Thursday, April 17, 2003 | 10:36 a.m.
IF YOU GO
Natalie Gulbis easily chooses between 3-wood and 5-wood, and decides whether to play to the front or back of the green every day.
Ask this 20-year-old LPGA pro to pick between cherry and oak, or to select hunter or Kelly green towels in her new Lake Las Vegas home, however, and Gulbis uncharacteristically exchanges her confidence for the safety of shy youth.
"It's still weird," Gulbis said. "I need to be on the golf course -- I said, Dad, you just pick something out."
Gulbis, a new Valley resident, attends to business today in the LPGA Takefuji Classic at Las Vegas Country Club, the world seemingly on her string. She combines the tour's dream combination: good-looking marketability and prodigious talent.
"I've spent a lot of time in the offseason here in Vegas," Gulbis said. "I have some really good friends at Treasure Island. We just thought maybe we should get some sort of a place out here and we stumbled across Lake Las Vegas."
For a young woman more accustomed to the thrift of camping out of the family car at amateur events, the house is another shiny ruby in a Burger King crown.
"I don't think there could be anything better than this, you know?" Gulbis said. "(I'm a) 20-year-old professional athlete, my agents proposed an idea for me to start a foundation this year and I have a website that launched about a month ago."
Natalie, you forgot to mention your seven marketing deals, including your adidas clothing line and that tie-in to represent Lake Las Vegas. And did you overlook that MTV's "Cribs" already wants to profile yours among their celebrity homes?
It must be difficult to keep tabs on the bounty after a while, though Gulbis maintains a balance of humility born of modest roots and a confidence that more accomplishment is never far off.
"I think it's every young kid's dream to be a professional athlete, and to actually live it on a daily basis -- it's just like how you picture it," Gulbis said. "I mean, didn't you dream of being a professional athlete of some sort?"
Gulbis finished second to Beth Bauer, a 23-year-old blonde girl-next-door-type from Florida, in the 2002 Rookie of the Year standings. They are vital cogs in a group of youthful, attractive American golfers that the tour is banking on.
"She's very smart," Bauer said of Gulbis. "She's got a very dynamic personality and I think that's why a lot of people are not only attracted to her physically, but her personality makes her even more attractive."
"She seems like she's always trying to learn something, wherever she is and whoever she's talking to. I think a lot of people are attracted to that and like to talk to her. She's easy to talk to. She's a great girl."
Gulbis welcomes oft-made comparisons to Anna Kournikova based upon her image, but shuns any comparison to the tennis player's career path.
"I've never been compared to the negative side and I've never been asked if I think I have the Anna Kournikova syndrome," Gulbis said. "I'll be compared to the look but not anything negative."
Her lofty goals this year are to qualify for the Solheim Cup team and to win a tournament.
"Every day, I want to be the one that's got to make that 5-foot putt to win," Gulbis said. "I want to feel that pressure. I think like any other athlete, you want to be that person at the end of the game that has to make that 3-pointer."
Gulbis took up golf at age 4, and she credits her father for her interest in the game. A long-haired, now-retired probation officer, John Gulbis stood beside his daughter's every golf swing, from the time she qualified for an LPGA tournament at 14, to her medalist performance at the 1998 U.S. Women's Amateur, to her All-American year at Arizona in 2001.
"My family's not very well off, so we did a little bit of everything -- drove to events, lived out of our car a little bit, took trains and camped at events," Gulbis said. "Just the same story that most athletes have who've been successful, a little bit of hardship. It just makes you stronger."
"That shapes your character. I mean, I miss doing that. It's kind of fun."
Father and daughter both grew up along the way.
"He's my biggest supporter. He's the hardest on me," Gulbis said. "He's everything. I couldn't imagine trying to do this without him."
Dad is still around for Natalie today, as they often drive to tournaments together. John Gulbis even has his own marketing deal with Amstel Light.
"All my male friends, they like him better than me," Gulbis jokes.
The whole Gulbis family will share the Lake Las Vegas home. Gulbis, a Sacramento native, began spending a lot of time in Las Vegas after taking on Butch Harmon as her coach. She quickly discovered that work and play could go together here.
"I really like it here," Gulbis said. "There's a lot of stuff to do. I like to go to fights, I like concerts. I like the desert. I went to the University of Arizona, so I definitely like the dry, warm weather. I like the heat."
Both literally and figuratively.
"She's got a lot of weight on her shoulders just because of a lot of the media publicity she's had in the last year," Bauer said. "But she's really handled it excellent."
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