary world, television feels like the next stage. But for Whitaker, professional golf felt more like the lead-up to what she was meant to be doing.
When Whitaker first got recruited to work on the LET, she was in her late 20s, which was young for the time. After working the LPGA’s Asian swing and some of the men’s and women’s events in Australia, Whitaker started covering the DP World Tour for European Tour Productions, which provides the world feed for Golf Channel and Sky Sports, among others.
“She’s the most conscientious, diligent person I’ve ever come across,” said booth mate Tony Johnstone. “I think she’s surrounded by more laptops than when they put Apollo on the moon.”
Covering the men’s game meant that Whitaker had a lot to learn in a short amount of time, given that playing professional golf on a women’s tour leaves little time to watch the men.
Sitting next to men in the commentary box who had witnessed something firsthand that Whitaker had only read about drove her to work the range and talk to as many people as possible.
Even so, it was deeply intimidating.
“You kind of just have to make sure you fill your shoes with a little bit of self-belief,” said Whitaker, “which is so much harder than people would think when you’re sitting down the row from Nick Faldo and Trevor Immelmann, and I’m just trying to convince myself to talk.”
That’s where Whitaker’s strong sense of humor comes into play. She has learned to laugh about mistakes and give herself a bit of grace. When it comes to the naysayers online, her family provides some levity, particularly when bad grammar and typos are involved.
“Like many women in men’s realms, especially in sport, I’ve got a healthy dose of imposter syndrome,” said Whitaker, “which I’m trying to get in check, but at the same time it fuels me.”
Alison Whitaker and Iona Stephen pose for a picture at the TV compound. (courtesy photo)
Iona Stephen’s first memory of meeting Whitaker was at the 2019 BMW PGA Championship while working for Golfing World. Whitaker warmly introduced herself, and they sat down for a drink. Right from the start, Stephen felt this was a woman she could trust.
Fast forward to the global pandemic, when Stephen was early into her work as an on-course reporter covering the DP World Tour and tasked with interviewing some of the biggest names in golf – live. It was a tough time learning a new business during the isolated era of Covid, but as luck would have it, Stephen was in a shared accommodation space with Whitaker that week. Stephen grabbed a decorative shell and used it as a pretend microphone as she conducted mock interviews with Whitaker until midnight.
“I’ll never forget that,” said a grateful Stephen.
Whitaker started working the lead of men’s broadcasts toward the end of 2020. With little advice to go on, she dove in, unaware of all the ways she’d soon be making history.
In addition to working as the lead host covering on the DP World Tour on a consistent basis, Whitaker became the first female lead at the Open Championship three years ago at Royal St. George’s for the world feed, as well as at the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. Last year, she was the first female lead on a men’s major for Sky Sports at the PGA Championship.
David Mould, director of live television at the European Tour Group, said Whitaker is also the first person on the world feed to work as both a lead host and analyst, which she does for the DP World Tour’s high-profile Rolex Series events.
“I don’t think Alison realizes how good she is,” said Mould, “and maybe that’s a good thing because it drives her forward to try and be better.”
Whitaker is humble about the history and mostly wants to help other women join her on course and in the booth. She’s open to sharing all of her tricks and tips. And when the pressure gets to be too much, as it invariably does in a profession in which mistakes are amplified, she’s the first to offer those in her small girl gang a hug.
“The environment when I got into it was very competitive because there wasn’t enough room for more women,” said Whitaker. “It felt like there was one woman on each crew and everyone was quite defensive of their patch.”
She describes Thomas Bjorn as her security bear. He’s quick to make sure everyone is taken care of, she said, and will march into any room to make things happen. He’s even fought a few battles for Whitaker, just so she doesn’t have to.
“When you hang out with him, you can see why so many guys respect him and look to him as a leader,” she said. “I got to know that more after his Ryder Cup captaincy when I started to work with him more. He just gets things so right, and he takes care of you.”
Whitaker often works broadcasts without ever being seen on camera. (courtesy photo)
The team environment means much to Whitaker, a noted foodie and wine expert who can direct pals to brilliant food haunts around the world.
