THE MODERATOR: Here with Brittany Lincicome returning to the Tour with us this week at the Pelican Women's Championship. Great news. Tell us why you've been absent a little bit. I'm sure everyone here knows. And about your new daughter.
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah, so I've been on maternity leave since the end of June. KPMG was my last event, and it feels like forever ago, but June really wasn't really that long ago. It's nice to be back. I have both girls out today. All the caddies and friends are all checking them out.
It's just so cool to get them out here and let them see everybody and see what mommy does for a living. It's cool to be a professional golfer, but now have two daughters watching what I do and maybe one day they can kind of follow in my footsteps or at least just play for fun. It's such a wonderful game and I enjoy it so much, so I'm excited to be back.
And this one is just down the road from my house, so what better event to kick it back out than this one. Everything they do a at this event is so spectacular, and it's nice to be back.
THE MODERATOR: We're happy to have you back. Can you tell us a little bit about the process of coming back and being ready to play in this event? I'm sure it was a tough road.
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I don't know if I'm ready. It's either going to be really good or really bad, and now with this tropical storm coming at us it's going to be super warm and moist out there.
I feel so bad for the superintendent, Terry. He's worked so hard to get this golf course in perfect condition for us, so I'm hoping it kind of -- weather in Florida, we never know, so hopefully it'll kind of go a different direction.
But super excited to get out there and play this challenging golf course.
THE MODERATOR: Can you please tell us a little bit about your relationship with this golf course? I know you live here, you're a member. How great is this course and what's your experience on it?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: It's awesome. I played it back in the day before the Pelicans bought it and changed it over, so I have lots of memories here. I was probably 13, 14, 15 years old playing here.
It's definitely different and there are less trees, more open. Tee to green is not too difficult, but the greens by far are the most challenging part. If you can keep it in the right levels you're going to be doing pretty good.
Yesterday on my practice round I was putting from off the green from the false fronts because there's a lot of false fronts out there, and those chips are not easy. So I think my strategy will be to kind of putt those.
Definitely going to go work on that today and tomorrow, and hopefully we can figure the speed out, and hopefully that'll work for me.
Q. You've been up a lot at night; what has your preparation been like? When did you start getting back to it in earnest?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: You know me, I don't practice too much, which is not great. Every week I normally just play on Fridays with the pro at our club, and every week I say, okay, I played with him on Friday, I'm going to play one more day. I'm going to add one more day to my routine.
It just never happened, whether it was my husband's days off, we want to do stuff with the kids, or just wanting to be with them selfishly. But definitely no sleeping. Emery was a dream. She slept eight hours straightaway, and this baby -- I know moms say if your second baby came first you probably would never have that second one, because this one never sleeps. She hates sleep, which is so weird, because I love sleep.
It's definitely been a challenge. She's up probably every two or three hours through the night, but I know it's just a phase, and I'll miss those days when she gets older. So I take them all in when I'm feeding through the night.
Thank God for Starbucks in the mornings to kind of get me going again.
It's so great seeing Emery and Sophia interact, and just having two girls now, it's the greatest.
Q. Have you had any advice from any moms that played with two?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I did talk to Juli more because all my my-age moms, everyone only has one. I'm telling them, you need to get on board with the second so you can help me here. I definitely need to kind of go back to Juli, but even when I go to the pediatrician they say, oh, she's just going through a growing spurt. I'm like well, it's been three months now, so I don't know what the deal is.
But one of these days she'll figure it out. I keep trying to force more milk into her and hoping she is going to sleep longer, but we'll see.
Q. Did you make a nice comeback in your Friday birdie game?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I did. I somehow got to $42-down just with my thumb injury that I had, and then being pregnant I kind of got taken advantage of a little bit. But I am one dollar up, I'm happy to report, so I'm definitely getting it back slowly but surely.
Q. What tells you your game, as you go through the process of getting back out here, what tells you that your -- what signs do you see there?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah, so we did Media Day a couple weeks ago. I played a few holes with Gary Koch and I made four birdies in nine holes, and then the Friday before that with my buddy Fielding I had eight birdies, so I obviously won that day. I did really well.
So it's not the golf side of it that seems to be hard for me. Even with Emery I can hit all the shots. I do all that very well. It's more the mental side that's been the hardest for sure, just kind of learning how to win again and not -- after having Emery it seems I'm in this rut of just trying to make the cut every week and not wanting -- not wanting to win, but just not having that drive to be like, no, we're going to win this tournament; we're not trying to make the cut.
I just need to get my brain better space. I mean, every girl out here know anybody can swing the golf club. It's kind of what's between the ears. I just need to he -- I don't know what I need to do, but I need to fix that. That's my struggle right now.
Q. Once you start competing does the fire come back pretty quick with you, just the --
BRITTANY LINCICOME: It definitely does. I have the fire. I want to be out there. I want to do it. I want to play well for my girls. I want to get a win with them out there, hold the trophy on 18. I think that would be so cool.
But again, whether I'm playing bad and I'm trying to protect something or making four or five birdies in a row, it's like, okay, lets put the brakes on. Let's not make any bogeys. It's just a different mentality of thinking that I've never -- I mean, you guys know me back in the day. It was always grip it and rip it, hit it and find it, hit it again. Just kind of carefree.
And now I don't know if I'm trying too hard or putting more pressure on myself wanting to do better, and just not allowing the scores to kind of come on their own. Maybe I just need to relax more.
