- Natalie Gulbis
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Natalie Gulbis
Gulbis at the 2008 LPGA ChampionshipPersonal information Full name Natalie Anne Gulbis Born January 7, 1983
Sacramento, California, U.S.Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) Nationality United States Residence Lake Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. Career College University of Arizona
(one year)Turned professional 2001 Current tour(s) LPGA (joined (2002) Professional wins 3 Number of wins by tour LPGA Tour 1 Other 2 Best results in LPGA Major Championships Kraft Nabisco C'ship T3: 2006 LPGA Championship T5: 2005 U.S. Women's Open T4: 2005 Women's British Open T8: 2005 Achievements and awards William and Mousie
Powell Award2007 Natalie Anne Gulbis (born January 7, 1983) is an American professional golfer of Latvian descent who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour.
Contents
Golf career
Gulbis started finding interest in the game at the early age of four; by the time she reached age seven, she had won her first tournament, and at age ten, she reports she was breaking par.[1]
She played in her first LPGA tour event in 1997 as an amateur at the age of 14 (handicap of 2). Gulbis was the top player on the boys golf team at Granite Bay High School and graduated at age 16, [1] then accepted a golf scholarship to the University of Arizona, the 2000 national champions, where she was a teammate of fellow freshman Lorena Ochoa.[2] After one season with the Wildcats, Gulbis left college in Tucson to turn professional in July 2001 at age 18. [3] At the final stage of LPGA Qualifying School in October 2001 at Daytona Beach, Gulbis finished tied for third to earn her card for the 2002 season.[4]
Although Gulbis did not win a tournament until her sixth season on tour, she finished sixth on the LPGA money list in her fourth season with over $1 million in earnings in 2005. She placed in the top 10 in four consecutive major championships from the 2005 LPGA Championship to the 2006 Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Her first professional win came at the July 2007 Evian Masters in France, where she defeated Jeong Jang in a playoff. Gulbis tapped in for a two-putt birdie on the first extra hole to claim the winner's prize of $450,000.[5]
Gulbis has played on three victorious U.S. Solheim Cup teams, in 2005, 2007, and 2009.
Personal life, business and media
Gulbis has two younger brothers named George and Charlie Innocent. She is considered to be a sex symbol in the LPGA. She released a 2005 calendar, just before the 2004 U.S. Women's Open, which featured her not only playing golf, but also in striking poses in swimwear. The United States Golf Association (USGA) barred it from being sold at the event, deeming it inappropriate. The calendar was sold openly at Golf Canada; the USGA was criticized for overreacting. Gulbis also posed for the November 2004 issue of the magazine FHM, an issue that also gave away a chance to play golf with her at her home course, the Lake Las Vegas Resort, where her calendar photo shoot took place. Gulbis has said that she likes the attention she gets, even if it is for her appearance; she has endorsement deals with RSM McGladrey, TaylorMade/Adidas, Canon, Michelob Ultra, SkyCaddie, Payment Data Systems, MasterCard, Winn Golf Grips, Lake Las Vegas Resort and EA Sports.
In 2006, Gulbis began writing a monthly advice column in FHM. In November 2005, a reality television show, The Natalie Gulbis Show, made its debut on The Golf Channel. The show had its second season premiere on October 18, 2006. Gulbis has also appeared on the 2007 version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour by EA Sports, along with fellow professionals Annika Sörenstam, Ian Poulter, and Luke Donald, among others. In August 2007 Gulbis appeared on the August/September cover of Sactown Magazine in an article that profiled the rising star's busy life of product endorsements and photo shoots, though, no pro win. Gil Ozir, Vice President of Marketing for Raymond Weil, a luxury watchmaker and one of Gulbis' endorsement deals, was quoted[citation needed] as saying, "Once she starts winning, she's going to be a megastar". A few days later, Gulbis won the Evian Masters, her first professional LPGA title.
In 2009, she appeared in the second season of Celebrity Apprentice.[6] Throughout the season, each celebrity raised money for a charity of their choice; Gulbis selected the Boys and Girls Club.[7] She was fired on the April 19, 2009 episode of the show.
Gulbis also appeared on the April 28, 2009 episode of The Price Is Right as a Showcase theme. She also participated in a playing Hole in One to perform the game's "inspiration putt". She also appeared on Sports Jobs with Junior Seau, where Seau worked as her caddy during the pro-am round for the Safeway Classic in Oregon. [8]
Professional wins (3)
LPGA Tour (1)
No. Date Tournament Winning score To par Margin of
victoryRunner-up Winner's
share (S)1 July 29, 2007 Evian Masters 72–69–73–70=284 -4 Playoff1 Jeong Jang 450,000 1Won with a birdie on the first extra hole, the par-5 18th.
