Young teen to fulfill dream

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Though only a first-year LPGA Tour event, the Ginn Clubs & Resorts Open will deliver one priceless moment, no matter what 13-year-old Dakoda Dowd does on the course at Reunion Resort and Club.

A premier junior player, Dowd received a sponsor's exemption so her mother's dream of watching her play in an LPGA event could be fulfilled.

The Dowds' poignant tale has become well-known, yet it never turns stale.

Not when Mike Dowd looks over at his wife, still striking at the age of 41, and mouths "I love you" in the middle of a news conference.

Not when Kelly Jo Dowd, fighting a battle against cancer she will eventually lose, takes her daughter's hand into hers and explains that a girls' day out between the two is any time they "take money out of Dad's pocket."

The Dowds are tighter than Sunday pin placements, which conceivably might make them bristle at all the attention their story has received.

On the contrary, they have let the world, like the TV camera pointed at Dakoda as she flashed textbook form Wednesday on the driving range, into their lives.

What most would see as an intrusion, the Dowds have embraced as an opportunity, a platform from which to deliver a powerful, possibly lifesaving message.

They want to put the word out on how critical early detection of cancer is.

It might have saved Kelly Jo Dowd, had she heeded the message she now spreads every chance she gets. But she waited nearly a year after first noticing a breast lump before having a mammogram.

Now, the cancer has spread. It has left the former college cheerleader so weak physically that she labored just to step down from the podium following Wednesday's news conference with her husband and daughter.

"We can't kid anybody," Mike Dowd said. "This is an extremely difficult thing we're dealing with as a family, but I've got great women."

The spotlight will be clearly focused on the younger one in his life this morning, as Dakoda Dowd tees off on the back nine.

"I'll be nervous," Dakoda Dowd said, "but I can't wait."

Dowd said her lowest score at Reunion, a lengthy track with bunkers sprinkled throughout, is 74.

"It doesn't matter what she shoots at all," said Tour rookie Morgan Pressel, who lost her mother to cancer. "She's here to have fun, and that's all that it should be."

Dowd's nerves will certainly be calmed by the sight of her mother.

Because of her condition, Kelly Jo Dowd has been granted permission to ride a cart so she can follow her daughter's group Thursday and Friday.

"Out there seeing my daughter swing off the tee box, I think I'm just going to break down," she said. "If you've ever had a dream come true for you, you know there's very intense emotions that go along with it."

Notes

• Masters champion Phil Mickelson returns to action today for the first time since winning his second green jacket earlier this month.

Mickelson said he will donate all of his winnings from this week's Zurich Classic in New Orleans to Hurricane Katrina relief.