On Course For Greatness

At 21, Brittany Lincicome is already one of the best female golfers in the world. In February she hit the million-dollar mark.

She’s become one of the Ladies Professional Golf Association’s marketing icons. Personally, she has a string of corporate relationships ranging from Titleist, Adams Golf and Etonic athletic shoes to Kate Lord apparel, Trion Z ionic bracelets and Choice Hotels. Time magazine recently referred to her as a “blond, blue-eyed beauty.”

Thanks to pro-am events, she’s met her share of celebs and considers New York Yankee notables Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon among her closer acquaintances. The former even sent her a good-luck phone message before her stunning victory last year at the Women’s World Match Play Championship.

Her rapidly ratcheting career has already taken her to Australia, Hawaii, Asia, Europe and Las Vegas — and light years beyond the wildest expectations of anyone who has ever played golf at Seminole High School. Even a gifted girl on the boys’ team.

Lincicome was home-schooled starting in the sixth grade, but wanted the scholastic competition afforded by Seminole HS, which didn’t have a girls’ team. By then, her talent was more than manifest; she had already become a phenom on the Florida junior circuit.

“We knew early she had natural ability,” recalls her father, Tom Lincicome, 52. As a result, the 9-year-old was allowed to tag along with her dad and her two older brothers (Bryan and Hunter) to a local par-3 course. Brittany had her first hole-in-one by 10. Before she was a teen, she was better than her brothers. Before long, she was the best Lincicome. Period.

“We took it well,” deadpans Tom.

The Seminole High experience, however, did require some early adjustments — from her teammates.

“Yeah, I got the ‘Who’s the girl?’ reaction at first,” says Lincicome. “And sometimes from players at other schools. But all that really mattered was that my teammates accepted me.”

That they did. They were fully accepting of the best player on the team. The transformation was made even easier by Lincicome’s outgoing personality.

That hasn’t changed – even as her game has grown.

To those who know her best, there is nothing more impressive about Lincicome than this: She is “still Brit.” As in: still bubbly, still pony-tailed, still mannerly, still funny, still very much the unspoiled kid next door. Even with the celebrity elbow-rubbing and globe-trotting. Even with the increasing TV face time.

She still lives with her parents, Tom and Angie Lincicome, who run a Pinellas Park day-care facility, “A Child’s Choice.”

She likes eating Ya-Ya’s chicken, shopping at The Dollar Store, fishing off of a dock, watching baseball, hanging out with her boyfriend and playing “Texas Hold ‘Em” with her brothers.

“I loooove coming home,” says Lincicome through a luminous smile. “No tournament stress – just hanging out, sleeping in, going to my favorite restaurant (Arigato’s Japanese Steak House).”

She doesn’t travel with an entourage, but she does bring her childhood “Soft Blankie” with her, whether the venue is Singapore or South Florida. And until earlier this year, her dad was still her caddy. The demands of the global competition and the rigors of hoofing a bag of clubs around 6,000 yards under often broiling heat ultimately took its toll. Besides, Lincicome really needed to bring on a seasoned professional (former Juli Inkster caddy Greg Johnston) to help her better gauge distances and read greens.

“She’s just always been an All-American kid,” says Jan Zimmerman, the pro shop manager at Largo’s Bardmoor Golf and Tennis Club, where Lincicome can still be found working on her game between tournaments – as well as chatting up buddies. “She’s polite to everybody and has a fun personality. She’s genuine. She’s still Brit.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t kid you,” giggles Lincicome. “This life has its glamorous moments. And when you’re successful, it’s a great feeling. And since I didn’t come from money, now that I have some I like using it to help my family.” Indeed, she bought a house for one of her brothers and helped her parents buy their Seminole home.

“And I really do like the pro-ams,” she acknowledges, “especially Derek Jeter’s and (Boston Red Sox pitcher) Tim Wakefield’s. But what really matters is being able to put a smile on someone’s face – and help out a cause like autism or breast cancer.”

To golf purists, the 5’10” Lincicome is all upside. A powerful, elite athlete who averages 285 yards off the tee and will only get better.

They’ve seen it coming for a while.

