Kathy Cornelius - Part 2 (The 1956 Women's U.S. Open)

Kathy Cornelius recalls turning professional in 1953 with encouragement from her golf professional husband Bill, joining the LPGA Tour in 1956, just after its formation in 1950. Kathy recounts her early wins including her first in the 1956 St. Petersburg Open where she bested the LPGA's previous 72-hole scoring record by 6 shots! Her most significant victory however came at the 1956 Women's U.S. Open on a Donald Ross course in MN where she bested the young amateur, Barbara McIntire, in an 18-hole playoff winning the $1,500 first prize. Kathy Cornelius continues her life story, "FORE the Good of the Game."

Transcript

Mike Gonzalez 0:16

So tell us a little bit about the decision process that you went through then to uh turn professional. Did somebody approach you about coming on the tour? Was this something you and Bill kind of decided amongst yourselves? How did that count how did that go down?

Kathy Cornelius 0:31

Well, um I don't remember that clearly, but uh I remember the um membership in the uh LPGA at that particular time uh they were were uh having a meeting at Tammy Shanter uh in the Chicago area and uh in a hotel room there were I would say about 30 players gathered for an annual meeting, and uh all you did was say you were turning professional. Um that was pretty simple.

Mike Gonzalez 1:24

Yeah. Yeah, I think we heard that story from one of our guests where somebody stood up at a table and put a book, uh, and they put their right hand on the book and said, All right, I declare you a professional.

Kathy Cornelius 1:39

I don't remember that part of it, but uh that might be uh the way it was done.

Mike Gonzalez 1:46

Yeah. Well, just to recap the professional career uh of Kathy Cornelius, uh of course, turning professional in 1953 at age 21. She had eight professional wins, including six LPGA victories, joined the LPGA tour in in in 1956, winner of one major, the 1956 U.S. Women's Open at age 23. And there are several other victories that we'd like to talk about with you. Uh so let's go back to just uh uh coming out on tour. And uh I think one thing that always fascinates our listeners is just uh having you kind of take them back to those days in terms of what life was like traveling around the United States from tour stop to tour stop.

Kathy Cornelius 2:35

Um the way we traveled was of interest probably because uh we were all uh not traveling uh on airplanes or uh any uh mode of transportation like that. Uh we drove.

SPEAKER_04 3:00

Uh-huh.

Kathy Cornelius 3:01

And uh uh the uh automobile was uh probably the most valuable piece of equipment that we had.

SPEAKER_04 3:12

Yeah.

Kathy Cornelius 3:12

So we loaded up and uh went from place to place. And uh sometimes uh the accommodations were unusual. I guess that would be the best word to uh describe them.

Mike Gonzalez 3:31

What would be unusual?

Kathy Cornelius 3:33

Um roadside uh motels, uh not necessarily with uh uh endorsement uh names like uh quality or uh uh things of that nature, but uh mom and pop operations in small towns. So uh early on um as traveling partners uh uh I was really fortunate to uh uh I guess somebody uh I don't know how it actually came about, but uh one day uh Joyce Ziske from Wisconsin and Beverly Hansen from California got together and asked me if I had wanted to uh join them in uh uh getting accommodations along the way, and I said, sure that sounds fine. We'll uh we wound up doing a little cooking usually and uh eating uh good meals, not necessarily uh in the best restaurants in town, but uh that was the uh way we traveled and and sometimes it turned out to be uh caravan style where uh uh just gathered wherever we happened to be uh staying and take off from there.

Mike Gonzalez 5:33

Did you have signals from car to car to communicate in case you needed to stop or something?

Kathy Cornelius 5:38

Or well I've heard of those uh later. I was never really aware of it, but uh that's uh the way it uh materialized, I think. That uh uh some groups traveled faster than others. Um some uh were uh just uh ready to go earlier on the day following the tournament when we were ready to move on to the next one. So uh I think um Belvin Joyce had a nice um to uh touring car, maybe a Cadillac, and in the beginning I had a uh car made by the Willie's Motor Company that all jeeps. And uh their Jeeps were a little bit uh uh more reliable than my uh two-door sedan was. It uh had a tendency to uh get wet inside whenever it rained, so it was not the uh best example of uh car to travel in.

