Stacy Lewis named Natalie Gulbis an assistant captain for the 2023 squad.
Stacy Lewis, who will be the captain of the U.S. squad at the 2023 Solheim Cup, named Natalie Gulbis an assistant captain for the team.
Gulbis, 39, played on three winning Solheim Cup teams (2005, 2007, 2009) and posted a 5-4-1 mark. She went 2-0-1 her singles matches. Gulbis joined the LPGA in 2002 and has one victory, the 2007 Evian Masters.
“There’s nothing more inspiring than wearing the Red, White and Blue and representing the United States. Playing on my three Solheim Cup teams is among the highlights of my career, and I was so excited when Stacy asked me to work with her for the 2023 squad,” said Gulbis in a statement released by the LPGA.
Morgan Pressel will also be an assistant for the Solheim Cup, which will be held in Spain at Finca Cortesin, September 22-24, 2023.
“When I accepted this captaincy, I knew that I wanted the team around me to love this event as much as I do. Natalie completely fits that role,” said Lewis in a statement released by the LPGA. “She’s been a great friend since my rookie year, and I knew that she would be perfect as one of my assistant captains. Natalie has been a fantastic resource for me throughout my career, both personally and professionally, and I know her positive spirit will be an awesome influence in the team room.”
Natalie Gulbis says she wasn’t aware of the response her sponsor invitation into this week’s CME Group Tour Championship had created.
NAPLES, Fla. — Natalie Gulbis wasn’t aware of the response her sponsor invitation into this week’s CME Group Tour Championship had created.
Gulbis, who has missed five cuts and withdrew from another, had planned for 2020 to be her final year on the LPGA Tour.
And CME Chairman and CEO Terry Duffy had rewarded Gulbis for helping get what became this level of an event off the ground back when he had her play in a pro-am type of event in 2005, along with some other LPGA Tour players. That was the start of the relationship between Duffy and CME with the LPGA Tour that grew into becoming title sponsor of this event.
“I was getting ready to play in Tampa and Terry called me, and I have loved doing stuff with CME Group,” Gulbis said Wednesday. “We used to do events down here in Naples and in Chicago. I haven’t been quiet in saying that I think it’s incredible what Terry and CME have done in pushing the envelope in women’s golf. I’m a huge fan of that; I really appreciate that, instead of just doing corporate events he turned this into a big event and gave us a first-place million-dollar ($1.1 million) opportunity.
“That is incredible, even this year, the year of COVID.”
The selection of Gulbis, 37, and CME ambassador Sarah Kemp as sponsor invitations resulted in some controversy and some columnists taking the tournament to task for not giving one to Sophia Popov, who came out of nowhere to win the 2020 AIG Women’s British Open and also calls Naples home.
And she would have been in the tournament if her points from winning the British Open had counted in the Race to the CME Globe, but she wasn’t a member of the LPGA then.
Gulbis said she was unaware that Popov was not in the field, but she said she still would have accepted the sponsor invite.
Part of the reason is how she left Tiburón Golf Club the last time. Back in 2013 when the tournament was called the CME LPGA Titleholders, she was leading, but shot an 82 in the final round and tied for 29th.
“I was so excited because the last time I played CME I think was (2013), because that’s the last time I had a yardage book,” Gulbis said. “I was leading or really close to leading and I shot (82) the last day, so I was really, really excited for even the chance to play here.”
Gulbis also said she does plan on playing some in 2021, given the lack of events this season due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and also that there were no fans.
“I didn’t really seem like this is how I wanted it to be my last season,” she said. “I would love to be able to play some West Coast events. So yes, I will play next year.”
But Gulbis is more focused on this opportunity.
“I’m really excited to get the opportunity to play this week, so that’s all I’ve been thinking about,” she said. “I haven’t even thought of Christmas.
“I try to just keep my head down and focus on what I need to do. Because it is a lot of extra excitement and want to do well when you’re sponsor’s invite. I didn’t know if I’d get to play this event again.”
Sophia Popov finds herself in the unusual position of generating headlines for not playing.