Lincicome won the American Junior Golf Association championship at age 15. Then she got everyone’s attention when she was the first-round leader of the 2004 U.S. Women’s Open as an 18-year-old amateur. Last year she officially served notice when she won the World Match Play Championship – and $500,000. This spring she recorded her first stroke-play victory on the LPGA Tour, pocketing $390,000 at the Ginn Open, and tied for second ($141,000) at the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

No one has a better handle on Lincicome’s game than Matt Mitchell, director of instruction at The Downs Golf Practice Learning Center in Tampa. He’s worked with her for six years. They talk every day during tournaments and they practice in between.

“She starts with a huge advantage,” Mitchell points out. “Her sheer athleticism. And she hits it a mile. She’s also highly competitive, absolutely hates to lose and has this uncanny capacity to get focused when the time comes to get the job done.

“She’s also so grounded,” he stresses. “Very confident without being full of herself. A sweet kid.”

So sweet, noted Mitchell, that the ESPN commentators at the Kraft Nabisco at Rancho Mirage, Calif, repeatedly referred to Lincicome as “the happy golfer.”

To the LPGA, which has long struggled with female-image issues and a surfeit of personality-challenged South Koreans, young, attractive, engaging American players such as the winsome Lincicome are marketing manna. The tagline “These Girls Rock” now accompanies television promos featuring Lincicome and other comely LPGA players.

All of which suits Lincicome, who’s hardly enamored of the baggy, genderless look that had been more the norm until the last few years.

“I think the Tour is doing a great job,” assesses Lincicome. “Sure, sex sells and everyone knows that. But I don’t think in any way that they’ve crossed any lines. We’re not a bunch of (Anna) Kornikovas.”

“I am in awe of her,” says Terry Decker, the head golf pro at St. Petersburg Country Club. He’s known Lincicome for about four years and has played a number of rounds with her.

“She is absolutely what the LPGA is looking for. She’s as social as she is tenacious. Just a great, great young person. The smart money is on Brittany.”

And to the Lincicomes, Brittany’s success has definitely been a family affair. From home-schooling to car-pooling to caddying. The original plan was to hone her game to earn a college scholarship. Likely the University of Florida, probably to study veterinary medicine.

But her talent level soon warranted a change of course. In effect, she was already too good. The big time beckoned sooner than expected.

And now she has fame and money – and the prospect of a lot more of both. Half way through the calendar year, she was third on the LGA Money Leaders list with nearly $700,000.

What the future is unlikely to produce, however, is an identity change.

“She is what you see,” says Tom Lincicome. “It’s still special to hear people say what a great kid she is.”

That she is, in fact, “still Brit.”

True Brit

* “I’m not the calendar type but dressing feminine is important. Golf is number one, but we are women. We wear skirts and look cute. And it’s not our fault if that attracts a lot of attention from men. But we’re not wearing bikinis.”

*“The girls on the Tour are nice and
sweet. Not stuck up or snooty.”

*“The first time I met Michelle Wie she was as sweet as can be. There was a rain delay and we talked. School stuff. Kid stuff. But she definitely has a game face; I saw it when we matched up last year (in the World Match Play Championship). We would like her to join our tour. But, personally, playing with men is not for me. If Annika (Sorenstam) isn’t doing it, I’m not.”

* “Yes, my dad and I used to argue sometimes when he was my caddy. It’s tough to block all that out and just go to dinner.”

* “I like that little room with the microphone and they ask you questions. It means you did well. I used to watch Tiger Woods do that all the time.”

* “If it’s fishing, I want to catch more fish. If it’s poker, I want the winning hand. Maybe it goes back to having older brothers. They never just let me win because I was a girl.”

* “Mom calls me about 50 times a day. I always call ahead if I’m going to be late. But, no, my parents can’t ground me. I pay rent.”

* “Sometimes I think I’ll retire by 35. Buy a home on the water with a dock. The travel is hard.”

County Vote Is Grounds For Concern

When it comes to the environment, Florida has earned its reputation for preferring pavement over paradise. Faustian deals for strip centers, malls, condo corridors, cul-de-sac enclaves and exigent infrastructure are legion.

But increasingly so are growth compacts that bring necessary economic development – from jobs to affordable housing to a broadened tax base. Not unlike nature itself, smart growth is not a zero-sum game, but a balancing act.

Which brings us to the recent action by Hillsborough County Commissioners. Sitting as the Environmental Protection Commission, the commission voted to eliminate local control over wetlands protection by disbanding the 22-year-old wetlands management division of the county EPC. Without public discussion. From a script for smart, enlightened self-interest growth to a scenario that smarts.

