Cancer-Stricken Mom To Watch Pre-Teen Prodigy Dakoda Dowd in LPGA Event

Pre-teen golf prodigy Dakoda Dowd will make her cancer-sticken mother's dream come true April 27 by playing in an LPGA tournament thanks to a sponsor's exemption.
Dakoda Dowd turns 13 on Monday, three days before her mother resumes chemotherapy after beating breast cancer only to have doctors discover the cancer had spread to her hip bone, liver and spine.

Dakoda Dowd helped a Florida high school team claim a state title while six grades below the seniors, but her mother, Kelly Jo Dowd, saw little hope she would live long enough to see her daughter play in an elite tournament.

"I was not going to get to see my daughter play on the LPGA Tour. It was breaking my heart because I knew she had the ability," Kelly Jo Dowd said. "It was one of the hardest things because I knew I wasn't going to see it."

The Dowds story prompted Bobby Ginn, sponsor of next month's Ginn Clubs and Resorts Open, to invite Dakoda Dowd to his new event.

"What he has done for me is irreplacable. He made my dream come true," the elder Dowd said.

"It has been amazing. Fantastic. Sensational. It has been so uplifting. Right now I'm in a very good frame of mind. I'm fighting very hard for this."

While watching her mother's fight for life, Dakoda finds golf's troublesome moments minor by comparison.

"Nothing compares to that," she said. "Part of me is happy because it has made me stronger. When I look into her eyes and think about what she is going through, it gives me a lot of strength."

The chance to play alongside such idols as world number one Annika Sorenstam is less daunting for Dakoda Dowd because of what it will mean for her mother.

"It's going to be rough but it's going to be great," Dakoda Dowd said. "I'm really excited and happy. I'm just going to go out there and have fun and be happy my mom will be watching. That's the most important thing.

"She helps me through a lot of stuff. She keep me positive. She's my rock."

Kelly Jo Dowd, who turned 41 on March 10, was a "Hooters" girl, serving as a calendar and poster model during 14 years where she worked her way from waitress to restaurant general manager.

Then came cancer and chemotherapy, losing hair and many of the trappings of beauty she learned were only secondary.

"It played havoc on my self-esteem. I felt very confident before. I lost all that," she said. "It was a tough time but because of that I became a better person and became more confident."

Kelly Jo Dowd's battle made her want to help other women who face similar challenges in their lives.

"I want to help as many women as possible. I can help people. There are a lot of people out there just like me," she said.

"I felt the lump and didn't check it out immediately. I didn't think it was serious at all. The number one thing I can say to other women is take it seriously. Don't wait. Don't do what I did. Get a mamogram."

Dakoda Dowd has drawn strength from and given strength to her daughter at various times during her combat with cancer.

"Her inner strength is there from everything I've gone through, all the stuff she has had to go through," Kelly Jo Dowd said. "Everybody in the family has been deflated at times, crying at stages.

"We have gotten each other through it. I've looked to her for strength at times. She's an incredible golfer. She had a lot going on and this slaps her in the face.

"There have been times she hasn't felt like playing, like her heart is not into it. She still puts in the time. She has got a will power and a lot of courage to go out there and get it done.

"Dakoda Dowd believes we're go back on the chemo and beat this in another three months."

And if cancer can be conquered, what chance do mere golf rivals stand?

"Just playing on the tour will be a dream come true," Dakoda Dowd said. "I can't say I wouldn't like to win some day."

Dakoda Dowd A Jr. Golf Pro, 12, Fulfils Dying Mom’s Dream

Dakoda Dowd a 12 year old girl from Florida is to become the world’s second youngest female professional golfer in order to fulfil the dream of her dying mother.

Dakoda Flowie Dowd will make her debut in a tournament near Orlando next month. The Ladies’ Professional Golf Association insists players be at least 18 but an exception is being made because of the “extraordinary emotional circumstances”.

Dakoda’s mother, Kelly Jo Dowd, 40, has cancer and doctors do not expect her to survive for more than a few months. Watching her daughter take part in the tournament is her dearest wish.

