Heroes in Business - Dottie Pepper, CBS Sports Lead Walking Reporter, former LPGA Pro won 2 Major Championships

Episode Date: January 27, 2022

Letters to learn from and live by. Dottie Pepper, CBS Sports Lead Walking Reporter, former LPGA Pro won 2 Major Championships is interviewed by David Cogan famous celebrity host of the Eliances Hereos radio show and founder of Eliances entrepreneur community. The Heroes Show interviews top CEOs, Founders, Celebrities and Athletes, where our Heroes Align.

up in the sky look it's captivating it's energizing it's alliances heroes alliances is the destination for entrepreneurs investors ceos inventors leaders celebrities and startups where our heroes in business align now here's your host flying in, David Kogan, founder of Eliance's. All right. I'm so excited today. This is going to be incredible. And I just love, I've got the favorite job. I think I have the number one job. And I can't wait to see who you're going to see that we're going to interview next. And by the way, too, thank you again, too, for the feedback when we had, when I just recently had on the chairman of the Carlisle Group, multi-gazillion billionaire, David Rubenstein. So thank you for that feedback. Continue to check out past episodes by going to eliancer.com. That's E-L-I-a-n-c-e-r.com because you're watching me host david cogan of the

alliance's hero show so with that we're going to go ahead and get started too i'm excited you'll recognize her because if you know this game of golf you know her she is the cbs sports lead Sports lead walking reporter, former LPGA pro who won not one, if that isn't in itself like just extremely rare and impossible to get, but two major championships. And you could reach her. Her name is Dottie Pepper at DottiePepper.net. Dottie, welcome to the show. David, thank you. I just got nervous after

hearing about your previous guest. You know what though? I'm going to share a secret with you. He doesn't play golf as good as you. Well, and I don't do what he does either. So I guess this is why we're with you. That's right. And again, really excited and everything. First, I just got to ask you, you know, how does one, I want to get right into the golf part of it. And then we're going to talk about what you've come out with and that, but how does one get, like, I think of all the games that are out there that you need the most mindset when it comes to golf. How do you like get into tune when you're on the course and it's like so quiet and every single person is just watching you that's a great question uh because i think everybody gets

into that space that that it really you need to be to play championship golf in a different way um for me it was music uh and what i'd done to just prepare for the tournament, what I'd done before I even got on site. But music has been a big part of my life. And I mean, I played the piano as a young kid trying to make enough money to go play golf tournaments. So I mean, it was the way for me to continue to play golf at the starting level. But it's been like, I still remember the songs that were in my head when I won my, my second major championship. So that that's,

it was all Rod Stewart. It was hot legs all week long. It was crazy. And, and I, you know, I broke a, broke a scoring record that still stands at that event.

And it was, it was pretty wild, but music has been a big part of how I got my mindset. And sometimes we heard Tiger talk a little bit about it, Tiger Woods, when he was making this comeback now that he seems to be in the middle of, that there were some days when he just didn't have his good, his head wasn't in it. It needed to be something that was not so pretty and get him in the game. And then there's other days when softer stuff works. So I think that's part of knowing who you are, what takes you,

what it really takes to get you in that best mindset to play championship golf. Is there any different feeling, Dottie, between when you win the first one and you've just, right, your whole life you've been preparing for this, you end up winning it. Between the second one, is it kind of like, okay, well, I already won the first one. This is amazing too, but I already kind of know what it feels like. They were very different. The first one. This is amazing too, but I already kind of know what it feels like. They were very different. The first one I won in a playoff and I had been, I'd had a really good season in 1991 where I finished third on the money list, but I did not win a golf tournament. So imagine, I mean, I played 31 times officially on the LPGA tour that year and didn't win, but still finished third on

the money list. So there was an anticipation that things are in the right place. So it was a sense of relief. In 1999, it was completely different. I had had a good 98. I'd really doubled down on my preparation over that season leading in. And I almost, I don't want to say I expected to win, but I expected to play well. So there was a completely different frame of mind that was going in. And yes, I think that you do take some comfort from knowing that I've done this before. So, and then talk to us too now, what you're doing now. I mean, so now CBS Sports lead walking reporter. So now you're on the other side, a little less pressure, I would assume, right?

