Jane Blalock won the first Chevron Championship, then known as the Colgate-Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle in 1972. When she learned that the event would leave Mission Hills Country Club in 2023, the news hit like a dagger to the heart. Blalock the businesswoman, however, understood why.
Golfweek recently caught up with 76-year-old Blalock by phone to talk about the significance of what many still call the Dinah Shore. She won 27 times on the LPGA but never won a major, one of the factors that keeps her out of the Hall of Fame. The Chevron wasn’t designated a major championship until 1983.
Blalock weighed in on whether or not she should be considered a major champion, a Hall of Famer and more.
Jane Blalock watches her tee shot on second hole during the first round of the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open in Wheaton, Illinois, Thursday, July 12, 2018. (Photo: Daniel White/Daily Herald)
You won the first edition of what’s now known as the Chevron Championship. Tell us how big that first year felt.
It’s really hard to put it in words. The prize money stands out because it was a $110,000 purse. It was at least double the amount of any other LPGA purse that year. But that was minor. It was Dinah, and it was Colgate. That event just changed the entire way that women’s golf was perceived.
You talk about elevating the status. We had national TV. It was in the promotions. We were in commercials. I spent two days with Madge the manicurist dipping my hand in Colgate-Palmolive. Laura Baugh was the Ultra Brite girl. Sally Little, Judy Rankin. It was phenomenal how they promoted it.
When the news broke about Colgate, here you have an international conglomerate Fortune 100 company getting behind women’s golf. It symbolized the complete transition of the LPGA from kind of a barn-storming group to a celebrity status.
You said, and rightly so, that the money was a minor detail. But I’m curious how you spent that $20,000?
I still have a copy of the check – $20,050. Three years before that I was teaching school in Portsmouth, New Hampsphire, and I never had a sponsor for the LPGA. I played week to week. So I obviously invested it very well. I put it into some very safe fixed income and it enabled me to eliminate any worries – Am I going to be able to play in 1973? Am I going to be able to play in 1974? I wrote a check for my brothers for $100 each, which was huge, because I wanted to share my newfound wealth.
How much were you making as a teacher?
I was making $15 a day.
Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California. (Photo: Beth Ann Nichols/Golfweek)
What was your first impression of the Dinah Shore Tournament Course
The trees were non-existent at that time. If you look at No. 9, the dogleg left, we just took it right over the dogleg. I was a low-ball hitter and even I could hit it over those little tiny trees. Even at that time, the course was in impeccable condition. Money Colgate invested in it made it perfect. You’ve never seen such undulation on any golf course as far as the greens were concerned. You hit it to a certain quadrant, otherwise you had no chance of two-putting. The greens were fast. The wind blew because you didn’t have all of those trees and homes to protect it.
But we’ll never forget because you’d go to the driving range and look up at the snow on that mountain and the reflection in some of the waters, particularly on 18, it was magnificent. We were awed. It was hard to believe this was happening to all of us. That we were given the chance to play for that kind of money, to be treated the way we were. We felt like royalty and became celebrities overnight.
How important was Colgate-Palmolive chairman David Foster to the growth of the LPGA?
He was it. It was that moment when he invested that much money in women’s golf, and invested in every single way, Dinah and her friends. Now you get Dinah’s friends like Sinatra and Bob Hope. It was A list, well, A-plus list. It changed the way we were perceived.
It made the rest of corporate America take notice, like what’s happening today, and others followed.
Jane Blalock won the inaugural Colgate-Dinah Shore Winners Circle in 1972.
The LPGA is known for its global schedule now, but it wasn’t just the desert where David Foster had your playing. Can you talk about the far-flung adventures that you had?
Oh boy, did we ever. He invested in every sense of the world. We also had the Triple Crown at Mission Hills, which lasted for a few years. I happened to have won that a couple of times, but the reason I was even in it was because he sponsored the Colgate Far East, which brought 40 or 50 players together. We played in Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok. In addition to that, he’d bring several of us to other cities for pro-ams to tie it together. I’ve been to Singapore. We didn’t just play there, we played at the finest courses and stayed at the finest hotels. … It was just phenomenal, and all of our expense were paid, first-class.
And then there was the Colgate European, which was played at Sunningdale every year. There we would stay in these fantastic boutique hotels. The parties, theater tickets, anything we possibly wanted.
