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Bright Focus
Joe Malay, of Weiser, Idaho, enjoys life and golf to the fullest, and makes sure all those around him are having fun as well
By Paul Ramsdell, PNGA Media
When you spot Joe Malay on the golf course -- and it's not all that difficult to do -- there's no one single aspect of him that stands out above all else.
That's because the tie-dyed purple shirt stands out as much as the red tights, not to mention the one blue sock and the one yellow sock, which both contrast greatly with the one orange shoe and the one green shoe, which only can be seen after taking your eyes off the flaming motif shorts with the tassels hanging down. Get closer, and you realize that's really his own gray hair flying all about in an Afro. The goatee is real too, despite being spray-painted red.
Joe Malay, from Weiser, Idaho, (as he likes all to know him) can't be pinned down as just an eccentric fashion plate. There is so much more to this former Idaho Amateur champion than meets the eye. But just as the eye can't focus on just one aspect of Joe Malay's wardrobe, a full examination of his personality knows no bounds.
"In theory, I don't even understand me. And I don't care that I don't understand me," said Malay, who has had 57 years to try to figure himself out.
Others don't try either. They just enjoy the bright bundle of energy that sends constant beams of light out of Weiser, a town of 6,000 along the Oregon border, 70 northwest miles from Boise.
"He has so many things going on, things he's doing for the community and everything else, it's so much fun to watch him," said one friend, Brad Masingill.
"He's probably the best ambassador to golf that Idaho has ever had. He's known everywhere he goes, and he makes a splash."
Malay figures he's played in 1,400 different championships, and won 200.
"He's played more competitive golf than anyone at any level," said Ron Read, director of Western Regional Affairs for the United States Golf Association. "He probably averages more than 30 events a year over the past 30-plus years."
In that time, Malay has won an Idaho Amateur, seven Idaho State Team Championships, the club championship at his Rolling Hills Golf Course in Weiser 27 times, starting in 1974. He also has the course record at Rolling Hills with a 61, and has posted 28s on each nine.
But to look at the complete Joe Malay, his golf exploits are about as exciting as a plain white golf shirt.
"The thing about Joe that I think a lot of people don't understand is that they see this guy in the funny clothes, he's pretty boisterous, and you always know when he's in the vicinity, but there's so many good things he doesn't want any credit for," said Vicky Davis, the executive director of the Idaho Golf Association.
The spectrum of that rainbow includes the Ho-Ho Express, where dressed as Santa Claus, Malay leads underprivileged youngsters on a shopping spree at Wal-Mart in Ontario, Ore.
"He's the one who came up with the idea for the Junior Golf Foundation, and for the auction that supports that foundation, and basically he carries that whole thing," Davis said.
"To watch him in action, and to see him get people to spend money they had no intention of spending, and paying a premium for things, he's the only one I know who can do it."
"He's got a big heart, and he's a lot of fun to be around," Masingill said.
Still, none of that explains the wild wardrobe. And that wildness isn't limited to just the golf course. It's constant. He tries to explain the metamorphosis of the colorful clothes on a Wednesday morning in January while sitting in the restaurant at Rolling Hills, staring out the window at the four inches of snow. He's wearing a blue, sleeveless Superman T-shirt on top of a white, long-sleeve turtleneck. The shorts are bright yellow with blue stripes, with red tights on underneath. The shoes are both white, but there's one blue sock and one yellow sock.
"When you're born on two days you know you started out kinda weird, and I did," he said about documents that have him being born on July 23, 1948, while other documents have it as 12:01 a.m., July 24.
"Doug Sanders was from Kansas City and I kinda grew up in Kansas City, and he wore everything in color and everything perfect," Malay said. "He wore the alpaca sweaters, and he wore the pink and yellow, and everything matched, and I kind of think that had a little impact on me."
There were some practical reasons as well, as could be imagined for someone with five brothers and one sister, the son of a golf professional who moved around a lot because he had his hands on a bottle as much as a golf club.
"We had a lot of pass-ons," Malay said. "And a lot of times you wore your older brother's pants, your older brother's shirts, and then you pass them down. When I got a few dollars, and I went to the store to buy things I found out that the best quality things were marked down 75-80 percent because nobody liked 'em. And that was probably because they were checkered or flared or something unique about it."
The biggest test of Malay's attire might have come in 2004, when he played in the U.S. Senior Amateur at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles. Davis (or Miss Vicky as he likes to call her) sent Malay off with a nice white shirt and a pretty blue shirt, each with the IGA logo, thinking he might want to be a bit conservative once he left his normal stomping ground of the Northwest for a USGA championship.
"When I got there, I thought, 'You know, I still have to be me. I can't pretend that I'm somebody else.' So I ended up wearing my normal, colored, uncoordinated type of outfits."
It caught some people's attention, especially considering Bel-Air normally doesn't allow shorts, but did so only for this event.
"Not everybody wore them," Malay said, "but I did wear shorts, and they might have been flame shorts, or they might have been royal blue with orange tethers on the end of them. They were appropriate and they were the right length."
One member wanted an explanation, and Malay startled him even more by simply saying, "I'm thinking about buying the place."
Throughout the Treasure Valley, Malay probably is most known for his television show and his exploits as Santa Claus.
The show is "Closest to the Pin." Contestants, of all abilities, sign up, and Malay uses his quick-wit to critique the various players and their swings.
His stints as Santa Claus are a little more compassionate. He's been playing the part for 35 years, and makes appearances at almost 40 parties a year.
Malay tears up when talking about the joy and happiness he receives when he makes sure there's Christmas joy and happiness in the lives of unfortunate kids.
"That is a fabulous time of my life."
"'Are you the Santa that's going to take us shopping?'" he remembers one bright-eyed youngster asking him.
"And I say, 'Yeah.' And they know me as Santa Joe. He said, 'Thanks Santa Joe.' And you just feel so good. I just can't donate enough time."
That attitude might have started when he was a youngster himself, and how amazed he was when kind-hearted souls from a local Elks lodge who didn't know his family at all were generous enough to give him and his brothers a bicycle.
"After all the years he's been doing it, it's like he just did it the first year," said Karan Morse, who coordinates the Ho-Ho Express for Wal-Mart. "You wouldn't know he's done it all these years."
With the Ho-Ho Express, Santa Joe makes sure the youngsters, 186 in all last time, can spend the $50 on whatever they want, be it candy bars or whatever.
"I've had everything from a goldfish to a broom to duct tape purchased," he said.
"When you're in the Santa suit, and you see a kid spend $8 for duct tape, you have to ask him why. And the reason why is his dad's window is broken in his pickup, and he wants to tape it. And I go, 'Wow, that's pretty thoughtful, pretty amazing.'"
The same can be said for the life and times of Joe Malay.
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