“This plan has been driven by God.”
The way Jim Felce tells the story, divine intervention first put a golf club in this daughter, Nicole’s, hand.
“I was in Ross and looking to buy a toy baseball set,” explains Jim, face adorned with a clear recollection of a day nearly fifteen years ago, “I grabbed the plastic baseball set and there was a similar one for golf next to it. I didn’t know anything about golf. In fact, I hated it. But I heard God’s voice tell me, clear as day, ‘Buy the golf set’. So, I did – and the baseball set, too.”
Jim, a former professional baseball player, naturally thought his daughter would end up on a softball field. He was wrong. Nicole Felce is a golfer – a world class one at that.
Now, nearly seventeen years after unwrapping those cheap, plastic golf clubs on Christmas Day, Nicole Felce will realize her dream of playing golf professionally later this summer.
Nicole Felce: The Amateur
Nicole began entering junior golf tournaments on her 6th birthday. In fact, at Nicole’s insistence, the family moved her 6th birthday party so that she could tee it up – Chuck E Cheese would have to wait. That choice was immediately validated by Nicole’s first win with a score in the 50’s on nine holes.
Pretty good, but that was only the beginning.
Nicole would win again – this time, with scores in the 40’s.
And win again. Nicole’s winning scores were now creeping into the 30’s against older, tougher competition.
In 2016, at age 12, Nicole Felce would burst onto the national scene at the Future Champions Golf Callaway Junior World Championships in Palm Springs, California. Nicole won that tournament by 12 strokes – a record still on the books today and an accomplishment that earned her a write up in Sports Illustrated.
“That’s when I started to think she really had something,” Jim Felce quips, cracking a wry smile.
Low scores and titles, though, did not mean that the Felce family pushed Nicole to do more and more. No, Nicole pushed her parents for more – more practice time, more competing, more mini-golf lessons from her dad.
“Nicole had to own it. She needed to show her mom and I that she had ownership of loving this,” notes Jim Felce. “If a kid is not pushing themselves, no parent can will them to succeed. This is all Nicole getting better herself.”
Nicole Felce: The Student-athlete
Fueled by her early successes, improving scores, drive to practice, and desire to compete in junior golf tournaments, Nicole’s plan to pursue professional golf demanded sacrifices that most teens would not make.
“I started virtual school in 7th grade because I needed more time to practice and compete,” Nicole Felce reflects. “It was tough. I actually started virtual school in 6th grade, but hated it and quit. I missed being with my friends at school.”
Starting in 7th grade, though, Nicole Felce became a full-time virtual student, taking multiple core classes simultaneously and laying the foundation for a plan to graduate from high school early. In 2020, 16 year-old Nicole Felce became a high school graduate and 100% focused on making golf her life.
The allure of college is still there for Nicole, but for now it will wait.
“I have looked at going to college and playing golf – even recently. But, I cannot get over the idea that I’d have to give up so much of my practice time. And, right now, I just can’t. I am totally focused on golf.”
As for her dad’s opinion of his daughter’s uncertain educational future, Jim says flatly, “Those college buildings aren’t going anywhere.”
Nicole Felce: The Pro
The road to professional golf is far from straight – and Nicole Felce is set to trek down that winding road beginning in August 2022 when she’ll tee it up in Stage I of LPGA qualifying in California. If she successfully advances, Nicole will continue to Stage II of qualifying in Venice, Florida in October. And (that’s not it), the last step in LGPA membership comes from a Q-series tournament in Alabama over a two week period in December.
That seems like a tough job interview, especially for a teenager. Are the Felce’s nervous about starting Nicole down this brutally competitive road?
“You know, I try to assume that I know the ending already. If I do that, it is easier to just enjoy the ride and really focus on Nicole loving the game,” Jim Felce says.
Nicole seems equally even-keeled about her future, “Golf is therapy to me. I love it. I feel so blessed to be able to pursue my dream no matter what happens.”
Her dream, though, is not only a battle of physical and mental attrition, the pursuit requires financial resources that can be daunting to unsponsored players funding their own way. Entering the qualifying stages of the LPGA alone costs over $2,500 – not to mention the cost of flying to California, playing practice rounds, lodging, and other travel costs the family will pay for themselves.
As of now, the Felce’s are “figuring it out as we go” and plan to continue working (Jim Felce as a Teacher Asst. Coordinator, Athletic Director, and Baseball Camp Director) while committing to be on-site for Nicole’s competitions.
The Felce family is keeping it simple.
Nicole does not have a caddie (other than Jim occasionally), a full-time coach, a fancy country club upbringing, an agent, or an entourage of hangers-on.
I must say that Nicole Felce is unlike most 17-year-olds I’ve been around. Most teenagers I know are taking selfies for Snap Chat. In the hour I spent with her, Nicole never touched her phone. She does not have an Instagram or Twitter presence and does not covet the idea of branding herself for anything off of the golf course.
On this 90 degree Florida day, after nearly four hours of practice, Nicole Felce did not bemoan the heat. No, Nicole was too busy putting on a driving range 7-iron clinic while talking with me between swings.
The golf course is Nicole Felce’s refuge. And, as a 17 year-old, she seems at ease with where she is and difficult road she must travel to get to where she wants to be – winning majors on the world’s best professional woman’s golf tour.
I kept waiting to see the “normal” teenager surface. You know, the entitled one that is more concerned with “likes” than what a guy like me is trying to learn from her journey.
It never happened.
Maybe, the methodical, low-key, faith based approach that the Felce family has taken keeps Nicole grounded by default. Or, maybe it is the fact that she has done the work to prepare for the big things in front of her step-by-step. And, maybe it’s the endearing story of the plastic golf clubs that God compelled her dad to buy in spite of himself so many years ago.
Whatever “it” is, Nicole Felce has it.
Soon, the pro golf world will take notice.
