Golf Peggy Conley's passion now is making others better

By Craig Smith
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Holy 3-Iron, what hasn't this woman done?

Peggy Conley was on field hockey, skiing and golf teams at the University of Washington, where she once was suspended from school for throwing beer bottles from the seventh floor of a dorm during finals week.

Still a free spirit as an adult, she spent two years in the 1990s motorcycling around Europe after a car wreck ended her competitive golf career.

Conley taught art at Overlake School for four years after she left UW, then turned pro and qualified for the LPGA Tour on her first attempt in 1976.

"Gals like Pat Bradley and Jane Blalock that I had beaten as amateurs were making in one week what I was making with a teacher's salary in one year," she said. "I thought, 'Something is not right here.' "

These days, she lives in Redmond with two cats and is a teaching pro at The Golf Club at Newcastle.

She laughs and smiles while giving lessons, but is serious about the mission of making her students better. What she no longer is serious about is her own game.

The former runner-up in the U.S. Women's Amateur (1963) and British Women's Open (1986) prefers to play par-3 courses with old college friends who spray the ball.

"It's hit and giggle golf," said the 57-year-old Spokane native who played on the LPGA Tour for about five years and was a two-time winner during a nine-year stint on the European women's tour.

She had intended to stay in Europe for two months and stayed nine years.

"I came around a hairpin and it was a head-on collision with a golf writer from Italy who was in my lane," she said. "It was 1991 — Oct. 12, 5:15 p.m."

Conley made her biggest headlines in 1986 at the British Women's Open. She held a three-stroke lead going into the final round at Royal Birkdale, but shot a 2-over 77 and got caught by Laura Davies, who won by a stroke. "I just never made a putt that day," she said.

Conley's father, Glen, was a dentist who played his golf at the Spokane Country Club. He played varsity football at the University of Washington from 1939-41 and was one of the first two players in UW history to wear a facemask — to protect his glasses. Her mother, Barbara, was a violinist who made her concert debut at age 9.

Before Peggy had graduated from Lewis & Clark High School, she had played on a winning Curtis Cup team (U.S. vs. England and Ireland), won a U.S. Girls Junior championship and finished second to Seattle's Anne Quast Sanders in the U.S. Women's Amateur.

Although her interest in playing golf has fluctuated during her life, she always knew she wanted to be a golf instructor. After leaving competitive golf, She taught at John Jacobs Golf Schools in Arizona and New Jersey and was at Sahalee Country Club for nearly four years.

"I always wanted to teach golf," she said. "I knew that from Day One because teachers had been very important to me as a player."

Craig Smith: 206-464-8279 or csmith@seattletimes.com