GIANT EAGLE LPGA CLASSIC Surging popularity surrounds Gulbis

By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
VIENNA -- A few minutes after I asked Natalie Gulbis to marry me, we were walking past the Squaw Creek clubhouse and she spotted a 2003 Harley Davidson model Ford F-150.
"Oh man, that is so sweet," she said.
She walked to a nearby tent to sign up for her courtesy car and, as she was signing her name, she asked the employee, "Is it the Harley truck?"
It wasn't.
"Well, in the meantime I'll drive the Taurus," she said. "I like the Taurus. It turns well."
The truck's sticker price is $39,545. She could probably pay for it in cash.
On the rise
In just more than a year on the LPGA Tour, Gulbis, 20, has won $371,823. She has deals with TaylorMade, Adidas and Upper Deck. She finished second to Beth Bauer in last year's Rookie of the Year standings.
Oh yeah, she's also incomprehensibly good-looking, which is just one of the reasons why she's one of the most popular young players on the tour.
It's also why I asked her to marry me.
We had just left the driving range on Tuesday afternoon and were walking toward the 10th hole -- she was going to play a practice round -- when I started asking her about fans, and whether it's flattering to be considered one of the most beautiful women on the tour.
"It's flattering," she said. "There's a new wave of young American girls and it's helping to draw new fans and increase popularity."
Just then, a teen-age boy walked up to her with two Upper Deck Natalie Gulbis cards, asking for her autograph. It was the fourth time she had signed an autograph since the interview started -- and it had only been five minutes.
"Is it strange to sign your own trading card?" I asked.
"Oh yeah; it's really weird," she said with a smile. "I just signed a deal with Upper Deck. There's been a lot of adjustments in the past year. I'm only 20 years old and I have a manager and an agent and I have to make a lot of decisions."
Signing duties
She'll spend about seven hours this week signing trading cards. She received 2,500 cards in the mail from Upper Deck. Seven boxes worth. It takes about an hour to get through a box.
"It hurts your hand after a while," she said.
Good problem to have, I guess.
Gulbis enters this weekend's Giant Eagle LPGA Classic fresh off a tie for 20th in last weekend's McDonald's LPGA Classic -- the second major of the year.
She's played 10 tournaments this year and she's only missed one cut. She tied for fifth at last year's Giant Eagle LPGA Classic, which was also a tie for her best finish of the year.
"The fans are really good here," said Gulbis, a Sacramento, Calif., native. "It's a really good golf community."
Every player says this (what else are they going to say?) but with Gulbis, you get the feeling she's not just saying what everyone wants to hear.
"This is one of my favorite spots on the tour," she said.
Favorite spots
Her absolute favorite spot on the tour (so far, anyway) is Phoenix, which is the site of the Safeway PING. She liked playing in Rockland, Del. -- site of last week's McDonald's LPGA Classic -- and the Kellogg-Keebler Classic, which was held two weeks ago in Naperville, Ill.
Naperville is near Chicago, which means big -- and loud -- crowds.
"There were a bunch of guys in Cubs hats cheering for her," said her caddie, Rick Wynn. "They were yelling 'Go hit it, Natalie!' and 'Let's rip this one!' "
Cubs fans aside, Gulbis is still relatively unknown among the mainstream golf fans.
Casual fans know of Annika Sorenstam -- some could even recognize her -- and Karrie Webb and Se Ri Pak are sometimes mentioned in the same breath.
Not so with Gulbis ... yet.
Unlike Anna Kournikova (a good-looking female athlete known for being, well, good-looking), Gulbis can really play.
Great attitude
"She puts in the time," Wynn said. "She's pretty disciplined and she's got a great attitude. That makes it easy for me. Some golfers get an attitude when something goes wrong -- like if they bogey a hole or something. But she doesn't carry that stuff with her. She's always asking how she can do things better."
Which means it's just a matter of time before everyone discovers her. Which is why I figured I needed to propose before someone else got to her first.
So, to break the ice, I asked her if she notices she has a sizable fan following among male fans.
"I guess, although I don't know if I'm any different than any other player," she said.
Yeah, surrre.
"So do you ever get hit on by fans in the galleries?" I asked.
"No, not really," she said with a laugh.
"So no one's ever gone up and proposed?"
"Never."
"Will you marry me?"
"No."
(Ouch. Well, it was worth a shot. And she did smile when she turned me down. That's got to be worth something.)
"Well at least I'll always be the first one to propose," I said. (Which was a pretty good way to save face, I thought.)
"Yeah," she said with a laugh.
Wrong approach
Later I was talking to another sportswriter and I was going over what I did wrong.
"I should have had a big rock to give her," I said. "Maybe that would have made her pause for at least a second."
He laughed.
"Or maybe if I were Derek Jeter," I said. "I bet if I were Derek Jeter, she would have said yes."
"If you were Derek Jeter, I would have said yes," he said.
Good point.
The worst part is, I didn't even have a chance to ask her father, John Gulbis, if it was OK for me to ask for her hand in marriage.
Father
John is a big guy (much bigger than I am, although that's not saying much) and he travels around the country with her. He was at Squaw Creek on Tuesday, helping her with her driving earlier in the day. But after my interview with Gulbis, I couldn't find him.
I asked her where he went.
"I think he went out to ride his motorcycle," she said.
Oh. (Maybe it was good that I didn't find him.)
The interview lasted a few more minutes, but soon we found ourselves on the 10th tee (she was starting from the 10th tee) and it was obvious that I needed to wrap this up.
But I still wanted to know if all the travel, appearances, hassles, and dumb questions from reporters outweighed all the good stuff about being on tour.
She didn't hesitate. It doesn't.
"Definitely," she said. "I get to do what I love to do. I get to meet a lot of cool people and play golf for a living.
"I'm living my dream."
Well, Natalie, for 20 minutes, so was I.
scalzo@vindy.com