After years of not making news while playing, Sophia Popov now finds herself in the unusual position of generating headlines for not playing.
The 28-year-old German knows something of the hard knocks that attend a life in professional golf. She almost quit the game in 2019, but decided to plow the lonely furrow of life on tour for another year. Her resilience was rewarded with a couple of victories earlier this year on the Cactus Tour and then an improbable major championship win in the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Troon in August.
The kerfuffle in which Popov currently finds herself concerns the LPGA’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, which begins Thursday in Naples, Florida. The woman who won a major four months ago will have to watch the action from her couch across town since she’s not eligible to compete.
Let’s try explaining this over the din of muskets being loaded on Twitter.
In a typical year, the top 60 point-earners on the LPGA tour qualify for the season finale. In this most atypical year, the field for the tournament was expanded to 72 players. For the first (and apparently last) time, two of those spots were reserved for sponsor’s exemptions. Since Popov wasn’t an LPGA Tour member when she won the Open, her points from Troon didn’t count. So she didn’t make the top 60. Or the top 70. Nor did she receive one of those exemptions.
Eamon Lynch
The invitations went to Sarah Kemp, who is a CME Group ambassador, and to Natalie Gulbis, who isn’t. But Gulbis is a friend of CME Group chief executive Terry Duffy, and that’s sufficient.
“I’ve known Natalie since 2005, when I did my first event with clients,” Duffy told my Golfweek colleague Beth Ann Nichols, going on to note that she was instrumental in his sponsoring the tournament.
Gulbis has made just six starts this year, missing five cuts, withdrawing once and bettering par once. It’s a tally that justifies her announcement that she would retire after the 2020 season. The pandemic pushed that plan back a year (apparently the departure of a one-time winner demands fans lining the ropes). Popov has as good a shot of winning the CME Group Tour Championship while sitting on her couch as Gulbis does actually competing. But both have earned the spot in which they find themselves. That’s the less-than-appealing reality of sports sponsorship.
Had the points Popov earned for her major win counted, she would be in the field for Naples at 16th in the standings.
But they didn’t count, so she finished 82nd and outside the cut. “It’s a fairness thing, as far as playing ability. It’s not like I haven’t earned it. It’s like I have earned it points-wise, technically,” Popov told Golfweek.
As we all learned in the schoolyard, anyone qualifying their position with “technically” is usually on shaky ground, and “fairness” is an awfully precarious hill upon which to stake a claim in sport, because “technically” Popov didn’t earn it. She didn’t play her way into the original 60, didn’t play her way into the expanded 70, and shouldn’t assume an entitlement to one of those sponsor invites.
Natalie Gulbis is in the field for this week’s CME Group Tour Championship due to a sponsor exemption, while recent major winner Sophia Popov is not.
The rules don’t cease to be the rules simply because a competitor and their social media supporters feel they are being treated unfairly, a thesis with standing most places beyond 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
That the field in Naples would be enhanced by Popov’s presence is undeniable. She authored what might be the best story in golf in an otherwise miserable year. But sponsor exemptions — even those questionably added to a supposedly elite event amid a pandemic — are decided by the golden rule: them what has the gold, makes the rules.
This is an argument over the 70 spots, not the other two. CME Group is wholly entitled to extend its exemptions based on corporate loyalties. With any tournament invitation, there are always more deserving players. But these invitations are not designed for the deserving nor subject to sentiment. And they are certainly not based on fairness. A Lim Kim, who won the U.S. Women’s Open on Sunday, is also not in the field this week since she is not an LPGA tour member.
Much of the frothing on social media seems less about the fact that Popov is out than that Gulbis is in. That’s fair enough. Her 2007 win at the Evian Masters is the only thing that separates Gulbis from being golf’s equivalent of Anna Kournikova, a famously winless but decidedly winsome ‘90s tennis star who launched many an internet search in lonely college dorms. And there’s nothing like the spectacle of a major champion sitting at home while a washed-up one-timer gets a spot in a big-time event during the waning days of her career.
