Natalie Gulbis Biography

Natalie Gulbis leapt into the media spotlight in 2005 as one of the most popular woman golfers in the United States. She distinguished herself not with victories but with swimsuit calendars and a TV show on the Golf Channel. In 1997, at age 14, she had become the youngest player to qualify for a Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) event. (That record was later broken by Michelle Wie.) Gulbis played golf in high school (on the boys’ team) and spent one year playing collegiate golf at the University of Arizona before turning pro in 2002. Gulbis proved herself to be a strong golfer, if not a tournament winner — by 2005 she had become the first player in the LPGA to win more than a million dollars without a victory. (She finally bagged her first win at the 2007 Evian Masters tournament in France.) Long-legged and blonde, Gulbis has been called “the Anna Kournikova of golf,” both for her good looks and for the pressure to match the hype with athletic success.