Golf

Lincicome needs a pro caddie now

By BOB HARIG
Published July 11, 2006

Brittany Lincicome has no extravagant plans for the big paycheck. She's got some car payments to erase, and there are a few bills she can help her parents with, she said. The rest will be invested.

Lincicome won $500,000 on Sunday when she captured the HSBC Women's World Match Play Championship in New Jersey, her first LPGA Tour title. She has claimed nearly $800,000 this year, and with the tournaments she has qualified for, she ought to easily surpass $1-million in earnings for the season.

Not bad for a 20-year-old who just last year was taking babysitting jobs to supplement her income. To save money, Lincicome, who lives in Seminole, has driven to many tournaments, used her dad, Tom, as a caddie and resisted hiring an agent.

Not that she asked, but ...

Now would be a good time to "retire" dad and hire a professional caddie. And at the same time, seeking out a good agent will be worth the expense, typically in the form of a commission.

If it's about maximizing potential and doing the best by her golf game, both are moves that need to be considered now that there is some money in the bank.

First, the caddie situation. Tom has been by his daughter's side for many tournaments, dating well back into her junior years. He probably knows her temperament, her golf swing, better than just about anyone. But he's her dad, and well, young women are not always going to listen to their dad, especially in the heat of a sporting competition.

"Sometimes I'm almost cussing him out, and then I apologize," Lincicome said. "If I treated him like that all the time, he'd dump me as a daughter."

The two of them joke about their on-course relationship, but caddie-player duos are a balancing act at all levels of golf. A good caddie and the trust that goes with it can be worth a shot or two a round. Lincicome has been using Juli Inkster's regular caddie, Worth Blackwelder, when Inkster doesn't play. So it was a bit awkward Sunday when Lincicome was playing against Inkster in the final of the match play event.

"I wanted to ask him for a yardage," she joked.

Her dad has asked, "How come you never get on him like you get on me?" And the reply has been, "Because I hardly know him."

Exactly. Who is Lincicome going to listen to coming down the stretch: a professional caddie with years of tour experience, or dad? Now's the time to make that investment.

Same for an agent. The Lincicomes have resisted hiring one because of the expense. But many work on commission, and a good one would have been working the phones all weekend as she gained more prominence by defeating Michelle Wie, Lorena Ochoa and Inkster.

A few outings, maybe some endorsements ... all of that helps the bottom line even more. And that would be a good investment, too.

FedEx fallout: As the details of next year's FedEx Cup on the PGA Tour are digested, some bitter feelings have emerged, and probably no place more than in Chicago, where the Western Open just concluded a run that pre-dates the Tour itself.

The Western is the second-oldest tournament in the country, next to only the U.S. Open. It began in 1899. But next year, the tournament becomes the BMW Championship - Western will be dropped from the name - and will be a playoff event preceding the Tour Championship.

Making matters worse, it will be played in Chicago just every other year. Although the tournament moved around in its early years, it has been anchored in Chicago since 1962. Starting in 2008, it will go to St. Louis, then back to Chicago, then to Indianapolis and back to Chicago.

"I wonder if PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem had time to watch the Western Open on Sunday or if he was too busy thinking up ways to bring the Sears Tower to Indianapolis," wrote Chicago Tribune columnist Rick Morrissey.

Even Tiger Woods, who has endorsed the FedCup plan, was left to scratch his head over the Chicago snub.

"Unfortunately, we're not going to have a tournament anymore, but I think it's more unfortunate that we're not going to come here to the Chicago area each and every year," Woods said Sunday after he tied for second at a tournament he has won three times. "This is one of the biggest markets in the United States, and we're coming in every other year."

British qualifiers: Players are getting into next week's British Open in some obscure ways. One was a special money list from the Players Championship and five other tournaments that concluded with the Western Open. The top two players off that list, J.J. Henry and Billy Andrade, qualified for Royal Liverpool. The British also gives spots to the highest finisher among the top 10 not already exempt at the Buick Championship, Western Open and John Deere Classic. Hunter Mahan got the Buick spot, while Matthew Goggin qualified on Sunday at the Western. The John Deere Classic is this week.

[Last modified July 11, 2006, 01:29:37]