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MCDONALD'S LPGA CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLA

June 7, 2006

Marilynn Smith

HAVRE DE GRACE, MARYLAND

JANE FADER: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here today. We are proud to be here at the McDonald's, to announce another member of the 2006 class for the World Golf Hall of Fame.

At this time I would like to introduce Jack Peters, who is the Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Hall of Fame.

MR. PETERS: Thank you, Jane. That is Jane Fader, the Director of Communications for the Hall of Fame. And she does a great job.

So we are here today to announce something which for many people still remains a secret, some not.

But we're going to proceed anyway, Marilynn.

First, I want to acknowledge a few people and say thank you for their help in bringing this together.

First I want to acknowledge and thank the Commissioner of the LPGA Tour, Carolyn Bivens. Thank you for your help with this.

Alice Miller, the Tournament Director, I don't know, there you are back there. Thank you very much for helping set this up. This is great.

I want to tip my hat to Herb Lotman, the tournament founder, who obviously has meant a lot to this tournament over the years, the entire McDonald's family.

We have some Hall of Fame members in attendance with us tonight who I'm going to try to embarrass. Beth Daniel, first on my right here, Beth Daniel, thanks for being here.

Carol Mann, the Special Ambassador to the World Golf Hall of Fame and our not so secret weapon. Carol.

Betsy King, it's nice to see you again. Thank you for being here.

So I briefly want to talk for just a second about the five avenues into the World Golf Hall of Fame to refresh everyone's memories.

There are two elected ballots. One is for the PGA TOUR. One is for The International ballot. The LPGA has a point based criteria system, which you're all very familiar with.

And then we have two discretionary categories. One is called Lifetime Achievement, and one is called the Veterans Category.

The Lifetime Achievement Category recognizes those individuals whose contributions to the game have gone over and above and beyond a traditional playing career and whose contributions to the game have really been over and above.

The Veterans Category was designed primarily to acknowledge players whose careers happened primarily before 1976 at this point.

Today we are here to announce one of the two, one of two 2006 Lifetime Achievement selections.

This individual's going to join the following individuals who have already been announced as part of the class of 2006. In the middle of April we announced that Larry Nelson was elected on the PGA TOUR ballot. And we also announced Henry Picard was selected in the Veterans Category.

Vijay Singh, as many of you know, was elected on the PGA TOUR ballot last year, but he elected to defer his induction until this year and he will also be part of the 2006 class.

We'll have one more announcement this summer at the Open Championship in Hoy Lake on Wednesday, July 13th, and that will be the final announcement for the induction class of 2006.

If you don't know it, the induction ceremony is set for October 30th at the Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Florida.

Now, at this time, I would like to introduce the Hall of Fame's newest inductee. She was selected through the Lifetime Achievement Category. She's one of the original founders of the LPGA. She served as the President of the LPGA in 1958 to 1960. This is an amazing number. She has conducted over 4,000 clinics worldwide and is credited with forming the LPGA's teaching division. Not to mention a successful playing career with 21 official victories, including two Majors.

Ladies and gentlemen, this girl rocks. Please welcome Marilynn Smith.

(Applause.)

See, when you get in the Hall of Fame you get your own chair, so that's the first thing.

Marilynn, welcome to the Hall of Fame. And before we invite you to share your thoughts about this news, I would like to invite Commissioner Bivens to come up and make a few comments. Commissioner.

CAROLYN BIVENS: Marilynn, on behalf of the entire LPGA organization, our staff, fans, all around the world, those very special teaching and club professionals and of course the players, we want to be the very first to congratulate you.

The LPGA is a phenomenal success story. And it's one that wouldn't have been written if it wasn't for 13 very dedicated founders, you being one of the 13.

Now, I got to spend a little bit of time with Marilynn in Palm Desert and we got to catch up a little bit today. You don't have to spend very long with Marilynn to know that she's earned her nickname, Miss Personality.

Her fondness, her enthusiasm for the LPGA, for the organization, and for golf overall is present in everything that she says and does and every move that she makes. The fact that Marilynn along with the likes of Babe, Patty Berg, Louise Suggs, all of the love and the dedication that it took to found this organization and 55 years later we find ourselves in a pretty remarkable spot thanks to you.