Kelly Jo will be allowed to follow her in a customised golf cart. But as she approaches her 13th birthday this week, Dakoda Dowd's fear is that her mother may not be well enough to attend. “My birthday wish is that my mom is here for the tournament and for a long time after that,” she said.

“But there are good days and bad days, for both of us, and we just try to hold it together and concentrate on making her dreams come true.”

Dowd recalled that when she first suffered discomfort, she blamed breast implants and skipped a mammogram.

“That was the worst decision of my life,” she said.

Last month she picked her funeral plot.

“It is a very tough time, but all I can ask is that God steers us through it and, afterwards, my little girl has a strong and happy life.”

Dakoda Dowd Interview With People Magazine

Dakoda Dowd does interview with People Magazine for March 2006 issue.

"Dakoda Dowd's LPGA Quest"

Dakoda Dowd sits for a portrait with golf clubs she has engraved with the pink initials of her mother, Kelly Jo, who had to combat breast cancer once before it returning in a more serious form recently, at the Innisbrook Troon Golf Institute in Palm Harbor, Fla., on Saturday, February 4, 2006. At the age of 13, Dowd will be playing on the LPGA Tour at the inaugural Ginn Clubs & Resorts Open from April 27-30 at Reunion Resort & Club in Orlando. VIEW IMAGE

Dakoda Dowd's Dream / The Courageous Story Of Dakoda (Koda) Dowd

WHEN the Academy Awards engage in their annual celebration of filmmaking, they also remind us of how casually we have come to regard the truth. A second thought is rarely given to the work that embellishes reality in the pursuit of art. That's just the way it is done. Two special stories are walking among us right now that will surely end up on the big screen, and as they are translated from reality to film some truth will be lost, and some fiction will be added. That need not be the case. They are stories that stand on their own and simply need to be told.

Last month, a young man with autism named Jason McElwain reduced a nation of cynical sports fans to tears when he played his only high school basketball game and scored 20 points in a magical four-minute sequence. It is hoped that when Jason's life is transferred to film, it is a documentary in which he and those touched by him are allowed to tell their own stories. Nothing more need be said. No footage need be created other than what really happened.

And then there is the case of Dakoda Dowd who next month will make her LPGA debut in the Ginn Clubs & Resort Open on a sponsor's exemption just weeks past her 13th birthday. Too often in sports we hear words like "courage" and "heroic" tossed around carelessly, as if a golf shot could have an impact beyond the game.

Truly, our greatest opportunities to be courageous occur in our own lives, exactly where it matters most. Koda will be playing for her mother, Kelly Jo, whose body is ravaged by the pain of breast cancer that has spread from her breasts to her liver and bones. Kelly Jo's dream is to see Dakoda play in an LPGA event, and that dream now is set against a clock seemingly beyond human control.

"It is the right thing to do," Bobby Ginn, president and CEO of Ginn Clubs & Resorts, told Golf World about the exemption he granted to Dakoda. "Our company is about family, and we got involved in golf because it is a family sport. To give Dakoda a chance to present this gift to her mother makes our sponsorship of the event already a success." While it is unlikely anyone would oppose the exemption given to Dakoda, Ginn has added an extra spot to the field of the April 27-30 event so no LPGA player is bumped by her presence.

The plot line of this story is simple. At the age of 4, Dakoda was introduced to golf by her father, Mike. Shortly after Dakoda's ninth birthday, Kelly Jo had a double mastectomy. There was every reason to think the cancer was cured. Then last May something didn't feel right. After many tests it was determined the cancer had returned -- and spread. Left untreated, Kelly Jo would have less than a year to live. But Kelly Jo fights on, through radiation and chemotherapy, taking medication to ease one of the most painful of all cancers, and keeping an eye trained on the calendar and the day when she will see Dakoda tee it up against the pros.

If this is a race against time, it is also a reminder that time is constantly slipping through our fingers and that life should be lived with a passion and purpose that celebrates the gift it is. Courageous acts are rarely decisions, but rather reactions to events beyond our control, the hand dealt to us by life. Next month, Kelly Jo and Dakoda will share a private act of love on a public stage. We are fortunate we get to watch. And no shred of truth need be embellished to make this an award-winning story.

