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GINN TRIBUTE HOSTED BY ANNIKAMay 29, 2007Brittany LincicomeMOUNT PLEASANT, SOUTH CAROLINA DANA GROSS-RHODE: First of all, I want to thank you all for coming in. Brittany, thank you for coming in after your practice round. You know, this is an inaugural tournament, but you won the Ginn Open earlier in April this year, and now you're at the Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika. Do you feel kind of like maybe there's is a chance for you to claim both Ginn tournaments this year? BRITTANY LINCICOME: That would be pretty cool. It's definitely a good vibe. The Ginn people know how to you put on a great tournament. Everything so far has been top of the line, so it's really exciting to go into a tournament and just have everything at your hand. If you need something somebody's there to get it for you, which is really awesome to have that feeling. You feel like you're at a PGA tournament or something. So it's a fun feeling to come out and play a beautiful golf course. The greens are going to be really fast by Sunday for sure, so it's going to be exciting. DANA GROSS-RHODE: Okay. Questions. Q. Can you talk a little bit about the golf course, what type of play it's going to take this week? BRITTANY LINCICOME: Fairways are definitely key. That rough out there is pretty thick already and only going to go to get thicker, I'm sure. So fairways are key. Greens, they're not too big, but if you're in the wrong spot you're going to have a tricky putt. I believe the superintendent this morning told me they were running 11 already, so I'm sure they're not going to water and they're going to cut them and roll them and everything so they're just going to get faster and faster. So definitely hitting the fairways is key, and par is going to be good out there, I'm sure. Q. I'm just curious, when you look at the older generation and sort of your generation of players, where do you see the competitive balance right now between those two groups? And where do you see it going over the next couple years? BRITTANY LINCICOME: It's definitely only going to go forward. The older veteran players, I guess you could say, are definitely teaching us younger players how to play the golf courses. I always try to do, if not with someone by myself, do it with Pat Hurst or Juli Inkster just to get their take on how they do an a practice round. Juli is always hitting two or three balls off the tee, she's hitting a million chips around the green. Just watching their work ethic and following what they do. So they give us a lot of advice, and with our talent coming up these nowadays it's only going to go forward. Q. Is there a rivalry there between those two groups? Do you guys sense that? You guys coming up and the old guard? Is there some give and take there? BRITTANY LINCICOME: Only when we do $5 birdie games. Other than that, I mean, they're excited for where the Tour is going with us young guns coming in they're calling it now, I guess. We're excited just to help them out and be a part with them. Because I mean, to stand by an Annika or Juli Inkster, I mean, you looked up to them growing up so to be hitting on the range by them means you've accomplished a lot growing up. There's no rivalry. They're happy when we win and we're happy when they win. We give reach other credit. Q. This event obviously have Annika's name on it. Can you just speak to what Annika has accomplished in her career and the manner in which she's done it, your impression? BRITTANY LINCICOME: That could take a while. She's just fabulous all the way around. Her golf game, just the way she's played. If she wants to hit a draw she hits a draw, and if she wants to hit a cut she hits a cut. The shots she has are phenomenal. Off the golf course, I mean some people think that she's mean or whatever, but when you start to talk to her you'll find out that she's just very shy. If you can get her talking to she's awesome to talk to. She's accomplished so much, and hopefully she just keeps going forward and no more injuries to keep her out. Q. Did it seem kind of strange not having her out the last month? BRITTANY LINCICOME: It was. It was definitely weird not having her out. People were asking, and we were trying to tell them as much as we knew at the time. It's definitely great to have her back, and to be so quick. She thought she was going to be out a little bit longer, so it's awesome that she's going to get to play in her own tournament. Q. Can you talk about beating Lorena in that tournament? She's No. 1 now. What it meant to you? There were a lot big names on the leaderboard in the final round that day. BRITTANY LINCICOME: There was. Lorena and I are such good friends. We fellowship and just hanging out on the golf course or the driving range or whatever. To beat her, she's such a great, steady player, that it meant that I was playing pretty good that week, which is a great feeling just for myself just to know that I have worked so hard to get where I am today and the work has paid off. But she's a phenomenal player, and I was impressed with myself for winning that match. Q. Just one quick follow up. Where does she fall in the young/older player category? BRITTANY LINCICOME: She is definitely young. She's young. We definitely need her on the young side. Q. Can you comment on the field this week? And is that maybe a testimony to Annika's popularity and what she's done for the game, or is it also a testimony for the Ginn and what they've been doing with their tournaments on the Tour? BRITTANY LINCICOME: I think it's both. I think a tournament ran by Annika, we were all excited