She didn't give up Lincicome's hard work leads to cup

A year after joining the LPGA full-time, Brittany Lincicome was among the tops in money earned, raking in excess of $850,000.

A year later, she boosted that to more than $871,000, and it seemed she was well on her way to a lucrative and successful career.

Then the bottom dropped out.

Lincicome struggled through the 2008 season, making just $114,000 and was in a self-described funk.

"It was very scary because I've only been on Tour very few years and didn't know how I was going to come out of it, if I was going to come out of it," Lincicome said. "Thank God I did."

But it didn't come easy.

Lincicome admitted at one point last year she was ready to chuck it all for a while and take a complete break from the game.

"I almost took off the whole year halfway through," she said. "Nothing was going my way. I couldn't get anything going."

But things got rolling again for Lincicome after she hired coach Craig Shankland at the beginning of the year.

"I just needed a change, needed to hear something different," said Lincicome, who finished 2009 with earnings of $588,000. "Something has clicked and it's really worked out very well. I'm very blessed to have him."

And she feels blessed to be back representing her country again as part of the U.S. Solheim Cup team.

"It's a dream come true," she said. "If you look at my record last year, I played so bad and had to work really hard to get there this year.

"It was a lot of work but the reward was being here."

Popular pairings: The temporary bleachers erected at Rich Harvest Farms at the site where the captains announced their Friday morning pairings were certainly the place to be. Fans began to fill up the outdoor theater at 1:30 p.m., a full 31/2 hours before the ceremony was to begin.

Looking good: Offsetting six-tenths of an inch of rain Wednesday was the news that the weekend forecast for the Solheim Cup sounds ideal - highs in the low to mid-70s and only a 30 percent chance of rain early on Friday.

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Photo Galleries</h2> <ul class="gallery"> <li><a href="/story/?id=315268">Thursday images from the Solheim Cup </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=314990">Wednesday images from the Solheim Cup </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=314617">Tuesday images from the Solheim Cup </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=314310">Monday images from the Solheim Cup </a></li> </ul> <h2>Video</h2> <ul class="video"> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/multimedia/?category=18&type=video&item=3">Solheim Cup Opening </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/multimedia/?category=18&type=video&item=2">Solheim Cup After Sundown party </a></li> </ul> <h2>Related links</h2> <ul class="moreWeb"> <li><a href="/packages/2009/solheimcup/">Complete Daily Herald coverage of the Solheim Cup</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>