Winslow Earns Sponsor's Exemption Along With Dakoda (Koda) Dowd To Inaugural Ginn Clubs & Resorts Open

Andia Winslow, the first African-American to compete in the Ivy League and for Yale University, and the first African-American to compete on the LPGA in four years, has accepted a sponsor's exemption along with Dakoda Dowd to the inaugural Ginn Clubs & Resorts Open at the Reunion Resort & Club, April 24-30.

Winslow will compete against the prominent 144-player field including Dakoda Dowd, which is also expected to include No.1-ranked LPGA player Annika Sorenstam. The field will be squaring off for one of the richest purses in the history of the LPGA at $2.5 million.

Winslow is the first African-American since LaRee Pearl Sugg in 2001 to compete on the LPGA. The Orlando-area resident is honored to have the chance to play in this prestigious event. Winslow was also the first scholarship recipient for a partial scholarship at Yale University from the Jackie Robinson Foundation.

"I'm delighted and pleased about the chance to play against Dakoda Dowd in the Ginn Open," Winslow said. "The city of Orlando is embracing the event, I am working hard on my game and I'm excited about the whole experience."

"Andia is a wonderful addition to the premier field we have at the Ginn Clubs and Resorts Open," said Bobby Ginn, president and CEO of Ginn Clubs & Resorts. "She is a trailblazer being the first African-American to play at Yale, and shows great determination as she perseveres to be on the LPGA some day. We look forward to watching the Orlando-based players please the hometown crowd along with dakoda Dowd."

Winslow of Winter Garden, Fla., is the first African-American to play varsity golf for Yale University (2000-03). A native of Seattle, Wash., she is a freelance writer and a documentary filmmaker. Her uncle is Pro Football Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow. She was the 1999 National Minority Junior Golfer of the Year, and she is the first ever African-American, man or woman, to compete in the Ivy League.

Winslow, who is currently playing amateur tournaments like Dakoda Dowd with hopes of eventually qualifying for the LPGA, won the Golfweek Orlando City Championship in 2005. She currently works at the Walt Disney World Golf Resort and previously was the part of the golf operations staff at the Yale University Golf Course in 2004.

Dakoda Dowd Ties For 2nd In Future Collegians World Tour Event.

JUNIORS: Many of the top Pinellas girls traveled to Tallahassee last weekend to play in the Florida Junior Tour's match at FSU's home course, Southwood Golf Club.

The results were favorable where Whitney Wenglasz, 15, Oldsmar, and Andrea Messer, 15, Belleair, found themselves in a tie after 36 holes with 153. They were playing in the 16-18 age division among 18 girls.

Wenglasz, a member of the 2004 state championship Class A team for Northside Christian, won on the third playoff hole with a par.

Evan Jensen, 16, of Belleair, who plays for Largo High, finished third, followed by Brienna Heinzler of Palm Harbor, tied for seventh.

Matt Cooney of Tampa overcame a five-stroke deficit after round one to shoot a final-round 6-under 66 to win the boys 16-18 title with 139.

At Plantation Inn in Crystal Springs, Dakoda Dowd of Palm Harbor shot 75-78-153 to tie for second behind So-Hyun Park (151) in the girls 13-18 division of the Future Collegians World Tour event.

KODA DOWD PRE-TEEN LANDS A SPOT

Dakoda Koda Dowd, a 12-year-old amateur, has received a sponsor's exemption into the inaugural Ginn Clubs & Resorts Open, tournament officials have announced. The new event is set for Apr. 27-30 at the Reunion Resort & Club near Orlando.

Dakoda Koda Dowd, from Palm Harbor, Fla., will be playing her first professional tournament. In her amateur career, she has won more than 185 junior tournaments and is the nation's top-ranked female player in the 2011 graduating class. In 2005, as a sixth-grader, she was the No. 2 player on the golf team at Northside Christian High and helped the team win its first state title.

Koda's mother, Kelly Jo Dowd, learned earlier this year that the breast cancer she beat three years ago has returned, invading more of her body and leaving her terminally ill. The disease has spread to bone and liver cancer. The chance for Dakoda to play in an LPGA event is one of her mother's final wishes.