Except when you have the producer or director in your ear. Do this, do that. Well, yeah, or yeah, the director's situation is like, daddy, get out of the shot. So I think there are different sorts of pressure, but I still get nervous before big events. I know there's a physical aspect to it that I think people forget about as being a walking reporter. I need to be walking faster than the players are and getting into position to call a shot or set up a shot without them hearing my voice.

So I have to be ahead of them. And we have a kind of a system for it's a relay for getting yardage and clubs and and to be able to get the information out quickly and then let let the players take over but um there's yeah yeah there's different there's pressure but it's just different prior to the video i was i watched a number of things of you on video and stuff and i love your the way you move like after you're just so excited i would love to make like a sizzle reel of that. I mean, it's just like, because when you see that from a viewer and the emotions, we get a sense of what you're feeling in the emotion. And it's like, you know, you're quiet, just everything, you're still as could be. And then boom, it goes in and just you explode.

I played with a lot of passion. Everything I do, I kind of jump in the deep end. And sometimes I have swimmies on and sometimes I don't. And I just, I loved what I did as a player. I loved the whole journey getting there through junior golf and playing college golf at Furman. And I love what I do now. And I think there are elements that are very much the same because you have to be prepared to do what I did as a player. And I certainly need to be prepared to do live television. That is for certain. And what was it? Why did you even want to get into golf? Like what even motivated you to? It was my family. I'm sorry. Was it Rod Stewart? Well, it ended up being that I associated with Rod Stewart. And I was actually a groupie for

quite a while. When I was playing some of my best golf, I was on, I was seeing every Rod Stewart show there was in the region that we were. I mean, there were nights I stayed up entirely too late driving back and forth from concerts. Had backstage pass for an entire season that he gave me. I was a true groupie. But I was introduced to the game by my dad's mom. Her husband had passed and she had time on her hands and it was social and it was athletic for her. And being the oldest grandchild, it was something that she could share with me and I could share time with her. So that was really the root in a very odd place coming from my grandmother. Wow. Amazing. All right.

We're going to talk about something that's this three ring binder in a minute here because you're listening watching me david cogan host of the alliance hero show make sure that you go to alliances.com that's e-l-i-a-n-c-e-s.com because that is the only place where entrepreneurs align just don't ask me to go golfing with you. That's where you could ask Dottie Pepper, who we have on today, CBS Sports lead walking reporter, former LPGA pro, won two major championships. You can reachE-P-E-R.net. All right, so Dottie, there's something magical about this three-ring binder. Tell us about it.

Not too long after I really took up the game and realized that I loved it. I was blessed by a relationship with a retired professional, golf professional in upstate New York by the name of George Pulver. And I wrote to him asking him because my dad had taken me as far in the game as he could take me, whether he would be interested in taking on a student, even after he had retired from being a full-time, totally engaged PGA professional, because I knew he wasn't just that. He was a dad. He was a writer. He worked as the Saratogian in the local newspaper here. He started out as a cub reporter for them, but he was considered golf royalty in this area, not just because he was a great teacher, but a player,

but he was considered golf royalty in this area, not just because he was a great teacher, but a player, was an agronomist. He did everything in the game and did it so beautifully and with such respect that I thought, well, if I'm going to take lessons from anybody, I would love it to be George Pulver. And it turned out to be a really amazing relationship over the course of the next nearly six years that he left me letters in my mailbox after we had lessons. He left me reading assignments from some of the greatest authors and players in the game. And I saved them all. six years that he left me letters in my mailbox after we had lessons. He left me reading assignments from some of the greatest authors and players in the game. And I saved them all. And it was time to do something positive when the COVID lockdowns were at their steepest in upstate New York in March of 2020. And I decided that they would best be served in the form of a book.

But what I did, I thought I had a one-sided story. It was going to be me telling Mr. Pulver's story. But what I did not know was that he had saved every letter that I wrote to him in response. And I discovered that file when I was doing the research for the book. So it became a much bigger, more elaborate, deeper subject um and book so 208 pages later here we are but what's unique about it is is that you had the foresight to keep all of these letters and obviously he did too for a reason yeah how did you i mean what what was most people, they get the letter, they absorb it, and it goes into a junk drawer and they never see it again.

