As I mentioned in my post last week about the Big Break Ka'anpali, I am thrilled to be able to take you a bit behind the scenes by showing it to you through the eyes of a very special player in the field, fellow Canuck, Christina Lecuyer.
I truly enjoyed an hour-long interview with the very friendly and eloquent Lecuyer who was more than happy to share some personal details about her life, her loves, her pet peeves and her experiences on the Big Break Ka'anapali.
But before I share with you a little from our chat, I thought I'd just remind you of the prizes that await the winner - they just keep getting better with every Big Break series:
1) Tournament exemption on the LPGA Tour
2) All entry fees for the 2009 Duramed FUTURES Tour waived
3) Adams Golf endorsement contract, including $10,000 cash
4) BMW Z4 Coupe which comes with a tour of the manufacturing plant and a full day of driving with a pro instructor at the BMW Performance Center.
Wow! Now I understand why these ladies, Christina included, were so competitive. This was no hen party!
Anyway, here is a first peek into the life of Christina and her experiences on the Big Break...
We’ll start with a little background info about yourself growing up in Edmonton and taking up golf later than most professionals – 18? What took you so long?
It really wasn’t a "girl's thing" to do as far I was concerned. It’s not like I've been "girly" my whole life. I played softball for a long time and basketball and volleyball. I’m a tomboy, but honestly, I was too busy working. When I started working at the Derrick Golf Course, after work everyone went out to play golf and I thought, "Hey if I’m not playing, I’m out of the loop." So that’s when I took it up.
You really moved fast to work your way up the ranks. Who taught you to play?
My dad taught all three of us. My brothers are wonderful golfers. My dad knows the game so well. I don’t think there is a person on the planet who has as much passion for the game as my dad. I remember him coming home with blood dripping down his hands from hitting over 1000 balls on the range.
I understand you won the first tournament you ever played. What was that like?
It was the city amateur tournament. I went to the tournament by myself. I carried my own bag and had to ask the girls some of the rules because I really didn’t know what was going on. My assumption was that you had to shoot low low 70’s and so I knew there was no way I could do that. It was a rainy awful day; I shot 78 day and thought hey, I broke 80! The second day I shot 75 and won the championship. I then went on to win the next two tournaments I played -- a pro-am and the club championship.
You even got a full golf scholarship. That's highly unusual for such a new player.
I've been around golf my whole life. That's what my dad did, my brothers and my uncle, so it wasn't like it was hard to catch on to the game. But taking it to the next level was definitely harder. You know what's funny....until I got to college, I'd never hit out of a bunker. :-)
So how were you selected for the Big Break?
To be honest, you are a bigger fan of the show than I was. I maybe watched one episode.
Stephanie Stevens was my coach in my very first year in Arkansas. She is awesome. She is now 45, I think, but she was the number one player in Arkansas when she was younger. She developed MS and then had a stroke, so she had to give it up, but to this day, she and I are best friends. I call her about everything because I know she’s been there, done that. To this day, she can hobble up to the tee and hit a club farther than I can. She is great person. Stephanie's favorite thing on the planet is the Big Break. And she is the main reason I tried out. Then I met Laura London and Ashley Gomes, who were on Big Break 5 and 7. Stephanie said to me, “"You’ve gotta do it...If they can do it, you can do it."
I was playing the Cactus Tour and I knew the Golf Channel was coming for auditions. So I went out and auditioned and hit a few shots. They asked a few questions and I talked and talked because I knew they wanted more than one-word answers to: "Why do you want this experience? What would you bring to this show? Why should we pick you?"
I can talk to someone new for 20 minutes, so I just kept talking. It's my personality. I don't know what it was that made them choose me. And I really didn't think I made it because I didn't hear anything for about six weeks. I was just myself and maybe I just got lucky.
Share some of your favorite moments in the Big Break.
Before the Big Break, I played one practice round with Adrian, but other than her, I didn't know a single woman on the show.
I left the show with at least eight friends.
I met a lot of real cool people. One thing I can say is that the Golf Channel production crew are probably the coolest people. Everyone who works there legitimately cares about you. They go out of their way to make you feel like you are a celebrity and they do whatever they can do to make your stay better.
The Ka'anapali staff were wonderful. I've been to Hawaii at least 15 times and it is probably my favorite place on the planet. And I know that if i am ever at the Ka'anapali Golf Course or Sheraton again, I know I will contact the staff again.
What about the negatives?
There are probably two or three girls I'll never want to talk to again. I'm not going to say anything bad about them, but I probably won't want to talk to them or be friends with them.
There seems to be a lot of conflict and tension between different players. Does the Golf Channel encourage (script) these conflicts to increase the "drama"?
I don't think it is scripted. But they definitely ask questions that will stir the pot a little and get the type of answer they know they might get from one specific person.
Every morning they would come in at breakfast and talk about what happened the day before. They definitely know the right questions to ask each person. And though someone might not normally say something, a question may lead them into saying what they were thinking, but might not have said otherwise.
What did you think about the selection of contestants by the Golf Channel? Did they make good choices?
There was probably one girl that didn’t really fit the mold. A lot of the other girls would agree that perhaps she wasn't the best fit. I'm sure there will be a lot of drama around that.
What about those sexy fashion shoots? How were outfits chosen for the different ladies?
I chose to cover up a lot of the time. I'm pretty self-conscious and I'm not going to stand there in a bikini. You pick the outfit and then the Golf Channel people suggest what clothes they think are the best for you, but it's all your own clothes. They don't ell you what to wear.
There were a lot of girls who were comfortable wearing a bikini, but that's not for me, so I wore a bikini but I put a cover-up on.
It sounds like Sophie would have walked out naked if she had the option. :-) You know she made the No. 10 position in the Golf Channel's Top Ten Sexiest Golfers list.
They already put her in the top 10 and the show hasn’t even been aired yet?!
Did you learn anything about yourself you didn’t know before as a result of this experience?
I don't normally show emotion when I'm playing in a normal round of golf or in competition. I learned on the show that it is probably more proper for me to not vocalize everything as much. I think I learned that I am an intense person in some situations and that’s something I could tone down a little bit.
One of the things that I did was never once slam or talk bad about a person’s character. I may have said "That was stupid", but there were a lot of girls on the show that really attacked other girls' characters -- personal attacks. That was wrong. I am hoping that they'll actually air that part.
A couple of people said things that were definitely not needed to be said. Who you really are typically comes out in these situations and a couple people will show their real side in the show. By the end of the show people will be able to see a person’s true character.
Who you are off the golf course is, to me, what matters a lot more.
Thanks Christina!
Stay tuned for more from Christina next week!.
Golfgal