to see what she had to offer. She's been doing this for so many years she knows what works and doesn't work, so she was going to do it right. And then having the people from Ginn be a part of that also. Just they have so much money, and whatever we needed whatever the tournament needed, they were there to offer it. So it's kind of both to be together. I mean, it's going to be a good tournament for a long time hopefully. Q. When you won the Ginn Open, in April your picture wasn't on the banner. Maybe you weren't getting as much attention as some of other young guns. Has that changed for you since you've won your second title? Has anything changed? BRITTANY LINCICOME: A little bit. I have banners driving in, which is awesome to see. I like seeing my name out there. I don't know, just means the hard work has paid off to see the banners out there. Just something as simple as that makes my day go so much better. And to be in the little brochure we have out this week, just to have a little page in there, simple things like that that make me excited. Whatever works for me, I guess. Q. It appears that the Tour's going to have some pretty stringent drug testing type penalties. Can you just speak to that? Obviously most players would say, Well, we don't really have a problem. But if you don't have a problem, why such strong penalties? BRITTANY LINCICOME: Right. They're dead serious about it, which is fine. I have nothing to hide. I don't think any girl out on our Tour has anything to hide, so I'm pretty sure we'll be fine. But obviously if you're using there needs to be a penalty and it needs to be pretty severe. Because obviously if you can do it and miss one or two tournaments or something like that you're just going to keep doing it and nobody is going to care. What is it, 22 tournaments or 25 tournaments, something. DANA GROSS-RHODE: They haven't announced anything officially yet. BRITTANY LINCICOME: It's going to make you think. That's the whole year basically. So I think it's going to the right direction. They just need to tell us a little bit more information, because they can't tell us what we can and can't take. Like the power bars they're telling us might have something in them, and that just scares all of us. A little bit more research will be okay. Q. There's a lot of talk in recent years about all the new young faces coming on the LPGA Tour, one of which is you. How do you think it's changing the Tour, if it is? Is it strictly athleticism and distance? Is it different ways of approaching the game? What do you think? BRITTANY LINCICOME: I think it's all of the above. I think the young talent obviously is a huge key. We don't want to be the Anna Kournikova of golf. We want to be beautiful and be able to play good golf. It's obviously both. Obviously myself being able to hit it really far, Natalie for her looks. We all have our little thing that we try to build on. I think it's all of the above like you just mentioned. Q. Is that then all about sort of carving out individual niches? Like you said, you've got the length and she's got the commercial with Butch and John Daly? BRITTANY LINCICOME: Right. I think you've got to find your thing, for sure. Mine is hitting it far. I obviously do that well. It comes naturally to me. I'll build on that. Actually had some funky nail polish on last week and all the fans seemed to like it. Maybe that will be my new thing. I don't know. Paula has the pink thing on Sunday. It's just something that you build on that gets you exposure and gets your name out there a little bit better. Q. But the bottom line is too you have to win, correct? It's not just about show. BRITTANY LINCICOME: Correct. Correct. Q. You had mentioned the style over substance thing, Anna Kournikova thing, but do you feel like the way this tour is being markets now is more toward the golf and athleticism and personalities than it was at one time? BRITTANY LINCICOME: Say that again. Sorry. I lost my train of thought. Q. Back in the '70s and '80s there was a clear attempt to market sex appeal and that type of thing. It seems now that it's more of a shift in marketing towards athleticism, toward the golf, how good you are and that type of thing, and personalities as opposed to the way it used to be. Do you sense that? BRITTANY LINCICOME: A little bit. I think it's the whole package is what people are looking at now. Obviously you can be beautiful and not play well and play well and not be beautiful. It's kind of like the whole package. You have to be all of it. I mean, well rounded. I think it's the whole package. I think you have to be both. Q. With Michelle Wie being here this week, there's going to be more attention on the tournament, but it may be because she's here as opposed to your guy's accomplishments. How do you handle that? Because I know that comes up time and time again when she gets a sponsor's exemption. BRITTANY LINCICOME: Right. Personally whatever helps our Tour I'm all for it. If she brings out fans and the sponsors, I will do anything that that girl wants me to do for her. We need more fans to watch. We need more people to come out and watch the tournaments. We need bigger sponsors. We need more money out there. If she's going to do that, then I'll do whatever she wants me to do. She's a very nice girl, so if she's bringing the people out, go for it. I'm all for it. Q. I've heard that there's this sort of feeling of, I don't know if ambivalence is the right word, about Michelle that's because she's not a member of the Tour, that she sort of drops in and drops out. What you're saying is very pragmatic. In other words, Okay, she may not be out