As she plays her rounds in the Pure Silk Championship this week, Brittany Lincicome’s mind might not be entirely on her swing.
Part of her might be a bit distracted by her growing baby, whom she recently began to feel move around.
The LPGA championship at the Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg will be Lincicome’s last of the season. She plans to take the rest of the year off to plan for the arrival of her baby daughter, who is due in early September.
That’s not to say she doesn’t want to go out with a bang.
“Being my last event, it would be fun to win or top 10,” Lincicome said earlier this week. “But it is what it is. We’re just going to go out and have a good time. We’re going to have a great week, and it would be nice to play well.”
Lincicome, 33, from Seminole, Fla., is a long-time veteran of the LPGA tour — she began playing professionally 15 years ago. She has eight wins on the tour with career earnings totaling more than $9 million, including back-to-back wins of the Pure Silk Bahama LPGA Classic, which she won in 2017 and 2018.
But she’ll become a different statistic when she and her husband of three years, Dewald Gous, welcome their daughter later this year: She’ll join the list of moms on the LPGA tour. There are currently 11 moms competing; seven of the babies were born in 2018. The result has been a kind of de-facto moms’ group within the tour.
“It’s kind of cool to be pregnant this time with other moms,” Lincicome said. “If I need advice, I can ask them.”
At 6 months’ along this week, Lincicome says she’s still feeling great. She hasn’t been sick at all and has hardly gained any weight. If she’s not wearing maternity clothes, you can hardly see a bump on her 5’9” frame. Being on tour, she says, has definitely helped her manage the baby weight, along with exercises such as yoga and body sculpting.
But while Lincicome says she feels as though she could play until her baby is born, her body is telling her otherwise. Known for having one of the longest drives in the LPGA, she’s lost some yardage off of her shots. “It must be a pregnancy thing,” she jokes.
So she’ll end this season after Kingsmill, one of the favorite stops for players on the tour, many of whom speak highly of the welcoming, community-like feel and all the amenities the area has to offer. For Lincicome, Busch Gardens, the Williamsburg Winery (pre-pregnancy, of course), the outlets and Capt. George’s Seafood Restaurant have always been favorites to visit.
“I love coming to Kingsmill,” she said. “There’s always something that’s fun. A lot of good memories here.”
The Pure Silk Championship, sponsored in part by the Williamsburg Tourism Council and Visit Williamsburg, continues through Sunday on Kingsmill’s River Course. Families can check out the Family Fun Zones on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Active duty, retired and reserve military, along with active first-responders (police, fire, EMT), and one guest can get complimentary single-day grounds tickets. There are also special viewing areas reserved for military guests.
To buy tickets or for more information, visit kingsmill.com/lpga-championship/.