MEGHAN FLANAGAN: All right. Well, it is my pleasure to welcome in this evening the runner up here at the Wegmans LPGA Championship, Brittany Lincicome. Britt, a lot of emotions out there on the 18th green, but you turned it around very quickly and replaced it with a smile. You have a lot to be proud about this week. Talk about the emotions that were running and just turned it around and saying how it kind of turned into a positive.
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I think it was just a combination of everything, you know, playing good the first day, doing media, not being in this position for a while. I think it all finally caught up with me.
Obviously they were tears of joy. Finishing second in a major is always a good thing. Obviously I would have liked to have been the one holding the trophy on the 18th green right now, but feel like I played really, really well this week. Hopefully we can keep that going for the rest of the year. I really feel like this will be the stepping stone that I kind of needed to push me to want to keep it going and to be in the Top 10 each week like I kind of was like three years ago.
MEGHAN FLANAGAN: You said looking around and looking at the fans, you said you couldn’t help but smile. Talk about what it means to play well here the final year here in Rochester.
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah. I mean it’s so sad. It makes me sad just thinking about not coming back to this area next year. We were here for so many years, and you know, I was feeding off of their emotions. So many people out there were rooting for me today that it was kind of hard not to smile when I was out there.
I’m a player that the more I smile the more I talk the more I sing songs, the better I play. So it was kind of nice. I was feeding off their emotions, and we were just having a good time. I was making jokes with people and we were just having a good time.
Q. Do you sometimes just question the golf gods? I mean you played so well for really two and a half days and it came down to that at the end. Do you just kind of look at the sky and wonder sometimes?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Absolutely. I mean obviously they always say things happen for a reason, which I kind of hate that saying, because I want to determine ?? I want to have it my way.
But you know, like I said, we have Canada next week. Wee still have Evian. We still have a couple of big tournaments coming up, and if I keep playing the way I did today, my time is coming soon. I really feel.
Just need to learn how to control the nerves a little bit more. I was really, really nervous coming down the stretch, especially the 18th hole and then the playoff, that putt that I had, the first putt, and then the chip that I had I was shaking like a leaf, which it’s hard to do anything when you’re shaking. I feel like I was like ?? I don’t know what I had, but it’s just not a fun feeling. I mean obviously I’m human and it’s part of life and growing, so just hopefully I learn from this and kind of move forward.
Q. Did you at the 18th hole in regulation, did it affect you that Suzann took quite a long time to play her third shot there? It seemed like it took forever.
BRITTANY LINCICOME: It did take forever, but I think it was actually giving me time to kind of calm down. I had my caddie go get my water and took a couple of sips of that, took some extra practice strokes. It was more just the lie. It was up against the collars of some thick roughs and most times with those putts you either below it by or you leave it way short, and unfortunately I left it short which is not where you want to be because my next putt was straight downhill, and couldn’t be overly aggressive with that putt.
It was kind of the theme for the week. I left a lot of putts short that I feel like if I would have got to the hole or past the hole it would have been a better opportunity to try to save par.
Q. Could you take us back to 12 when you bogeyed the par?5? What did you tell yourself after that?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Oh, yeah. That was a good one. It was actually, I think, just talking about how much under par I was on the par?5s all week finally caught up to me.
And that chip shot I made I was literally telling myself, like knock it over the green. Like long was better than being short. And just kind of under estimated how steep that embankment actually was. And then that second chip, I mean that was so unlike me. I had been chipping really, really well all week, so it never crossed my mind that I was going to basically duff it. But you know, I had birdied some other holes, so I was like it’s not the end of the world, just kind of keep it going. There was a couple more holes, another par?5 even coming up that I could take advantage of, and obviously I was pretty upset and my caddie just told me we’re not showing any emotion, no emotions, not getting mad. We’re going to the next hole and try to birdie that one. So it was pretty frustrating, but I was trying not to be too upset about it.
MEGHAN FLANAGAN: You said Missy was so helpful this entire week, kept you calm, and I know she shared words with you afterwards.
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Missy is great. We need to learn more of the words to the songs, because we kind of like will sing and then we’re like hmm, hmm, hmm, and then we start singing again.
But it’s great. She keeps me calm out there. We talk about God only knows what. We talk about anything other than golf, and it’s nice to just have somebody by your side who’s going to make it light and keep it fun and not so serious. I mean you can only concentrate so many minutes over the shot and then after that I just want to be like flying in the air and not talking about golf.
MEGHAN FLANAGAN: We talked about your struggles in the past couple of years. How big of a boost in confidence is this for you, I know you said looking forward to Evian and next week in Canada. Is this a huge boost for you.
