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by Patrick MottPublished:
October, 2011
At the Callaway Golf Foundation
Challenge at Riviera Country Club, 2007. (PHOTO: Getty
Images)
How does one go from repeatedly whiffing the ball on the
first tee to out-dueling Arnold Palmer on a tricky par-3?
Cheryl Ladd will tell you that it helps to work across the
street from a nifty golf course. And it doesn’t hurt to have
a good measure of fame to get you invited into The King’s
company. And it’s a big leg up to have a husband who happens
to be a proud Scot.
Mostly, though, it requires a passionate love for the game
that began precisely when Ladd quit whiffing and started
making solid contact. And that love only grew when the
former “Charlie’s Angels” star found herself being invited
to celebrity pro-am tournaments from California to Wales as
what she laughingly remembers as “the token chick.”
So completely did golf consume Ladd’s leisure time that she
decided to write a book about her life on the links from
rookie to real golf. The title came easy: “Token Chick: A
Woman’s Guide to Golfing with the Boys” (Miramax Books,
2005).
We pick up the story in 1984 as our heroine approaches the
first tee at Rancho Park Golf Club in Los Angeles,
conveniently located across the street from the 20th Century
Fox studios, where she had worked on “Charlie’s Angels.” Her
husband, Brian, who had proposed they play a round of golf
in deference to his Scots heritage, is standing nearby, and
sympathizing.
You’re on the first tee,
about to hit a golf ball for the first time. What happened?
I whiffed it, whiffed it, whiffed it. I was thinking that I
was a bit of an athlete when I was a kid—I was on the
softball team, I played basketball, I was a real tomboy
climbing trees and all that—and it just astounded me that
there was this little ball sitting there and I couldn’t seem
to put the clubhead on it. Then I took a deep breath, slowed
it down a little bit and whacked one right down the middle.
It made that wonderful sound, that crack, and it went
straight and had this nice arc. I was just hooked from that
moment on.
Was it difficult for you to
take up the game as an adult?
I can’t tell you how envious I’ve been when I play with
people who say, “Oh, yeah, I started playing with my dad
when I was 8.” And I think, “Well, that explains your
relaxed confidence.” My problem was that I didn’t really
start with lessons. I’ve since learned how important that
is. When I did take lessons, I had so many bad habits to get
rid of before I moved forward.
You improved, and people
noticed and started inviting you to charity tournaments and
celebrity pro-ams. Is playing in front of a gallery
different than performing as an actress in front of an
audience?
Absolutely. That first time walking out on the first tee and
they announce your name, you can’t pretend you’re someone
else. They’re all watching you, and your hands are shaking,
and your knees are knocking, and you’re trying to take a
deep breath. The first time, I went up to the ball and I had
to back off, but I had this little mantra: “You’re an
actress. Act like you’re a golfer.” Then I took a deep
breath and marched over and actually put the club on the
ball.
Back then you were a bit of
a curiosity at tournaments—as you say, the token chick. No
more, though, right?
That’s absolutely right. There are so many more women
playing today. And a lot of actresses play now. But I was
kind of a trailblazer, in a sense. It was such a fun
journey, particularly being a part of it at the beginning. I
got to play with Annika Sorenstam and Nancy Lopez, and all
the women when I was starting out were so kind and so
encouraging and so happy that I was bringing attention to
golf for celebrity women.
You have a chapter in your
book about men behaving badly on the course. Has that
improved over time?
Yes, it’s much improved, because women are starting to play
better golf. It all depends on the men you’re playing with.
Men and women can be equally charming out there or equally
frustrating. For instance, there are groups of women who
play really slowly, and that really frustrates
people—frustrates me. And there are also some men who just
will not play on if they’ve lost a ball in a ravine. It’s a
ball. You want to run up and give them one and say, “Come
on, fellas, let’s go.” But they want to hit it from wherever
they find it because they might have 50 bucks on the line.
You’ve played with a lot of
top pros. You had a bit of a crush on Arnie.
Oh, yeah. Talk about charm. Talk about … ah, I mean, he’s
Arnold Palmer. Come on! So kind and so fun.
One of the aspects of the
game you say you love is the golfing wardrobe. Do you think
it’s getting better or worse lately?
I think it’s getting better. People have more choices these
days, so they can have their own style. On both the PGA and
LPGA tours, people are trying to set themselves apart with
their clothing and be more stylish, and I think that
attracts more people to the game. I prefer the classic
slacks, a great shirt, nice sweaters. I tend to have a more
classic style as I get older. It’s comfortable for me.
What clubs are you hitting?
Callaway Fusions. A couple of little rescue things. My
Scotty Cameron putter that I practically slept with for a
while because it started working for me.
Favorite courses?
The Alisal [Guest Ranch and Resort in the Santa Ynez Valley]
is one. I run into Freddie Couples there now and then. He
kind of likes it up here. It’s not difficult because of
length, but you really have to place your shots and work the
greens. And it’s in my neighborhood. I love playing in
Hawaii. And St. Andrews, oh, my gosh, the moments I’ve had
there. I played with my father-in-law there. It’s a
cathedral for golf. Another favorite over there is Royal
Dornoch. We played there at the crack of dawn, the first off
the tee in the morning, and we had about five different
climates on the same day.
Do you have a favorite tournament or event?
Brian and I schedule our lives around the Ryder Cup. For us,
there is no better sporting event on the planet. We’ll
literally get up in the middle of the night to watch every
match. We laugh, we cry, we scream, we yell, we throw things
at the television …
Your own
charity tournament is coming up.
Yes, it’s for Childhelp USA, our second year. [The Childhelp
Celebrity Golf Invitational, hosted by Cheryl Ladd and John
O’Hurley, benefits abused and neglected children]. It’s at
Porcupine Creek at Indian Wells on Jan. 8 to 10. It was such
a success last year in kind of a shakedown cruise, and now
we’re really focused and excited about it this year. Now I
just need to get a golf game. I haven’t been playing much.
I’ve been hitting a few balls in my backyard because I’ve
been so busy. [She recently shot an episode of the
television series “NCIS.”]
Hitting into a net?
No, we live on 20 acres, so sometimes I just get some funky
old balls out and whack them down into the valley.
For more information about playing in the
Childhelp Celebrity Golf Invitational, call Executive
Tournament Director Ken Rizzotto at 760-674-9400 or email
chgolfmyway@aol.com.
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