Dakoda (Koda) Dowd Takes Third In Future Collegians World Tour Event

JUNIORS: Dunedin's Preston Knox tied for seventh at a recent Future Collegians World Tour event at Innisbrook's Highlands North course. He shot a final-round par 71 to go with opening rounds of 78 and 80.

P.J. Kolosvary of Safety Harbor was three back.

In the girls 13-18 division, Palm Harbor's Dakoda Dowd finished strong (86-79-76-241) to take third behind Kristina Wong (218) and Meghna Dal (240).

Justine Knox of Dunedin finished fifth at 247.

Dakoda (Koda) Dowd Florida girl, 12, Given Spot To Play In LPGA Tourney

A 12-year-old Florida girl received a sponsors exemption to play in an LPGA Tour event in Orlando and fulfill the wish of her mother, who is being treated for cancer.

Dakoda Koda Dowd will play the final four days of April in the inaugural Ginn Clubs & Resorts Open in Orlando, organizers of the golf tournament said.

Her mother, Kelly Jo Dowd, is undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer that has spread to her bones and liver. One of her final wishes is to watch Dakoda play in an LPGA event, organizers said.

“With this opportunity, she may finally have a chance to see this dream come true,” Dakoda Dowd said in a news release.

Dowd, who lives in Palm Harbor, Fla., has won 185 junior tournaments. As a sixth-grader last year, she helped the golf team at Northside Christian High win its first state title.

12-year-old girl Dakoda (Koda) Dowd to play on LPGA

Dakoda (Koda) Dowd, a 12-year-old Florida girl, received an exemption to play in an LPGA Tour event next month and will fulfill the wish of her mother, who has cancer.

Dakoda Dowd will play in the inaugural Ginn Clubs & Resorts Open in Orlando on April 24-30, organizers of the tournament said in a news release.

Her mother, Kelly Jo Dowd, is having chemotherapy for breast cancer that has spread to her bones and liver. One of the mother's wishes is to watch Dakoda play in an LPGA event, organizers said.

"My mom has always dreamed of seeing me play with the really great golfers like Annika Sorenstam and Cristie Kerr," Dowd said in the release. "With this opportunity, she may finally have a chance to see this dream come true."

Dowd lives in the Tampa suburb of Palm Harbor and has won 185 junior events.

For Now, a Young Golfer Dakoda (Koda) Dowd Keeps Driving

The driving-range stalls were nearly empty as 12-year-old Dakoda Dowd honed her golf swing in the morning half-light of this beach town outside Tampa.

"Somewhere, someone is practicing," one of her coaches, Lew Smither III, told her.

"And when you meet them, they will beat you," Dakoda said, finishing a sentence she has heard before.

It was Smither's reminder that ambition has a price, that the endless flop shots and 3-wood darts Dakoda (Koda) has hit were a down payment on the nearly 200 trophies she has won.

But time spent on the driving range is complicated these days.

Dakoda's mother, Kelly Jo Dowd, has bone cancer. She sleeps in most mornings, wears out in the afternoon and takes Vicodin for her aching joints. "I want to live as long as I can," Kelly Jo said in a recent interview, "but I also know that I have Stage 4 bone cancer."

This is Dakoda Dowd's reality. She possesses a golf swing that looks like a tour professional's. She has more than 100 contacts on her cellphone, many of them friends, mall hoppers and moviegoers like her. She has a mother who believed she had beaten cancer, only to have it return.

"It was kind of weird that it came back," Dakoda said softly during a break from practice.

Dakoda said she would drop golf immediately if it meant good health for her mother, who is 40, but that was not the doctors' diagnosis. A scan last May revealed that Kelly Jo had cancer in her bones and liver. They gave her six months to a year to live unless she immediately started treatment.

Kelly Jo embarked on radiation and chemotherapy, and when tournament organizers from the Ginn Clubs and Resorts Open — an event on the L.P.G.A. Tour — heard about the family's situation, they gave Dakoda a sponsor's exemption to play in their event April 27-30 in Orlando, Fla.

Dakoda (Koda) learned to play golf from her father, Mike Dowd, when she was 4 and, according to Smither, she is in the top 1 percent to 5 percent of all 12-year-olds. But one month after Dakoda's 9th birthday, with golf trophies piling up on the shelves, Kelly Jo received a diagnosis of breast cancer and had a double mastectomy.

