[PHOTO: Cliff Hawkins]
Brittany Lincicome wanted the closing moments of her 20-year career on the LPGA Tour to culminate as a family affair. She sent a heartfelt request to The Annika tournament organisers Dan Doyle and Tim Aaronson for a sponsor invite to end her last full-time season competing less than an hour from her home in Pasadena, Florida. She cried joyfully when she received the invite.
Lincicome had her perfect sendoff while standing on the 18th tee at Pelican Golf Club. She had qualified for the weekend, giving her family a chance to watch her for two more days. Her dad, Tom Lincicome, the first caddie she ever had on the LPGA, put on the bib to carry her clubs one last time. Her husband, Dewald Gouws, had their older 5-year-old daughter Sophia in his arms and youngest, 2-year-old Emery, asleep in the stroller he was pushing.
Surrounded by her loved ones on a beautiful Florida day with tears in her eyes, Lincicome, 39, smoked her last drive into the middle of the fairway. She meandered down the last hole as cameras documented her closing moments. Lincicome and her father refused to make eye contact to ensure she wouldn’t break down. Fans yelled, “We love you, Britt!”
The eight-time LPGA winner pointed to her family behind the ropes. She stopped to sign autographs before her dad got her refocused on finishing her last two-putt. After making a four-footer for par to end with a 74 (T-54), tears started to flow again as she hugged her father before her daughters ran onto the green to give her flowers.
“To have him inside the ropes walking with me, I know how much it’s meant for me,” Lincicome said. “He’s literally been at every tournament I’ve ever played I think over my career. So just to be able to have him walk that last moment with me after all they sacrificed for me was really special.”
We're so excited for you in this next stage of life, @brittany1golf 🫶
Congratulations on an incredible career! pic.twitter.com/plzyeH79Yw
— LPGA (@LPGA) November 17, 2024
Lincicome realised she wanted to retire only a few months ago. As recently as July, she told friends that she still had 10 years left in the tank, feeling she still had the game even though her head often got in the way. But a frenetic two weeks of volunteering at Emery’s kindergarten class put all her plans aside, as she recognised she wanted to wind down her full-time schedule at the end of 2024.
“I was a helicopter mum that shadowed my kid to school every day just volunteering,” Lincicome said Tuesday. “I enjoyed that more than the thought of going to hit golf balls. That was my like, OK, it’s time.”
Lincicome has made headlines since her first event on tour. As an amateur in the 2004 US Women’s Open, she led after the first round with an opening six-under 66 at Orchards Golf Club in Massachusetts before finishing T-55. She was a fixture for the US Solheim Cup team, playing in six straight for the Americans from 2007 to 2017. Lincicome won eight times on tour, the last coming at the 2018 Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic.
Her most memorable moments came in Rancho Mirage, California, where she won both of her major championships. She eagled the iconic 72nd hole in both victories to take a pair of leaps into Poppie’s Pond. In 2009, her closing 3 gave her a one-stroke win over Cristie Kerr and Kristy McPherson. Six years later, her closing eagle got her into a playoff against then-world No.1 Stacy Lewis, whom she beat in three holes.
Lincicome, known as “Bam Bam” for her long distance, became the sixth woman to ever play in a PGA Tour event in the 2018 Barbasol Championship. Her second-round, one-under 71 made her the second woman to shoot under par in a PGA Tour event alongside Michelle Wie West.
She served as an assistant Solheim Cup captain for the first time at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in September as the Americans won for the first time since her final Solheim Cup in 2017.
“Watching these girls stress over 10-footers to win the hole or to tie the hole, I might not miss that,” Lincicome said. “I think that it was another telltale of it’s probably time to get on out.”
The Annika was her first tournament since the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship in late September. Wanting to end her career with a strong finish in front of her family, Lincicome practised as hard as she had all season to prepare. Lincicome impressed with a 70-69 to make the cut by two.
“One of the caddies was like, ‘You still got it,'” Lincicome said on Friday. “‘You played so great today. Why are you shutting it down?’ I’m like, if you could be in my head and feel what my hands are feeling and how shaky I am on the golf course, you would retire, too.”
Lincicome followed with another one-under 69 on Saturday before an emotional closing final round. She pivoted to her new role in retirement as a stay-at-home mum as soon as she picked the ball out of the cup on the 18th today. Lincicome worried that Sophia had hit Emery with the bouquet of flowers as they ran up to her. She took her kids to the scoring tent, trying to corral them as she ensured all the scores lined up. Lincicome’s new dreams are no longer fuelled by the adrenaline of contending on Sundays but creating memories with her daughters, leaving Pelican Golf Club with lasting ones from the final chapter of her full-time LPGA career.
“I just hope [Sophia and Emery] remember even a little bit of what mama used to do,” Lincicome said. “Obviously going to have a lot of footage and photos I can show them when they get older, but just to have them here and to be able to walk that final hole with me, you know, after shutting it down after 20 years, it’s really just the icing on the cake.”