Whitaker notes that Scotland’s Ken Brown has a contagious laugh that can heard buildings over. He presented her a watercolor for Christmas – someone pulling a sleigh down a snowy street – and it became an instant treasure.
Richard Kaufman and Kate Burton were early mentors as she started covering the LET. Her goal every day was to find something that Kaufman didn’t know.
At the 2015 Solheim Cup, Whitaker sat in a box with Burton, who was working lead for the first time. At the end of the first day, Burton asked Whitaker to give her one thing she liked, and one thing she could work on for the next day. Learning how to take feedback is very hard to do, Burton explained, but it’s the only way to get better.
“What a massive lesson to learn,” said Whitaker. “Between the two of them, I got work ethic, and the secrets on how to try and improve.”
Of course, Whitaker’s favorite stories to tell are the ones when things didn’t go as planned. Like the time the air-conditioner died during the Joburg Open in South Africa and they had to put their phones in the fridge before finishing up a Sky Sports interview. Not to mention the black mamba curled up under the portable toilet.
“I hope to have a career of that,” said Whitaker. “I don’t want it to be too polished.”
At Golfweek, we continue to send live bodies on the road at events throughout the year.
Between COVID, advances in technology and myriad other factors, golf beat reporting just isn’t what it once was. Media centers have fewer and fewer members, Zoom calls and transcripts make it easier to keep tabs on players and tournaments from afar and player availability has become increasingly more difficult to secure as many pros (and some college players) are being pulled in numerous directions by sponsors and other responsibilities.
At Golfweek, we continue to send live bodies on the road at events throughout the year — on the PGA Tour, LPGA, LIV, USGA championships, amateur and college events, as well as silly-season tournaments.
Through the hard work of reporters like Adam Schupak, Beth Ann Nichols, Adam Woodard and Cameron Jourdan, we secured a number of great Q&As in 2023 away from the media scrums and online pressers, getting a deeper look at some of the most fascinating personalities that make this game great.
Here’s a look at some of our favorites, in no particular order:
To close out the year, we’ve been looking through the numbers and tallying up which stories drew your attention.
Over the final few days of 2023, we’re offering up a snapshot of the top 10 stories from each of Golfweek’s most popular sections, including travel, the PGA and LPGA tours, instruction and amateur golf.
Our esteemed LPGA senior writer Beth Ann Nichols covers the LPGA as well as anyone, following players across the globe to uncover the best stories the women’s game has to offer. And 2023 had so many of them, from Rose Zhang’s instant impact, Lilia Vu’s two major victories and a fascinating Solheim Cup.
To close out the year, we’ve been looking through the numbers and tallying up which stories drew your attention, and we’re now sharing the findings with you. Here’s what we’ve already counted down.
Golf’s beloved television pioneer Judy Rankin returns to the booth next week for the 18th edition of the Solheim Cup.
Golf’s beloved television pioneer Judy Rankin returns to the booth next week for the 18th edition of the Solheim Cup. A 26-time winner on the LPGA, Rankin’s work schedule slowed down considerably in recent years, opening the door for Morgan Pressel to take over as lead analyst on LPGA coverage.
But with Pressel serving as an assistant captain for Stacy Lewis in Spain, Rankin happily agreed to fill in and will sit alongside good friends Terry Gannon and Juli Inkster for the Golf Channel broadcast.
This year’s Solheim Cup will be contested in Spain for the first time, Sept. 22-24, at the picturesque Finca Cortesin resort.
Rankin twice captained Team USA to victory in 1996 and 1998. Golfweek caught up with the 78-year-old World Golf Hall of Fame member before she headed overseas.
Judy Rankin, lead analyst for Golf Channel this week, likes seeing the most iconic hole on the LPGA return to its original form.
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – The ANA Inspiration celebrates its 50th anniversary this week, and the 18th green has gone retro. No grandstand. No Great Wall of Dinah. Just an island of drama.
Or will it be?
“I honestly find it a bit boring,” said Madelene Sagstrom, who believes not many will go for the green in two, even with a forward tee. Tournament officials typically move the tee up on two days during the ANA Inspiration.
