Skins Game

There are some women golfers on the PGA and European tour that are finding out what has been known for many years. Sex sells. Natalie Gulbis shows a little skin and gets her calendar banned at the U.S. Women’s Open by the U.S. Golf Association. Natalie Anne Gulbis (born January 7, 1983 in Sacramento, California) is a professional golfer. She played in her first LPGA event as an amateur at the age of 14. She turned professional at age 18 after playing for one season on the women's golf team at the University of Arizona.

Gulbis is considered to be one of the LPGA's sex symbols. When she released her calendar for 2005 just before the 2004 U.S. Women's Open, which featured Gulbis in different pictures that showed her playing golf, in addition to striking poses in swimwear, the United States Golf Association (USGA) barred it from being sold at the event, deeming it inappropriate, though the calendar was sold very 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.

In 2004, Ladies European Tour player Sophie Sandolo was battling some nagging injuries, sitting in 44th place on the Order of Merit, and seeing her golf career stagnate. Something had to be done."I was nobody in Europe," Sandolo said. "I really wanted to change something and I figured I needed to do something big to promote myself and golf." Mission accomplished.

Sandolo, who had previously dabbled in modeling, was approached by an Italian magazine to do her own calendar. Interested in using the idea as a promotional tool, Sandolo decided she didn't want her 2005 calendar to be run-of-the-mill.

Of course this not new. Sexy PGA golfer Jan Stephenson was the "It Girl" of professional golf in the 1980s, one of the first LPGA stars to openly embrace and champion a sex-sells approach to marketing. But the focus on her blonde-pinup looks sometimes overshadowed what was a very good golf game.

Stephenson became as famous for her sex appeal as her golf during the early to mid-80s, when she posed in a bathtub - covered up only by the golf balls filling the tub - and later in a pinup calendar. She had big hair, bright makeup and eye-catching outfits, and she urged the LPGA Tour to fully embrace her approach to marketing. There's no question she grew the audience the LPGA Tour during this time with her glamorous approach to golf - but many criticized that approach.