Now,

(Applause.)

CAROLYN BIVENS: Marilynn's competitive record, as you just heard, also speaks for itself during a career that spanned three decades, 21 tournament titles, including back to back Major championships in '63 and '64, the Title Holders Championship.

It places her in an extremely elite group. Marilynn was the very first female golf commentator for a men's tournament, the 1973 U.S. Open and Colonial.

For three years she served as President of the LPGA membership. She organized the Marilynn Smith Founders Classic, which was the very first senior women's tournament. And in 1959, Marilynn was instrumental in the creation of the LPGA's Teaching and Club Professionals division, which now has 1,200 members.

Now, not many of us can claim to have played such a vital role in any organization. But you've played an incredibly vital role, not just in the LPGA, but also Teaching and Club Professionals.

Throughout her career Marilynn's been one of the game's very greatest ambassadors. She makes her entry into the World Golf Hall of Fame through that Lifetime Achievement Category that Jack talked about and how appropriate that is.

We salute you for your accomplishments, your dedication, and most importantly, the spirit that you have exuded throughout these years. Congratulations, Marilynn.

(Applause.)

JANE FADER: Thank you, Carolyn. At this time or before I turn the microphone over to Marilynn, I would like to also acknowledge that Amy Alcott snuck in the door late, so another Hall of Fame member is here.

(Applause.)

Before we open the floor for questions, Marilynn, do you just want to start by maybe telling us how you're feeling or how you felt since you got that call?

MARILYNN SMITH: I think you know how I feel. I think I wear my emotions on my sleeve, but how do you begin to express how a person feels when a conference call is given by Jack Peter and Eleanonr Lanza and my friend, Carol Mann. And they said, "Are you sitting down?" And I said, "Yes." "Well, you've been unanimously voted into the World Golf Hall of Fame out of the Lifetime Achievement Category."

And I just said you know, I just couldn't believe it. It's hard for me still to believe that. I have known about it for three weeks now. And they said, "Now, don't tell anybody. It's going to be a secret." Well, of course I had to tell about 20 people, one of whom was Kathy Whitworth and she promptly called Suzy and a few of the others.

But right away I have to think of my mom and dad because I had had a lifetime dream to be the first woman pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. And my idols were Ben Hogan and Stan Musial and would, the both of whom I was able to play golf with, which was great.

And then aspirations of being a pitcher and to be in the World Golf Hall of Fame is just it's too much to express. But I want to thank two very special friends, Sandra Post and Renee Pal, who kind of went to bat for me vigorously to tell how do you express this?

You know, you never think you're worthy of things when you receive something. But they thought that my career had spanned a lot of different avenues and they talked to different people. And I want to thank the selection committee for feeling that I was worthy of entrance into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

And I want to mention these gals with whom I play. This is the toughest part, is being with your peers, because they have gone through with me the tears and lots of laughter, and Hollis Stacy, I always call her Happy Hollis, because she's always cheering and a great gal. And Sherrie Turner. And Alice Miller, I've known since she was 12. We had a tournament out in California and she would follow all of us and we became good friends.

And Dr. Betsy Clark with the teaching division, fabulous friend. And Shirley Spork, who just had recent surgery, she sends her best to everybody. She helped create the teaching division. There wasn't just me. I happened to be President at the time of the LPGA and we tried for several years to establish the teaching division, but at that time we were just struggling to keep the organization going. And we didn't feel that we could take the energies elsewhere.

But in 1959 the teaching division passed by one vote. So we were lucky to get it going and now look at it. It's flourishing and doing well and we're very proud of the teaching division, which is a very important part of the LPGA.

I don't know when I am I supposed to stop now or what? Or keep going?

I can tell you some stories, but people always say, "Well, now, what got you interested in golf?" Well, I was a pitcher, the coach and the manager of a boy's baseball team when I was 10, 11 and 12, and one day I came home from pitching and I had my baseball suit on, you know, and lots of freckles and just like Patty Berg, lots of freckles and pigtails and baseball suit on. And my mother said, "Well, how did you do today, dear?" And I said, "Oh" took my mitt off and threw it against the wall and I said, "Oh," a four letter word that begins with S. Not the other word S. Well, she marched me into the lavatory and washed my mouth out with Lifebuoy soap. And I can still picture myself going into that room and I hate Lifebuoy soap too.

