There’s a whole bunch of babies on LPGA Tour

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/08/2010 (5834 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lucas Louden has been on the LPGA Tour for just over two years now.

A veteran, you could say.

Rarely misses an event. Loves the travel and meeting folks on the road, especially his peers from Scotland or Korea or Tennessee.

Lucas is two-and-a-half years old, the son of Tour player Stephanie Louden.

And almost every week during the season, little Lucas arrives to attend one of the most eclectic and nomadic day care centres you’ll find — a home-away-from-home that has been a life-line for several Tour players over the last 18 years.

“It’s amazing,” said Louden, who turned pro in 2002 out of Stanford University. “It allows me to do what I love and bring my son with me. Otherwise, I wouldn’t see him or I wouldn’t play. I’d have to make that choice. It allows me to live out my dream.”

For the record, Louden’s husband, Mike, is also on Tour, as a caddy for Wendy Ward. Said Louden: “It’s quite the little circus we have going. But we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Neither would the myriad of Tour players whose kids have spent their early years gallivanting about North America, some abroad, following mom from Oakmont, Penn., to Pittsford, N.Y. to Portland, Ore., to Winnipeg.

“My son’s been to 33 states and he’s been to Canada three times,” Louden said. “It’s crazy. They go to different children’s museums, the zoos. They get to meet people, too, which is an amazing thing. A lot of kids don’t get to meet and speak with adults that much. My son will say, ‘hi’ to people. He understands. He loves to travel. It makes them very worldly. They absorb a lot of it.”

Here’s how it works: Day care officials who travel with the Tour arrive on site on Monday, set up shop and open their doors on Tuesday. Sometimes, the makeshift day care is in a church. Sometimes a clubhouse.

“In Hawaii one year we were in a tent,” added day care director Bardine May, who has been on the Tour since 2003. “We’ve been pretty much everywhere.”

Hours are flexible, what with the nature of the sport. The day care can open as early as 5 a.m. and close at 9 p.m. or “until the last putt falls.” Depending on the time of season, the number of kids can range from just a few to upwards of 20, from three month olds to 12 year olds.

Under such unique circumstances, naturally bonds form between care givers like May and Katie Lutchkus and the moms on Tour. For example, retired Tour player Dawn Coe-Jones is in town to do some television analysis for the CN Canadian Women’s Open. Coe-Jones’ son, Jimmy, used to be a regular on the day care tour.

“He (Jimmy) just started high school the other day,” May said, giggling. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh, my Jimmy is all grown up!'”

Homework

It’s not that the kids don’t learn their ABCs or math. Older kids bring their homework from school. And there’s also the diverse make-up of the classes reflected in the diverse demographics of the Tour itself.

“This year we’ve had Scottish, Korean, a little boy from Denmark,” May said. “They come all over so it’s fun for the kids to learn about different cultures.”

Of course, the Tour also serves as a geography lesson on its own merit. Every stop, out comes the map: You are here.

So what’s the best part about May’s job? “The kids and the moms,” she said. “They’re pretty special. The moms are really, really nice people and they would do anything for me or the staff. That’s amazing to me that their jobs are very important but they put us first sometimes. They care about us and that’s pretty cool.”

But it’s a two-way Sesame Street.

Asked if she could imagine being on Tour without her son, Louden replied: “No, it would be hard. I did about three-and-a-half weeks (earlier this year on the Future’s Tour) and it was hard. It was very challenging.”

So each morning on the road, the conversation between mother and son goes something like this….

Louden: “I have to go to work now.” Lucus: “Okay, mommy go golf.”

And mother and son go about their business, both of which involves a lot of playing with balls and counting numbers.

“It’s nice to know he’s in a safe spot with people who care about him very much,” Louden said. “And when I get done, good or bad, he just walks up and gives me a big hug and says, ‘Hi, mommy.'”

Just like that, no matter where in the world, everyone is home again.

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca