BELLAIR, FL - Brittany Lincicome is home on the golf course. She knew at a young age her place was out on the links.
“I just fell in love with it right away – just something about it,” said Lincicome, who remembers driving the golf cart with her dad and brothers at age nine. “I picked up the game pretty naturally, pretty quickly and pretty easily.”
The St. Pete native is especially comfortable this week – competing in the Pelican Championship in Bellair. With every shot the 16-year pro is evaluating the course.
“It’s very generous, the fairways being pretty big. There’s not a lot of hazards or out-of-bounds. The greens are where everyone is going to struggle,” said the eight-time LPGA winner.
But even with that laser focus required to be on Tour, Lincicome is still having fun thanks to her 16-month-old daughter, Emery.
“When she sees it on TV now she literally starts clapping,” said Lincicome. “So, trying to associate ‘mommy plays golf’ and then she sees it on TV and claps. It’s really cool to see her brain working and processing everything.”
Emery has spent time on the range and can even handle an 18-hole day. Yet maybe the most important role was helping her parents get through the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My husband and I are so blessed to have her,” Lincicome said. “Literally, I don’t know what we would have done with our time if we didn’t have her. Now, when we look back, she is such a blessing. We watch every move that she makes and we joke ‘like, what did we do before her, did we just sit on the couch and stare at each other?’”
Luckily, golf was a sport people could play throughout the pandemic. It allowed Lincicome to keep up her skills for when tournaments returned.
“You count your blessings and when there is a week you can go play, you go play,” said Lincicome.
One thing Lincicome loves to do as a pro is promote the game to boys and girls. Being back out on the course near her home this week helps in that cause.
“To help that next generation of kids and anybody in the Tampa Bay area. We have a lot of junior clinics at our club and I try to hang out with the kids as much as I can and play with them or if they have questions,” said Lincicome, who will host her annual charity event in January.
Giving back by growing the game for years and years to come. Whether Lincicome helps find the next tour professional or creates lifelong amateurs, the goal is make others feel that same love and appreciation with every step and every stroke on a golf course.
“Golf is such a great sport and I hope every kid picks up the game and they can play until they are 100 years old or until they get older,” Lincicome said.