‘She achieved so much for someone so young and she will never be forgotten’
The golfing world has been paying tribute to a true shining light who died aged just 13 earlier this month.
Elexis Brown’s tragic passing has prompted a wave of tributes for a little girl who loved the sport and, despite her tender years, was already ‘giving back’ by helping others just taking it up.
Born and raised in Leicester by parents Ben and Hayley, she played out of Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire and was already helping her eight-year-old little sister Indy get to grips with the sport she had dreams of making a career out of.
“Elexis would have hated all this attention,” said her father Ben.
“At the start she got a lot of help from the Golf Foundation and was a big fan of the work they do. So much so that she was already helping younger players. She was involved with the ‘Girls Golf Rocks’ movement and she loved helping people and was good with people.
“She had dreams of becoming a golf professional and getting a scholarship to go to college in the USA but was also spending a lot of her time reading up about other careers in golf. She wanted to work in golf and possibly golf development.”
Elexis started playing the sport aged just seven and started out using a tri golf set.
She quickly moved on to proper clubs and her handicap started dropping rapidly. Her aim was to get to scratch by the age of 16 and was already down to 8.5.
She was welcomed into Lincolnshire Girls county team, led by Helen McDougall, having been helped a great deal by locally-based Golf Foundation development officer Stacey Mitchell.
At the end of May she won the Lincolnshire U-14s at Market Rasen and caught the eye of England CEO Jeremy Tomlinson.
“We were at Woodhall Spa and he (Jeremy Tomlinson) just came up to Elexis and said: ‘You won’t know me but I know you’,” added Ben.
“He watched her tee off and she smacked one right down the middle. He said: ‘she is amazing’.”
Elexis had been due to visit Ireland to take part in the Flogas Champion of Champions event just a couple of days after her passing and they held a minute’s silence last week in her honour.
Other tributes have come from her former coach Evie Carter and current long-game coach Anders Mankert and short-game coach Alison Johns. There have been dozens of other messages via social media, especially those connected with Lincolnshire and led by county secretary James Lammin.
“I know everyone thinks their children are special but she was beyond a star,” said Ben.
“She achieved so much for someone so young and she will never be forgotten.”
Elexis’s family have asked that those wanting to make donations to the family donate to the Golf Foundation. You can do that by clicking here