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Lori West is an all-around athlete who traveled to Russia
with the 1976 U.S. Olympic Team and was ranked 5th
in the nation for the pentathlon. She picked up golf after
college and in just five short years was able to qualify for
the LPGA Tour (1983). Her best finish on Tour was 2nd
in Hershey, PA until she joined
The Legends Tour, Official
Senior Tour of the LPGA, and picked up her first
professional victory at the 2002 HyVee Classic. In 2003, she
won the Buehler Classic and she is currently ranked 5th
on The Legends Tour Career Money List. West has also served as
Assistant Captain to the U.S. Team since the Handa Cup’s
inaugural year in 2006, helping LPGA Hall of Famer Kathy Whitworth lead the
Americans to victory three times in this prestigious Legends
Tour international match play competition.
West has fired 14 holes-in-one in her career, the most
memorable earning her $5,000 at a Monday outing in
Wisconsin. Her love for the game and infectious wit make her
a popular choice for pro-am teams; she also gives a mean
golf tip. West has served as The Legends Tour host
professional at a number of
LPGA Golf Clinics for Women,
most notably on the west coast. Her swing exhibitions are
notoriously entertaining, peppered with wry comments about
the game of golf, getting older and just wanting to hit that
perfect shot.
When she’s not on the course, West loves to fly fish for
trout, long board surf and snorkel along the beaches of
California and Hawaii and simply eat, drink and laugh a lot.
We asked her a few burning questions to help you get to know
this talented pro even better:
Which club in your bag is your favorite?
Driver.
Name golfers who have influenced your career or that you
admire.
Pat
Bradley, Patty Sheehan and Jane Blalock come to mind, I
don’t know if it’s cause hang out with them out here or
what, but they’re great.
What is the best tip you can give to an amateur golfer?
Work on
your set-up. The set-up dictates the swing. Most of
them stand like they don’t know what they’re doing. So it's really
just getting a good solid set-up and the swing will happen.
What is your favorite golf course to play?
Hershey, Pa., and any course in Hawaii.
Do you think a hole in one is pure luck or pure skill?
Yes…
If you could have one special power in golf, how would you
enhance your game?
I guess you
know, alignment is so important, I’d like to be able to look
behind me and see where the hell I’m lined up and how my
arms are hanging and what I’m doing, cause you really don’t
know, people always say “Oh well you were aiming over there.”
So if I could hover behind myself, you know and look at my
set-up...that would be great.
How many pairs of golf shoes do you have?
5 that I
would put on now, but I probably have another 10 laying
around that I haven’t given away yet.
What's your favorite golf memory?
Winning the
senior event, my first senior event when I made a 4 foot
putt that made me $75,000 and beat all my favorite golfers
that I’ve looked up to my whole life.
Name the 3 people (historical or current) you would most
like to have dinner with.
You know
I’ve thought of this and really, it’d be the people I was
hanging out with right then. But I guess Kennedy, I
think it’d be really cool. Marilyn Monroe, because I'd like to
know if she was a dingbat or not - she always got such a bad rap.
I think she was a talented actress and I’d really like to
see what she was all about. Then someone like Katherine
Hepburn, but Kennedy probably would’ve been the coolest
person.
What’s the last book you read?
Music Message Down Under, which is about a women who goes
out into the Outback, she actually thinks she’s just coming
back to get an award in Australia and they end up taking
her, take off all of her clothes, all of her jewelry and she
goes into the Outback. It talks a lot about all the healing
and the telepathic things they can do, how much when you get
into the land, how much more you have, so it’s sort of cool.
What is the best piece of advice you have been given?
I would say cause I’m so positive so people can’t say be
positive and I work hard on my game, my best advice would
probably be to be more serious, but I never took that as
good advice. You know, it’s weird, I just
haven’t heard the right thing yet… I guess I’m still waiting
to hear it! (laughs)
Sarah Palin or Tina Fey?
Personally, I’ll take the 5th amendment on this,
I just really think that Sarah Palin is not my favorite
person. Although I do like the wilderness… but she doesn’t
even though she lives in it, so that sort of scares me.
What is your favorite movie?
Out of Africa is one of my favorite movies, but whenever
I play bad golf I go to stupid movies, like “Dumb & Dumber."
I shot 80 once, went to “Dumb & Dumber” and shot 69 the next
day. So you go to a stupid movie, you just crack up. I like
the dumb movies.
19th Hole
When I shoot under par, I drink:
1 Vodka Tonic.
When I shoot over par, I drink:
More than 1 Vodka Tonic.
Learn more about Lori West and other Legends at
www.thelegendstour.com.
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