Father, daughter team up

Mallory Blackwelder has dad working as caddie
By PETE DOUGHERTY Staff writer
Published 12:50 a.m., Thursday, September 8, 2011

{ Worth and Mallory Blackwelder }

ALBANY -- In 23 years as a professional caddie, Worth Blackwelder has carried clubs for some LPGA greats, including Beth Daniel, Juli Inkster, Cristie Kerr and Saratoga Springs' own Dottie Pepper.

Another well-known name, at least to him, will walk alongside him this week in the Price Chopper Tour Championship at Capital Hills. It is his daughter, Mallory Blackwelder, a 24-year-old second-year player on the LPGA Futures Golf Tour.
It is far from the first time Mallory has had her father on the bag. He stopped carrying fulltime on the LPGA Tour last year when his daughter turned pro, but they try to maintain a golfer-caddie relationship.

"It's going to be a little different because she's my daughter," Worth said, "but we've done it together for a long time. Ninety-nine percent of the time we get along really well. I don't think we've had but one bad day.

"It was in Turkey on the LET last year. She was tied for the lead, it was her second Ladies' European Tour event, and she got off to a bad start on the second round. I was probably trying to over-caddie a little bit, and she basically told me to back off. We don't fight. I treat her like I would treat Juli Inkster or Cristie Kerr or Dottie Pepper, and she treats me like a tour caddie that she hired. We keep the father-daughter part out of it."

Worth's wife and Mallory's mother is the former Myra Van Hoose, the 1980 LPGA Rookie of the Year. The two Blackwelder children, son Myles and daughter Mallory, spent their early years running through the bunkers of LPGA courses.

"I played basketball and volleyball when I was younger," Mallory said. "That was more fun because it was a team sport, and all the girls at school that I was friends with were doing it, but they made me play my first (golf) tournament when I was 11. I shot lke 68 for nine holes. It's not like I was a child prodigy.

"I met other girls who played golf. They weren't from my area, so I started playing on the junior golf tours and liked it, and I progressively got better pretty quick."

Despite missing four tournaments this season, Blackwelder is 28th on the Futures money list. A victory in this week's season-ending tournament would get her to the top 10, which offers LPGA conditional status for next season.

Blackwelder said she gets help from both parents. Her mother is her swing coach. Her father helps with course management, short-game strategy, etc.

"I don't realize how good she was," Blackwelder said of her mother. "If you look at the Rookies of the Year, before and after her. It's like Nancy Lopez (1978) and Beth Daniel (1979) and like big, big names (including Patty Sheehan in 1981). She never won on the tour. She finished second several times, finished fifth at a U.S. Open. When my brother and I came along, life changes."

The family lives in Versailles, Ky. , where they operate the Blackwelder Golf Academy. Worth spends time on the road with his daughter, hoping to help her career the way he did for several LPGA players -- including Pepper.

"Dottie's very intense," Worth said with a laugh. "Everybody knows that. You don't want to catch the Dottie stare. When a border collie wants to hurt someone, he's going to give you that stare. That's the Dottie Pepper bordie-collie stare. I have seen her just rip guys who are volunteers. They paid their $70 for a shirt and their khakis, they're holding a sign, Dottie will move them out of the way if she needs to.

"She was great to me. I enjoyed caddying for Dottie. I like her intensity. ... We've stayed friends. She's interested in Mallory's career. She'll email or call me to ask he she's doing. She's a good person."
Reach Pete Dougherty at 454-5416 or pdougherty@timesunion.com. Visit the golf blog at http://blog.timesunion.com/golf.

LPGA Futures Tour
PRICE CHOPPER TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP
Websites: http://lpga futures.com; http://price choppertourchampionship.com