Mike Gonzalez 7:12

Of course, this was long before GPS, so your map was your friend.

Kathy Cornelius 7:17

Yeah, absolutely.

Mike Gonzalez 7:21

You had to know how to read that road atlas.

Kathy Cornelius 7:25

And uh the signs along the way and just uh basic geography.

Bruce Devlin 7:34

Kathy, after turning pro in uh in uh 1953, your first victory uh didn't come until 1956 when you uh when you won in St. Petersburg. Uh that had to be a uh quite a watershed start for that year for you to win that golf tournament, the first on the PGA tour.

Kathy Cornelius 8:00

Yes, it was, um, because the way it uh turned out the uh 72 all score was uh uh a record for the tour, which kind of surprised me. Uh I wasn't aware that uh that was uh the way it uh was written out anyway.

Mike Gonzalez 8:29

Yeah, uh what what uh Kathy is referring to for our listeners is uh this is the 1956 St. Petersburg Open at Sunset Golf and Country Club. She won her first event by four for Marilyn Smith, won$900, which I guess is all relative. It probably seemed like a lot of money back then, but uh uh but she set the 72-hole LPG scoring record of 287, which was nine under, breaking the previous record by six shots. Did you think coming out of that win that this was just going to be easy?

Kathy Cornelius 9:06

No, I never never was uh uh subject to delusions like that. Uh the golf course was uh relatively short and uh a little narrow in places, but uh I can remember watching uh Mary Lena Flock, whom I was paired with one day during the tournament, and uh she handled it so well that I kind of uh fell into that uh rhythm. And uh it carried on for 72 volts.

Mike Gonzalez 9:52

Well, it was quite a quite an issue initial win for you. Um and of course, uh it probably would help uh for our listeners to understand the era of the PG the LPGA in terms of uh where we're at with this, because uh the LPGA was only founded in 1950, so this was still a young fledging fledgling tour, just sort of finding its footing. I'm sure there was a lot of work behind the scenes by the players to administer the tournament, to do the rules, to do the entries, to do the payoffs at the end, to set up the golf course. Uh you guys were kind of handling all that as a group of players, too, weren't you?

Kathy Cornelius 10:34

Uh yes, there was no uh so-called tournament director or commissioner or whatever titles uh came along later on. Uh it was a do-it-yourself project. And uh Marilina Falk was the uh treasurer who dispensed the uh checks at the uh conclusion of the event, wherever we happened to be.

Mike Gonzalez 11:03

Yeah, yeah. Uh one of the things we've heard is uh you generally didn't want a really good player being treasurer because that meant they were in the one of the final groups and everybody would have to wait around for their payoff at the end.

Kathy Cornelius 11:17

Well, it was uh a necessity to wave around for the payoff because uh it might be the uh the way you were going to uh get to the next stop on the tour.

Mike Gonzalez 11:33

Yeah, it might handle the gas money for the next trip, right?

Kathy Cornelius 11:35

Exactly right.

Mike Gonzalez 11:37

Right. So at this time, 1956, you've come on tour, you've just won your first uh tournament. You probably had a young child in tow at that point, didn't you? Um Wasn't Karen born in about 1955 or so?

Kathy Cornelius 11:57

Uh yes, I think that's uh my goodness, she was gonna really be uh she's she's my vintage.

Mike Gonzalez 12:08

She's my vintage, so uh we're we were born the same year. Great. I'm glad to have you aboard. So that had to be that was probably a bit unique. I there were probably some mothers traveling with children on the tour, but not many, were there?

Kathy Cornelius 12:26

No, not really, because uh most of the players were single. So that answers that question, I guess, in some way. Um but uh she uh was about the same age as uh the uh daughter of Peggy Kirk Bell and uh Karen, my daughter, and Bonnie Bell, who was Peggy's daughter, uh played together uh a lot because uh they were the two tour children who uh were traveling. Traveling.

Mike Gonzalez 13:13

So they had a lot of ants on the tour then, didn't they?

