LEXINGTON, Ky. _ When Brittany Lincicome got the phone call offering her a chance to become only the fifth woman to ever play in a PGA Tour event, she hesitated.
It was not that the LPGA star, 32, was unfamiliar with playing against the guys. Home-schooled in Florida, Lincicome played high school golf for Seminole High School in Sanford _ on the boys' team.
"I felt like playing with and against the guys in high school helped me become a better player," Lincicome said Tuesday via phone.
Yet when Tom Murray, President and CEO of Perio, Inc., the company that owns shaving cream brands Barbasol and Pure Silk, called to offer Lincicome an exemption to play in this month's Barbasol Championship at Keene Trace Golf Club Nicholasville, she was wary.
"I took a day to think about it," Lincicome said. "I wasn't sure what the (public) reaction would be. I'm pretty active on social media and I was afraid there might be a backlash and I would wind up having to block people and then block even more people on Twitter."
For everyone invested in making the first regular PGA Tour event held in Kentucky since 1959 a success, it was very good news when Lincicome worked through her apprehension and said yes to playing.
When the Barbasol Championship tees off July 19, the presence of the two-time winner of LPGA majors will raise the national profile of a tournament that otherwise will be overshadowed by the British Open _ which will be going on concurrently in Scotland.
"From the time the announcement was made that Brittany was playing, it's been such a positive," says Brooks Downing, the Lexington sports marketer who is Executive Director of the Barbasol Championship. "It has increased interest from the media. There's been a buzz on social media, and she's been great about using her social media platforms to promote (that buzz)."
Yet Lincicome says what ultimately motivated her to agree to play against the men has nothing to do with the attention it will draw.