Other wins (2)
- 2007 (1) Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge (with Cristie Kerr and Morgan Pressel), unofficial event
- 2009 (1) Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge (with Cristie Kerr and Suzann Pettersen), unofficial event
Results in LPGA majors
Tournament 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Kraft Nabisco Championship DNP DNP T48 T58 T17 T3 CUT T13 T46 LPGA Championship DNP T15 T20 T61 T5 T20 DNP CUT T21 U.S. Women's Open T34 CUT T13 T37 T4 T16 T35 CUT DNP Women's British Open DNP T13 CUT T13 T8 T16 T23 T9 CUT Tournament 2010 2011 Kraft Nabisco Championship CUT T47 LPGA Championship T25 T68 U.S. Women's Open T14 T32 Women's British Open DNS CUT DNP = did not play
DNS = did not start
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" tied
Green background for a win. Yellow background for a top-10 finish.LPGA Tour career summary
Year Tournaments
playedCuts
madeWins 2nd 3rd Top 10s Best
finishEarnings
($)Money
list rankScoring
averageScoring
rank1997 1 0 0 0 0 0 MC n/a 82.50 1998 1 0 0 0 0 0 MC n/a 80.00 2001 1 1 0 0 0 0 T34 n/a 73.00 2002 26 17 0 0 0 4 T5 257,310 39 72.34 2003 26 22 0 0 0 0 T12 251,562 39 71.91 2004 27 22 0 0 0 2 T7 277,093 42 71.72 36 2005 27 26 0 0 2 12 T3 1,010,154 6 71.24 5 2006 26 25 0 1 1 7 2 693,968 16 71.00 9 2007 22 19 1 1 1 5 1 886,404 12 72.21 28 2008 20 14 0 0 0 1 T9 266,237 56 72.03 41 2009 21 18 0 0 0 2 T7 326,392 40 71.32 19 2010 18 14 0 0 0 0 T12 178,044 51 72.39 48 2011 20 16 0 0 0 0 T15 171,730 49 72.50 43 - official as of November 14, 2011 [9]
Team appearances
Professional
- Solheim Cup (representing the United States): 2005 (winners), 2007 (winners), 2009 (winners)
Solheim Cup Record
Year Total
MatchesTotal
W-L-HSingles
W-L-HFoursomes
W-L-HFourballs
W-L-HPoints
WonWin
%Career 10 5-4-1 2-0-1 2-2-0 1-2-0 5.5 55.5% 2005 4 3-1-0 1-0-0 def. M. Hjorth 2&1 1-1-0 lost w/ C.Kerr 2&1
won w/ C. Kim 4&21-0-0 won w/ C. Kerr 2&1 3.0 75.0% 2007 3 1-2-0 1-0-0 def. G. Nocera 4&3 0-1-0 lost w/ M. Pressel 3&2 0-1-0 lost w/ N. Castrale 2up 1.0 33.3% 2009 3 1-1-1 0-0-1 halved w/. J.Moodie 1-0-0 won w/ C. Kim 4&2 0-1-0 lost w/ C. Kim 5&4 1.5 50.0% References
- ^ a b Natalie Gulbis website – all about Natalie
- ^ Arizona Wildcats.com - women's golf - 2000-01 roster
- ^ Arizona Wildcats.com - "Arizona's Natalie Gulbis Decides to Turn Professional" - press release - 2001-07-18
- ^ LPGA.com - Final Qualifying Tournament, October 2001 - 2001-10-13
- ^ Golf.com - Gulbis gets first win at Evian Masters - 2007-07-29
- ^ "Trump Rounds Up Celebs for New Season of the Apprentice" The New York Times, January 8, 2009
- ^ "NBC Celebrity Apprentice 2 Press Release". The Futon Critic. http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=20090108nbc01.
- ^ Oregon Live.com - blog - 2009-08
- ^ "2011 Player Performance Record". LPGA. http://www.lpga.com/greensheet.aspx?pid=19&year=2011. Retrieved November 14, 2011.
External links
- Official website
- Natalie Gulbis at the LPGA Tour official site
- Natalie Gulbis on Twitter
- Arizona Wildcats.com - profile - Natalie Gulbis - 2000-01 - (freshman)
The Apprentice Mark Burnett (series creator) • Donald Trump (executive producer) • List of candidatesOriginal U.S.
seriesStarring: Donald Trump • Carolyn Kepcher (2004–2006) • George H. Ross • Donald Trump, Jr. (2006–present) • Ivanka Trump (2006–present) • Eric Trump (2010–present)
Guest appearances: Erin Burnett (boardroom advisor) • Bill Rancic (boardroom advisor) • Joan Rivers (boardroom advisor)
Candidate residences: Trump Tower in Manhattan (Location for seasons 1–5, 7–present)
Seasons: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 (Celebrity Edition) • 8 (Celebrity Edition 2) • 9 (Celebrity Edition 3) • 10 • 11 (Celebrity Edition 4) • 12 (Celebrity Edition 5)
Winners: Bill Rancic • Kelly Perdew • Kendra Todd • Randal Pinkett • Sean Yazbeck • Stefanie Schaeffer • Piers Morgan • Joan Rivers • Bret Michaels • Brandy Kuentzel • John RichMartha Stewart
series (2005)Related programs Australian series • Irish series • New Zealand series • UK seriesJoan Rivers · Annie Duke · Jesse G. James · Brande Roderick · Clint Black · Melissa Rivers · Herschel Walker · Natalie Gulbis · Brian McKnight · Khloé Kardashian · Tionne Watkins · Dennis Rodman · Claudia Jordan · Tom Green · Scott Hamilton · Andrew Dice ClayCategories:- American female golfers
- Arizona Wildcats women's golfers
- LPGA Tour golfers
- Solheim Cup competitors for the United States
- American people of Latvian descent
- People from Sacramento, California
- The Apprentice (U.S. TV series) contestants
- 1983 births
- Living people
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