Mel Reid will likely go for it with a 5-iron in hand because she’s that kind of aggressive player, but she too believes fewer players will take on the risk with greens as firm as they are and the grass mowed down in the back and nothing there to stop it. Not to mention the yellow hazard stakes.
For years there has been typically a grandstand behind the green for VIP hospitality. With no fans at last September’s ANA, organizers opted to instead put up a giant blue wall – closer than the grandstands usually sit – with ANA scripted in small letters across the top. As far as billboards go, it wasn’t exactly effective.
Not surprisingly, the wall came into play in a big way when Mirim Lee rocketed a 5-wood at it, banking on the wall to stop her ball from going in the water. It worked, and Lee proceeded to chip for eagle to make her way into a playoff against Brooke Henderson and Nelly Korda that Lee quickly won. Henderson’s second shot in regulation got stuck under the wall and her sister/caddie Brittany crawled inside the blue mesh to retrieve it.
The blue wall behind the 18th green at the ANA Inspiration during a Golf Channel broadcast. (Beth Ann Nichols/Golfweek)
“The amount of time the boys hit it into grandstands and get away with shots and bounce onto greens,” said Reid, “and then they just made a big fuss because we didn’t have any crowds. I mean, it’s been like that for years. I don’t think they needed to change it, but I get why they have because it does look a little bit stupid with no crowd, but it’s tough.”
Stacy Lewis, a past champion of this event, appreciates that the hole now plays as it was originally designed. (It’s also played this way during the first stage of LPGA Q-School.) Lewis never goes for this green in two though, so nothing really changes for her.
“I hit 5-iron yesterday, landed in the middle of the green and went over in the water,” said Ryann O’Toole.
The same thing happened to Jennifer Kupcho with a 4-iron.
Nelly Korda hit a 6-iron just short and it rolled into the middle of the green. Her 5-iron went over the green. Korda said she was undecided on whether or not she likes the change.
Last year, Lexi Thompson had a 7-iron in from the forward tee to a back pin. That’s the shortest she has seen it play. This morning, Thompson hit a 4-iron that worked out quite nicely. If it’s more than a 6-iron though, Thompson said she likely won’t go for it in competition.
“It would have to be a perfect number honestly, with any club, to get the full max height to be able to stop it,” said Thompson. “But it’s good, it’s a major. It should be challenging and require more thought.”
Mirim Lee hits her third shot onto the 18th green during the second round of the ANA Inspiration at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California on Sept. 11, 2020. (Photo: Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun)
Brooke Henderson said it’s no longer an automatic green light with 3-wood in hand, but if she has hybrid or 7-wood in, she’ll definitely going for it.
If Maria Fassi finds the fairway, she’ll likely go for it. From the back tee on Monday, she hit 5-iron with a helping wind onto the green. On Tuesday, she hit 7-iron from the forward tee.
“It makes you think a little bit more,” said Fassi. “It demands a better golf shot as well. I think it’s fun.”
Yani Tseng, the 2010 ANA winner, believes the raw island green makes for a great finish: “This is real golf.”
To ensure more drama over the weekend, Katherine Kirk believes softening the green more is the answer.
Sue Witters, LPGA vice president of rules and competition, said they’ve already started adding water to the greens after Monday played particularly firm.
“The greens got firm on us yesterday,” Witters said on Tuesday.
With temperatures expected to reach 99 degrees over the weekend, players expect the Dinah Shore Tournament Course to get more baked out as the week goes on.
World Golf Hall of Famer Judy Rankin, lead analyst for Golf Channel this week, likes to see the most iconic hole on the LPGA return to its original form. This is how the closing par 5 played when she won in 1976.
“You have find a way to reward a shot that’s well-struck,” said Rankin, of making sure that the green is receptive throughout the week.
As the ANA Inspiration celebrates its golden anniversary this week, Golfweek caught up with the incomparable Judy Rankin.
As the ANA Inspiration celebrates its golden anniversary this week, Golfweek caught up with the incomparable Judy Rankin, who as a past champion and Golf Channel analyst, knows and appreciates the totality of this event—from start to present—better than anyone.
