Last month, LPGA golfer Natalie Gulbis announced plans to revamp her image. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, it involves less skin, more substance. Unlike men's professional sports, where the premium is on on-field talent (notable exception: goat-lovin' Tom Brady), female athletes are forever having to balance their physical ability with their physical appearance. Which leads me to Anna Rawson, pro golf's version of Maria Sharapova. Except, unlike Sharapova, a professional tennis player who also happens to be blindingly attractive, Rawson is a professional model and a professional golfer. Rawson earned her LPGA Tour card last Sunday, and will compete on Tour in 2008. From the press release:
As GQ writer Benjie Goodhart said about Rawson, "They say Tiger Woods made golf popular with people who previously felt excluded from the game. This player could make golf popular with people who hate golf."Or, more specifically, make Anna Rawson popular with pervs who hate golf. Whatever, I'm sure this is great news at LPGA Headquarters, where they are forever trying to figure out how to make women's golf more appealing to the masses. In the short term, Rawson will undoubtedly be popular. But if we've learned anything from Anna Kournikova (other than she has questionable taste in suitors), it also helps to be good.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-06-2007 @ 12:34PM
Brian said...
She's a legit golfer, helped USC win a women's golf crown (finishing 11th at the NCAA Championships).
http://usctrojans.cstv.com/sports/w-golf/recaps/052303aaa.html
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12-06-2007 @ 3:10PM
Tom said...
When she doesn't shine in every tournament, just remember there are a hundred dykes who don't shine in every tournament.
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12-06-2007 @ 3:57PM
John F.C. Taylor said...
I try to play golf. I find it about the most boring sport to watch except for tennis. Adding any number of new golfers, no matter how good they look, is not going to change it from being a boring sport. Only way to watch golf & tennis is to catch the sports highlights on the evening news.
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12-06-2007 @ 3:58PM
SoCal Golf Gal said...
Jan Stephenson's problems were partly of her own making. She was aggressive in promoting her "sex sells" marketing approach to the LPGA, and she disparaged a number of the older founding players in doing so. She was the ultra-feminista who put down the "dykey" golfers--some of whom were not lesbians, but women who were athletic. Later in her career, she made blatantly racist comments about the rise of Asian golfers on the tour. It was her homophobia and racism that caused her problems with the LPGA.
Posing for pin-up calendars and sitting in a bathtub filled with golf balls as Jan Stephenson did isn't going to get anyone into the LPGA Hall of Fame. It is only an excellent golf game that will do that. Sex may sell, but it doesn't register on a scorecard.
Anna Rawson has as much chance as anyone else on the tour to excel, and she has demonstrated that she has the game to qualify (unlike Michelle Wie). Her beauty is a novelty, but she's not going to bring Tiger Woods-like popularity to the LPGA unless she can compete with Lorena Ochoa and the other members of the tour.
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12-06-2007 @ 4:36PM
Scott Mount said...
Wow, beautiful and a true golf talent, my kinda gal. Tiger who?
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12-06-2007 @ 4:38PM
John D said...
The real secret about the LPGA is that more men watch it than do women. If she can play golf and look good, more men will watch, because more men watch golf anyway.
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12-06-2007 @ 5:24PM
golfs editor said...
If Anna came in 18th, and the LPGA awarded cards to the top 17 and ties, how did she earn her card? Appears she missed it by one! She must have conditional status
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12-06-2007 @ 5:28PM
Rob said...
Well it's about time, that someone who actually cares about her looks, gets on board.
Maybe it'll rub off onto some of the others! It's really kind-of sad to think that the womans golf crown usually goes to the "beefyest" one on the block!
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12-06-2007 @ 5:32PM
nickstoli said...
Jan Stephenson was attractive only when compared to her peers in the LPGA. Rawson is attracticve, period.
There is a major friggin' difference between the two.
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12-06-2007 @ 5:57PM
ludovicus said...
golfs editor: If the top 16 all shot 70, and the next 4 finishers all shot 71, then they all qualify. Top 17 and ties. It isn't complex English
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12-06-2007 @ 6:06PM
Richard said...
There are several good looking LPGA players nowadays in addition to Gulbis. Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel, plus others. If Ms. Rawson is a good player, I do not expect the other players to exclude her, any more than the others on today's tour. As a guy, I have to admit that except for the majors, watching LPGA is a lot more entertaining than watching the mens' tour. ;0)
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12-06-2007 @ 10:21PM
Pat Ciara said...
It's a game of skill, not body! If the beefiest gal is the best player, Rob.....than she should get the trophy. Sheesh......go back to baseball.
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12-06-2007 @ 10:30PM
Shadowboxer123 said...
The LPGA will spurn her just like they did Jan Stephenson when she entered the tour. The couldn't stand the fact that an attractive young woman could also play golf and never missed an opportuntiy to downplay her golfing skills.
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12-07-2007 @ 9:04AM
DR BILL said...
NICE ADDITION. BEATS THE OLD "DYKES ON SPIKES" TOUR BACK IN THE DAY.
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12-07-2007 @ 11:55AM
Scully said...
I hope she succeeds, I really do. We've been burned so many times by hot athletes (Kournikova, Wie, Patrick) who can't do squat on the athletic field. As long as she doesn't have a dad like the pervy Mr. Gulbis, I can root for Rawson. I actually like Natalie but her dad is major-league white-trash skeevy who seems to have an unhealthy Joe Simpson-like obsession with his daughter's looks.
Women's golf is definitely shaping up to more entertaining then men's golf.
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12-07-2007 @ 3:52PM
Tony said...
I also hope that she isn't a Kournikova - more publicity because of her looks. It would be nice if she does well as it would restore some of my faith in how we look at women (ref. the "dykes" comments above). She also seems a nice person!
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12-17-2007 @ 11:58AM
sgtdug said...
Whooo-eee!! Anna's a real hottie! Hope her dad doesn't look like a trailer park biker like another LPGA beauty's dad. If not, maybe he'll have enough sense to stay in the background of Anna's career.
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