LPGA poster girl Gulbis living in a dream world
CALGARY — Pretty in Pink might’ve been enough for Molly Ringwald back in 1986. For Natalie Gulbis, nothing less than Pulsating in Pink will do. Bright pink. Hot pink. Rip-your-eyeballs-out-of-their-sockets pink.
She starts toward the Priddis Greens practice tee slowly, shifted this way and that by a gathering wave of adoration, moths to a flame, effortlessly autographing programs, flags, hats as she moves.
“I loved you on The Apprentice,” coos one fan.
“Natalie, please . . .,” implores another, thrusting out an item.
One guy tells her he’s travelled all the way from Toronto just to see her play this week. It’s all a bit jumbled and chaotic, impossible to grasp the intention, but the names of hotels are even heard being thrown out amid the din. As if.
Through the commotion, the queen bee is unfailingly polite. Unhurried. Accustomed to the crush of attention but nonetheless far from blase about it. She has a word for nearly everyone. A flash of that Ultra-Brite smile, whiter than Winnipeg in wintertime, capable of melting even a press agent’s heart.
“Could you sign this?” pleads a middle-aged gent. Then, catching himself, a bit self-consciously: “It’s for, uh, my mother-in-law.”
Yeah. Right.
“Promoting our product,” says Gulbis, talking as she’s walking, “is so important. The talent on the LPGA Tour has never been deeper, never been greater. The girls have wonderful personalities, they’re all interesting and funny and insightful. We have a tremendous game played by great athletes.
“We have to introduce it to more people.”
Natalie Gulbis can’t be accused of not doing her bit. She’s quite happy being the poster girl (literally) for the LPGA. In terms of glamour, she’s become the successor to Jan Stephenson and Laura Baugh. Only Gulbis — benefiting from being in her playing prime during the unashamed Age of Celebrity — has upped the ante. She’s guested on The Price is Right. Is the subject of her own reality show on The Golf Channel.
The only niggling problem with that being that Natalie Gulbis’ life is slightly unreal. She’ll admit as much.
Not everyone, for instance, has the chance to be fired from Celebrity Apprentice by The Donald. Or warrants a 77 for sexiness on AskMen.com. Or can list off endorsement deals with an avalanche of companies, including RSM McGladrey, TaylorMade Golf, Adidas, Canon, Raymond Weil geneve, Amstel Light, SkyCaddie, Payment Data Systems, MasterCard, Winn Golf Grips and Lake Las Vegas Resort.
“It’s a bit of a juggling act,” she admits, “but the golf is what everything is centred around. I try to do what I can, within reason.”
To the non-links devotee, Gulbis is perhaps most famous for the first calendar she produced, a catchy golf/swimsuit month-by-month photo journal released just before the 2004 U.S. Women’s Open. The stodgy old USGA blanched at what it considered the inappropriateness of a few of the shots, and refused to market it (happily, the RCGA had not such objections, and sold a ton at the Canadian Women’s Open that year).
What is clear only from the briefest is that this woman is very happy in her own skin. The term ‘sex symbol’ certainly doesn’t throw her.
“I don’t mind,” she says. “In fact, I’m flattered. Any time anyone wants to say that, you won’t hear me objecting. It’s a compliment.”
Yet Natalie Gulbis is not merely a champion of the infinitely trivial. There’s game to go with those gams (although, currently ranking 40th on the money list with $275,817 US has to be a disappointment).
She’s won on the LPGA Tour, the 2007 Evian Masters, and in 2005 finished sixth on the money list with more than $1 million in official earnings. She placed in the top 10 in four consecutive majors, from the 2005 LPGA Championship to the 2006 Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Charlie Rose, only the most savvy interviewer in the business, and no Larry King celebrity-hound, invited her on his bare-set late-night show — where the serious folks go to talk.
Yet it’s undoubtedly the sizzle that sells. Gulbis has been dubbed “the Anna Kournikova of golf,” a distinction that would, in these politically correct times, make other young women flinch.
“Do I mind?” Gulbis blurts, setting up shop on the tee. “God, no. She’s gorgeous. I wish I looked more like her.”
World No. 1 Lorena Ochoa is also on the practice range, at the far end, furthest from Gulbis. Hall of Famer Juli Inkster is immediately to her right, swatting balls. Yet the knot of curious onlookers — mostly male, to be gender-fair — behind the white-picket fence off-limits is greater around Gulbis than any other player.
She begins to stretch, warm up, for a bit of prep in advance of this CN Canadian Women’s Open, which tees off Thursday at Priddis.
“Everything,” she tells you, “is wonderful. I wouldn’t change a thing.”
There’s that smile again. The one bright enough to bring to safety a foundering ship lost in fog. “My life is great.”
Funny, but you have a hard time not believing her.
http://www.canada.com/sports/LPGA+poster+girl+Gulbis+living+dream+world/1952079/story.html
Vancouver CraigList Auto Financing Interest Rates
Manitoba Auto Dealers
Property Tax Assessments to be Mailed Soon
www.glendalegolfs.com
Related Websites - Player Profile for Patty Sheehan Patty Sheehan was born on October 27 in 1956 in Middlebury, Vermont, and is an American professional golfer who became a member of the Women's PGA Tour (LPGA) in 1980 and went on to win six different major championships with a total of thirty five LPGA Tour victories in all.......
- The Best Interest Rates on Savings Accounts Available in March, April and May of 2009 With Congress and the Federal Reserve pumping large amounts of cash into the financial system through the stimulus package, by setting the target Federal funds rate at 0, and with a newly announced plan to inject capital into the market to lower mortgage rates, there's not much of a demand......
- Golfing Profile for Christina Kim (LPGA) Christina Kim was born on March 15, 1984 in San Jose, California, and is a Korean American professional golfer who currently plays on the LPGA Tour in the United States. Christina Kim is well known for her animated style of play, her vocal style of play, her flamboyant style of......