The ANA turns 50 this year. You won the fifth edition of the event. What’s your favorite memory from your victory here in 1976?
I think just winning because I had sort of taken up the feeling that the actual winning of it was for somebody else. I think around the last three holes, I finally was slapping myself in the face and saying somebody has to win this, and it might as well be you. I birdied the 15th hole which kind of got me going pretty well, and then I hit a really good long iron into 16. But you have to understand, 15 and 16 were different holes than they are today. … There have been tweaks and re-dos over a lot of years. Not everything was exactly the way you see it today, but regardless, I won it on a really difficult day. It was very cold and very windy. I think I shot 68 in the final round. I was pretty happy with the round that day. I was just overwhelmed to have won it.
If jumping into Poppie’s Pond had been a thing back then, what kind of jump would we have seen from you?
It was so cold I would’ve needed a wet suit. I don’t think it would’ve been anything glamorous or very funny. I think I’d have just jumped. At this point right now, I’m glad we weren’t jumping in those days.
LPGA golfer Judy Rankin. (Photo: Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
How important has this event been to the LPGA since Day 1?
So important. I can’t even tell you. It was, I think, the real catalyst for the mid 70s and the way the LPGA started to be recognized and treated. An awful lot of it was the tournament, an awful lot of it was a really good golf course, but at the time a very young golf course. And the icing on the cake was when Dinah came on after a couple years. Dinah had so much respect in her industry that it seemed like she brought that respect to our industry. She was just wonderful.
For those who came along after Dinah Shore, how would you describe her?
She was warm and smiling and encouraging. She was such a fan of the players. She took up golf because of us and really became kind of an addict, a fanatic. I still have my cookbook that says she’d teach me how to cook if I’d teach her how to play. As famous as she was or not, you would really like to know her.
Does the LPGA need a modern-day Dinah?
I don’t think it would hurt. It’s not something I’ve thought about a lot. At that time, a name like Dinah Shore opened a lot of doors. Anything that gets eyes on how good these players are today is a worthy experiment.
The 18th will go back to its island roots this week with no wall or grandstand. How tough was that hole in its original island form?
It was never a two-shot hole for us, certainly not for me. I do remember a player or two who hit the green in two, but I don’t know if we played an alternate tee or not. To tell you the truth I can’t remember. … When we played it, at least initially, there was a much bigger driving area. It was just before the corner, where the water sticks out to the left. Initially, the tee shot at 18 was not as hard as I see as it is now.
Over time they started tightening that area and then adding bunkers on the right. As years went by, it kept becoming a more difficult driving hole. In our case, if you go back to the first several years, the key was really the layup. If you laid it up in trouble, there were bunkers to the right and the rough was thick. The layup was kind of tough. I cannot tell you how many times we played that hole, where if you got there in three it was a miracle. It was that long. I’ve hit a 3-wood into that green and it wasn’t my second shot.
The 18th hole at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course, host of the ANA Inspiration. (Photo: Desert Sun)
How important is it that the ANA Inspiration stays at Mission Hills?
I know there could be another great tournament. But this is the signature golf course for this time of year, right ahead of the Masters. I do think something would be lost. But I would also say that in this professional golf thing, longstanding places, this tour, the PGA Tour, sometimes areas run their course. Sometimes the volunteers have volunteered so many times and they just don’t have it in them anymore. It’s just a fact of life. It’s not anybody’s fault. I hope that’s not happening here, but I think it’s going to be a very hard championship without fans.
What’s been your favorite ANA finish as a broadcaster?
In my recent memory, as much as I like Inbee, I was holding my breath for Pernilla Lindberg. She had just stood up to the pressure so well.
The leaderboard last week at the Kia was packed with big names. Who’s your dark horse for this week?
You know who I think should play well? Minjee Lee. She was playing just well enough last week, and I always think that she’s going to explode on a difficult golf course. Last week she was showing tremendous length off the tee.
