We sit down with 2 time LPGA Major Golf winner, Sally Little, discussing her important Centre for Excellence in Maitland, Cape Town. Little became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1971 and won 15 LPGA Tour events, including two major championship, during her career. In 2016, she became the first female golfer from South Africa inducted into the South African Hall of Fame, and contributed wholeheartedly to the development of the game in USA and RSA since retirement.
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So here we are with the great s little at your new driving new driving range what is inspiration behind this development project well my inspiration comes from I feel that what golf gave me in the sense that it gave me all of my life skills and playing golf in America
For so long as a professional it’s I’ve found out that my organization in the states the LPGA ladies profession golfers association gives back it’s is an association nonprofit and we train very early as as players and when you join that organization to give back and the LPGA
Just so you know from from the background probably since 1981 they’ve put 500,000 girls through girls Golf and that’s all walks of life and kids off the Street and gives them a a you know a direction and it offers the organization offers many many different uh ways to become a business person and
That’s what I’m doing back in South Africa is to take Golf and use it as a platform for higher education it’s been a small project um in the sense because I am Hands-On and the City of Cape Town has awarded me this amazing diamond in the rough driving range here and I have
A lease with with them and we upgrading it and I’m able to train out of here it’s open to the public as you know and uh but I also use it uh to train my girls I work with press switch School in town and we’ve trained almost 70 girls
Now over a period of 4 years it’s 27 sessions a year that’s all we can afford but they come every Wednesday and what we’ve done is we we we take girls young young girls because I don’t mix I do not train boys not because I don’t want to but from their backgrounds
You don’t mix them both at such young ages especially learning to play golf um so I train only girls and and um so we’ve I think it’s up to 70 now that we’ve put through this program and my frustration is that I don’t have the finances to get bseries for them to get
Them into better high schools and I can’t I can’t tell you the more frustration I have is that most of your top high schools here for girls do not have golf which to me is unbelievable cuz if you look at all the schools overseas most girls high schools
They have golf so we really need to change that one but in the meantime my next thing is to take the kids that we have trained and bring them back in to get them bseries and give them life skills and get them up to Snuff to enter the the
Work field of South Africa and you’ve had some tremendous success stories I was hearing about kids turning their lives around could hardly read and write and they chugging along quite nicely now very much so you know the program we’ve done so far which is so interesting is
When I first started it I went to um the school in Cape Town called preswick and I made an appointment to see the um the principal there and when I said golf he was shocked he said golf’s a white elite of sport I said may be but if I Chang
One girl’s life made a difference and he said fair enough and I said I have a program that we’ve used overseas that can help their grades he said what do you mean I hand coordination I hand coordination switches on both sides of the brain by kicking and throwing and
Swinging a golf club it stimulates both sides of the brain that improves your mathematics and it improves your focus so we did a little bit of a background with it in the very beginning which the teachers are still doing the principal chooses the 10 little girls I keep them for 3
Years they they watch their their levels once they go into our program they pay attention to the grades of of our youngsters and it’s remarkable I don’t think we’ve ever had a failure and it’s just that nurturing and giving a bit of time but also I believe that iang
Cordination and the for them to focus on one particular thing like hitting a golf ball like swinging a golf club most of most of our girls don’t even know how to kick a gol kick a soccer ball and boys have that automatically it’s just innate with them so the
Throwing has improved we do it almost every session and I feel it really has helped them exactly so so it’s it’s really a cultural thing where these girls just aren’t exposed to sport then from a young age absolutely and we exposing to we exposing sport to them
And also the nurturing they score in our program we put them through they play golf nine holes and they’ve got a score and it’s all done by hand not by computer so they got to add it so all these little things add to their focus and um
It’s remarkable and it’s hour and a half of time are you able to leverage some of your connections on the PGA tour to get some of the talented players to universities over there I well the LPGA has offered some some bseries for me like my girls aren’t old enough yet but
You know we have opportunities through the LPGA to you know get they could become teachers of the game there massive always always good caches and it’d be wonderful because like in the Western Cape we have so few women teachers and um this to become a a teaching professional is it it’s an
Incredible opportunity so my focus here at this Drivin range could you imagine if we taught them Agronomy you know how to grow grage as well exactly every level through golf there’s so many opportunities it’s not just playing the game they could get a degree in business and come back as administrators