Kathy Cornelius 13:16

Oh yes, and uh friendly uh usually uh ladies would be uh uh a locker room attendant who would uh be uh very uh friendly to the uh children too.

Mike Gonzalez 13:35

Just finishing up on the St. Petersburg, uh it's interesting to note that uh young Mr. Devlin had his first PGA tour victory in St. Petersburg as well, just a few years after that.

Bruce Devlin 13:46

Yeah, that's right. I did. 1964.

Kathy Cornelius 13:52

Lakewood's golf course, uh Bert.

Bruce Devlin 13:54

Uh Lakewood?

Kathy Cornelius 13:56

Uh-huh.

Bruce Devlin 13:57

Yeah, Lakewood golf course, yeah.

Kathy Cornelius 14:00

That was a uh course of what was uh longer and uh probably a little more difficult than uh Sunset was. Uh if memory uh serves me now.

Bruce Devlin 14:20

So Kathy, also in uh in 1956, uh you and Beverly Hansen won the Hot Springs Four Ball invitation at the Cascades Golf Club there in Virginia, and you beat a couple of pretty good players, if my memory serves me correctly, Mickey Wright and Marlene Bauer Hagee.

Kathy Cornelius 14:38

Uh that was fun. Uh really fun at a lot. Not because of any uh ill will, but uh the uh Marlene and Mickey were definitely the uh two who would be considered the uh the favorites favorites for sure, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 15:03

Was there much play of that sort of format, or was that a unique event uh on the on on the circuit?

Kathy Cornelius 15:11

I don't remember if uh it had uh it had some of events uh that were um that same uh format, I believe, previously, because I think uh we set a record for the uh four rounds of the tournament uh uh records were a little hazy sometimes in those days because we had no record keepers.

Mike Gonzalez 15:49

Yeah.

Bruce Devlin 15:49

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 15:50

That was probably to come later. Well, individual validation in terms of playing your own ball came quite quickly that same year in 1956 at the U.S. Women's Open at Northland Country Club, that's up uh near Duluth, Minnesota, in a playoff with amateur Barbara McIntyre. What can you tell us about what you recall about that uh what was uh for your career the pinnacle accomplishment in terms of winning the the women's U.S. Open?

Kathy Cornelius 16:21

Well, I think the uh focus of the uh tournament uh as far as uh uh individual pairings were concerned, uh we were sort of wrapped up in our own um I think uh Marlene Hage and I were paired together in the uh double round on Saturday of that week, which would deter from who the winner was. I communications there were no signboard boards on on the golf course, so to find out how you stood and uh what the scoring was, so uh I finished the round and had no idea whether I um completed the uh tournament uh that day. And it turned out that uh Barbara McIntyre and I retired and went into a playoff for uh the championship the following day. Well the USDA doesn't schedule any rounds on Sundays during those days. We uh had wrapped up the tournament uh in a 36-hole round on Saturday, and uh uh had a little bit of uh nervous evening that night uh thinking about the day to follow.

Mike Gonzalez 18:21

But uh it turned out all right. So you actually had to take the day off Sunday and then wait till Monday to do a playoff? Is that the way they did it, or did they do the playoff on Sunday?

Kathy Cornelius 18:31

Playoff was on Sunday. Gotcha. It just wasn't uh uh a scheduled round.

Mike Gonzalez 18:38

Gotcha. Yeah, gotcha. Um uh my understanding uh uh coming into this event that uh the USGA for whatever reason took the purse down, which is quite unusual uh from$7,500 total purse the previous year to a purse of$6,000 this particular year. There was a field of 46 competitors, half were amateurs, which you know people in today's game, looking at today's game, find that hard to relate to. Uh played on a Donald Ross course. You actually were the first round leader. You were two back after 36, but you found yourself in front by two shots after the third round. Uh what do you recall about that third round playing in those conditions?

Kathy Cornelius 19:26

I remember just trying to uh keep my my mind uh uh focused on what what I was doing on the golf course and uh and not uh pay any attention to the surroundings in the way of gallery. Um Minnesotans are really uh supporters of golf in the summertime because summer doesn't last very long there.