here and maybe I'd like her to be out here, but since she's not I'm going to take advantage of whatever she brings to the Tour. Can you expound on that a little bit? Am I going down the right track with that? BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah. It kind of sounds mean, but she picks and chooses what she wants to play. I mean, if they're going to give her a sponsor's exemption, that's totally fine. But, yeah, I mean, I wish she would play out here full time. I think she could bring a lot to the Tour. She's an awesome player. I would love her to play out here full time. She's a very nice girl and she brings the fans out. So it's kind of a win-win when she's out here. If she were to play a full schedule, I mean, there's no telling where the Tour would go. With you young guns coming up and how great we're playing, with all the fans loving her, I think we could be getting closer to the PGA eventually someday. Q. From one end of the generation to the other, as far as bringing fans out, the tournament that's hosted by Annika this week, how is Annika toward the young girls? Is she supportive? Does she help you out? So you kind of seek her out? Or is she just another player? BRITTANY LINCICOME: We definitely seek her out. She's been out here for some time and she Annika. We still think of her as being No. 1 in the world and being very high ranked. So she knows a lot of the answers to the questions that you seek. And so just so -- I mean, I could go watch her just hit on the range. The swing that she has, the things that she can do with the golf ball, it's really face phenomenal. Whenever I could ever play a practice round with her or do something with her, I mean we definitely jump on it. Q. If Annika is sort of, I guess the face of the LPGA Tour now, even though she's not No. 1 at the moment. Everybody kind of concedes that she's one of the best, if not the best. If she is the face of the present, what is the face of the, future and where does Michelle Wie fit into that? BRITTANY LINCICOME: That's a good question. I mean, obviously if she joined our Tour I believe she could be the next Annika. She definitely has the game and the skill. She can hit it a long way. She definitely has everything going for her. Not to take anything from Annika or Lorena because they're both great athletes, too, but -- Lorena is actually stepping up. I mean, she knows she's going to have to be making those birdies and making those putts and everything, so she's definitely working her booty off -- can I say that -- to get where she is right now, and that's where she wants to be. So she's working really hard to get there. Whoever is going to come up to beat her and Annika you definitely got to work hard. DANA GROSS-RHODE: Thank you all for coming in. Brittany, good luck this week. BRITTANY LINCICOME: Thank you. End of FastScripts DANA GROSS-RHODE: First of all, I want to thank you all for coming in. Brittany, thank you for coming in after your practice round. You know, this is an inaugural tournament, but you won the Ginn Open earlier in April this year, and now you're at the Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika. Do you feel kind of like maybe there's is a chance for you to claim both Ginn tournaments this year? BRITTANY LINCICOME: That would be pretty cool. It's definitely a good vibe. The Ginn people know how to you put on a great tournament. Everything so far has been top of the line, so it's really exciting to go into a tournament and just have everything at your hand. If you need something somebody's there to get it for you, which is really awesome to have that feeling. You feel like you're at a PGA tournament or something. So it's a fun feeling to come out and play a beautiful golf course. The greens are going to be really fast by Sunday for sure, so it's going to be exciting. DANA GROSS-RHODE: Okay. Questions. Q. Can you talk a little bit about the golf course, what type of play it's going to take this week? BRITTANY LINCICOME: Fairways are definitely key. That rough out there is pretty thick already and only going to go to get thicker, I'm sure. So fairways are key. Greens, they're not too big, but if you're in the wrong spot you're going to have a tricky putt. I believe the superintendent this morning told me they were running 11 already, so I'm sure they're not going to water and they're going to cut them and roll them and everything so they're just going to get faster and faster. So definitely hitting the fairways is key, and par is going to be good out there, I'm sure. Q. I'm just curious, when you look at the older generation and sort of your generation of players, where do you see the competitive balance right now between those two groups? And where do you see it going over the next couple years? BRITTANY LINCICOME: It's definitely only going to go forward. The older veteran players, I guess you could say, are definitely teaching us younger players how to play the golf courses. I always try to do, if not with someone by myself, do it with Pat Hurst or Juli Inkster just to get their take on how they do an a practice round. Juli is always hitting two or three balls off the tee, she's hitting a million chips around the green. Just watching their work ethic and following what they do. So they give us a lot of advice, and with our talent coming up these nowadays it's only going to go forward. Q. Is there a rivalry there between those two groups? Do you guys sense that? You guys coming up and the old guard? Is there some give and take there? BRITTANY LINCICOME: Only when we do $5 birdie games. Other than that, I mean, they're excited for where the