Dakoda, a daddy's girl for most of her young life, began a home-school curriculum so she could be closer to her mother, and to the driving range several hundred yards from their apartment here.

Kelly Jo, believing she was cancer-free, began working out with Dakoda in a gymnasium. When Kelly Jo developed pain in her left hip, she thought it was from exercise.

"I went to my plastic surgeon, and they gave me some anti-inflammatories and said maybe the implants were causing pain in that area," Kelly Jo said. "It didn't get any better. I had gone to my general practitioner to do some X-rays, and they didn't find anything. It was like a guessing game. Nobody, including myself, had the intelligence to say, 'You just had breast cancer and this could be something more serious.' No one caught it."

It wasn't until May 26 of last year that her oncologist found that cancer had returned and spread.

"I had fought so hard the first time, not realizing that I should have saved some of that energy for the second time, that I had no more to give," said Kelly Jo, who has left her job as the general manager of a local Hooters, the company where she started as a waitress. "In my mind, I fought it, I battled it, it was gone. I had no idea that it might not exactly be true."

Mike Dowd, 45, said of his wife of 18 years: "She has been a working woman her whole life. She could have married way above me in looks and status, but she married a poor social worker. We're devastated by this, but we're strong people."

Dakoda (Koda) has spent nearly a quarter of her life seeing her mother go in and out of the hospital, watching her ache and moan, observing the growth and loss of Kelly Jo's blond hair. At the family's apartment, Dakoda is often at her mother's side, propping up her pillow or bringing her a glass of water.

Dakoda, like her mother, believed they were past cancer. And then, out of nowhere, they weren't. "I just couldn't believe it," Dakoda said. "She did everything she could and beyond."

On the golf course, Dakoda keeps Kelly Jo close the best way she can. Her clubs are adorned with the initials "KJ" in pink. Her golf bag is stocked with pink and purple lipstick.

Dakoda (Koda) Dowd Receives Sponsor's Exemption to Inaugural Ginn Clubs & Resorts Open

Twelve-year-old Dakoda (Koda) Dowd has received a sponsor's exemption to the inaugural Ginn Clubs & Resorts Open at Reunion Resort & Club, April 24-30. The youngster from Palm Harbor, Fla., will be playing her first professional tournament against the esteemed 144-player field, which is expected to include No.1-ranked LPGA player Annika Sorenstam.

Already at such a young age, Koda Dowd is an accomplished player, winning over 185 junior tournaments and is the nation's top-ranked female player in the 2011 graduating class. In 2005, as a sixth-grader, she was the No. 2 player on the golf team at Northside Christian High and helped the team win its first state title.

However, her upcoming success has come at a time when she is facing a heartbreaking and difficult family situation. Dowd's mother, Kelly Jo, learned earlier this year that the breast cancer she beat three years ago has returned, invading more of her body and leaving her terminally ill. The disease has spread to bone and liver cancer. The chance for Dakoda (Koda) to play in an LPGA event is one of her mother's final wishes.

"This is so exciting for me and my family. My dad and I hope that my mom will be here to see me play in April at this event on the LPGA tour," said Dowd. "Since I was a kid, my mom has always dreamed of seeing me play with the really great golfers like Annika Sorenstam and Cristie Kerr. With this opportunity, she may finally have a chance to see this dream come true."

Tickets will be priced at $10 for each of the practice rounds and pro-am days and $30 for general admission for each of the four rounds. Parking is complimentary and included with each ticket. Weekly badges are available for $80 which allows guests access to all of the tournament events as well as the two evenings of music on Friday and Saturday night with concerts by the Pointer Sisters and Brooks & Dunn, to name a few. Practice rounds will be held on Monday, April 24 and Tuesday, April 25. The Pro-Am will be held on Wednesday, April 26 and the 72-hole competition will begin Thursday, April 27 and run through April 30.

The inaugural Ginn Clubs & Resorts Open will be played at Reunion Resort & Club on a composite layout of two of the resort's courses, the Legacy Course designed by Arnold Palmer and the Independence Course by Tom Watson. CBS Sports and The Golf Channel will televise the event nationally.