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I think so. It’s just more retraining my mind to be confident, you know. I’ve lost my confidence. I’ve missed a few cuts in a row at the beginning of the year. And obviously that’s really hard to come back from, because you go into a tournament, you’re like please just let me make the cut. And what top player goes into a tournament just praying that they’re going to make the cut. So it’s kind of just coming back from that and even tricking myself into believing that I’m the most confident player out there, and I think if I can keep doing that, then obviously I’ll be on the top of the leaderboard more and more.
Q. Brittany, how difficult is it to go right from the end of regulation, the disappointment there into a playoff? What was the challenge?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I actually think it was better because obviously I had just hit the tee shot. It only took a few minutes to sign the score card and then I was back out there again. So my body didn’t have time to get cold or anything. I still felt loose and wanted to hit that tee shot. It felt like I had just played the 17th hole. So other than just trying to calm myself down and just took a few extra deep breaths and just put a good swing on it.
Q. What did you hit on 18 in regulation, what did you hit?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: 6.
Q. And then the playoff?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: 7.
Q. 7?iron. Little pumped on that second shot?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I actually feel like I hit both of those drives really bad. But yeah the second one went 10 yards further.
Q. And the putts, the first one I had about 25 feet in regulation. Was that about right, the one that was up against the collar?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: The one off the green?
Q. The one off the green in regulation?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: At least.
Q. Also, Inbee in front of me, she made a couple ?? she just wouldn’t go away. She made that 18?footer at 17 and then 12?foot par save at 18. How aware were you of what she was doing right in front of you?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: You know, I always say I don’t look at the leaderboard, but it’s really hard to not let your eyes wander. So on 16 I think I saw her leaderboard because we had a huge backup, so I saw her leaderboard leave, and I believe it was at 10 and I was at 12. So I was like, okay, just make par, and then I hit it to like 10 feet on that hole. And I should have made birdie but just missed.
And then going into 17 I saw she birdied and then I thought she birdied 18, so I thought she was at 12 when I was coming to 18 green, and then my caddie was like don’t look at the leaderboard, or if you do, it doesn’t matter what it says. We’re just going to go put the best stroke on it we can. So yeah, I thought she was actually at 12 when she was only at 11.
Q. What’s your emotions now after that?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Lots of tears, actually. Just felt like I worked really hard and was playing really, really good, and just, you know, Inbee is so darn good that, you know, not taking anything away from her. Just it was so close, and another step behind.
But you know, I’m playing so well. Maybe next week in Canada is my week.
Q. You seem to find a way to smile, even right now. Just talk about how you rebound from this day and go forward.
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah. I mean I think 38 years of being at this venue and all these fans around, you have to be smiling right now. Obviously I’m disappointed with myself for not winning, but I’m planning on going to sign all the autographs I can because they’ve embraced us, and they’re so welcoming of the LPGA and it’s so great to be in Rochester.
Q. I know it’s so tough right now, but you really seemed to have fun this week between the pro am, between the Red Wings game. Can you talk about how you embraced Rochester?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah, other than missing the bowling on Tuesday I feel like I did most things that I like to do when I come to this area.
It was exciting. I played the pro am on Monday. I played the pro am on Wednesday. It was nice to get to see the golf course one extra time, and obviously baseball is big in my world. I love going to games. So it’s just great to come back, and the community around here is so great. It’s going to be a bummer to not come back here next year.
Q. Can you talk about 18, twice you were in similar spot I guess you would say. Can you talk about what was going through your mind at that point?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah. I think it was just the nerves again, just not being in this position a lot. My hands were shaking pretty bad trying to hit that first putt, which anytime you’re up against the collar it’s always going to be a tricky putt. Either you’re going to hit it short or you’re going to bust it 20 feet by. So I think long would have been better than where I was because it was still a downhill putt on the second try.
And then the chip was, again, I was just trying to get it past the hole and it just ran out a little further than I anticipated. It was nice to be in contention again, nice to kind of feel those nerves again. Makes you feel human and alive when you feel that. All in all it was a good week.
Q. What can you learn? What can you take from this?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Oh, man, I’m playing so good. I might take tomorrow off, though. I’ve been to that golf course before. I already have my yardage book set and ready to go.
Just kind of taking the same things, if I keep driving it the way I’m driving it and doing the same things that I’m doing, it’s kind of unstoppable. If you’re driving it straight, it takes so much stress off the rest of your game.
Thanks to the LPGA Tour and ASAP Sports for the text, and Alex Fisher of Alex Fisher Photo for the photographs
