Golf

Giving back with golf

By DAVE SCHEIBER
Published November 23, 2007

As a youngster, Brittany Lincicome made a big mark on the junior golf circuit, winning her first event at 9 and starting on a course that has led to an up-and-coming career on the LPGA Tour. Now the 22-year-old Seminole resident is giving a helping hand to kids taking a swing at the sport.

After 11 months of planning, Lincicome will host her first Brittany & Friends Celebrity Pro-Am on Tuesday at the St. Petersburg Country Club. Proceeds will benefit the First Tee of St. Petersburg - part of a nationwide organization designed to teach life skills and golf to children who might otherwise not have access to playing.

Scheduled to participate in the event are celebrities such as former light middleweight world champion Winky Wright, now a middleweight contender; former Bucs punter Mark Royals; Rays ace left-hander Scott Kazmir and former Tampa Bay pitcher Doug Waechter; and pro golfer Angela Stanford along with Hall of Famer Dale Eggeling. A live auction of sports memorabilia from Lincicome, Natalie Gulbis, Chris Leak, Derek Jeter, Tim Wakefield and others will follow.

The event kicks off with a pairings party Monday night. On Tuesday, a celebrity clinic, open to the public, will take place at 11:45 a.m. featuring Lincicome and Stanford. That will be followed by a shotgun start at 1, though no spectators will be allowed on the course for the pro-am.

Lincicome, who finished the season last week with $871,384 in tour earnings, four top-10 finishes and one title, spoke to the Times recently about the making of her charity event.

What makes you want to stage this pro-am event?

Golf is a great opportunity, especially where I am now on the LPGA Tour, to give back to people, especially breast cancer research and kids are the two I would do a charity for any day of the week, just because I think they're both great causes.

The First Tee program is in my area, so it's very convenient and I just love the kids. They're all very smart and very good golfers. We teach a lot of different things, not just about life and how to be respectful on and off the golf course. It's just fun to be a part of. You get to go out and hit some balls with them. And it's really nice to see the little ones coming up.

How long did it take for you to put this tournament together?

It's a lot more work than I thought it would be. Sometime at the beginning of the year, somebody mentioned it, and I was like, "Let's do it." It's been a long process, but it's come together.

It's a celebrity pro-am, and at first, I thought I was going to be the only one! That would have been bad. Now we have football players and baseball players and a boxer, and a couple of girls from the tour. It's really turning out to be a great tournament.

How did you get people to participate?

The more we got the word out there, either their agents or people who knew them called and said, "Yeah, I'd love to play golf." That was really nice to hear. It was nice that they knew who I was, and they definitely knew who they were. So it was really cool.

I haven't ever met Winky Wright, but it'll be fun to meet different people like that.

Will things slow down for you after the tournament?

The day after the tournament I fly to Washington to meet the president, which will be pretty cool, for our win at the Solheim Cup. That'll be pretty fun. And then I'll leave Dec. 1 for the Lexus Cup, which is Australia (Dec. 7-9), and I'll be home around the 14th and then have a month off.

You benefited from great instruction. Is that one reason you want to give back to young golfers?

Yeah. The First Tee wasn't around as much when I was growing up, so it would have been nice, especially since I know how expensive it was in junior golf. My parents gave up everything to raise the money for me to do it. So the First Tee is kind of for kids whose parents can't afford it, and give them a shot at it.

You'd hate to think the next Tiger Woods is just sitting on the sidelines, not being able to play because his parents didn't have enough money.

FAST FACTS

First Tee

"Brittany remembers her days as a junior golfer in our program, and we are grateful that she generously gives of her time to help support the First Tee of St. Petersburg," says Jeff Hollis, executive director of the program.

The city's junior golf program was integrated into Hollis' organization in 2005. First Tee of St. Petersburg now boasts some 1,200 participants, and part of its mission is to teach nine core values: honesty, integrity, responsibility, courtesy, sportsmanship, confidence, judgment, perseverance and respect.

The program relies on fee-based programs, grants and donations in its goal of making golf available to youngsters regardless of income. For more information, got to thefirstteestpetersburg.org or call (727) 551-3300.

[Last modified November 23, 2007, 12:33:34]