Golf: Brooky's got her life where she wants it

Lynnette Brooky played in the Swiss Open this week. Picture / Tristan Jones

It almost slipped by in TV-land, a blink and you'd have missed it.

Lynnette Brooky's outstanding win in the Spanish Open, her fourth win on the European women's tour, in which she twice set course records in Castellon, was dismissed in little more than a sentence.

She was relegated below news that her old Titahi Bay mate Michael Campbell had botched a decent winning chance on the final day at the British Masters, and gone backwards to finish in a tie for fifth.

But if New Zealand's best woman player reckons she deserves more kudos for her achievements, it doesn't show.

Brooky is at ease with her life and is playing pretty well, and the two are certainly related.

She has been on the European Tour since 1995 and is considered one of the old heads on the circuit.

In 1998, she won the Austrian Open and followed that with back-to-back French Open titles in 2002-2003. In that latter year, Brooky finished fifth on the Order of Merit, her best finish.

This week's win bumps her to second on the list, behind Frenchwoman Gwladys Nocera.

It ensured her a three-year exemption on the Tour, which had been due to expire this season, and a pass into the rich Evian Masters in France in July.

Before then, she is off to try to qualify for the US Open, which is at the Newport Country Club in Rhode Island starting June 29. In a handful of appearances there, 12th in 2002 is her best result.

There have been good moments and a few troughs along the way, as you'd expect of a 12-year professional career.

And she's noticed the changes from those early years.

"The young players are really so strong now. I look at them and can't see any muscles popping out of their arms, but they send the ball flying past me," she said.

But she's not enamoured of those players determined to find a fast track to fame. They need to learn patience, she said.

"You see them running in the morning, at the gym in the afternoon and I tell them they're crazy," she said.

"Smell the roses. They laugh and go for another run."

Brooky's become something of a sounding board for younger players, who frequently seek her out for advice.

"Lynnette is very straight and honest. She'll give them a straight answer and I think the Europeans like that approach," Brooky's manager, Gail Allport, said.

If the 2006 Brooky had been able to offer some help to the Brooky of 10 years ago, it might have had something to do with staying calm, not letting things rattle her.

"I don't want to be stressed any more and that has a lot to do with the fact I'm playing good golf."

She's also got a good team round her. Allport has been with Brooky since just before she turned pro in November 1994. Now there's Englishman Gerald Adams, who caddies for her when Allport is back in Wellington.

Brooky calls them her best mates, "a great team. I'm very, very fortunate". Allport has noticed the change in the player.

"She used to be quite fiery, but she has matured a lot. She's a good person to caddy for and she's got a good attitude," Allport said.

Any ambition to crack the US LPGA Tour has dwindled. This is a contented athlete, happy in her European environment.

"The US is not on my list. No disrespect to the Americans, but I really don't like the living standards, the hotels are often basic and a lot of the girls just do room service. It's a lonely life," she said.

By contrast, tripping around Europe and living a reasonably normal life suits the 38-year-old just fine. She has a base in Chalfont St Peter in Buckinghamshire, to which she retreats for time away from the circuit on which she's earned about €700,000 ($1,442,703) in prizemoney.

It all sounds a pretty pleasant way to pass the year, but if Brooky manages to top the Order of Merit this season, it might herald a change in outlook.

She has a full book of tournaments this season, apart from the KLM Open in the Netherlands, which clashes with US Open qualifying.

She's set a goal to win the Order, then she'd like to scale down her activities. Certainly not stop altogether, but give herself time to enjoy other aspects of life.

For one thing, she'd spend more time seeing parents Frank and Margaret, who live in Titahi Bay.

And she's keen on doing coaching work, particularly with children.

She likes what she's seeing from young New Zealand players. There is promise on the horizon. At present, she's the lone Kiwi on the Tour, but perhaps not for much longer.

As Brooky says, all it takes is a bit of patience.