SPEAKER_04 20:00

Sure does it, doesn't it?

Kathy Cornelius 20:01

They were uh really uh responsive uh calleries that week.

Mike Gonzalez 20:12

So we go into that last round, and Barbara McIntyre was eight back going into that last round. Do you remember how she finished to uh gain the playoff?

Kathy Cornelius 20:24

Well, I read about it later that she the Eagle passed all, but uh she was playing much uh earlier than we were, I think. And uh uh like I said, there was no uh uh uh indication on the uh golf course that we could see uh what was going on around us.

Mike Gonzalez 20:49

Yeah, uh she finished Birdie Parr Eagles, so played the last three holes, three under par to get in that playoff. You were playing with Marlene Hagee in that uh that final day, and she had a putt at the last hole to get in the playoffs as well, and it just stayed out.

Kathy Cornelius 21:07

I thought uh, not knowing what Barbara McIntyre had done, I thought uh that was the uh tournament right there, but uh it turned out to be not that uh at all.

SPEAKER_04 21:26

Yeah.

Kathy Cornelius 21:27

The next day was the uh uh event that was gonna determine who the winner was.

Mike Gonzalez 21:35

Yeah, and you sort of took care of business, didn't you? Winning uh by seven shots in that 18-hole playoff, your score of seventy-five to Barbara McIntyre's score of eighty-two, who at the time was a twenty-one year old college co ed from the University of Toledo and a fairly fine amateur player, wasn't she?

Kathy Cornelius 21:53

She was one of the very top amateur players, and uh she and I were uh friends from uh uh Florida days because even though her hometown was uh Toledo, Ohio, uh her family uh came to Florida in the winter time. Uh one reason to uh give Barbara the opportunity to play some golf during those cold months of Ohio.

Mike Gonzalez 22:27

Yeah yeah uh Bruce I seem to recall seeing a photo of uh Ms. Cornelius being carried off the 18th green after that victory.

Bruce Devlin 22:39

That's right. Uh Beverly Hansen and Joyce Zisky carried you off huh after winning that playoff. Do you remember that? I don't know how they got me up on their shoulders but they did.

Kathy Cornelius 22:55

That's a great photo. And uh they were my best friends uh as far as practice rounds were concerned and uh that's great traveling conditions and everything.

Mike Gonzalez 23:10

Bev was uh the uh USGA amateur champion I believe in past nineteen fifty okay I called her the golden girl from California because she had won the uh tournament uh that was uh the top amateur tournament in the country now I've got to read you a quote uh it's not a very complimentary quote by the way so but but maybe you recall it uh I I'm doing some research obviously and trying to find old newspaper articles about this win of yours and I found a newspaper article from the Spokane's sorry the Spokesman's Review and I don't remember who the author was but the author described Kathy's swing as a two-piece rather jerky swing which seems to freeze at the top of its arch now I doubt that that's a very accurate description of your golf swing as the U.S.

Kathy Cornelius 24:19

Open champion I d I never read that at that particular time but I thought later well you did read it later though huh? That was good for a laugh later.