So my dad came home from work and he said well, we better take her out to the Wichita, Kansas, Country Club and teach her a more ladylike sport and that's how I got introduced to golf. And back in those days, you probably don't remember because you're a lot younger than I, but golf was not popular with girls. And my mother and my dad, I'm sure they're up there looking down at us, and they're very proud of this moment because they're the ones that got me started. I'm sorry.

But the early days were fabulous because we had a lot of problems and a lot of struggles, physical struggles to get going on the Tour. We had to travel by car. We didn't have plane tickets so we drove our personal cars, sometimes 1,600 miles, like from Spokane, Washington, to Waterloo, Iowa, for one of our big tournaments. And incidentally, Waterloo had a tournament for seven years and made $9,000 and it helped them to rebuild their club house.

So it was the smaller towns like that like Gatlinburg and Carlton, Georgia, where Louise Suggs was raised, Rockton, Illinois, Santa Barbara. These smaller towns that couldn't handle the men's Tour, they helped us get established. And those are the people that we really remember and time out

JANE FADER: Marilynn, we're going to let you keep telling stories, but

MARILYNN SMITH: You want me to shut up?

JANE FADER: No, we don't at all. But I do want to see if there are any questions out there from the media.

MARILYNN SMITH: I just want to tell them about Kansas University first and then we can. Okay. When I went to Kansas University for two years, we didn't have a girls' golf team and you couldn't go out for the boys' team. And so my dad went to the director of athletics, Fog Allen, he was a famous basketball coach, maybe you heard of him, and they asked Dr. Allen if he could get some expense money for his daughter to play in the women's intercollegiate. And he said, "Mr. Smith, it's too bad your daughter's not a boy."

So we didn't have we had very little help in those days and of course my teachers always wanted me to finish school and then turn professional, but Spaulding asked me to sign with them and my dad said, "Well, Marilynn, sometimes opportunity knocks but once." So Spaulding signed me at 27 one year contracts, just like Walter Alston with the Dodgers.

And so that's the reason why I was able to go and give a lot of golf clinics around the country and I've been in all 50 states and 36 countries and met five presidents and I have to pinch myself because this is all because of golf. And you know, you never know where golf's going to lead you.

And it's the people that I've met that have made it really a wonderful life. And I'm grateful for a lot of my friends. And I'll shut up now.

JANE FADER: Well, this is your day. You're supposed to be talking. Are there any questions?

Q. I just wondered how closely you followed the LPGA today and 50 years ago could you ever imagine that women would be playing for over 50 million dollars in purse money?

MARILYNN SMITH: No. Good question. I do follow the Tour quite vigorously. I think it's terrific what's happened. From, let's see, we had 50, we played 13 tournaments, 12 tournaments and one pro am in 1950 for a total prize money of $50,000. And now look, what, it's over 50 million. No, we didn't we just tried to survive one week at a time to save a tournament or get a new tournament.

And so it's hard to realize that we would be in this position right now, in my opinion, 50 years from when we started because we had so many problems to keep the Tour going. You know, when Babe was living, she was the swashbuckling personality who got the gallery to come out and watch us play, because of her Olympic prowess and the winnings that she had on the Olympic Tour. So when we had tournaments in these towns, they would come out to see her play because she hit the ball the farthest and is it furthest or farthest? Farthest. Okay. Well, distance is concerned, farthest. Okay. Thank you.

I love proper grammar. I'm so tired of hearing "I have went to town" that it almost sounds normal. I listen to talk shows a lot, so people call in and anyway, I'm getting off. Where was I?

Oh, she was quick with an quip, Babe was, and one time she said, "Well, I'm going to loosen my girdle and let it fly. And we, you know, we couldn't say that in those days. Of course that's calm now. You can now say anything, I guess.