Exactly and to keep the game going for generations to come you got to get the youngsters in on it and and we’ve got to be you know as far as I’m concerned um across the board it’s not a color it’s not a one color sport it needs to be
Opened up to everybody and everyone goes oh it’s too expensive do you know that all my clubs that I use here are all donated you know golfers are golfers give back most of my golf balls here are donated to the little you know the Sally little Center for excellence and people
That come here to play to hit balls are flabbergasted when they see my kids and if people want to give back to you how what’s the best way for them to to donate clubs balls and that sort of things to you oh they they bring them here and and what we offer everything
That is donated we either sell it here for reasonable prices and all that money goes back into my kids behind me here exactly able to give them whatever they need and and golfers are great with that a lot of guys come here and hit balls and then they have three or four balls
In their bag they just hit it out onto the field and we take it in because we need over 3,000 golf balls on this field constantly exactly so 4,000 if I’m playing so my big step is really to to follow this path from from primary school all the way through high school
And these these kids will have an opportunity going through our program to have a vacation and are they playing in the in the holiday tournaments the better players not yet no not yet they’re not good enough yet um and and what happens is when they go to high
School they leave and that’s my problem yeah I don’t I should I should have them for from the time they high school and when they ready at through high school they would be playing in all these tournaments once a week they they get to hit balls and and and if you see their
Swings it’s it’s wonderful yeah it’s amazing how they pick it up quickly and as and as 11y old going up in Cape Town what sort of support did you have besides your father who was a big inspiration I here I feel the only inspiration really has come from you
Know most Juniors it comes from the the the family playing the game but like for me personally I’ve got a couple of girls that I’m that live in town that I want to take to Metropolitan now as they 12 years old and they’ve got this background and they’ll become junior members that’s my
My ambition is to get every girl that I train through the game and be interested in wanting to play it when when they’re older that’s the way you grow the game and and the kids that have been exposed to the program what’s their feedback they love it but they can’t play because
They go to high school and high schools don’t have golf it’s crazy it’s a vocational sport yeah yeah did you see golf I got to underwat and stuff it seems a lot more multiracial are you seeing the game changing oh very much so and it it will change more and more if
We get youngsters in exactly you know when you look at my driving range yeah it’s multi-racial totally yeah and um and they bring in their kids the hardest thing for me to find actually is to find a female golf teacher here that will come on a Saturday morning I’ve got 10
Little ones that want to learn and it doesn’t have to be a female but it’s really hard to find male instructors that want to train youngsters yeah it’s huge exactly and um and and and what what why did you decide to come back to South Africa you you got your
Citizenship don’t you I have both but my my whole thing for me is you know I’d retired and and for me for me I just um feel that I was sitting in America and I wanted to make a difference I’d done we had done so much work with Junior Golf
Through the LPGA I felt I needed to give back to my country so that’s what I’ve done exactly and going a little back to your playing days Gary play described you as a tiger Wiz coming through the ranks uh what what separated you from the pack as as a
Youngster who can tell you know people ask me when should I turn pro you know Sally when’s it the right time you never know um but for me I felt i’ I’d won most of the South African amateur events that I could and where was I going and I
Felt that I wanted to go and beat Americans and I looked at all of these players you know we only had magazines then and I felt I could take them on and so I took the I took the plunge the the only place I went to was the US and I
Wound my my way up through the ranks wasn’t easy I mean I did have the ability but to be there on your own you know we didn’t have internet we didn’t have phones and but to be there and leave your Society was tough but the LPGA was
Very very open and to have a foreigner they had very few foreigners at the time coming in and I was welcomed and I I built myself up it took me I was rookie of the year the first year 71 I played eight events that’s it and then I
Thought oh boy I was going to be so good and boy did I learn my lesson it took me four years to win but I was learning you know most that’s why I’m so we losing so many opportunities you for young girls by not having golf in
High school because all the high school players Now in America are ready to turn pro they’re so good with the competition have you got to the root of why there’s no golf in high school I have no clue I don’t think it’s been proposed and you’ve got to start with
Primary you don’t start with high school yeah and I don’t think South Africa’s thought about it I know you’ve got one Fantastic ptor Girls High have fantastic players out of there they’ve got opportunities our our girls that are going now from here to try and turn pro they don’t have enough competition so
