Almost famous

North Andover’s Briana Vega gained celebrity status by winning The Big Break reality TV show. Now she’s shooting for even more fame and fortune by trying to earn a regular spot on the LPGA Tour

By Gary Trask

Briana Vega still can’t get used to the attention.

Briana Vega

Whether she’s stopped at the mall by a group of strangers, told she looks familiar by a guy at a bar or told how much she’s loved by a horde of autograph seekers, the North Andover native still struggles with the fact that she’s a semi-celebrity thanks to her compelling performance last year on the Golf Channel’s Big Break VI reality TV show.

“It’s still kind of hard to believe,” says Vega, 25, who prevailed over eight other women on the popular show that was played at Trump National Golf Course in Los Angeles and tests its participants’ physical and mental abilities on the course with a series of different challenges.

“I knew that inside the golf world I’d get recognized because a lot of the golf fanatics out there watch the Golf Channel religiously. But when people come out of nowhere when I’m out and about doing my daily routine type of things and want to shake my hand or congratulate me, it’s just hard to fathom.”

But, as Vega has learned, that’s what comes with the territory when your a reality TV star. Instant recognition wasn’t the only positive that came with Vega being crowned the Big Break queen. She also earned an exemption into two LPGA events this season as well as waived entry fees for the 2007 Duramed Futures Tour where she has participated for the last two years.

In addition, Vega took part in the series’ final episode when she led her women’s team to a victory over the men by sinking a birdie putt worth $4,000 on the 16th hole and then ending the match with another birdie on 18. Overall, Vega pocketed $21,000 and was sent on a private plane to meet Donald Trump at his New York office, where the real estate mogul, a reality TV star himself, handed her the keys to a brand new 2007 white Chrysler Aspen.

Since her windfall of prizes, Vega has gone out and hired an agent and has picked up endorsement deals from PeakVision Sports Eyewear, the Speed Stik golf training aid and LIJA sportswear. She was a guest of a couple of her new sponsors at the PGA Merchandise Show in Florida in February and spent most of her time at the event signing autographs.

The most difficult part for Vega during the last year was keeping her winnings a secret. The show was taped last summer, but wasn’t aired until the fall. The final episode, when Vega defeated fellow finalist Bridget Dwyer 3-and-1 in a sometimes nasty match, wasn’t on TV until December. Vega was sworn to secrecy and couldn’t tell anyone - not even her closest family and friends - how she fared on the show.

“It was so hard not to tell them,” she remembers. “Each week the show would be on and I’d survive. I’d get phone calls that night from people congratulating me. Then for the final episode, I got together with my roommates and some friends and it was a like a whole new celebration all over again. But it was weird because we began taping the show about six months earlier.”

Apparently, the show’s producers liked Vega’s personality as well as her golf game as she was asked to compete in The Big Break VII: Reunion, a show that is currently airing on the Golf Channel and pits 16 of “the most memorable characters from the previous six seasons.” On the line is yet another opportunity to compete in a future LPGA event.

According to Vega and those that know her and her game well, the grueling nature of the show made her a better player.

“I’ve never been so nervous in my life; the whole experience really puts you to the test both physically and mentally,” says Vega, who added that there were 15 to 18 cameras following her every day and that the final 18-hole match took more than eight hours to complete.

“There were times that I was literally standing over a shot and shaking because I was so nervous. It really has given me the confidence that I can play under pressure.”

Her caddie, Alan Vega, who also happens to be her father, agrees wholeheartedly.

“I didn’t know the results of the show, but I noticed a real change in Bri’s manner on the course when she got back from the taping,” says Mr. Vega, a former member at both Georgetown Country Club and Andover Country Club, who lives in Andover with his wife, Sheila. “She just had this inner confidence that I didn’t really notice before the show.”

But it’s not as if Vega hasn’t had to deal with outside factors affecting her game before. It was just two years ago that both her parents were diagnosed with cancer within months of each other. Both survived the scare and took with them from the ordeal a larger appreciation of the lives they live.

“It was a rough time for all of us and it was a lot to deal with for Bri as she was trying to develop her game and bring it to the professional level,” says Alan Vega, 57, who had prostate surgery in February of 2005, but was on his daughter’s bag four weeks later in a Futures Tour event. “It really gave me a dose of reality. It makes me realize that every day that I have out on the golf course sharing the experience with my daughter is an absolute gift.”

Adds Sheila Vega, who survived her battle with breast cancer, “We’re very fortunate. It was a major scare at the time, but it’s made all the good times we’re going through right now that much better.”

This spring Vega, who grew up on the North Shore but graduated high school in New Jersey, is in the midst of a busy Futures Tour schedule. Her goal is to finish in the Top 15 of the money list, which will get her into Q-School for the LPGA.

The two-time women’s golf team MVP at N.C. State and 2004 Massachusetts Amateur champion got a taste of what a spot on Tour would be like in February when she participated in the first of her exemptions at the SBS Open at Turtle Bay in Hawaii. She missed the cut, shooting rounds of 80 and 81, but came away with a priceless experience as well as some perspective on what it’s going to take to reach her ultimate goal.

“It was an incredible few days. It was such a first-class event and I was real impressed with the way all of the other players treated me,” says Vega, who has an older sister, Wendi, who lives in Chicago. “But I didn’t play as well as I could have and that was disappointing. You look at the stats from the event and I was fifth in the field in driving, but dead last in putting. I realized that if I want to play regularly with the best players in the world, I can’t be the worst putter in the world.”

Vega, who is currently living in the Orlando area, will have another chance on the LPGA Tour in May thanks to an exemption granted to her by the Sybase Classic in Norwalk, Conn. Her second and final exemption from The Big Break comes in October when she’ll compete in the Longs Drugs Challenge in California. Until then, she’ll keep up with a Futures Tour schedule that will see her enter close to 20 events, work relentlessly on her short game and continue to try to gain more fame an fortune by earning a spot on the LPGA Tour as soon as next season.

“The LPGA is where I want to be,” she says with confidence. “I feel like I belong there and that I’m getting closer and closer. The stuff I’ve won and the things I’ve been able to do since winning The Big Break have been great. It was the best thing that could have happened to me. But now I want to take advantage of it to the fullest and play on the LPGA Tour. That’s my goal and I don’t want anything to get in my way.”