You know, I just realised something. It's not the champions. It's not the big players. It's the people in the group of the tour – the ones you travel with. They keep you feeling like you're in a family when your real family is on the other side of the world.
Fiona Pike – I used to call her Pikie. We were travelling together. Then I found out she was sick. She stopped coming on tour.
Fiona passed away in 2009. She was 44. Skin cancer – melanoma.
She had been a champion for skin cancer awareness. Karrie Webb carried that work forward in her memory.
Fiona was my friend first. I saw her when I was playing in Australia. We had a chat. She took my humour well. I have cards from her saying how great it was before she passed. This is on her behalf – just her name, and the truth that she mattered.
One night in Sweden, Pikie and I stayed in a cabin on the golf course. We had so many Fosters – beer. And we always had a laugh.
The toilet was down a path, but I decided to go behind the shed. Just a pee. Grabbed my toilet paper.
While I was peeing, I heard rustling in the trees. My mind went: New Zealand doesn't have snakes. New Zealand doesn't have… what does Sweden have?
I peed as quick as I could and moved like a chased cat. Sprinted inside, slammed the door shut, back against the door.
I said to Pikie: "We don't do this alone. We must go to the toilet together."
Pikie looked at me, then went back to stacking the empty Fosters cans. One after another. Seeing how high the tower could go.
We laughed. We drank more frosties. And we never peed behind a shed alone in Sweden again.
Rose. Caroline Hall. Fiona Pike. Mette Hageman. Denny. Gi Gi. The women of the tour. Gail. Sidney. All mattered to me.
My playing partners – Lisa, Susan, Kerryn, Annette, Kaye and Cherry. They were part of the journey too.
They're not the headline acts. They're the heartbeat.
Caroline Hall – one of my best mates ever today. She's one of the best girls I've ever had free speech with. No filter. No fear. No wondering if she'll tell someone else. Just two mates, saying whatever needs to be said. She stayed with me from the time I was leaving the good swing of my turf. And when I faded out – because of my x, who will not be recognised – she was still there.
That's not a fair‑weather friend. That's a sister.
A Confrontation on the Range
When I first played with Marnie McGuire, she'd been told something about me. That I was opening my mouth about lesbians and the LPGA. It wasn't true. I only talked to one person. And it wasn't even with a player, just one player welcomed into my arena, ran off and told her "whatever I said" announcing her story her way.
That person confronted me on the range, at the next tournament right before we teed off. And I was leading the tournament. I was six shots ahead of her in Australia. And we had to tee off in the last group together. She blitzed me after that. Wouldn't even have the manners to be a nice person while we were playing.
Anyone who was there would have seen it. That's tour life. Not everyone is your friend. Not every rumour is true. But the people who really know you don't need to ask.
I didn't win because I was the best. I kept going because they were there.
The Fiona Pike Skin Cancer Awareness Campaign is the official major charity of the Australian Ladies Professional Golf (ALPG) tour. All funds raised go to the Cancer Council Lodge — Flinders in South Australia. A place where people from the country stay while receiving cancer treatment. That was Fiona's own wish.