Roger Maltbie and Ralph Maltby

I often get confused with Roger Maltbie, so here is the story for all of you who care.

The problem started when Roger Maltbie (note the spelling of the last name) won the Jack Nicklaus Memorial Tournament here in Columbus, Ohio in 1976. My first golf technical book came out in 1974 and I started my own company (The GolfWorks) in 1976. So, some people knew my name and now they knew Rogers name and the confusion started.

My wife Donna in the early years of the business ran our office and I worked out back in the plant making golf clubs. She knew all our customers and they called her with any questions they had. Well, after Roger started to settle down, he met a girl, fell in love and married her. You guessed it, her name was Donna. Roger was slightly wild in his bachelor days (left his check in a bar in Columbus after winning the Memorial) so he credited Donna (his wife) with changing his life around and putting him on the straight and narrow.

Roger and I met shortly after he won the Memorial Tournament and every time he came to Columbus, he and I and the two Donnas would go out to dinner. He has always called me “cous” (cousin) and still gets very irritated when someone in the press is interviewing him and asks him about one of my (they think it is his) books. When Roger won the World Series of Golf a few years later, I was receiving so many congratulations letters that I forwarded all of them on to him.

For the record, Roger is a great guy and one of the best announcers on tour. So, now you know the rest of the story