There was so much good stuff, especially in the beginning, that was not just golf. It was about working your way through the life lessons that were involved in playing tournament golf. And I think that was his biggest gift to me was really, he was more of a life coach. And it was that about how you handle disappointment and how you handle success. It went from end to end and it was a value of education. It was about grit and grace and balance and, and everything that was all about life.

And I just thought there was so many good things in it, even as a kid. And it carried me through college and well beyond. It's still stuff that I go back to on a regular basis. And doing this book was really cathartic for me, but it was also the same for his kids that are still alive. They started sending me more and more of their dad's material and things that he had written them. And I got to really learn even more about him than I did. And of all of these letters that you received from him, what's maybe particular

one that just is continuing in your mind that you replay over and over? I think there's one letter that was late in 1980 and it, it's always stuck with me and that he would to never give up because success might dart at you at any moment. So to me, that, that is more than just playing golf. That's more than just finishing a tournament. That's looking to, you know, kind of gray days, blue days when things don't go really well to me, it's also

how we get through this COVID mess. You have to continue on because success is going to come. We're going to get through this, but we cannot give up and we got to finish it. And where can we get your book? At dottypepper.net? You can. I talk about interpreters. I'm it. I did the wholesaling. I self-published. I've done it all. So I have a wholesale division. I fill orders myself. I've gotten it into a couple of very, very good brick and mortar stores. The PGA Tour superstores have been really good supporters, but everything comes through my computer and I go down in my basement and fill orders. Nobody would believe it. So self-publishing?

I did it. I mean, that's almost as hard as playing golf, no? Well, David, I think it would have been harder to go to a traditional publisher and give up the message and give up the timing because I really felt like I owed it to him to have his message be as thorough and complete as it is because his letters were that way. The way he taught was that way. The way he lived his life was that way. And not to have it be rushed to be a Christmas or a holiday release. We released it last year after the Masters when golf is something that people are looking forward to as you see the Masters and you see spring and you feel spring and you smell spring,

that was the time to release that book. And it wasn't a holiday release. It wasn't something to rush through to get it to market. It was to do it the way Mr. Pulver really would have wanted it to be done. Wow. And again, we've got Dottie Pepper with us, CBS Sports lead walking reporter, former LPGA pro, won two major championships. You can reach her at DottiePepper.net. And of course, you're listening, watching me, David Kogan, host of the Alliance's Hero Show. So you know where to go. Alliances.com, E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. What do you think Mr. Pulver would say now to you?

CES.com. What do you think Mr. Pulver would say now to you? I mean, knowing where you're at, what you've done, and that you came out with a book that included his letters. I mean, what do you think he would say? Early on in the process of, you know, because I kept the family so involved in this, in the book process from, from the very beginning, I asked their permission first. And they were all in, digging through their own boxes. And as I said, sending me more about their dad. Madeline is the middle child, the one that I've been closest to. She was actually the one I wrote the letter to asking if it would be okay, or if she thought her dad would consider working with me, just a young kid with stars in her eyes and no patience. She said he would be so embarrassed

at this whole prospect. And I said, well, good, then we're going to embarrass the heck out of him. I think he'd be really, he was very quiet, understated. He'd be embarrassed that there were so many eyeballs on what he taught, but I think he would be so happy that the story was able to, because there were so many good things in those letters, that the story could live for another generation and beyond. Right. And it doesn't pertain to solely golf. You don't need to be a golf expert or a golf enthusiast to read this book.

No, I think there's a lot in there for parents who have kids playing youth sports, the kids themselves, for athletic directors, for people that are, I mean, there's a lot just in general psychology in there that it really is a book that kind of, it goes from soup to nuts about anything that's really in life. I really believe that he would be a life coach in today's world. Were you just like in shock when you found out he kept all the letters that you wrote to him? There was not much Kleenex left in this house that afternoon. I was actually home. My husband had returned to work and had made a trip down to New Jersey on a historical project he was working on. And I don't know if it was a good thing that he

was gone that afternoon or if it was a bad thing because I was overwhelmed and I really needed that. I needed that time to kind of process what I'd found. I knew it was a very important relationship for me going one way, but I had no idea that it was this important for him going the other. Amazing. So we're talking again with you and I believe we're like in your office area and stuff. And I want to do some snooping. Yes. Snooping. OK. I see a number of pictures and different things in the background. Show us something that or something that maybe is unique, something that's your favorite, something that if there was a fire or that,

that'd be like the first item you'd grab and run. Right. So this is my husband's office and he is a golf historian by trade um by education he did undergrad at colby and did his master's and his doctorate uh research at cambridge in the uk okay so something unique in his office that you yeah absolutely um wow got a lot of unique things in there. There are. So one of the really cool things is, so you'll see behind here, down low when he played at Cambridge, he went there as a really not a very good golfer.