Tour is going with us young guns coming in they're calling it now, I guess. We're excited just to help them out and be a part with them. Because I mean, to stand by an Annika or Juli Inkster, I mean, you looked up to them growing up so to be hitting on the range by them means you've accomplished a lot growing up. There's no rivalry. They're happy when we win and we're happy when they win. We give reach other credit. Q. This event obviously have Annika's name on it. Can you just speak to what Annika has accomplished in her career and the manner in which she's done it, your impression? BRITTANY LINCICOME: That could take a while. She's just fabulous all the way around. Her golf game, just the way she's played. If she wants to hit a draw she hits a draw, and if she wants to hit a cut she hits a cut. The shots she has are phenomenal. Off the golf course, I mean some people think that she's mean or whatever, but when you start to talk to her you'll find out that she's just very shy. If you can get her talking to she's awesome to talk to. She's accomplished so much, and hopefully she just keeps going forward and no more injuries to keep her out. Q. Did it seem kind of strange not having her out the last month? BRITTANY LINCICOME: It was. It was definitely weird not having her out. People were asking, and we were trying to tell them as much as we knew at the time. It's definitely great to have her back, and to be so quick. She thought she was going to be out a little bit longer, so it's awesome that she's going to get to play in her own tournament. Q. Can you talk about beating Lorena in that tournament? She's No. 1 now. What it meant to you? There were a lot big names on the leaderboard in the final round that day. BRITTANY LINCICOME: There was. Lorena and I are such good friends. We fellowship and just hanging out on the golf course or the driving range or whatever. To beat her, she's such a great, steady player, that it meant that I was playing pretty good that week, which is a great feeling just for myself just to know that I have worked so hard to get where I am today and the work has paid off. But she's a phenomenal player, and I was impressed with myself for winning that match. Q. Just one quick follow up. Where does she fall in the young/older player category? BRITTANY LINCICOME: She is definitely young. She's young. We definitely need her on the young side. Q. Can you comment on the field this week? And is that maybe a testimony to Annika's popularity and what she's done for the game, or is it also a testimony for the Ginn and what they've been doing with their tournaments on the Tour? BRITTANY LINCICOME: I think it's both. I think a tournament ran by Annika, we were all excited to see what she had to offer. She's been doing this for so many years she knows what works and doesn't work, so she was going to do it right. And then having the people from Ginn be a part of that also. Just they have so much money, and whatever we needed whatever the tournament needed, they were there to offer it. So it's kind of both to be together. I mean, it's going to be a good tournament for a long time hopefully. Q. When you won the Ginn Open, in April your picture wasn't on the banner. Maybe you weren't getting as much attention as some of other young guns. Has that changed for you since you've won your second title? Has anything changed? BRITTANY LINCICOME: A little bit. I have banners driving in, which is awesome to see. I like seeing my name out there. I don't know, just means the hard work has paid off to see the banners out there. Just something as simple as that makes my day go so much better. And to be in the little brochure we have out this week, just to have a little page in there, simple things like that that make me excited. Whatever works for me, I guess. Q. It appears that the Tour's going to have some pretty stringent drug testing type penalties. Can you just speak to that? Obviously most players would say, Well, we don't really have a problem. But if you don't have a problem, why such strong penalties? BRITTANY LINCICOME: Right. They're dead serious about it, which is fine. I have nothing to hide. I don't think any girl out on our Tour has anything to hide, so I'm pretty sure we'll be fine. But obviously if you're using there needs to be a penalty and it needs to be pretty severe. Because obviously if you can do it and miss one or two tournaments or something like that you're just going to keep doing it and nobody is going to care. What is it, 22 tournaments or 25 tournaments, something. DANA GROSS-RHODE: They haven't announced anything officially yet. BRITTANY LINCICOME: It's going to make you think. That's the whole year basically. So I think it's going to the right direction. They just need to tell us a little bit more information, because they can't tell us what we can and can't take. Like the power bars they're telling us might have something in them, and that just scares all of us. A little bit more research will be okay. Q. There's a lot of talk in recent years about all the new young faces coming on the LPGA Tour, one of which is you. How do you think it's changing the Tour, if it is? Is it strictly athleticism and distance? Is it different ways of approaching the game? What do you think? BRITTANY LINCICOME: I think it's all of the above. I think the young talent obviously is a huge key. We don't want to be the Anna Kournikova of golf. We want to be beautiful and be able to play good golf. It's obviously both. Obviously myself being able to hit it really far, Natalie for her looks. We all have our little thing that we try to build on. I think it's all of the