LPGA.com

Amy Alcott played for 30 seasons on the LPGA Tour and recorded 29 tour victories, including five major championships. She won the 1980 U.S. Women's Open and joins Betsy King and Annika Sorenstam as the only players to have won the Kraft Nabisco Championship three times. She also was inducted into the LPGA Tour and World Golf Halls of Fame in 1999. At age 50, the resident of Santa Monica, Calif., currently is involved in a number of ventures, ranging from golf course design, serving as a co-host on the Golfchix radio show, writing a book and playing on The Legends Tour, the LPGA's official competitive tour for players age 45 and older. Alcott was selected to compete on the U.S. Team for the inaugural Handa Cup in December -- an international match-play team format between 12 American and 12 international Legends Tour members. Here is what Alcott had to say to Lisa D. Mickey on LPGA.com in the second installment of the site's "Whatever Happened To…" series.

Q: How does it feel to be retired after three decades of competition?
AA: I still play the Kraft and a few others and I still want to stay in touch with the tour. I feel like if I'm a three-time winner of a tournament that is being played in my backyard, I should play. I certainly still love the game, but I guess you're either a player or you're not. There are players who quit cold turkey and those of us who are "weaners," who have to be weaned away from competition.

Q: What specific steps did you take in your transition away from the LPGA Tour?
AA: Well, I went from playing 28 to 20 tournaments a year, then from 17 to 15, from 15 to 10, from eight to five, and then down to just a couple of events each year. It's not a question of loving the game. It's about living the life. I had tremendous focus for 28 years on the tour. You have this life on the tour that you are totally ensconced with. I was a little different because I wasn't just about golf. I grew up with Montovani [music] playing in my house and we at least talked about art. Really, I fell in love with golf because I fell in love with the art form of the game. At the end of my playing career, I couldn't take the travel and the lifestyle anymore. I couldn't take living out of hotels and suitcases and I didn't want to do just one thing. I have a creative mind that goes far beyond just hitting a punch 5-iron.

Q: You turned professional right out of high school, didn't you?
AA: Yes, I turned pro when I was 18, and for six years, I was the youngest player on the tour. Back in those days, there weren't a lot of college scholarships for women's golf. I won 115 junior tournaments and the U.S. Girls' Junior, but I only had one scholarship offer to play at Dartmouth. I was a little racehorse with nowhere to go, so I turned pro. I don't regret my decision at all. And I guess I was ready because I qualified on my first attempt, won my third tournament [in 1975] and was named rookie of the year.

Q: There weren't that many teenagers playing on the LPGA Tour in those days, so it must have been more difficult than it is now.
AA: It was interesting and back in the '70s, we played some Colgate events in places like The Philippines, Thailand and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

Q: Aren't you writing a book entitled, "Spiked Shoes: Golf Lessons, Life Lessons?" How is that coming along?
AA: It's going well and I'm doing all the interviews by myself. Now I have the time to do it. It's about golf and life and how they intersect and how they influence each other. I think it will be a cute inspirational book. I've done about eight interviews and I want to do a total of 30. Simon and Schuster is the publisher and it's supposed to come out in March 2008. The most difficulty I've had has been operating my new-fangled digital tape recorder.

Q: As connected as you are in Los Angeles, you must be getting some interesting interviews.
AA: [TV broadcaster] Mary Bryan named me "Hollywood" years ago because I used to play golf with people like Jack Nicholson. I was 15 when I'd sneak under the fence at Riviera Country Club and putt with Rita Hayworth. She wore blue suede golf shoes. I was already on my way as a good junior player and she encouraged me. But of course in L.A., you can run into Tina Turner in the cheese department at the supermarket. Anyway, I'm having fun with the interviews and will have a variety of personalities in the book, including tennis player Pam Shriver and former President Bill Clinton.