Those who finished in the top 3 at the Dinah were entitled to bring two guests all-expenses paid. I had a chance to bring my parents throughout all of Asia and London, places they’d never been. My father was mortified. Said he’d always paid his own way. It was for him to accept the riches that were offered by Colgate.
A statue honors the late Dinah Shore near the 18th green at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California. (Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Can you describe how players and fans felt about Dinah Shore?
Talk about gracious. Everyone just absolutely adored her. She didn’t just lend her name to it, she bought a place at Mission Hills. She was not a golfer. I’m sure you’ve heard the original story; she was a tennis player. She actually balked when David Foster asked her to be the host. Once she agreed to do it, she went and took lessons. She became, addict is the wrong word, but she was determined to become a good golfer if she was going to lend her name to the premiere women’s golf tournament.
How big of a celebrity was she? Who would you compare her to in modern days?
Oprah.
What traditions do you hope carry on in Texas?
I do hope they do something with the wall. I can’t tell you all the photos that people have taken and sent to me of my name being the first name on the wall. I hope they continue a real past champion’s event. You just can’t erase that part of history.
You also don’t want today’s players, who really don’t know who many of us are – if Patty Sheehan, Pat Bradley, Sandra Palmer and I walked into a room, they wouldn’t even know who we are – I think the LPGA has to push those two things that I mentioned just for the benefit of all.
This event first became a major in 1983. The first 10 champions are not recognized as major winners as you well know. Should that change?
Selfishly, I would love to have that change. One thing that saddens me is the U.S. Senior Women’s Open. You work so hard for so many years, and I’m not invited or eligible, despite having a fairly good career, because it wasn’t categorized as a major at that time.
It’s something I’m not going to lobby for, that’s not my nature. But it’s something just, it would be great to have it happen. Because the event was much bigger then than it is today. When you talk about impact, and I think impact is the best word to come up with, it was much more significant relative to other things happening in women’s golf at that time.
I would be lying if I said i didn’t think about it occasionally.
Jane Blalock hits off the fairway of the 11th hole of the BJ’s Charity Golf Championship at the Ridge Club in Sandwich in of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Well, it would also unlock other things too, the LPGA Hall of Fame, for example. Do you think about that much? (Editor’s note: Players must have 27 points, including a major title, a Vare Trophy or a Player of the Year crown. Blalock has the points but not the major nor POY/Vare Trophy requirement.)
I do. But I have to say I remember when I decided to leave the LPGA I left on a high note. I left after I’d won a couple of tournaments. I remember escaping up to Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine to help me make the decision. Did I want to continue my career and chase that? At that time, the Hall of Fame was pure numbers. I wrote, in fact I think I still have it, five or six pages. I decided that I was not going to hang on and chase that dream. That my life was very full. It was time for me to go in a different direction. … I made the choice, knowing that I didn’t have the criteria for it.
But now as you see some folks getting in, as they’ve changed things, it would be nice. I know that does hold me back.
(Editor’s note: In 2014, the World Golf Hall of Fame began allowing females into the Hall who were not part of the LPGA Hall of Fame. In addition, the LPGA created a veteran’s category for the tour’s HOF that is decided upon by committee.)
Jane Blalock jumps into her caddies arms after her win in the inaugural 1972 Colgate Dinah Shore.
Do you think the lawsuit you filed against the tour (in 1972) following your suspension (for allegedly moving the ball illegally on the green) has anything to do with both the tour not recognizing those early winners as major champions and also you not getting into the Hall of Fame?
I don’t think it (impacts) recognizing the early winners. I’m sure it has some impact on the Hall of Fame.
Do you think that will change in time?
I certainly hope so. I mean, I think, how many years ago? More than 50. Obviously everything turned out very positive for me, but there’s still those ill feelings. I would hope that the contributions I have made to the game of women’s golf would certainly outweigh that issue. And I always have to say, many have apologized, those players who were involved originally. It was always unproven accusations.
Do you think about that much?
No, I don’t. Maybe I didn’t answer that entirely correct. When I was watching some of the Hall of Fame ceremony with Susie Berning and when Jan Stephenson got into it, she said, ‘I lobbied for it, you should lobby for it.’ I said, ‘No, that‘s not my style.’ If that’s something that happens it would be wonderful. Is it going to change my life? No. Is it going to make me happier? No.
Do I think I should be in it? Yes.
Is it fair to say you’re at peace?
One-hundred percent. Very content. … When I look in the mirror, I feel very good.