First of all, the EPC is chaired by riparian renegade Brian Blair. That’s like having Rosie O’Donnell emcee the Miss America Pageant.

The procedurally maladroit, fact-challenged Blair has had the wetlands management division in his budget cross hairs for a while. He characterizes it as an unnecessary expense and a redundant hurdle for developers – given that there are federal and state regulations.

That it protects wetlands of a half-acre or less, which the state doesn’t, is of no ecological relevance to one who thinks mitigation projects are nature’s equal. In effect, if you’ve seen one marshland, you’ve seen them all.

That the net savings would be less than $800,000 on a county budget of $3.8 billion is immaterial. In fact, additional cost cuts should result from EPC Executive Director Rick Garrity’s proposed “one-stop” permitting process.

Moreover, the proposed budget cuts of County Administrator Pat Bean didn’t even reference wetlands regulation at all. Obviously she recognizes the difference between a wildlife-friendly investment in flood and erosion prevention and county commission sophistry at its counterproductive worst.

Hillsborough County, however, still must hold another hearing before the county’s commitment to wetlands is officially watered down. That means a turnout that isn’t comprised largely of the narrowly self-interested is paramount.

Tampa’s Demographic Challenge

Forbes’ annual ranking of 40 major metro areas in their attractiveness to young professionals was not kind to Tampa. The Big Guava finished 40th. There were several factors, but none bigger than demographics. It’s skewed older. When it comes to the 20-35 crowd, Tampa still can’t touch the competition.

So, what do you say if you’re Deanne Roberts, one of the founders of the young professionals-oriented Creative TampaBay and a former chairwoman of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce?

“We are ground zero for boomer retirement,” points out Roberts, the president of Ybor City-based Roberts Communications. “And I’ve got all these young professionals saying they don’t like that. We don’t want this community to be that. What can we do?

“Well, we can get over that old-versus-young stereotype,” underscores Roberts. “Many of the things that older demographic wants are the same things that young professionals want. Affordable housing, mass transit and interesting leisure activities – from museums to the performing arts to restaurants.”

Roberts points out that the boomer generation is a new breed of retiree: much more affluent and involved than predecessors. And that includes business opportunities.

“Frankly, we want to capitalize on it – not bemoan it,” says Roberts. “We’ve been talking to the arts people. It’s important for our cultural institutions to tap into this. Think about re-tooling our programs and volunteer base. If our cultural institutions are healthier, then all the benefits also accrue to young people.

“If we’re ground zero for a new type of retiree,” emphasizes Roberts, “then we represent new business opportunities that young professionals can take advantage of. Any young professional with any entrepreneurial ability at all, what an opportunity this is – right in their backyard.”

Leaders Attuned To Tampa

Ray Chiaramonte is the assistant executive director of the Hillsborough Planning Commission, and Judy Lisi is the president/CEO of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. However disparate, their duties entail being attuned to the demands and wishes of residents and constituents.

They also have something else in common that mainly insiders only know. They both can carry a tune and even hold their own with those for whom singing is a day job.

At April’s inauguration of the mayor and city council, Lisi was called on to sing the National Anthem. At last month’s Tampa Downtown Partnership luncheon, Chiaramonte did likewise.

Not only are Chiaramonte and Lisi major Bay Area players, but each is also a star spangled regional resource.

Rays’ Pricey Pick

By all accounts, the pitching-challenged Tampa Bay Devil Rays helped themselves in the recent Major League Baseball draft by choosing Vanderbilt pitcher David Price as the number one, overall pick. The Rays still are hoping to sign him soon. In fact, they already have a working relationship with his agent, Nashville-based Bo McKinnis.

Only problem is that relationship dates to McKinnis’ representation of number-one draft pick Dewon Brazelton in 2001. The same Brazelton who frustrated the Rays by holding out until late summer after bad-mouthing their multi-million-dollar offer as “chump change.”

Too bad that wasn’t the case. It’s all he was worth. He stunk.

Ultimate Tax-Decision Day Approaches For Florida

Wherever there are taxes, there are inequities.

It is the nature of targets and exemptions and a consensus of necessary societal services. It’s what we call “tax policy.” Not all oxen are gored, and not all gored oxen are gored equally. And at some point the law of unintended consequences will inevitably kick in.