But when she passed away in 1956 it was kind of a crisis for the LPGA, so it kind of became a personal challenge for many of us to do what we could to promote the tournaments and I remember Shirley Spork and I went it a boxing match one time. We were going to play the U.S. Open outside of Washington, D.C., at Landover, Maryland, and we were supposed to go to the boxing match and then, anyway, it was such a brutal match I started to get faint, and Shirley didn't though. She's a strong gal and she got this microphone and stood up there and said, "Now, I want you folks to come out and watch the girls play the U.S. Open." Well, we don't know if any of them did.

But then the fun, the most fun I had was going to the different baseball games like St. Louis and Cincinnati and hitting golf balls from home plate out to center field. And then we would get optimistic and say we're playing and come out and watch us play.

And then another thing that was good was the Sports Illustrated, we became models. And we wore long skirts, and we wore long skirts when we played golf too in those days if you look up my old pictures. But we had, oh, a style show in Las Vegas and Dallas. And people came and they saw that we could look fairly feminine and still play good golf. And that was important to look like a girl, right, and hit the ball out there 250 yards. Now you hit it what? 310 or something.

Anyway, we thought Babe hit it 240 and that was terrific, you know.

And then another thing we did, well, we spoke at Kiwanis luncheons and Lions clubs and then we traveled from one city to another and then we tried to get our hair done and look for a laundromat and do all the PR work and then try to go out and practice and then hit balls. And that's the way we trained was more hitting golf balls. Now you have a training center, you know, and you build up your muscles and everything.

But Vicki Smith was really creative. She drove in a motor home and equipped with a piano and she would practice and that way she would keep her fingers and her hands strong. And that was her way of keeping herself in shape, and hitting a lot of balls.

I remember Betsy Rawls used to hit a lot of golf balls and practice a lot too. I think that's one of the reasons why my right knees, because you're bracing on your right knee when you go back, you know, so but don't go skiing if you want to play golf. Because that's hard. I went skiing one time and that was tough.

Q. You mentioned Babe and of course she had a personality all her own, but 60 years ago she was not afraid to challenge men. Today, Michelle Wie is playing with the men, trying to qualify for the U.S. Open and has a desire to play on the PGA TOUR. What are your thoughts on that?

MARILYNN SMITH: On her playing with the men?

Q. Yes.

MARILYNN SMITH: I wish she would play with the women. But you know, she's 16, right? And we had a rule that she can't play on the LPGA Tour until she's 18, with some exemptions. And she's a phenomenal player and I think that she will be a unique player probably for a long, long time. And what was the question?

Q. Your thoughts on her playing with the men, playing against the men.

MARILYNN SMITH: Well, I still feel that I'm a traditionalist. I think the women should play against the women and the men should play against the men. But I was I thought the Annika thing was terrific. I wrote her a letter and encouraged her to do well. She said that she was just doing that as a trial to see how she could do and I believed her. And I think that was great. But you don't see her going out and trying to play against the men anymore.

But I wish Michelle Wie success, but I would like to see her win some tournaments playing against the gals. Nothing against her, I think she's a fine young lady and a great striker of the golf ball.

JANE FADER: Are there other questions?

MARILYNN SMITH: You must have a question.

Q. You were always one of the most friendly people when I was a young player on the Tour. I will always remember your generosity of spirit and your friendliness. Who were some of your, other than Ben Hogan and Stan Musial, who were some of your great inspirations on the ladies Tour when were you out here, Patty Berg or

MARILYNN SMITH: I always admired Patty. She was a terrific shot maker. She could play every shot, including a sand trap shot. And of course Louise Suggs, we had different personalities, but I think we had great respect for each other because she has a great mind and she did a lot of organizational work.

And like Betsy Rawls, you know, what was so great about the early days, I think, everybody had their own charisma and their own capabilities. And we kind of like I was, I liked PR, I liked people, and so that was fun for me. And Betsy liked the organization part and I think Louise, that was where she thrived. They both did tremendous things for the LPGA, the growth in the early days.

Babe was a leader and she attracted people to her because like she hit some phenomenal shot, well, she would never try it again because she might not do it.

But there were different personalities and Patty was terrific with her exhibitions, her clinics, and people that she got interested in the game.

And then along came Mickey Wright, whom I think is one of the all time greatest ball strikers. Very shy person, a lot like Ben Hogan I think, and more of a recluse, but a wonderful person.