Q: You also are involved as a co-host of the Golfchix radio show on satellite radio. What is that like?
AA: We're a left-of-center program about the world of golf, business, the pro tours and its players and we call things the way we see them. Golf is merely an entry point, but 99 percent of our guests love the game. I really enjoy doing radio and talking to people. The three of us -- Susan Hunt, Linda Giaciolli and me -- seem to blend together pretty well and have a lot of fun. I have a "floating schedule" and do it when I can. Susan is our major domo/executive producer, Linda is the "Viper" and I'm the "golfing savant" on the show. We talk about everything and everybody and have all kinds of interesting guests on the show, like President Clinton, Jim Nantz and Rick Dees. We're on Sirius and a lot of other stations.

Check out what the Golfchix will be talking about next>>

Q: What do you enjoy most about radio?
AA: Expressing myself and saying things I truly believe. Also, I learn a lot because it forces me to be a good listener. When you're on tour, it's all about you, but this phase of my life is not really about me. I have to listen more. I bring a sense of knowledge about the game to the show and about women's golf, but I'm learning, too -- like, when we have Pete Sanchez, the head of Fujikura golf shafts, or golf course designer Rees Jones on as guests.

Q: Did you ever dream you'd end up doing something media-related?
AA: I always loved the press. This phase of my life is also about getting more involved with other people, sharing my story and entertaining. When I play on tour, people only view me as a Hall-of-Fame golfer, but I'm so much more than that and always have been. You tend to get pigeonholed playing on tour, but the most important thing is that you know you are more than that. I've never functioned well living by expectations. I could be in advertising. Or I could be a veterinarian. Or I could just go live on a ranch with a hundred dogs. OK, maybe 10 dogs. I love my terriers.

Q: You sound like a real animal lover.
AA: I go to dog shows and talk to breeders. I also go to horse races. I've been to two Kentucky Derby and two Breeders Cup races. I like to look at those 12 horses walking out there and see what their energy level is and I have to say that I've picked some pretty good winners. I just love the pageantry of horse races, the jockeys' racing silks, the people and all of the fancy hats. Each race is kind of like a golf tournament. [Laughter] And I've been the horse inside the ropes.

Q: What about TV? Your fellow Tour member Dottie Pepper has transitioned nicely from competition into broadcasting. Any interest in TV?
AA: Dottie is great! She's very well prepared and she shows that she enjoys what she does. I did some different broadcasts over the years for different networks but I didn't have a plan to just do broadcasting. I'm not closing the door on it, but I'd be on the road again.

Q: Aren't you designing your second golf course?
AA: I'm working as a design consultant with [golf course architect] Dan Maples. We're remodeling Brick Landing Plantation in Ocean Isle, N.C., an hour north of Myrtle Beach, S.C. I go over the plans with Dan, walk the golf course and ask a lot of questions about what types of people are playing their course. He's open to my ideas because I can see things from all tees. Tees should be set by length, but the course needs to be playable for all levels from the back to the front. I tend to like more traditional, walkable courses with smaller greens. Working on this project, I've realized how much I know and how much I don't know.

Q: So how much golf do you play these days?
AA: I might play four or five holes late in the afternoon and carry my bag at Bel-Air Country Club and Riviera Country Club. I have a gambling game now. And I enjoy going and playing on the LPGA Tour and the Legends Tour -- just seeing the players, the caddies and the people. I had this amazing career that I was very blessed to have. I really don't feel like a "senior" playing on the Legends Tour.

Q: What are the pluses and minuses of competing after your LPGA Tour career?
AA: I just like my life more than I liked it for a lot of years and I'm very thankful. Now, I don't have the expectations. I don't play and practice every day and I'm OK with that. When there is a tournament I want to play, if I can practice and prepare a little bit, I can still do pretty well. It's just a matter of pulling it off or not. On the Legends Tour, I enjoy having the time and ease to talk to the other players. Even now, when I play some events on the LPGA Tour, I talk to players who are thinking about doing something else and I tell them not to be afraid. If you're lucky enough to have a successful career, it sets you up to do other things. That competitive drive never goes away. It's about finding a path for that drive in other areas. I have no regrets and I wouldn't trade places with anybody. I've had a great career and I think my best may still be ahead of me.