The brouhaha over property taxes has been a classic example.

Amendment 10 to the Florida Constitution — aka the “Save Our Homes” Amendment — was passed (by 53.6 percent) in 1992 to keep residents from being taxed out of their homes. It was enacted in 1995.

Its 3 percent-cap legacy has become all too familiar. Most notably, the disparities in the assessed values of identically valued homes can be dramatic. In effect, property-tax payments have shifted from homestead properties that have not been sold in recent years to those that have – as well as to non-homestead properties such as businesses, rental units and second homes. And then add a macro scenario: An uneasy and unpredictable impact on the health of the state economy.

A dozen years, a populist governor and legions of mad-as-hell property owners later, we have a formal reaction from the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature. There’s the rollback-and-cap bill that will punish local governments. And in January, Floridians will vote on the super homestead exemption. Part of the homestead-homeowner calculus will be figuring whether to exercise the option of keeping the “Save Our Homes” cap or not. It will help some; it’s a wash for others. It’s a shell game for everybody.

Ultimately, new home buyers, landlords, commercial property owners and snow birds will continue to wonder what all the ballyhoo is about when they’re still the fall guys in an inequitable property-tax mess.

Which brings us to this: How much longer will we pretend that the find-ways-to- placate-enough-property-owners gambit qualifies as reasonable, adult tax policy?

How much longer do we continue to ignore the 800-pound gorilla of tax pragmatism still lounging in the lanai? And we’re not even talking, although we should be, about a minimal state income tax, the least regressive alternative of all.

We’re talking about the multi-billion-dollar laundry list of sales-tax exemptions, a sizable chunk of which is not for food, prescription drugs, health services and solar-energy investments.

And even though it likely cost Gov. Bob Martinez re-election in 1990, we’re also talking, although not so blasphemously in 2007, about taxing services: from legal to advertising to tax preparation. At some point, a service-economy has to tax itself. Especially, when we’ve reached the point where, courtesy of Speaker of the House Marco Rubio, we were actually considering hiking the 6 percent state sales tax a startling, uber-regressive 42 percent.

And as Florida Tax Watch has noted, this state could reduce property taxes by at least $2 billion annually if Florida collected sales taxes owed on Internet purchases. Florida isn’t even talking to a coalition of states that are trying to arrange practicable, reciprocal relationships.

No, there is no perfect tax. Just perfectly unacceptable reasons not to give meaningful property-tax relief across the board – and to at least limit the inequities.

Alas, It’s Miller Time

Remember the speculation at play at the prospect of Joe Redner defeating Gwen Miller in their City Council run-off? They ranged from “what-the-hell, shake-up-the-establishment” scenarios to ultimate distraction to progressively green, smart growth advocacy.

But could anyone have imagined an assertive Gwen Miller? Talk about worst-case scenario. It transcends a major-market hub city merely having an inarticulate, issues-challenged chairperson presiding over its city council.

It’s apparent in the council’s new dynamic. Not all of Miller’s peers were supportive of her last candidacy, and Miller has neither forgotten nor forgiven. It manifested itself right away in skewed committee assignments and continues in a less-than-subtle, dismissive attitude. As if colleagues were obligated to show fealty to an embarrassment in their midst.

As to voters who weren’t supportive, well, they now have another reason to remain that way. With all the talk about budget-cutting – and Miller’s expressed reluctance to go along with the mayor’s request to slash council spending – she found a dubious priority. She ordered two flat-screen televisions — worth more than $1,000 — for her office and the city council receptionist.

It took Darrell Smith, Mayor Pam Iorio’s chief of staff, to save her from herself by talking her out of it – and suggesting that monitoring council meetings on a computer just might suffice during demanding fiscal times.

Miller, it would appear, should have been content with what her politically correct, euphemistic legacy had been prior to her recent re-election: “quiet” and “easy to lobby.”

Tampa And Orlando’s Vital Signs

In case you missed it, the I-4 corridor cities of Tampa and Orlando fared very well among the 379 U.S. metro areas rated by Moody’s Economy.com for their overall economic vitality. Tampa was 15th and Orlando 7th.

The bottom line seems obvious. Tampa’s growth in jobs and business in the professional services sector and a Bay Area unemployment rate of 3.3 percent more than offset turmoil in the real estate sector. For Orlando, it meant that an alarming murder rate doesn’t hurt as much as it should.