Michelle Wie West during her practice round ahead of the KIA Classic at the Aviara Golf Club on March 23, 2021 in Carlsbad, California. (Photo by Donald Miralle/Getty Images)
Michelle Wie recently came back on tour as a mom. You won all 26 of your titles after son Tuey was born. What’s the best part about life on tour as a mom, and do you think Michelle Wie can enjoy another chapter of success?
Based on what I saw last week of her golf game, I would say yes. But based on what I know of last year’s history, I would say I don’t have a clue. She’s always been somewhat of a mystery to me. It seemed like she came back with a little bit of her old style, her old swing, which I sure liked seeing. …. I thought she made a lot of swings that were gorgeous.
We didn’t have daycare or any of those things. Juli Inkster talks about having her kids sleep in the closet in the hotel room. The best part about it is when you survive it and you’re somewhat successful and your kids are out there with you. Because as much time as you don’t spend with them playing, you spend more quality time with them on the road than you would at home. … There’s a lot of hard things, but make no mistake there’s a lot of perks.
This is the final major with LPGA commissioner Mike Whan. What are your must-have qualities for whoever comes next?
I’m not the first person who has said this, but he’s going to be very hard to follow. You have to be a high-energy person. Going to have to smile easily, draw people in right away because of the warmth. He or she might talk just a fraction slower than Mike. I think we need a high-energy marketer who really believes in this product.
This would not be a good job for somebody who is trying to find some sort of ladder of success in the business world. You’ve got to have your heart in this job.
World Golf Hall of Famer Judy Rankin, lead analyst for Golf Channel, caught up with Golfweek to talk about the upcoming LPGA season.
The 2021 LPGA season kicks off Jan. 21-24 at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions, a mere four weeks after the 2020 season concluded in Naples, Florida. World Golf Hall of Famer Judy Rankin joined the LPGA as a teenager in 1962 and still keeps as close an eye on the tour as anyone as lead analyst for Golf Channel. Golfweek caught up with 75-year-old Rankin to talk about the upcoming season and her thoughts on some of the biggest names in golf.
Which player are you most curious about going into 2021?
I had had a hunch that we would see a real battle between Sei Young Kim and Jin Young Ko. Just seems fairly obvious to me. These are the two that play the hard courses well and they seem to have a tremendous consistency.
These are just hunches on my part. I think Brooke Henderson has been awfully quiet. I feel like she will come back with a vengeance. And I really don’t think we have seen how the good the Korda sisters are. I can’t say that we are going to immediately, but that’s what I think.
Obviously both (Nelly and Jessica) had some physical ailments, but what else is holding them back, do you think?
I don’t know. I think it’s getting in the mode that you really believe you can win every week.
Jin Young Ko poses with the CME Globe trophy after winning the CME Group Tour Championship. Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images
Jin Young Ko made quite the statement to end last year. What do you like most about her game and how high is her ceiling?
From what I can understand, in the last year and a half she decided that she wanted to hit the ball a little farther and she accomplished that. She seems to take little pieces of her game that she thinks she can improve on … she seems to take on that mission and do it. There’s a fine line between that and the player who says ‘I have to hit it farther to compete’ and destroys themselves. She seems to have an extremely measured way of considering what needs to be better and getting it done. I think that’s all a part of how we see her play under pressure and so on because there’s such a calmness about her.
Let me equate it to my television. I can remember way back in the very beginning when I was trying to memorize everything. At some point, I don’t know if it was divine intervention or what is was, but I quit trying to memorize things and I could think. When I could actually have my brain work a little bit and think, not only did I enjoy it more, but I’m told I got better.
To me, that’s a little bit how you see some people trying to play. They’re trying to think about all those things that are working or not working, they’re fixated with their golf swing. It takes up too much space, where they can’t just have the instinctual things, and the things they would see that help them to react to a shot or how they play it. That stuff doesn’t happen like it should.
With her, it looks like it’s always happening the way it should.
She seems to have a maturity that’s beyond her years.
To some degree, that’s what I’m saying. It’s a maturity. When you say that about somebody, you’re saying that they play as though they’ve had a lot of experience, yet we know they haven’t had those experiences.
