Q A+
it’s close by and my parents live in Sacramento. But I would love to see
the Open come to a Poppy Hills or a Spanish Bay. I think Poppy would be a great course for a Women’s Open. It’s really spectator friendly and easy to get around. + + +
How has your swing evolved over the years? Your trademark “hitch” seems to have lessened. What do you and Butch Harmon consistently work on? It’s continuing to be a work in progress like all swings. I started with Butch when I was 18, and some of the things we’ve worked on throughout my career are my posture to protect my back, and to continue to keep my swing short so I’d have a long career. And I’ve had a 15-year career, which is unusual for a Tour player, especially a woman. I just want to continue to make it better and better. + + +
Ever practice against Tiger or Phil? Did you beat them in any game? No. Definitely not. They are not only great golf- ers, they’re incredibly competi- tive. So you can imagine how they take their competition up to another level. So I’ve lost plenty of $20 bets to Phil and Tiger always just wanted to play for push-ups. There’s still time, though. I never turn down a chance for a bet.
+ + +
What’s the most surprising thing you’ve read when you have Googled yourself? My mom gets all the Google alerts so sometimes she’ll send me things and ask, “Is this true?” Like this year in March I said that I wanted to have children. I’m married and I want to have kids. So she asked, “Are you retiring?” So I’m not
retiring. I just said that once I have kids I’m going to retire. She was like, “Oh, O.K.” I got all these questions about
44 /
NCGA.ORG / WINTER 2016
Gulbis has one LPGA Tour victory, the 2006 Evian Masters.
retiring, which I didn’t have any plans to do. + + +
Do you mind that your name is used as click bait? It’s what you sign up for. Being a professional athlete and being in the public eye has so many incred- ible positives to it. I have a Boys & Girls Club because of it. I’ve been able to have incredible marketing partners. I get to play golf for a living. That’s because of the attention we get through media outlets and the Internet. So if there is some negative
+ + +
stuff, I’m very fortunate that it’s very, very small, so I don’t even think twice about it.
You, Juli Inkster, Paula Creamer, Patty Sheehan, Pat Hurst and Kay Cockerill are just some of the women who have created a strong golf legacy in Northern California. What is it about this area that has produced such top female golfers? We are products of the California golf system. For me, playing in the Junior Golf Associa- tion of Northern California gave me an incredible opportunity for places to play. I would play Pebble Beach on Christmas Day every single year. We’d play Quail Lodge, where our Cali- fornia Junior Am was. I think the California junior golf programs are incredible, specifically Northern California. The golf programs were so strong, even 20 years ago when I played, and I know they are even stronger today. That’s why you see so many good players out of this area; the infra- structure is there.
+ + +
The year 1997 was a seminal one for you. At age 14 you won the California Women’s Amateur and played in your first LPGA Tour event. What are your fondest memories of that
year and growing up at Granite Bay High near Sacramento? Playing on the boys golf team was pretty incredible. Winning the CWAC at Quail Lodge was so important. The Monterey Peninsula area has been special to me. I had a lot of success as a player growing up in this area. It really helped me get a college scholarship. If you are a top player in Cali-
fornia, that’s recognized nation- wide. California, Florida—these are big golf areas. Even though my family couldn’t afford for me to play huge national events—I never played one AJGA event— and it wasn’t because of the AJGA, it was just too expen- sive. But because California has such great talent, I was still able to get a college
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