They behind the aall cuz girls of 15 are shooting 15 under par in the states when they go to when they go to college College I’m reading 19 under par the top um college team one girl shot 1900 and not off the ladies teas so the competition is just unbelievable there
How big is the tour now compared to 71 when you started well the difference in 71 they were only 60 players now they’re at Max 140 players 45 that’s all you can have to get around a course and the difference is when I played only the top
10 were winners now 140 of winners can win any day of the week that’s the competition that they’ve got through high school and college and that’s what we TR how do you start it here high schools exactly primary into high school so you almost are you having ERS with the head Masters
To try I haven’t yet but I would very much like I mean we sit in this Prime spot there are I think 15 schools yeah in this whole area that they can get to us so easily so the time is coming to go and speak to
Them about I mean I’ve got 10 girls that Prim will be ready for high school and they’ve got the backing of 3 years and speaking of backing you say sometimes as a as a woman Le project you you don’t get as much financial support from the
Sponsors as you’d like not at all you know if I was a male and I was Gary Player they would be flocking to help this project yeah it’s amazing to me there sits Amazon yeah biovac why aren’t they here you know speaking speaking of Amazon with the River Club going is that
Good for your business it’s been phenomenal for our business um in the sense people didn’t realize that we were here and understand we all grass we don’t have mats we pride ourselves in being a center it’s not a driving range we’ve just put in a new putting green
Bunkers have just gone in and you can see how groomed it’s starting to look so um we well on our way we’ve getting a number of people like yourself coming to hit balls here and we’re getting consistantly the same people coming back cuz they see what we’re doing here and
Our balls are good exactly yeah it’s all good and then um two majors and 15 victories in total and then then you had an illness do you think that lady will at your Prime when you got sick or or you coming off it definitely it was in
My Prime uh I had a female problems in endometriosis three surgeries and it was right in my Prime and I never was the same player when I came back but I had a wonderful career um I did win my last major in 88 but I didn’t have the
Consistency that I had in 83 84 that’s quite a long career from even with her illness 16 years at the top I played yeah I played 28 years yes huge but 15 real you know top I think I was in the top seven for many years and you had a few
Doozies with with Laura Davies that must have been a quite entertaining she was an amazing player and headed so far and I I actually beat her in in the major in Canada and she I mean it was in ‘ 86 it was her first year and she had hit me by 70 yard
ODS that was a doozy um but fun career really great career and did you have any of the problems that Gary had with the the political situation and heckling and all that definitely I was boycotted um all through the early 80s I I tell everyone
I was number two in the world and our last event is in Japan every year and it’s co-sanctioned with our tour meaning that money counts the money moneyless counts just in that one event not others and I was number two and flew to Japan and they said we not you’re not allowed
To come in we boycotting you so I turned around and left and I went from number two to number seven in the world in one week and that kept me out of four Invitational events at the end of the year cuz they only took the top five
That could have been you as number one on the money list hectic and it wasn’t pleasant but um yeah it’s it’s difficult when you’re young cuz you don’t understand and I wasn’t a political person I just wanted to play and compete yeah so I had armed guards with me in many many uh
Events walking with me yeah and young girls interested in in golf what’s the best way that they that they can they they need to talk their daddies in to speak into to their schools about bringing golf into their schools I’m serious about that ask for it how how
Proud were the father be if their child their daughter became a superstar exactly there a lot of money in the game now as well absolutely um anything else um sure and advice I mean golf such a mental game you Laura was out hitting you but you still beat her what is
Between the ears golf well as you know you you drive for show and you put for dough so I had the allaround game and uh pting was one of my fores so um you can beat someone who hits it further than you and but you can’t be
Intimidated by it so it’s 18 holes and you can get them they more than one way is there’s more than one way to win and it is a mental game yeah thanks very much for your time lovely lovely thank you I still want to fall off your feet though
Eh I’d like it just to work on balance if you fall off your feet it means you swing into heart for your power exactly I mean once in a while you’ll see a Prue fall off their feet when they’re going for it hitting a great you know P four in one but they
Keep their balance and that keeps the straightness of a shot you know cuz you got talent has it worked has it helped definitely keeping it from inside yeah it’s like talking shares I’m not blocking it off the eyes anymore no that felt like a real master class those guys
Were cute I enjoyed them yeah I know that we’ll be back
