LPGA shows real enthusiasm at La Costa Resort & Spa
There was genuine fun and zeal at this week’s LPGA Tour press conference at La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif, previewing the LPGA’s inaugural Kia Classic.
It’s not that PGA Tour press conferences are stoic, but compared to what I saw at La Costa this week, they’re like funerals. The Kia Classic media event started with the mandatory sponsor introductions, then David Higdon, the tour’s chief communication officer, introduced special guest Brittany Lincicome to talk about playing in the Kia Classic, scheduled for March 25-28.
“It just makes sense to have a tournament in the San Diego area,” Lincicome said. “I mean the weather’s absolutely great here 90 percent of the time.”
That’s true, but it was probably the least interesting thing we heard from the three-time LPGA winner. For example, Lincicome commented on her partnership with Barbie to inspire young girls to take up golf and live their dreams. Reflecting on her surprise when she recently saw the Brittany Barbie Doll for the first time, she joked, “It’s really scary; it looks just like me.”
We also discovered that Lincicome has gone paragliding off the cliffs of Torrey Pines, her dad Tom Lincicome has been on the road with her for the last four weeks – “and we’re still talking" – and she loves to fish. When Higdon called her a fisherman, she corrected him. “That’s fisherwoman,” she said.
Then Higdon and Lincicome re-enacted this year’s Acadamy Awards presentation when they prepared to announce the recipient of this year’s Kia Classic’s sponsor exemption.
“Who do you want to be?” Higdon asked. “Steve Martin or Alec Baldwin?”
“Alec Baldwin,” she replied.
“Why’s that?”
“He’s the only one I’ve heard of,” she said.
Thankfully, movie trivia knowledge isn’t required to make eagles, which Lincicome did on the last hole to win last year’s Kraft Nabisco Championship, one of the LPGA’s majors.
Moving on, Lincicome opened the envelope and announced that local product Tiffany Joh got the exemption.
Joh thought she was only being called in to play golf with media members.
“I feel so manipulated,” she said, laughing. “But in a good way.”
Indeed.
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2 comments
I was at the LPGA Tour Championship in Houston and it really was a washout! It rained everyday and the people running the tournament were not very organized. They would never update the telephone recording when there was a delay and had many fans coming out to the course at 7:30 am when play would not start until 1:30 pm. This happened during the entire tournament and no one was very happy. The course is really not setup kfor walking. From one green to the next tee was many times 100 yards or more. They had to cart the players and the caddies and when the fans got to the next tee, the players were already down the fairway hitting their second shot. There was also huge mounds on each side of the fairways which had to be negotiated in order to see the players in the fairway. I am not surprised to see that the tournament location for 2010 is to be decided.
It was really miserable the entire time. The Korean players were almost invisible and not friendly at all. I hope the LPGA can improve in this area. When Kim, the LPGA clown princess, was not in front of the cameras, she was really a shithead. I guess the rule is...play to the camera and not to the fans. Michelle Wie was only concerned with the PR Glitter and was not the darling among the LPGA Pros. I did not see one other pro talk with her when not playing on the course. I think Wie will finish around 26th at the Kia tournament. So far she has been very inconsistent in her game and has been averaging 12 bogies per tournament this year.
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