Lincicome admits to anxiety

Brittany Lincicome admits she will be a “nervous wreck” when she becomes just the sixth woman to compete in a PGA Tour event in this week’s Barbasol Championship.

Lincicome, who has two major wins among her eight LPGA titles, has accepted a sponsor’s invite to contest the £2.7 million event at Keene Trace Golf Club in Kentucky.

The 32-year-old joins Babe Zaharias, Shirley Spork, Annika Sorenstam, Suzy Whaley and Michelle Wie in playing a PGA Tour event, with Zaharias the only one to make the cut in the 1945 LA Open.

“I’m trying to block that all out and just go out and play and have fun and play my own game and not be too tense or uptight about it,” Lincicome told a pretournament press conference. “I just take a lot of deep breaths, maybe take two extra seconds to kind of calm myself down before I go hit the shot. There are a lot of deep breaths. The first three or four holes I’ll be a nervous wreck for sure.”

Lincicome is one of the longest hitters on the LPGA Tour with an average driver of 269.5 yards, although that would be dead last on the PGA Tour and a soft Keene Trace course will play all of its 7,328 yards. That is more than 800 yards longer than Highland Meadows, where Lincicome finished second at the LPGA’s Marathon Classic last weekend.

“I think if I keep it in the fairway, I’ll be all right,” added Lincicome. “I’m just going to roll with it and see what happens. This is once in a lifetime, probably a one-anddone opportunity. I’m just going to enjoy it.”

Brittany Lincicome: ‘go out and have some fun’.