Natalie Gulbis

Natalie Gulbis
Gulbis at the 2009 LPGA Championship
Personal information
Full name	Natalie Anne Gulbis
Born	(1983-01-07) January 7, 1983 Sacramento, California, U.S.
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Sporting nationality	United States
Residence	Lake Las Vegas, Nevada
Career
College	University of Arizona (one year)
Turned professional	2001
Current tour(s)	LPGA Tour (joined (2002)
Professional wins	3
Number of wins by tour
LPGA Tour	1
Other	2
Best results in LPGA major championships
Chevron Championship	T3: 2006
Women's PGA C'ship	T5: 2005
U.S. Women's Open	T4: 2005
Women's British Open	T8: 2005
Achievements and awards
William and Mousie Powell Award 2007

Natalie Anne Gulbis (born January 7, 1983) is an American professional golfer of Latvian descent who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour.

Golf career

Born and raised in the Sacramento, California area, 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.

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. She then accepted a golf scholarship to the University of Arizona, the 2000 national champions, where she was a teammate of fellow freshman, Lorena Ochoa. After one season at Arizona, Gulbis left college in Tucson to turn professional in July 2001 at age 18. At the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament in October 2001 at Daytona Beach, Florida, Gulbis finished tied for third to earn her card for the 2002 season.

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.

Gulbis has played on three victorious U.S. Solheim Cup teams - 2005, 2007, and 2009.

Personal life, business and media

Gulbis is an only child. 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 also has 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 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, Gulbis appeared in the second season of Celebrity Apprentice. Throughout the season, each celebrity raised money for a charity of their choice; Gulbis selected the Boys and Girls Club. She was fired on the April 19, 2009 episode of the show.

Gulbis 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 appeared on Sports Jobs with Junior Seau, where Seau worked as her caddy during the pro-am round for the Safeway Classic in Oregon.

Gulbis appeared in the 2012 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue wearing only body paint.

Id tap.

Professional wins (3)

LPGA Tour (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner-up	Winner's share (S)
1	July 29, 2007	Evian Masters	72-69-73-70=284	–4	Playoff	Jeong Jang	450,000

LPGA Tour playoff record (1–1)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	2006	Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic	Mi-Hyun Kim	Lost to birdie on third extra hole
2	2007	Evian Masters	Jeong Jang	Won with birdie on first extra hole

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	2010	2011	2012
Kraft Nabisco Championship	DNP	DNP	T48	T58	T17	T3	CUT	T13	T46	CUT	T47	T8
LPGA Championship	DNP	T15	T20	T61	T5	T20	DNP	CUT	T21	T25	T68	CUT
U.S. Women's Open	T34	CUT	T13	T37	T4	T16	T35	CUT	DNP	T14	T32	CUT
Women's British Open	DNP	T13	CUT	T13	T8	T16	T23	T9	CUT	DNP	CUT	CUT

DNP = did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" tied
Yellow background for a top-10 finish.

Summary

• Starts – 41
• Wins – 0
• 2nd place finishes – 0
• 3rd place finishes – 1
• Top 3 finishes – 1
• Top 5 finishes – 3
• Top 10 finishes – 6
• Top 25 finishes – 20
• Missed cuts – 11
• Most consecutive cuts made – 12
• Longest streak of top-10s – 4

LPGA Tour career summary

Year	Tournaments played	Cuts made*	Wins	2nd	3rd	Top 10s	Best finish	Earnings ($)	Money list rank	Scoring average	Scoring rank
1997	1	0	0	0	0	0	MC	n/a		82.50
1998	1	0	0	0	0	0	MC			80.00
2001	1	1	0	0	0	0	T34			73.00
2002	26	17	0	0	0	4	T5	257,310	39	72.34	43
2003	26	22	0	0	0	0	T12	251,562	39	71.91	36
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	T1	T9	266,237	56	72.03	41
2009	21	18	0	0	0	T2	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	191,101	51	72.65	49
2012	22	16	0	0	0	3	T4	321,472	42	72.27	45

• Official through end of 2012 season

* Includes matchplay and other events without a cut.

World ranking

Position in Women's World Golf Rankings at the end of each calendar year.

Year	Ranking
2006	19
2007	22
2008	42
2009	58
2010	98
2011	118

Team appearances

Professional

• Solheim Cup (representing the United States): 2005 (winners), 2007 (winners), 2009 (winners)

Solheim Cup Record

Year	Total Matches	Total W-L-H	Singles W-L-H	Foursomes W-L-H	Fourballs W-L-H	Points Won	Points %
Career	10	5-4-1	2-0-1	2-2-0	1-2-0	5.5	55.0
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&2	1-0-0 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

External links

• Official website
• Natalie Gulbis at the LPGA Tour official site
• Natalie Gulbis on Twitter
• Arizona Wildcats.com profile