Inbee Park in the final round of women’s golf during the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Mandatory Credit: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
Where would a gold medal rank for you in the scope of a career?
Huge. A gold medal is every bit of a major championship if not a grand slam. Now, if you look at it in a more rational sense, the people you have to beat and the test and all that, it isn’t anywhere near as hard as a grand slam. That’s our perception of the Olympics and a gold medal, which clearly over all these years has been built over all sports.
Will Lydia Ko ever be No. 1 again?
I don’t think so. I think she can be a significant player and certainly a winner again. But I think that was a gift and a moment in time. It’s not that I don’t think she’ll ever be good again, because I do think she will be. But I don’t think she can be a dominant player. And one reason is when she played with the skills she had – and she was so skilled – that it didn’t matter that she wasn’t knock-your-socks off long. And that’s hard to get back again.
Lydia Ko of New Zealand tees off on the 17th hole during the first round of the LPGA Drive Championship golf tournament at Inverness Club. Photo credit: Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports
You said a moment in time, do you think everything was going so perfectly for her at that time that without the advantage of length, she can’t get back there?
I don’t mean to use fantastical words, but she was young. She really didn’t know any defeat. She didn’t know about not trusting herself. And she had perfected what she did to a great degree where the consistency was unbelievable. She was also a very good putter.
It’s funny that this not very big girl, became a little bit of an intimidating factor to young women on the tour.
Who is your favorite player to watch right now?
Well, I tell you, I like when I talk with her and spend a little time with her, I very much like Sei Young Kim. I don’t know if people grasp that watching her play. She has a bit of a sense of humor. It’s a fun conversation.
As far as beauty of the game, I like to watch Nelly.
Nelly Korda plays a shot on the second hole during the third round of the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club on November 23, 2019 in Naples, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
What do you admire the most about Nelly’s game?
Her golf swing. The taller people tend to have golf swings that are more graceful. To me, it’s very powerfully graceful. … I think when Michelle Wie was 14 and 15, she might have had the swing that Nelly has now. Then her swing changed so many times and got so different. Nelly’s is the swing we would all have if we could all be 5-foot-11, long-limbed and all these things.
Who is underachieving the most right now?
Ariya Jutanugarn, there is no doubt as far as talent-wise. I don’t know why. I don’t know what’s gotten into her head.
How would you fix Lexi Thompson?
I really do think a big part of it is in her head. I think if she could play more relaxed, if she could play and not worry about putts. And believe me, I’ve had plenty of moments of my own that I wish I could have, so I don’t know how to tell her. But I think there’s a terrible stress in her game, that sometimes she doesn’t acknowledge. … I don’t know, you just can see it. … I think she just needs to play with a little reckless abandon, and I don’t think she can do that. With the people around her and this and that, that’s pretty hard to do.
The fact is there’s nothing small about LPGA teaching legend Bob Toski. He remains a larger-than-life character with a dynamite smile.
BOCA RATON, Fla. — It’s just after 2 p.m. on a Wednesday at Boca Rio Country Club. Bob Toski and Judy Rankin are sitting in a couple of plastic fold-up chairs on the range, reminiscing about a lesson that took place more than 50 years ago.
Rankin, then an 18-year-old pro, told Toski that if he intended to change her grip, she’d be on the next plane out of Miami.
“How much did you weigh on tour?” Toski asks.
A 93-year-old can ask that question.
Plus, Toski has a thing about weight. More on that later. Rankin, 74, said anywhere from 105 to 117 pounds.
“For your size and your weight,” continued Toski, “you were one of the better ballstrikers I’ve ever seen. You had to have one of the greatest pair of hands in the game of golf.”
“For my time,” a humble Rankin replied.
Toski, who turned pro in 1945 and won five events on the PGA Tour, lives down the road from Boca Rio. The Golf Channel coordinated this on-camera reunion during the new Gainbridge LPGA event. The pair hadn’t seen each other in more than 15 years.