Mike Gonzalez 24:32

Yeah I bet it was yeah I the laugh wouldn't have been so uh funny at the uh if I'd read it at the particular time yeah I I would have guessed you'd probably want to take a little issue with that at the time huh yeah but uh I learned early on not to pay too much attention to uh what people wrote people right yes you know Kathy I went back and looked at that leaderboard the top ten finishers were all major championship winners during their careers really everybody in the top ten in that tournament won a major so you're you're up against some pretty good competition uh uh Patty Berg Marlene Hagee were one back it was quite a leaderboard yeah yeah well that was probably the uh golf course had something to do with the uh uh players who uh were able to handle it the the cream coming to the top right well I can't say that but you're too modest so Kathy after after winning that open in uh 56 now you had a you didn't have a great time the next couple of years uh was there anything going on any injuries or just couldn't sort of break through I guess uh maybe uh swing changes and oh you went through that huh I was always uh w working to improve the uh swing and uh wound up exaggerating the corrections um had a little trouble with something called consistency and what led you to want to continue to try to refine your swing just a feeling that there are still some things you could do to get better and more consistent I guess the uh tour was uh getting a little more uh competitive along the way and um more players more amateurs were uh considering playing professional golf I don't know what it was yeah you know you see a a lot of the younger players today uh maybe not maybe not so young but as their career develops you you you hear about some of these stories where they've just found themselves feeling like they need to chase more distance was that a thing back then as well where you you felt like you just needed to pick up an extra five ten yards to be more competitive well I think uh Mickey Wright was the inspiration for that because she was uh the uh longest hitter of my day by uh considerable amount and uh we would uh look to her one of her instructors uh Harry Pressler would come up on our tour in the summertime because he just take a little vacation and uh some of his uh students would uh try to emulate the way he taught uh Mickey did you find yourself uh watching players like Mickey write on the practice team you couldn't help it yeah couldn't help it huh that was uh fascinating pretty efficient move at the ball wasn't it uh definitely and uh one of the explanations was that one of her earlier uh teachers had her uh swish the uh maybe small branches off of a tree sometimes and try to create more of the whoosh sound. Uh-huh yeah yeah she's certainly described as a as a great uh maybe the greatest ball striker certainly the greatest uh s golf swing that maybe's ever been on the LPGA tour. Well probably fortunately for the rest of us uh she struggled from time to time with putting so uh that left the door uh open for uh the competition to uh come through we've heard that from some of our other guests that you would have played with that uh I I you know I I can't remember exactly who it was but somebody I remember saying you know if Kathy if if uh Mickey Wright could putt, she'd have won a zillion tournaments. That's uh the way it was definitely you could uh see it and you could see uh Mickey spending more more and more time on the uh putting green and practice I remember Kathy Whitworth saying at one point that uh she was our Ben Hogan yes uh the person most watched by other players yeah it was uh it was a swing of beauty well as Bruce mentioned uh you had a little bit of weight from that U.S.

Bruce Devlin 30:30

Open uh win uh before you uh returned to the winner's circle again Bruce that was uh uh in Illinois my old stomping grounds that's right uh 59 Cosmopolitan Open at Macktown Country Club in uh Rockdown Illinois you won uh by two shots over Louise Suggs and Mary Lena Falk. You remember that?

Mike Gonzalez 30:55

I remember the uh golf course a little bit and uh I didn't remember uh who the um closest competition was but uh it was a fun week because golf course was short and you could uh uh not very not very demanding I guess would be the way you describe the course so you won you won the US Open on a relatively challenging golf course this one you would describe as uh a bit easier huh?

Kathy Cornelius 31:33

Uh maybe uh a lot of courses would have looked uh a little easier after uh the open was over for any number of reasons.

Mike Gonzalez 31:47

Yeah I'm sure they were they were even up till today they've always been difficult difficult uh uh setups uh well in that one as I recall you came from four back uh uh to win that one uh and uh and then waited another couple of years uh for your next one which was the 1961 Tippacanoe Open that was at Tippacanoe Country Club in Indiana by two over Joanne Prentice uh Joanne was a good friend from uh southern amateur days she she was from uh the Birmingham area in Alabama and uh um we played a lot of golf together uh over the years well that second round sixty five you had must have been pretty nifty um it was fine because uh sub seventy scores were uh not as easy to come by at that time and they seem to be uh today everybody breaks 70 and things have changed a little though Kathy from then to now I can say that but uh you actually took a six shot lead going into that final round there in one by two.

Kathy Cornelius 33:18

Well it was a little bit of nervous time to add to that I think it always is or preserve it I found that the best way to handle that situation was uh try to improve it make more birdies instead of trying to avoid bogeys.

Intro Music 33:41

Yeah you know I've heard people say that a lot that uh you got a six shot lead there's different ways you can play it but the best way is probably just stay aggressive I think the uh players on the uh on both tours today would uh agree to that psychology yeah then it's thank you for listening to another episode of for the good of the game and please wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify if you like what you hear please subscribe spread the word and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game so long everybody smack down the flip just mid off land but to put it back off land it says long as you're still in the state you're okay when it's made down the middle fly