But the fact that golf finds itself in yet another needlessly awkward storyline is not the fault of CME Group or Gulbis. The sponsor is within its purview to extend the invite and Gulbis was within hers to accept.
The harsh reality of competitive sport is that only one person could have guaranteed Popov a place in the field this week — herself.
Jin Young Ko’s runner-up at the U.S. Women’s Open propelled her into the CME Group Tour Championship but another major champ didn’t make it.
HOUSTON – Jin Young Ko and Sophia Popov are both headed to Naples, Florida, following the conclusion of the 75th U.S. Women’s Open. Ko’s second-place finish in Houston propelled her into this week’s CME Group Tour Championship. Popov isn’t in the field; she just happens to live there.
Popov, of course, won the AIG Women’s British Open in August. Because she was a non-member at the time, she did not earn the 625 points typically awarded for first place toward the Race to the CME Globe standings. The field was expanded to 72 players this year (including two sponsor exemptions). Popov finished 82nd on the final points list; she would’ve finished 16th if the AIG had counted.
Popov, who recently bought a house in Naples, thought she then might get one of the two sponsor exemptions that were on the table. On the eve of the opening round at the Pelican Women’s Championship last month, she found out those went to Natalie Gulbis and Sarah Kemp. Popov said she was shocked, saying that she felt she deserved to be there.
“It’s a fairness thing as far as playing ability,” said Popov. “It’s not like I haven’t earned it. It’s like I have earned it points-wise, technically.”
Terry Duffy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CME Group, told Golfweek that he wanted those two sponsor exemptions to ensure that his two ambassadors – Cheyenne Knight and Kemp – got into the field.
Typically, there are no sponsor exemptions for the CME, and Duffy said there won’t be any going forward. Like so many things about 2020, this was an exception. After Knight qualified on her own, Duffy had one more spot to fill.
“I’ve known Natalie since 2005, when I did my first event with clients,” said Duffy, who noted that Gulbis was instrumental in his decision to take the step toward title-sponsoring an event.
In January, Gulbis announced that she’d be retiring after the 2020 season. She then told the Toledo Blade back in August that she’d be returning in 2021 because there weren’t any fans out for most of the season.
LPGA Chief Tour Operations Officer Heather Daly-Donofrio said sponsor-exemption decisions are at the discretion of each week’s title sponsor, without input from the LPGA, as a benefit for their investment and partnership.
“The decision to add sponsor exemptions for the CME Group Tour Championship is for this year only,” said Daly-Donofrio. “In this abnormal 2020 year, the CME Group Tour Championship is slightly different than in the past, allowing more players in the field and offering two sponsor invites. In 2021, we expect to return to a 60-player field that is filled strictly off the Race for the CME Globe rankings.”
In 2019, the CME Group Tour Championship offered the biggest payday in women’s golf history – $1.5 million to winner Sei Young Kim. Duffy also raised the purse to $5 million, thereby raising the bar for the entire tour.
Ko earned enough points in just three starts on the LPGA, leaping up to 46th on the points list with finishes of 34th, fifth and second. The World No. 1 spent most of 2020 back home in her native South Korea.
“This week is my best finish at the U.S. Open, so I can play next week, as well,” said Ko. “I’m really thankful. This season is too tough with coronavirus, so I want to say thanks to USGA and all the volunteers.”
With Amy Olson, Ally Ewing and Marina Alex not playing this week, Brittany Lincicome, Anne van Dam and Maria Torres made it into the field.
The 72-hole no-cut event will offer a purse of $3 million. The winner will receive a check of $1.1 million, the highest first-place check on the LPGA.
Popov won’t be the only 2020 major champion missing from the field. U.S. Women’s Open A Lim Kim won’t be there either. Like Popov, she will have the option to accept a two-year membership for the tour beginning in 2021.
Among Donald Trump’s appointees to the President’s Council on Sport, Fitness and Nutrition were golfers Natalie Gulbis and Amy Bockerstette.
By now, golf fans around the world know that Amy Bockerstette’s got this. That includes the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, too.