And of course Kathy Whitworth, who continues to give a lot back to the game and Carol Mann here, who is one of the great minds. I don't know why I keep looking at you, but you asked the question. And I think that Carol continues to give a lot back to the game.

And that's what's so important. That's what these girls are doing here. The golf gives us so much and we're so blessed to play this great game, in my opinion the greatest game there is. Baseball is close second, but

Q. I have a question, and that is when you gave up baseball, gave up being a pitcher, and that your father dragged you out to the golf course, to your Scottish teacher or pro, I would like to know what was it about golf? Did you feel immediately hooked? What was it like hitting the ball, what was it like learning about putting and all the different skills. Just go back to then when were you a little kid doing that.

MARILYNN SMITH: Well, I, gosh, you know, when you first take up the game I thought it was a sissy game. Just hit a ball and chase after the ball. And but then you kind of know that you never can master golf. It's still, it's the big challenge in it, it brings out so much in the person. How you play the game. The integrity of the game. This is the only sport that you call a penalty on yourself. And that is tremendous. And we have so many people when they do an incorrect thing will turn themselves in. And that means an awful lot, the character you can read in a person. So that's what golf teaches you a lot of lessons. But when I first broke 40 my dad bought me a bicycle and I remember putting my golf bag on my back and pedaling off to the course and a dog bit me. But now I'm a dog sitter, I take care of dogs back in Phoenix and I came a long way from being bitten by a dog.

Q. What were the golf courses like that you played back then and how long were they set up?

MARILYNN SMITH: Oh, good question. We played the courses, well, longer, longer than like, than a lot of the courses are played today. We played 6250 to 6950. The Concord Hotel didn't want us to shoot good scores, so they put us way back on the tips. And it rained real hard the night before and it was an over 7,000 yards long course. And Shirley Englehardt had 77, 76, 76, which was phenomenal at that time. And she was a great 2 iron player so, she would tee off over one puddle and then hit on the green. And so the courses were longer. And then in the early, because Babe wanted them long, because she was the longest hitter, plus some of the sponsors didn't want to us shoot well. And then I think Mickey Wright was one of the ones and she's the one of the longest hitters she agreed that we ought to move the tees up of the. And so in the early 06s we played from the well they called them ladies tees then, they're forward tees now, I guess. Or instead of playing from the men's tees or the back of the tips. And then at some courses we played were, I won't say where, but it was so hard, the ball just kept running and running. And Betty Dodd must have hit a ball about 320 on this fairway. So the courses sometimes were not in too good a shape. And then I remember Beaumont it rained like mad and all the snakes came out. I must have liked snakes because that was the Babe's tournament and I won that.

But I want to tell you one thing that makes the LPGA so terrific. We never had a clause in our bylaws that said Caucasians only. And when Lenny was our director, we had a tournament in Texas, I won't say where it was, and they won't, they wouldn't let Althea Gibson come into the club house. And so we cancelled that tournament. And that was what I think is so good about the LPGA, it doesn't care, we don't care what color or what we believe, it's one for all and all for one. And that's the spirit that the founders started and all these girls that have come along. And that's, that's what's important. You want to help other persons to play well. We did that, we helped each other, because we knew if the scores were going to be lower, we would get more people out. So we were like a big family. We traveled lots of times caravan style. And you heard this paddle story where everybody's, the gals have heard this, where the first lead car would have three paddles and they would put the paddle out that said gas, and then they knew we were going to stop for gas and then she had a paddle for food and you know what the other one was. Potty stop. So we had a lot of fun traveling. I remember Marlene Hagge, her sister used to travel in their car and it broke one time and we all got out and helped fix the tires. We had a lot of fun. The spirit was free. But we plugged along and now look at it grow and I think the girls are playing super out here now and I'm so proud of the whole organization and I couldn't be happier than I am right now getting into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Gosh, that's terrific.

JANE FADER: Thank you. If there are no other questions.

(Applause.)

Marilynn, thank you for being here today and sharing your thoughts with us. I just wanted to mention too transcripts will be available on asapsports.com and photos will be available on request. So thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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