Sponsoring a Dream

tbo.com
Nov. 9, 2005

TAMPA - When the LPGA's inaugural Ginn Clubs & Resorts Open is played next April outside Orlando, Dakoda Dowd will nervously make her way -- not even two full weeks after turning 13 -- to the first tee box where she will play against Annika Sorenstam, Paula Creamer and Natalie Gulbis, and, if there is any justice in this world, make her mother's dying wish come true.

"Hopefully she'll be there to see it," Dakoda said.

The Palm Harbor junior golfer will play in the tournament at Reunion Resort and Club in Celebration on a sponsor's exemption, one of two open invitations granted to the tournament's corporate host. Along with Dowd, who played last year for Northside Christian High's state title golf team, newly announced pro Michelle Wie is expected to be offered the second exemption.

"We know Dakoda is a good little junior golfer who works hard at it," Michael Dowd said about his daughter. "But, you know, in no way yet is her game deserving of this kind of honor and respect that the Ginn people have provided us."

But her story tore at too many hearts.

The Dowds' saga was first told in a newspaper article this summer. That's when Dakoda's words turned anyone with a soul into blubbering goop.

She was talking about wanting to practice harder and longer but not having the will.
"I don't really love golf any less right now; it's just that my heart isn't in it as much as before," she said. "It's not even right that we are talking about golf with this because it's 10 times more important than anything else.

"My mother is dying."

A fight with breast cancer that Kelly Jo Dowd believed she had won had recently been resumed. Unfortunately, the insidious disease not only returned, it came back in an aggressive form in Kelly Jo's organs and bones.

Kelly Jo, 40, is a one-time Hooters swimsuit model who made herself the only woman to climb the restaurant chain's corporate ladder from waitress, to manager, and to general manager, operating the Palm Harbor store on North U.S. 19 from 2002 until she had to resign this year.

With Michael, a Pinellas County school system counselor, the parents stressed to Dakoda that she possessed talent and ability to be anything she wanted in life.

Dakoda said her dream was to one day play on the LPGA.

In that case, Kelly Jo said her dream was to one day see Dakoda play on the LPGA.

Dreams Tempered By Cancer
Doctors spoke differently. Kelly Jo's condition is worsening, and dating to July her life expectancy was measured in months. The pain intensifies daily; this week Kelly Jo had to return to the hospital to be treated for a compound fracture of a vertebra.

"We were going out the other night to pick up tacos and my daughter said, 'You know, Dad, Mom's only doing what she's doing because of me, you know that, right?' " Michael said. "All I could say was your mother is as courageous a woman as you will find and she is enduring her pain and fighting this battle so she can have another day to go get a pedicure with you, have another day to experience one of your golf tournaments, have another day to have a mother-daughter talk about a crush you have, to have another day to get closer to you turning 13 and the dream of watching you play professionally."

It was like somebody already had been listening.

'The Right Thing To Do'
It was several weeks after the story of Kelly Jo's fight was first told that a copy somehow worked its way in front of Bobby Ginn at his company headquarters in Celebration.

Right then, Ginn said he knew what he wanted to do. Dakoda Dowd would play against the LPGA players, and her mother deserved to see it.

"Just something we had the ability to do, and it's the right thing to do," Ginn said. "This was something we had control of in regard to being able to help somebody. Sometimes you hear about stories, but there is nothing one can do. This was a situation where we were able to do something."

Ginn may have no idea how much he did.

"Just to know my wife has a good shot at getting to April and watching Dakoda means so much," Michael said. "We are real people. We understand how difficult it is to play a sport at the professional level. Our daughter has quite a bit of talent and some people think she's got a good chance at making it, but in no way are we that presumptuous.

"But the fact in my wife's mind will forever be, 'Yes, she made it. I saw her make it.' That's all that matters. If Dakoda wants to go further with it, if she wants to put in the work, God bless her. … But in my wife's mind, she will have forever made it."

Sometimes things just fit. The Ginn Clubs & Resort Open already had selected The Florida Hospital Cancer Institute as the tournament's charity. LPGA player Cristie Kerr, whose mother is battling breast cancer, is a spokeswoman for the Ginn Company, and promotes her Birdies for Breast Cancer Foundation.

As with Kerr, who receives donations for her foundation with each birdie made during competition, the Ginn Company will make a pledge to breast cancer research for each birdie Dakoda makes during any junior events she plays.

Why? Because it feels right.
"There was a board meeting with a table full of hardened business guys and after that story was passed around, there wasn't a dry eye in the room," Ginn senior vice president Ryan Julison said.

The announcement of Dakoda's sponsor's exemption and Birdies for Breast Cancer junior spokeswoman role was to be announced last month at Reunion Resort at a charity fundraiser. Hurricane Wilma caused the postponement of the function, but because she was already there, Dakoda, joined by her dad and the resort's director of golf, Jim Kroll, played the course.

"It is easy to forget that she is only 12 years old because her game is so mature," Kroll said. "She will perform well in the LPGA event."

But before that, Dakoda was given a tougher task. The Dowds were told the sponsor's exemption was being offered, but the announcement would not be made until this week.

"I'm the only person who didn't tell someone," Dakoda said. "My whole family went berserk and told every single person they knew. But I told absolutely nobody."

Now, finally, it's out. Everybody knows.

Good news travels fast.