Bob Toski at the 1954 Tam O’Shanter in Chicago (Edward Kitch/Associated Press)
Moments like these are priceless, and as a parade of rookies warmed up on the range, part of me wanted to head down the line and introduce them all to Toski, who in addition to Rankin taught a dozen U.S. Women’s Open winners.
History lessons are so few and far between these days. After the Rankin interview, Toski sat down in the caddie tent to escape the brisk air and talk about one of golf’s most unlikely major winners, Birdie Kim, who won the 2005 U.S. Women’s Open.
“The story you’re about to hear,” Toski begins, “you won’t believe.”
Her swing was nearly perfect when they met, he said. There was a telephone pole about 150 yards away from the practice tee at Sherbrooke Golf & Country Club in Lake Worth, Florida. Toski told Kim he was going to hit three balls at that telephone pole. He took out a 6-iron, and on the second attempt he nailed the pole. Now it was her turn.
“I had a way of testing,” he said. “They didn’t call me the godfather for nothing.” Kim hit the pole on the first swing. “I said the lesson is over,” Toski recalled. “We’re not going to the practice tee anymore. We’re going to play golf every day, and I’m going to teach you how to shoot a low number.”
And so Kim set out to learn how to play the game, much like Rankin, by watching Toski. He helped the unknown South Korean player develop what he called “a golfing mind.” Toski considered Rankin’s “golfing mind” to be her greatest attribute.
Rankin, who’d go on to win 26 times on the LPGA, spent every winter at the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, Florida, before she got married, playing golf with Toski five times a week. There was a par 3 on the back nine that required a 4-iron from Toski. He showed Rankin how to play the hole successfully with driver.
“Watch all the great players at the top of their backswings,” said Toski. “What’s their first move?” The lower body, he answers in step with Rankin. “Why does the lower body move first? Because your legs are heavier than your arms and hands,” he said, “and your arms would catch up to your legs, but your legs can’t catch up to your arms.”
Rankin, a World Golf Hall of Famer, nods her head in agreement. Such a practical and simple explanation of the swing sequence is vintage Toski. Rankin said she was always taught to be weary of instructors who had a theory. And anyway, Toski, a 2013 PGA Golf Professional Hall of Fame inductee, wasn’t in it to get rich. In fact, he never charged Rankin for all those lessons. Didn’t charge Kim either.
“I had empathy for people who were struggling because I struggled,” he said. “I went broke twice on Tour, and in my fifth year I was the leading money winner and I weighed 120 pounds.”
Bob Toski doesn’t accept payment for teaching PGA Tour pros – but he did ask Ken Duke to take him to Augusta National.
Players used to give Toski a hard time about his size. He starts in with a story about Lou Worsham, asks if I’d ever heard of him. Told no, he shot back with, “You need to study history.” Worsham won the 1947 U.S. Open, and every time he played with Toski, he asked how much he weighed. Every time, Toski lied and told him 127 pounds. His small size had earned him the nickname, “Mouse.”
After Toski had won the 1954 World Championship of Golf, which offered the richest prize, he was headed out to celebrate his four-win season at The Drake Hotel in Chicago. When Toski stepped out of the shower, he found Worsham and Clayton Hefner waiting on him.
“I wrapped my towel around me,” said Toski, “and said ‘What the hell are you guys doing here?’ We used profanity back in those days.” The two men picked up Toski and carried him over to the scale, which revealed his secret – 118 pounds. Worsham predicted that Toski would go down as the best lightweight player in golf history.
As if to prove that fact a million years later, Toski then rolled up his sleeve to show off his skinny wrists. “Nobody has wrists smaller than mine!” said the Mouse.
The fact is there’s nothing small about Toski. He remains a larger-than-life character with a dynamite smile.
He soon was ushered off to another interview session in the belly of the clubhouse, his storytelling still very much in demand. But not before belting out a few tunes.
Every Friday night, Toski sings the classics at Arturo’s Italian restaurant in Boca. He first learned to sing in the choir as an altar boy. “I can do a number on ‘How Great Thou Art,’ ” he said, “and you’ll cry.”
He wasn’t wrong. Gwk
This story originally appeared in Issue 1 – 2020 of Golfweek magazine.
