She is being called the Anna Kournikova of women’s golf, the next Nancy Lopez, the golden girl of the LPGA Tour.
She has a fashion model’s face, a homemade backswing as crooked as Jim Furyk’s, a devoted father whose long hair and beard are straight from a Grateful Dead album cover and a disposition as sweet as honey.
She’s not old enough to rent a car yet, but she already has landed an endorsement deal with Taylor Made-Adidas and caught the eye of a 14-karat-gold teacher named Butch Harmon, the only man brave enough to fiddle with Tiger Woods’ swing. “To be taken on by Butch Harmon is quite an honor,” she says.
She is 19 years old, and her name is Natalie Gulbis. If you haven’t heard much about her yet, you will. Gulbis will be featured in an upcoming issue of People magazine. She wants to do some modeling down the road. She also was approached about shooting a television pilot for WB but declined, citing commitments to her new career.
Clearly, Gulbis is no dummy–and we don’t mean the 3.85 grade-point average she attained at Arizona last year before quitting to go pro. To realize all her dreams, she knows she has to prove she is more than just a pretty face.
“It’s my expectation that she has a good time this year, learns some things and is happy with herself,” said her father John, a retired probation officer and former junior-college golfer who taught her the game. “If she does all that, everything else will fall into place.”
Gulbis’ take on her first three months as an LPGA rookie? Are you kidding?
“There have been no second thoughts,” she said. “None at all. Even when I was playing in Tucson [at the Welch’s Circle K, where she missed the cut], I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else but out here. I love being out here. The first couple months out here were like Christmas.”
Gulbis has settled down since then. Coming into this week’s Kellogg-Keebler Classic at Stonebridge Country Club in Aurora, she seems to be coping well with life on tour. She has made the cut in five of her nine events, was leading after three rounds at Nashville before slipping to eighth and tied for 18th in her pro debut at Los Angeles and for 15th at the Chick-fil-A in Atlanta a month ago. She has won $53,777.
“I expected the highs and lows,” Gulbis said. “And at times it has been every bit as difficult as I thought. The hardest part is dealing with not playing well; knowing you’ve prepared well and not getting anything out if it.”
Gulbis’ hunger to succeed at a young age stems in part from her public-course roots. Raised in Sacramento as an only child, she learned the game by playing regularly with her father, who retired from law enforcement at 49 when he injured a knee after a scuffle with one of his “clients.”
“I never really had anything given to me,” she said. “After a tournament I was just thrilled when I got a dozen balls. My dad used to play games with me. He’d say, `Win this tournament and I’ll get you a new hat.'”
Gulbis won a lot of hats. She finished second in the California State Women’s Amateur when she was 13, won it when she was 14 and that same year became the youngest player to qualify for an LPGA event, the Longs Drugs Challenge near her home.
“When I was 11,” said Gulbis, “I played with Annika Sorenstam in a charity tournament back in Sacramento when she was still a nobody. My dad and I were disappointed because we wanted Brandie Burton or Nancy Lopez. But after meeting and playing with Annika I had my motivation.”
Now she has to prove she has what it takes to stick around.
Gulbis’ caddie, Eric Pohl, formerly the head pro at Whitney Oaks in Rockland, Calif., is certain she does. “Three weeks ago she was 11 under after three rounds,” Pohl said. “That proves she has the talent. As a ball striker she’s already in the top 10 percent on tour. And for 19, she’s very mature. In Atlanta she spent two days talking to People and on the third day she had a photo shoot, and she still finished 15th.”
Expectations? Pressure? Distractions? For Natalie Gulbis right now, there are no such things.
“Everything is a distraction if you let it be,” said her father. “But Natalie enjoys this so much nothing is a distraction. If I had to do this and then do that it would kill me. Not Natalie. She lives for this. She loves this. She was born to do this.”