Bockerstette, 22, who has Down syndrome, was named on Friday by President Donald Trump to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. She will represent golf along with the LPGA Tour’s Natalie Gulbis and those with disabilities, and joined the likes of New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, former New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, former college football coach Urban Meyer, College Football Hall of Famer Herschel Walker, and TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz. The appointment is for a two-year term.
Bockerstette gained fame in 2019 in one of the feel-good moments of the year when she played the par-3 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale during the pro-am at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and made par alongside PGA Tour winners Gary Woodland and Matt Kuchar. The video went viral and she became a source of inspiration, including to Woodland, who credited her as his unofficial mental coach, and said that he channeled her positive energy and mantra – “I got this” – en route to winning his first major at the 2019 U.S. Open.
Natalie Gulbis walks up the 14th hole during the first round of the 2020 Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio in Boca Raton, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Gulbis, 37, a three-time Solheim Cup member and one of the most popular players on the LPGA for nearly two decades, appeared on a season of Trump’s “The Apprentice,” and spoke on his behalf at the Republican National Convention in 2016.
According to the council’s official website, its purpose is to “increase sports participation among youth of all backgrounds and abilities and to promote healthy and active lifestyles for all Americans.”
“Each year, the Council hosts a meeting to set priorities and to discuss current programs and upcoming initiatives. Council members consider ways to most actively engage and inspire Americans to be active and healthy.”
Several pro golfers will compete on Thursday in the MGM Resorts’ Employee Emergency Grant Fund for those impacted by COVID-19.
Some of golf’s biggest names will be “Chipping All-In” on Thursday in a live virtual poker tournament for a good cause.
Michelle Wie West, John Daly, Jimmy Walker, Harold Varner III, Brittany Lincicome, Collin Morikawa, Cristie Kerr, Lydia Ko and Kevin Na are among the list of golfers scheduled to compete to aid the MGM Resorts’ Employee Emergency Grant Fund for the company’s employees and community partners impacted by COVID-19.
The action starts at 3 p.m. ET on Thursday with proceeds aimed at providing: “employees and their immediate families with short-term relief in making payments or to meet obligations during unexpected hardships and emergencies. The fund is designed to assist those impacted by the coronavirus, including full-time employees, on-call employees and those facing layoff, separation or furlough.”
The World Poker Tour and Loaded are also in on the action, and the interactive Chipping All-In event will be shown on Twitch and Youtube. Viewers will be able to make real-time donations, with participants giving personal shout-outs to those who donate.
The interactive experience will also feature live audio throughout and a live Q&A will allow fans a chance to engage with the players.
Players and Golf Channel personalities scheduled to participate:
Aaron Wise
Alex Kang
Alison Lee
Anna Nordqvist
Ben Taylor
Brittany Lincicome
Butch Harmon
Cheyenne Woods
Chris Como
Collin Morikawa
Cristie Kerr
Danielle Kang
David Lipsky
Doug Ghim
Gaby Lopez
George Savaricas
Graham DeLaet
Harold Varner III
Jamie Lovemark
Jason Kokrak
Jimmy Walker
Joel Dahmen
John Daly
Juli Inkster
Kelley James
Kevin Na
Kurt Kitayama
Lydia Ko
Matt Ginella
Maverick McNealy
Max Homa
Michelle Wie
Natalie Gulbis
Pat Perez
Sam Burns
Tommy Armour III
Wyndham Clark
Even as the curtain draws on her competitive career, Gulbis remains the gold standard in how to treat people.
BOCA RATON, Fla. – After a rotten start to the 2020 season, Natalie Gulbis asked organizers of the new Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio how she could help over the weekend. On Saturday, after the leaders teed off, Gulbis came back to the course for a meet-and-greet with members and VIPs on the clubhouse patio.
Even as the curtain draws on her competitive career, Gulbis remains the gold standard in how to treat people.
“There’s nobody even close,” said Stacy Lewis. “You want her out here just so the rookies can see that and see how it’s done.”
