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Sports » rec.sport.golf » Role of Being Role Model Suits Creamer
| Role of Being Role Model Suits Creamer [message #1033542] |
Sa, 20 Mai 2006 04:27 |
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http://www.golfer-review.com/articles.php?ar=93%20Role+of+Be ing+Role+Model+Suits+Creamer
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y., May 18 - Paula Creamer sauntered down a runway
for a fashion shoot for Teen People magazine on Wednesday night in New
York, and she was no less conspicuous walking the fairways at Wykagyl
Country Club on Thursday for the first round of the Sybase Classic.
Dressed head to toe in bright pink - including golf shoes - with
silver earrings spelling Dior sparkling in the sun, Creamer looked
every bit the part of a 19-year-old star. The field around her screamed
of a generational revolution: fashionable sunglasses, hip clothes,
stuffed-animal club covers, colorful hair ribbons. Even without the
teen wunderkind Michelle Wie in the field, youth seems to have ambushed
the Ladies Professional Golf Association.
"It's cool to play golf now and be a female," said Natalie Gulbis, a
23-year-old who shared the lead at three-under-par 68. "There's so many
more opportunities. In high school, young girls are starting to play
more and more now."
Creamer was at one over, four shots behind the clubhouse leaders
Gulbis, Beth Bauer and Hee-Won Han, and admitted that she was nervous
in her first tournament as the defending champion. The first round was
suspended by rain and will be completed before the start of the second
round Friday.
Creamer won the tournament last year, four days before her high school
graduation, on her way to winning three times on the Tour and capturing
rookie-of-the-year honors.
Creamer has eagerly thrust herself into the role of a role model,
trying to use her success to spark an even bigger youth movement behind
her. On Monday, Creamer will work with a group of young girls in
Fairfield, Conn., in the First Tee Program, which is sponsored by one
of her major sponsors, Royal Bank of Scotland, to promote junior golf.
"I love talking to little girls with ribbons in their hair who play
golf," she said. "When I started playing when I was 10 years old, there
weren't any girl junior golfers. I played with the guys. Now, a lot
more girls are getting involved."
Creamer grew up in Pleasanton, Calif., idolizing Nancy Lopez and Juli
Inkster, who was one of her playing partners Thursday. Lopez and
Inkster played on a rather stodgy L.P.G.A. Tour that considered Jan
Stephenson being photographed in skimpy clothing something close to a
scandal.
This younger generation has clashed with the establishment from time to
time - Wie, for one, was involved in a major spat over etiquette with
Danielle Ammaccapane in the 2003 United States Open - and Creamer
said that after her splash onto the scene last year, "I was not wholly
embraced."
The L.P.G.A., though, is now on board, trumpeting its youth with a new
slogan, "These Girls Rock." Creamer remains careful to give the
veterans their due and lavishes praise on her onetime idol Inkster, who
won the Safeway International earlier this year at age 45.
"I think it's pretty exciting to see that there are young players
coming up, but the veterans are still doing just as good," Creamer
said.
And no one can quite push aside 35-year-old Annika Sorenstam, the No. 1
player in the world and the winner of 67 tournaments. Sorenstam has
been so consistent, it was stunning last week when she missed the cut
at the Michelob Ultra Open in Virginia, the first time she had done
that since 2002.
Sorenstam, who shot a 72 in the first round, has not exactly gushed
about the emergence of Wie, but she has been more complimentary of
Creamer. When asked about Creamer before the tournament started,
Sorenstam said: "Well, a great player. A great future obviously ahead
of herself. She's a good ball striker. I think her strength is putting,
and I think this course really fits her."
What Creamer has over the quiet and businesslike Sorenstam is the
desire to make golf cool to young girls and the style to pull it off.
She has played tournaments using a pink ball, sports a Pink Panther
cover on her driver, and smiles brilliantly for the cameras that follow
her around.
"I feel my age helps in that way," Creamer said. "When girls see me, we
have a lot in common. I think it's a really big thing."
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