Stacy Lewis, Brittany Lincicome, Lizette Salas and Tiffany Joh stood on stage for their press conference at the Founders Cup but none weren’t sitting down in the seats directly beside them. Five girls in the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf were, looking up at the players standing beside them. All little girls with big dreams.
Mika, 13, has been playing golf since second grade and wants to play at Stanford. Hannah, 12, has been teeing it up for four years and wants to play college golf and then go on to be a veterinarian. Calista, 12, has only been playing golf a year and half but wants to be a pro now by the time she’s 21. Kendall, 12, has been playing for two years but hopes to play in college. Olivia, 12, has been at it for five years and dreams of one playing in College Station at Texas A&M. All little girls with big dreams.
They’re much the same as Lewis, Lincicome, Salas and Joh. Lewis, the first American since Betsy King in 1992 to sweep the season’s postseason awards a year ago, started when she was eight and found it as bonding time with her dad. Lincicome first played when she was nine and she just did it because she wanted to drive the golf cart with her dad and older brothers. Joh began at 12 in a local junior golf program and joked that her dad wanted her to start because it was free babysitting. Salas’ dad was the head mechanic at the public golf course in her area and he got her started at 7 and would barter additional work at the course for lessons for his daughter. All once little girls now achieving big dreams.
“Sky is the limit to play golf at the highest level you possibly can. It’s up to you guys on how much you want it and you guys just want to play college golf, that’s great, and if you guys want to go to the highest level and play on the LPGA Tour, all of you can do it,” Salas said.
But golf can bring girls around the globe more than just a path to college or potentially playing for a living one day, it can teach them life lessons like discipline and honesty. It can help them bond with fellow girls who eventually become their best friends to this day like Joh said. It can help their confidence when they beat the boys or their dad like it did for Salas. And it can be their outlet if they want it to like it did for the player currently ranked No. 3 in the world.
“Growing up, I had a lot of struggles and golf, it really was my outlet,” Lewis. “That was the time I got to get out of my back brace and got to just be one of the other girls. You know, I didn’t have to worry about wearing it. I didn’t feel different. I felt like everybody else.”
More than anything golf still to this day is fun for each of the four pros. That’s why multiple generations of golf descend upon this event. Five years ago the LPGA Founders Cup was instituted to honor the past, celebrate the present and pay it forward to the future. Each year the LPGA’s 13 founders are all invited back for this tournament to see the best the game presently has to offer while the proceeds go to donating to towards the future.
The past and present would all say the greatest impact this tournament has is to the future success of the game.
Since the installation of this tournament, the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf program has seen staggering growth, jumping from 5,000 girls to over 50,000. Over the course of the program, 300,000 girls have been impacted.
“Those numbers are very impressive and really shows the success of this event because I think you think about a percentage of the 50,000 girls that are going through that program this year, how many of them could be out here one day and saying that it was because of that money that we raised at this event that got them into golf and kept them in golf?” Karrie Webb said.
Cheyenne Woods can attest. She finds herself in the field this week in her hometown after growing up in LPGA-USGA Girls Golf.
“It’s humbling to be back here and see the LPGA Girls Golf Club I grew up playing when I was eight or nine old and now these girls are out watching me,” Woods said.
One day Woods could be in the field with a girl here to watch her this week.
But whether each of the 50,000 girls from this program become pros, play in college or simply play recreationally for years to come with their friends or their family, each of the four pros on that stage Wednesday were confident their future – and the game’s – are brighter for them doing so.
“It doesn’t matter how old you get, you learn something from this game. I liked hearing these girls all saying their goals were to go to college. Only a couple talked about the LPGA, but I love that they want to go to college and to learn and to grow as people,” Lewis said. “I think that’s the biggest thing in golf teaches you just life lessons in general and teaches you how to be a good person, a good, honest person, and that’s what I like about the game and I think these girls are on the right track.”
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