On Thursday, Gulbis announced in a letter on golf.com that 2020 would be her final season on the LPGA. It turned out to be a huge mistake, she said, breaking that kind of news as she started her first tour event in nearly six months. Gulbis admitted to being “incredibly distracted and emotional” en route to rounds of 81-78. However, during her Saturday morning workout, the 37-year-old still found herself trying to dissect how she could turn it all around in time for her next start.
That’s the thing about Gulbis: She plays to win.
In fact, the only reason she’s been at it at all this past decade was to prove to herself that she could win after back surgery. She underwent another operation in 2016 solely for the purpose of being able to practice longer.
“There are a lot of players who play for different reasons,” Gulbis said, “but I actually love the game. I thought I could be a player that played 5 to 10 events and play really well and be like Juli Inkster, but I haven’t been able to do that.”
And so, at some to-be-determined event later this year, she’ll call it quits. Gulbis plans to compete in 10 events in her 2020 farewell tour. At first, she wanted her final event to be the Evian Championship in July, site of her only LPGA victory, but the tournament falls too early in the year.
It could even be the CME Group Tour Championship, Gulbis noted, should she find her way back to the winner’s circle. She’ll be bullish about winning til the end.
“I’m stubborn and I’m an athlete,” she said. “I’ve seen too many quotes that says you quit right before you achieve your goal.”
Natalie shares a laugh with Juli Inkster on the range in 2007. (Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY)
Gulbis burst onto the LPGA scene in 2002 with ribbons in her hair and big hoops dangling from her ears. She signed a contract with Adidas before she ever teed it up on the LPGA and went to work trying to expand the company’s limited clothing line to include more feminine and functional options.
“I remember when they made me my first skirt,” said Gulbis. “(Golf) hadn’t had skirts since the 50’s, when they wore those beautiful long skirts. I really liked how the tennis girls dressed and said, ‘Can we make a skort?’ ”
Growing up, Gulbis had posters of Kris Tschetter and Nancy Lopez on her bedroom walls. She loved Tschetter’s big hats and bright lipstick and the way Lopez could be so warm and friendly and intense at the same time.
Gulbis had role models. But she’s never been shy about standing out.
“I don’t think (Natalie) gets enough credit for changing the way that we dress on the golf course into more feminine, fitted athletic clothing,” said Morgan Pressel. “She was really the first one to kind of change the status quo of what everybody had been wearing for so many years.”
But it wasn’t just about the way Gulbis looked that impacted the tour. It’s how to she connected with people too, removing her sunglasses to sign autographs and taking the time to ask personal questions.
Gulbis is as genuine as they come. The reasons corporations and tournament organizers have backed Gulbis so steadfastly for nearly two decades extends beyond her attractive appearance. She’s disciplined in all aspects of life, from her diet, to her swing to her business portfolio. She’s smart, savvy and fun.
Lewis was in the same small group Bible study with Gulbis when she first came on tour and relied heavily on her in those early years.
“I just think with the fashion and modeling stuff, maybe (some) just didn’t get to know the true Natalie,” said Lewis. “But those of us that did, she’s an unbelievable person.”
At the pro-am party earlier this week in Boca, Brittany Lincicome’s baby, Emery, was getting restless as the evening wore on. Gulbis leaped into action.
“She ripped off her heels, carried Emery to the car and put her in the car seat for me,” said Lincicome. “Just a wonderful human.”
Natalie Gulbis signs autographs after a round in 2007. (Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY)
Gulbis has no plans to bow out of golf. Quite the contrary. She’ll be in Washington for her work on the President’s Council for Sports, Fitness and Nutrition. She’ll be taping her Fox show, “18 holes.” She’ll be looking for new opportunities for her company, NR1, and will pour her heart into her Southern Nevada Boys & Girls Club.
“I definitely will stay in golf the same way at that Annika and Lorena and Arnold Palmer did,” said Gulbis.
Pressel has long admired the way her friend smiles on the golf course. Her upbeat, sunny personality makes not only her friends and fans happy, but the check-writers too.
Who will step in to replace her when she’s gone?
“I think it’s important for all of us to be like Natalie,” said Lewis. “We all need to strive to be like her. One person can’t carry that load.”
