Meg Mallon: Michigan’s Best Ever LPGA Tour Player

Q&A on Solheim Cup and more

By Tom Lang

Michigander Meg Mallon is the undisputed best woman golfer ever from the Great Lakes State:

·         Won four professional majors, better than any other Michigander   

·         Won 18 LPGA Tour events

·         World Golf Hall of Fame member

·         13-9-7 overall record (5-2-1 singles) in eight Solheim Cup appearances, plus 2013 Captaincy

·         Won the Michigan Women’s Amateur in 1983

·         All-Big Ten at Ohio State and 1985 Conference Championship runner up

She was gracious with her time to give me and three-time Michigan Broadcaster of the Year Jack Ebling an interview in mid-August. Below is part of our tag-team talk. The full piece can be heard at a link at the end:

Question: Another Michigander, Kelly Robbins, played in several Solheim Cups, I assume some with you – how rare do you think that is?

Mallon: “Yes, Kelly and I were playing partners in Sweden in the Solheim Cup. I just love Kelly Robbins, one of my favorite human beings out on Tour. Yes (that is rare), and we even had Becky Iverson (from the U.P.) who played in Scotland one year. All three of us were on that team. We’re a tough group. When you learn to play golf in Michigan, you can play in any type of elements.”

Q: What are you looking forward to about the 2024 event?

Mallon: “I am super excited about this one, because it’s in the Nation’s Capital… at the Robert Trent Jones course where they’ve had several President’s Cups. I just think it’s going to be spectacular, especially coming off the Olympics and everyone getting that national fervor going, and I think it’s really going to be a special event. I will be there the whole time.”

Q: Do you have a top memory or two from the Solheim Cup, and maybe a memory you’d rather not recall?

Mallon: “Actually I have a full circle memory to share. My very first Solheim Cup (1992) was in Scotland and we were heavy, heavy favorites. It was the second Solheim Cup ever held, and the first one the Americans dominated and it wasn’t even a match. So, we went in as heavy favorites in Scotland – and we knew the Europeans were good players, even if the American audience didn’t know. And, on my singles match, the Europeans won the Solheim Cup. And I will never forget that, as all of Europe celebrated on top of me. I think I’m still holding Catrin Nilsmark’s golf ball. I never gave it back to her because she was gone, they were so excited. And it was just a terrible feeling, going back to your team, and having that moment, and it was rough (Europe won 7-3 in the 10 matches that final round).

“Then in my very last Solheim Cup in 2005 at Crooked Stick, it came down to my match again, and I won my match to win the Solheim Cup so I got to have both experiences and I’m very grateful for both of them and I will never forget that either. It’s quite a thrill to play in that event. It’s my favorite event to play in. I grew up in team sports in Michigan, all sorts of team sports, so to be able to do that and represent your country is a bonus – a fun event.”

Q: How many players take representing the flag as seriously as you do?

Mallon: “Oh, all of them do. They get it. And if they don’t get it, they get it after they play in one. That’s why I am really hopeful for this year for Nelly Korda, because she has yet to be on a winning team. So, I want her to get that, and feeling … that positive experience in a Solheim Cup because there’s nothing else like it. And to win it on home soil. So, I don’t want to make an early call, but boy, it would be fantastic to have that all come true. And we have won three in a row but we’ve never lost three in a row so it would be great if they pull it out this year.” (USA lost in 2021, then last year Europe retained the Cup.)

Q: What’s the difference from losing the Solheim Cup and what’s maybe different this year?

Mallon: “You can break it down in so many different ways… you could come up with all sorts of reasons, but it comes down to a putt or two or match or two here or there, and just the momentum. And it really helps to be on home soil… and there’s a lot of pressure. You’re not playing for any money, but you’re playing for your teammates and your country and there’s a lot of pressure behind that.”

Q: We all know that the Solheim Cup and Ryder Cup are the same match play format, but what might be some subtle differences between the men’s and women’s events?

Mallon: “Our atmosphere is really fun. At the first tee in the morning and the afternoon, people are singing and dancing (together), singing national anthems. It’s really raucous at the Solheim Cup that way. The men are kind of more of a jeering kind of thing, it’s more of a taking sides kind of situation. I think ours is much more fun and I hope ours stays that way.

“And what’s funny playing the next week after playing an event like that, you’ve been screaming and fist pumping out there at the Solheim Cup. And when you get back to the next event and make your first birdie and (just) you’re going to fist pump and scream, you think, opps, I’m not at the Solheim Cup anymore.”

Q: What about the crowd and the chants and the different volume level out on the course?

Mallon: “Not every player can handle that. Some really get ignited by it. Lexi Thompson likes to get on the first tee and she wants to hit her shot when everyone’s screaming and yelling; she’s encouraging them to do it. And some players it’s dead silence, and that’s eiery... when you’re going from singing songs and it’s dead silence and it’s only you hitting that ball.”

Q: What are your thoughts on where the game of golf for women currently stands?

Mallon: “It’s in great position. We’re probably the only sports organization that boasts the best players from what, 40 countries maybe? I mean, it’s incredible the amount of women playing around the world on Tour against each other… television contracts are up, purses are incredible, the quality of golf is so fun to watch. Like what Lydia Ko did at the Olympics, to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame, to do it winning a gold medal; just great stories. And the Asian players are rock stars in their countries. They can’t go anywhere without being recognized. So, it is thriving on the world stage. And with two American players right now number one and two in the world, I think the American game is quite healthy as well. It looks really good.”

For the entire interview, click here to listen as Mallon also talks about her chilly reception and getting booed as a freshman at Ohio State; her high school years playing basketball at Farmington Hills Mercy where she recounts getting a technical foul; as well as other fun, non-Solheim Cup off shoots like Bo Schembechler and Woody Hayes.