by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Attorney Brett Lucas learned the art of playing down the middle during a collegiate golf career that pitted him against current pros Davis Love III and Fred Funk. The approach has served him equally well in building his mediation practice.
In either circumstance, veering too far in one direction or another can get you into trouble. And while the price for a wandering tee shot might only be playing the next shot out of ankle-deep rough, mediators who stray too far from the middle ground can cost themselves their reputations.
The mediation practice in Florida is growing. The state requires parties involved in a suit for monetary damages to meet ahead of trial in an attempt to find a settlement. The mediator’s job is to find a solution acceptable to both sides.
Lucas is six years into his mediation practice. By employing an even-handed approach and using his experience as a medical malpractice and personal injury litigator, Lucas has been able to expand his practice each of those years.
After a couple dormant decades, Lucas is getting his golf game back into shape as well. On a recent Thursday afternoon round squeezed in between thunderstorms at North Hampton Golf Club, Lucas displayed the other side of his down-the-middle persona. He hit all but a handful of fairways on his way to shooting 69 from the course’s black tees.
Lucas’ interest in golf is a life-long affair interrupted by injuries. Back problems and inconsistent play on the mini tours led him to quit the game in 1985, five years removed from his days as a scholarship player at the University of Virginia.
“Basically, I decided to cut my losses and went to law school,” he said.
But quitting the game isn’t so easy for someone who has played since age 8. He broke 80 at 11 and was playing in tournaments by 12. Lucas’ love for the game was passed down from his father Jerry, a single-digit handicapper who died while hitting range balls on his birthday.
“He loved the game. He was obsessed with it,” said Lucas.
Enough of that obsession rubbed off on Brett to keep the game in the back of his mind as he built his legal career. Finally, rest and Yoga stretching loosened his back up enough to allow Lucas to swing a club again. Now he’s building his game back up in hopes of playing competitively again. His round at North Hampton was in preparation for an upcoming partners tournament.
The back problems keep Lucas from practicing as much as he’d like and they cut short his swing from his college days, but on days where he feels good, he can still cut up a golf course.
Using a long putter that once belonged to PGA Tour pro and Ponte Vedra resident, Rocco Mediate, (it was a gift from a lawyer friend who did some work for Mediate) Lucas needed just five putts to make it through the first five holes.
He didn’t miss a fairway until the fifth hole and didn’t record a bogey until No. 13.
His errant tee shot at five provided the first glimpse of Lucas’ wariness around the media, something he still carries from his representation of former Jacksonville Jaguars lineman Jeff Novak three years ago. Novak sued the team doctor, claiming bad medical advice ended his career early. The case attracted national media attention and forced Lucas too often in front of the television cameras.
The case left Lucas with somewhat of an exposed nerve when dealing with the media. On the fifth hole when a reporter asked to take Lucas’ picture standing over his tee shot lying in a deep bunker, he threw up his hands in mock exasperation.
“I miss one fairway all day and that’s the picture you want to take,” he said, tongue planted firmly in cheek. “This is why nobody trusts the media, you take everything out of context.”
But Lucas kept the missed fairways to a minimum. Standing over his second shot in the 18th fairway, Lucas pleaded with himself to deliver a solid swing.
The shot that resulted was the best of the day. A high draw, arcing along the line of a rainbow forming somewhere over Fernandina Beach. The ball dropped about 15 feet past the flag and danced a foot left. Lucas stood over the putt knowing that a sub-70 round was on the line. Appropriately, the ball didn’t leak in from the right or left, it rolled right into the center of the cup.