Both girls are going to come out hopefully this week depending on the weather, and hopefully I can get it together for them.
Q. You've known this golf course so well; what do you find the biggest challenge of it is?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Definitely the greens. I'm sad to say that my normal caddie, Missy, has already promised another Tour player for the rest of the season, so I don't have her this week.
But I picked up a local, Kristy McPherson, who used to play on tour, and she caddies here a little bit. She's been caddying here for a bit, so she says she knows these greens really well. I am just going to trust her. Wherever she says to hit it is what I'm going to do.
Hopefully with my skills and her green-reading ability, hopefully we'll come out on top. But it's going to be fun regardless just because she's a character and super fun to be with.
Q. Just talking about the purse for next year going up, you were talking about missing the cut. You can make the cut out here and lose money at some events. Can you just talk about the significance of not just what's happening at the majors, but to have an event like this elevate the purse that much?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah, just saw Annika walk in, which is really cool next year, just everything they're doing and doubling the purse and her name being on it. Anything she puts her name on is going to be top-notch and she's not going to let anything happen to it.
So it's going to be cool to see what happens to this event. Not that this event needs anything else great. The Doyles are so fantastic of hosting us and trying to make it the best they can.
But just seeing the purses go up. This is my 18th year on Tour and I've seen it where we were kind of at our lowest and now getting to our highest, which is fantastic. I said when I was a rookie I always wanted to leave the Tour better than when I started, and it's definitely way better.
It's giving me chills even thinking about it just because it's definitely better and it's really cool to see and be a part of it. But obviously we want to see it keep climbing. No more new tournaments coming out with small purses. We want to see them all going up and getting bigger and better, because, like you said, you can play and make the cut and still lose money, which that shouldn't happen. You shouldn't be in that position.
It's a struggle for most girls. There's definitely more bad times than good times and it's expensive to travel. So yeah, we definitely need though purses to go up and we don't need to lose any more money.
Q. Does adding a second little one, does that alter your plans for next year schedule-wise?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: That's a great question. I'm going to start the season like normal. We'll just kind of see what happens. Sometimes through the season if it's just too much I might have to shut it down. I don't want to. I want to keep playing. My parents are going to travel like they have with my first daughter, so that's super helpful.
And obviously having day care on Tour. Maybe I'll put the three-year-old in day care and then take the little one on the course with me. I'm not sure how it's going to play out. But I'm going to try and just kind of see what happens. If Juli Inkster can do it, I can do it. We'll just kind of see. We'll take it week by week. May not go maybe overseas as much just so I can be with them more, but we'll see. My plan is to keep playing, and like I said, we'll just see.
Q. You mentioned Juli; does it give you a perspective on her piling up the trophies like she was?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah. Not that it made it that much easier, but she always said she could drive to events, which would be super helpful. Obviously now ours are a little bit further, having to fly everywhere.
But Emery is already a frequent flier, got a lot of miles. She loves flying, so it's great. And the little one will be super easy. Little ones are easy on airplanes.
It's definitely hard. If you don't have help -- some of the other girls, if they don't have a family or they have to travel, especially flying through an airport by yourself with all the bags, the car seats, the strollers, everything, it's a lot. I have no idea how they do it.
I have my mom and dad every single week helping me, so I say it's been super easy with the one. I'm sure two is going to be a little bit more challenging.
THE MODERATOR: Just wanted to know about the support that you have out here this week, it being a hometown event.
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah, it's going to be great. I've already put a few tickets at will call for people. I'm sure there will be some others that come out and support, which is great. Hopefully it will give me the fire and the push to want to play even better for them to come out and support me. But it's cool. We haven't had an LPGA event in my hometown in a long time, and I remember the JC Penney Classic back in the day, that team competition, and that's kind of what made me want to be pro golfer.
I went out and watched Laura Davies and John Daly play together, obviously the long-ball hitters, and I like hitting it far. But just seeing what they did, I thought that was so cool, to be able to be in the ropes and be the standard bearer but to be on the other side of it playing one day, it's kind of a dream come true. So it's cool to have this event back in our hometown and I can sleep in my own bed, and it's going to be great.
Q. You were a standard bearer did you say?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah, I was. When I first turned pro I actually had the picture of me and Laura Davies and John Daly and I showed it to Laura, so now she jokingly calls me standard bearer girl all the time when she see me. It's so cool. I loved watching them.
Q. What kind of role model -- being an LPGA mom, what kind of role model are you trying to be to the other girls out here on Tour as an LPGA mom, and have any of them asked you about being a mom, the non-moms, and what kind of role are you trying to play for those girls?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah, I think it's just -- even women watching us that don't play golf or aren't on Tour, it's just -- if there's a will, there's a way. There's a way to make this possible. There's no reason to not have children or to maybe put that off for a while and do your career. Obviously I'm living my dream of playing golf professionally and having children, which is obviously cool. Thankful to my family and the Smuckers for day dare.
Those two things make it a lot easier. But whether it's having kids or maybe a new job or whatever it may be, just go for it. You never know what's going to happen.
I think you just need to do it, and if it's having kids, you'll figure it out. There's always help. There's always day cares. You can always hire somebody, I'm sure. But just it's the greatest thing in the world that I've done, and I highly recommend it. It's so cool.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Brittany.
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