above like you just mentioned. Q. Is that then all about sort of carving out individual niches? Like you said, you've got the length and she's got the commercial with Butch and John Daly? BRITTANY LINCICOME: Right. I think you've got to find your thing, for sure. Mine is hitting it far. I obviously do that well. It comes naturally to me. I'll build on that. Actually had some funky nail polish on last week and all the fans seemed to like it. Maybe that will be my new thing. I don't know. Paula has the pink thing on Sunday. It's just something that you build on that gets you exposure and gets your name out there a little bit better. Q. But the bottom line is too you have to win, correct? It's not just about show. BRITTANY LINCICOME: Correct. Correct. Q. You had mentioned the style over substance thing, Anna Kournikova thing, but do you feel like the way this tour is being markets now is more toward the golf and athleticism and personalities than it was at one time? BRITTANY LINCICOME: Say that again. Sorry. I lost my train of thought. Q. Back in the '70s and '80s there was a clear attempt to market sex appeal and that type of thing. It seems now that it's more of a shift in marketing towards athleticism, toward the golf, how good you are and that type of thing, and personalities as opposed to the way it used to be. Do you sense that? BRITTANY LINCICOME: A little bit. I think it's the whole package is what people are looking at now. Obviously you can be beautiful and not play well and play well and not be beautiful. It's kind of like the whole package. You have to be all of it. I mean, well rounded. I think it's the whole package. I think you have to be both. Q. With Michelle Wie being here this week, there's going to be more attention on the tournament, but it may be because she's here as opposed to your guy's accomplishments. How do you handle that? Because I know that comes up time and time again when she gets a sponsor's exemption. BRITTANY LINCICOME: Right. Personally whatever helps our Tour I'm all for it. If she brings out fans and the sponsors, I will do anything that that girl wants me to do for her. We need more fans to watch. We need more people to come out and watch the tournaments. We need bigger sponsors. We need more money out there. If she's going to do that, then I'll do whatever she wants me to do. She's a very nice girl, so if she's bringing the people out, go for it. I'm all for it. Q. I've heard that there's this sort of feeling of, I don't know if ambivalence is the right word, about Michelle that's because she's not a member of the Tour, that she sort of drops in and drops out. What you're saying is very pragmatic. In other words, Okay, she may not be out here and maybe I'd like her to be out here, but since she's not I'm going to take advantage of whatever she brings to the Tour. Can you expound on that a little bit? Am I going down the right track with that? BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah. It kind of sounds mean, but she picks and chooses what she wants to play. I mean, if they're going to give her a sponsor's exemption, that's totally fine. But, yeah, I mean, I wish she would play out here full time. I think she could bring a lot to the Tour. She's an awesome player. I would love her to play out here full time. She's a very nice girl and she brings the fans out. So it's kind of a win-win when she's out here. If she were to play a full schedule, I mean, there's no telling where the Tour would go. With you young guns coming up and how great we're playing, with all the fans loving her, I think we could be getting closer to the PGA eventually someday. Q. From one end of the generation to the other, as far as bringing fans out, the tournament that's hosted by Annika this week, how is Annika toward the young girls? Is she supportive? Does she help you out? So you kind of seek her out? Or is she just another player? BRITTANY LINCICOME: We definitely seek her out. She's been out here for some time and she Annika. We still think of her as being No. 1 in the world and being very high ranked. So she knows a lot of the answers to the questions that you seek. And so just so -- I mean, I could go watch her just hit on the range. The swing that she has, the things that she can do with the golf ball, it's really face phenomenal. Whenever I could ever play a practice round with her or do something with her, I mean we definitely jump on it. Q. If Annika is sort of, I guess the face of the LPGA Tour now, even though she's not No. 1 at the moment. Everybody kind of concedes that she's one of the best, if not the best. If she is the face of the present, what is the face of the, future and where does Michelle Wie fit into that? BRITTANY LINCICOME: That's a good question. I mean, obviously if she joined our Tour I believe she could be the next Annika. She definitely has the game and the skill. She can hit it a long way. She definitely has everything going for her. Not to take anything from Annika or Lorena because they're both great athletes, too, but -- Lorena is actually stepping up. I mean, she knows she's going to have to be making those birdies and making those putts and everything, so she's definitely working her booty off -- can I say that -- to get where she is right now, and that's where she wants to be. So she's working really hard to get there. Whoever is going to come up to beat her and Annika you definitely got to work hard. DANA GROSS-RHODE: Thank you all for coming in. Brittany, good luck this week. BRITTANY LINCICOME: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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