The following is an extract from Alison Nicholas: Walking Tall by Madeleine Winnett. In Chapter 12, Alison Nicholas describes the week of her first win on the LPGA Tour, at the Corning Classic.
“A mighty flame followeth a tiny spark.”
Dante
Going into the LPGA Corning Classic in May, I had missed four cuts in six weeks. My best finish had been a tie for fourteenth in the Star Bank Classic, Ohio, which had given me some confidence that I was on the right track. Having played so well in the event two years earlier, I had fond memories of the course.
I liked the layout of the course as it was tight, and I hit the ball straight, plus it wasn’t particularly long. Additionally, you needed to be a good putter, which always played into my hands. This was the one course in the US where the caddies expected the European girls to do well, because it was so unlike the other American courses, being bereft of water and Bermuda grass.
Corning was a nice little town and, as well as attending Fellowship meetings, a group of us visited the local Baptist Church, where the local pastor was absolutely delightful. His family then came to watch me play. Tragically, he died fairly young, but I kept in touch with his wife, who was a wonderful lady.
At the beginning of the week, one of the members at the club took a group of us on a fishing excursion to a nearby quarry. Unlike Barb Mucha, Mardi Lunn and her caddie, who had all fished before, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I didn’t like touching the fish or the bait – someone else had to do that for me – and, at one stage, we managed to get our lines caught in the bushes at the side of the lake. However, it was very relaxing – and very rewarding. To my delight, I managed to catch a sunfish and a rock bass, before releasing them again, whilst the fish seemed to be staying away from the more experienced anglers in the party!
Although I was looking forward to playing in the tournament, after such a long run of events away from home, I knew that Neil and I would be flying back to England on the Sunday night, which we were both really looking forward to as much as anything else. When I played in the pro-am, my form wasn’t particularly sharp. On the last hole, I even suffered the ignominy of managing to shank the ball into an ice cream van, which, to my surprise, seemed to delight Neil. When I questioned him, he replied that it was because I always played well in an event when I had played badly in the pro-am.
Fortunately, he was right, because I then played really well for the rest of the week, kicking off with a two under par 70, followed by a 67, which included five birdies on the back nine. The third round was even better, with seven birdies for a 66 to give me a two-stroke lead over Pat Bradley. The work I had done with Lawrence over the previous month was clearly coming to fruition, as my iron play was just zoned in. Everything was flying at the flag, and I nearly holed a 3 iron at the 191-yard par 3 third hole.
I was really trying not to think much about my lead going into the last round, although it was exciting to be in that position. I knew that my chipping was improving and I was pleased with where I was, because making the swing changes was hard. I hadn’t been playing particularly well, and as I was working with Lawrence on cocking my wrists more on my backswing, I thought it would take a couple of months to implement fully. As there were no expectations on my part for a big change to work so quickly, my attitude was simply to go out and give it my best – and use the motivation to finish the job off this time after losing in the play-off before as a further incentive.
Laura, who was playing in an LPGA Skins game, rang me in the morning to offer me some encouragement. She told me to “go out and do it” as an intent to boost my confidence – and clearly, it worked. After beginning my round by hitting my tee shot into a weeping willow tree, I managed to sink a downhill twenty-foot putt to salvage my par at the 1st, and then birdied the next three holes.
Clearly, I thought it was going to be my day on the greens as I made another longish birdie putt at the 6th, and was leading by four shots at the turn. It was cold and there were steady showers all day, which certainly saw the scores rise, but Neil did an excellent job of keeping everything dry for me. However, my putter began to betray me on the back 9, as I dropped shots at the 10th, 11th, 13th and 15th. If the ball finished above the hole, there were some treacherous downhill putts, so inevitably, I three-putted a few times.
As I was playing with Pat Bradley, her brother was fairly vocal in his support for her. Fortunately, though, as I was struggling to hang on, she also began to play some shaky golf and dropped shots. When you are making a swing change, you usually revert to old habits as soon as you are under pressure, so the main thing is to try and stay upbeat, because otherwise, all kinds of negative thoughts take over. I knew that my old swing wasn’t bad, it was just that when I got it right, I hit the ball further. Having rung Lawrence during the week, I focussed on trying to keep to what he had said, and told Neil to keep me on track as well.
Barb Mucha was on a charge, and crept to within a shot after notching up five birdies, but I managed to par the last three holes, which was enough to secure my landmark first win in America. Once she had double bogeyed the 18th, which I saw from the fairway, the pressure was off with a three-shot margin, so I was able to enjoy my walk up to the green with umbrella in one hand, waving to the cheering gallery with the other. Apparently, when Barb had attended the weekly fellowship and Bible study classes with me, she had put in her morning prayers that if she couldn’t win, she would like me to win instead!
Laura was first on the phone afterwards to congratulate me – and it turned out that she had also done rather well in picking up £93,000 from her skins game to eclipse my $82,000 winning purse! All my family had been watching on Ceefax, which, for ages, refused to update any information beyond the third round. Since I was held up for two and a half hours with media engagements, they hadn’t heard the result, so when I finally rang home, my sister Helen just screamed.
The win was one of my best achievements because, although I had performed better in Europe and won there, to win on the best tour in the world meant a lot to me, especially after my previous loss in the event. Since then, it had been a goal of mine to win in America.
Amusingly, in many of the interviews afterwards, it was assumed that the weather had played into my hands and that I would be used to the rain because I was from England. However, I much prefer to play when it is sunny. I have never been very keen on wet-weather golf, but you just have to get on with it and adapt to the different course conditions. The weather also managed to thwart my celebrations, because as the thunderstorms were so severe, it took a long time to get back to the JFK Hotel where I was planning to have a beer. By the time we arrived, the bar was closed!
Rolex, the official timepiece of the LPGA, presented me with a stainless steel and 18 carat gold watch to commemorate my first LPGA career victory. Having already looked at the wrists of some of the previous watch winners, I already knew exactly what I wanted. Thus, I took advantage of the option they gave me to upgrade it, and am still the proud owner of a beautiful gold Rolex.
Another of the perks of winning the tournament was that you were supposed to be flown out by the private Corning jet, but as misfortune would have it, the jet was out of commission that week! Unfortunately, not only did I miss out on my free jet ride, but as I was delayed with all my post tournament activities, I then had to pay BA £75 to change to a Monday morning flight back to London. That was a small price to pay, though, because since I was on my way to play in Europe for the next seven weeks, it had been my last chance to earn a spot in the US Open. Gaining that coveted spot was definitely a bonus.
During my much-welcomed week off, I had a lesson with Lawrence, which immediately bore fruit with some really solid results – 4th place at the Evian Masters, 3rd at the European Masters and 6th at the Hennessey Cup. Following another week off, which included a couple of sessions with Paul and one with Lawrence, I headed back across the Atlantic for the US Open in Colorado. Whilst I didn’t fare particularly well in the event, it was significant because as I watched Annika win the title, when I saw the trophy at the prize giving, I thought to myself that I would dearly like to win that trophy one day.