Q: Is there one most memorable moment in your career that you will always savor?
AA: I guess it would have to be my last LPGA Tour win at the 1991 Nabisco Dinah Shore [now called the Kraft Nabisco Championship], which was my third win at the Nabisco. My mother died in August 1990, and when I won that event the following March, it was just an amazing spiritual experience. I don't know how to explain it. I wasn't playing golf in a technical place. It was like I was supposed to win. When I was a little girl, I used to go to Palm Springs with my mother and she'd look up and say, "That's my mountain." So that week when we were playing the tournament, I looked up from the golf course and could see my mother on that mountain. It all seemed surreal.

Q: A number of golfers have experienced that kind of "spiritual" awareness at important events and in times of personal crisis. For example, Ben Crenshaw won The Masters after his teacher Harvey Penick passed away.
AA: Yeah, like when Jack Nicklaus won at Augusta in his 40s. I look at that as a moment of great human spirit. I guess I have my own feelings about greatness. Sometimes players achieve because it's their lack of confidence that drives them. Sometimes, they simply want to know if they can win just one more time.

Q: What other kinds of things interest you these days?
AA: I do some public speaking and corporate outings. I've done some [mentoring] with the Urban Youth Golf Program in L.A. And I've spent some time with young pros trying to qualify for the LPGA Tour, offering ways to help them put their lives in perspective and to understand how to prepare themselves. Of course, I like stuff like ping-pong, horse racing and my dogs. I love to paint -- you know, house paint. My house is green and purple with an orange entryway. Someday, I want to build a house from the ground up. And I have a pool and love to swim laps, which is good because I also like to cook and eat, and I like chocolate way too much. Oh yeah, and I'm a huge disco fan. Sometimes I just dance in my house.

Q: Your house is in Santa Monica, but you also have a place at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage. How much time do you spend in the desert?
AA: I'm in Santa Monica most of the time, but I like to go to the desert where I can drive my golf cart and have martinis on the first fairway. Sometimes I let my dogs run loose and break all the rules, but there are coyotes out there and you have to keep a flashlight ready.

Q: Has the Kraft Nabisco Championship remained special to you over the years since entertainer Dinah Shore's death?
AA: Dinah was a special lady and it's a special event. I think the tournament lost some of its luster since Dinah passed away. I'm kind of surprised they never got a new host. But I have one of Dinah's paintings in my house. She signed one for me with the words, "And you putt for dough."

Q: Did you really start the tradition of jumping into the lake beside the 18th green at Mission Hills during the Nabisco tournament?
AA: Yes. People ask me that all the time. It was just a spontaneous thing when I won it for the second time in 1988. My caddie Bill Kurre and I looked at each other and said, "Let's jump in!" It was dirty and murky back then. So that year, I just dripped during the award ceremony. When I won it again in 1991, Bill, Dinah and I jumped in together. Dinah's assistant handed me a towel. The bathrobes came later.

Q: Are you glad others are still taking the plunge after all of these years?
AA: Oh yeah. But I think they should have named it "Champion's Pond." There have been so many great winners at that event and they've all kind of done it their own way. Jumping into the lake is really a tradition now.

Q: So what's next for Amy Alcott?
AA: I'd still love to win in my 50s, but I don't know if the next great thing is about playing golf. I'm open to surprises. People who have everything all planned out sort of lose the moment. I don't know what is waiting down the line. It may not have anything to do with golf. What I do know is that the most important thing is to spend time with the people you love, to laugh often and to be healthy.

Lisa D. Mickey is a former senior editor at the Golf Digest Company, where she covered the LPGA Tour for Golf World and Golf For Women magazines. She is a co-author of “Champions of Women's Golf: Celebrating 50 Years of LPGA Golf” (2000) and was a contributing writer of The Solheim Cup coffee-table edition book (2005). She currently writes the web stories for and serves as director of communications for the Duramed FUTURES Tour.