They could barely break 90 and ended up playing varsity golf for Cambridge. And that is something he was so incredibly proud of. So this was back in 2005 and he went to the Gonville and Keys College and he got us what they call the Varsity Blue. And that sets you up to play for the rest of your life if you choose to in what's called the President's Putter, southeast of London, every January. They just finished last weekend. And it's Cambridge and Oxford graduates and they descend on this tiny golf club southeast of England and they play a match in the middle of the winter and it's day after day of golf and you play fast

golf because there's not much daylight at this time of the year but to be to have a blue to have played varsity for either Cambridge and Oxford it's a very small number of people, but it is so entrenched in their lives. And I've, I've been to Rye and it is magic, really amazing. So it's really, you think about Bernard Darwin and what he did for sports writing, how golf is understood, how he, he really impacted, not just golf, he has impacted all of sports journalism. And to be able to be a part of that and still have that be alive, that's a pretty special kind of thing. Amazing. So, you know, you mentioned, you've just done so many incredible things. I mean, you know, you continue to do, you know, being the CBS Sports Lead Walking Reporter, you get to see a lot of the stars in that. Any of them ever ask you like a, any suggestions on what they should do?

I mean, have you become friendly with any of them? I have, I have. And you'll, you'll occasionally get a player, even, even on the, on the LPGA side or the guys that'll just bounce ideas about swing things off you, or you just become, it becomes part of a traveling, I don't want to say circuits, but it's a circus. You go from tournament to tournament to event to event and you become familiar and you become, it's an extended family, whether it's players, technicians,

other talent on the air, on either side of the camera. And we're all moving in these same circles. Everybody kind of breaks up on Sunday night and Monday and all comes back together again and off we go. But you do, it becomes an extended family. Well, I'm going to ask you something I want you to give advice to with children, but before I do and stuff, make sure you check out Dottie Pepper. Go to DottiePepper.net.

You need to get her book, Letters to a Future Champion, My Time with Mr. Pulver. Again, you can get it at DottiePepper.net. Whether you're a golf enthusiast or not, there's a lot of lessons to be learned from that. So, you know, in regards, you mentioned a little bit about your childhood. What kind of advice would you give for children now, whether male, female or that? I mean, you've broken barriers in regards to the females who are getting into these industries, primarily that have been dominated by men. I mean, that's just what it has been. And you broke into that. What kind of advice would you have for them,

and especially to now in the world that we live in, and those that would like to make their mark in history like you have? I was really fortunate, and I do share a large part about this in the book, to be really mentored first by Mr. Pulver, but then by Judy Rankin, who shattered glass and grass ceilings way before I did, really covering the PGA Tour as a female when no one else had done that. And to follow in Judy's footsteps quite literally, her best advice were two things. Say as much as you can in as few words as possible. And being in the television world,

you know, things that, that happened very quickly behind the scenes and they're going to another shot because we're talking about really having 18 football games going on. Balls are flying everywhere. It's just that we're not seeing them on live television. So you need to be really concise. But I think her other thing was that as a woman entering what is traditionally a pretty male dominated area, you just need to be yourself. You don't need to be anything. You don't need to be the guys. You don't need to be anything other than yourself because you already, you know, you talk about what you know, and you know who you are. I love it. Well, incredible advice. I have one confession to you, Dottie. I was in an elevator with Rod Stewart when I attended the Grammys. It was just him and I in the elevator. And I was like, what do I say to this guy? And what did I say?

Here's what I said. Hello. And that was it. I didn't come up with anything else at the time. You choked. at the time you choked i choked that's right so now i know i can't play golf maybe that too so all through life dottie you've made a career out of the sport you love and provide invaluable advice for future champions that's a hero sharing your story story cbs sports lead walking reporter former lpga pro won two major championships Check out dottypepper.net. This has been David Kogan with the Alliance's Hero Show. Maybe next time I'll get Rod Stewart on and you on at the same time. Love it.