Can Superhero Natalie Gulbis come to the rescue of her LPGA career?

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Natalie Gulbis seeks stardom but when in the spotlight rarely puts on more than a mediocre performance. Between her lackluster appearance on Celebrity Apprentice and her recent slip in Rolex Rankings, it doesn't look like Gulbis is more than a passing fancy in the eyes of the camera. In other words, just because you don a superhero costume doesn't necessarily mean you are imbued with extraordinary abilities!

Although Gulbis initially accepted Donald Trump's challenge, she has stayed incognito, waiting for Joan Rivers to thrust her into the spotlight and urge her to wear a superhero costume which Natalie mentioned looked like a cross between "Halloween and a stripper" (Rivers must have seen the Calendar). Perhaps it's better for Natalie to lurk because when she spoke to both Trump and the CEO of Zappos.com, she nearly blew the win for her team!

As far as her appearances on the LPGA Tour, Gulbis makes for a pretty picture but, to date, has not become much of a standout performer. She has only one LPGA win to her credit (2007 Evian Masters) and, in her first three events this year, Natalie has dropped to 37th place in the Rolex Rankings. Her coach, Butch Harmon, has been quoted as saying that Gulbis is longer and stronger than ever but, coming off of a back injury, only time will tell if this will be her breakout year.

Does the LPGA need another above-average golfer or should they promote the package "Gulbis", who can deliver the sex appeal needed to take the LPGA to the next level? Ty Votaw once used Gulbis' appeal for his "Five Points of Celebrity" campaign but that idea was scrapped as soon as Bivens took the helm. Michelle Wie is now the hope of the LPGA Tour and has been dangled like a carrot on the end of a stick to attract partners like the Golf Channel who will be using Wie's picture to highlight the Tour.

Perhaps Natalie will show this year, both on the Apprentice and on the golf course, that there is more than meets the eye and claim her rightful place in the spotlight.



In this week's Golf for Beginners show, it's all about the women! We wonder if fat-bottoms are solely for the ladies, consider why more women don't play the game, have a heated man/woman debate about Golf Datatech's women's market survey and offer a golf tip from Butch Harmon on how to balance when hitting a chip shot.

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"Shiny Tech" courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)"

This podcast is supported by ResortsGolfandSpa.com, 866-643-6078.

Photo Credit: © Twitpic.com

Phil Mickelson wins bailout money, Ogilvy swaps golf ball mid-hole and match play philosophy

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Until the recent flood of bank bailouts occurred, I'm not sure that the masses knew, or really cared, what financial institutions did with customer funds, so long as the economy was secure. So, in a sense, good came from this massive overhaul as disclosure helped open the eyes of the world to the vast waste and appetence that banks have kept hidden under their veils of secrecy.

TMZ recently educated viewers on one such bank, Northern Trust, which spent millions of dollars on the sponsorship and advertising related to it's same-named tournament. Extravagant parties were thrown for hundreds of clients and employees of the company and although local hotels, businesses, entertainers and even tournament winner Phil Mickelson received benefit from the outpouring of capital, it hardly helped put the economy back on track.

According to TMZ, a Northern Trust representative stated that operating funds were utilized, not bailout dollars. Of course, that logic seems skewed because once bailout was accepted by the bank, it became a part of their total assets. Today it was reported that Northern Trust will repay the $1.6 billion loan but wouldn't it have been more forthright had they done that without being pressured by lawmakers?

Rich Gotham, president of the Boston Celtics, believes that the visibility of funds became heightened with the New York Mets naming rights deal that surrounded Citi Field. "While Citi is crashing and the government is bailing them out [with $45 billion in TARP funding] this all wouldn’t be so topical. The reality is that banks still want to do sports marketing, but right now there’s a stigma associated with it and there may be for some time."

The exposure of both CitiBank and Northern Trust is now forcibly paving the way for other financial institutions to reassess the way bailout funds are spent.

Morgan Stanley, who received $10 billion in rescue funds, has stated that they are canceling client entertainment venues at the Memorial Tournament. The Wachovia Championship is also tightening its belt, so claims parent company Wells Fargo but no rumblings have been heard from Merrill Lynch whose "Shootout" is still on schedule at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida.

Mark Ingall, Director of global marketing for Citibank believes that the average citizen may be too simple-minded to understand that marketing takes many forms, "from telemarketing to hospitality at a major sporting event" and that banks such as Citi, "Don’t look at [naming rights] as just slapping our name on something. We look at sports as a powerful and tangible way to connect with [business-to-business] and consumer customers, current and prospective.”

Representative Barney Frank (one of the perpetrators of the mortgage market collapse) has an opposing view, and one with which I agree which questions whether, " … anybody has ever opened a bank account or decided to buy a CD because a bank’s name is on the stadium."

Financial institutions should be using funds for the growth of small business and the resurgence of our nation's economy. Where it is still a good idea to market to sports enthusiasts, the gluttinous attitude adopted by the powers-that-be who live in their ivory towers should realize that incoming funds should be rerouted to jumpstart the economy, not to fund thrill-seeking jaunts and lavish parties.

Golf for Beginners also discusses Geoff Ogilvy's use of the Rules of Golf to his advantage when faced with a thorny cactus bush and we offer our listeners a few tips on how to play match-play to their advantage.







Send your golf questions and comments to golfforbeginners@aol.com.

Subscribe to our weekly podcast through this RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/golfforbeginners or through iTunes. Click Here to receive our archived podcasts and 100's of easy golf tips free!

Get to know us on You Tube and MySpace and TWEET US on Twitter!

"Shiny Tech" courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)"

This podcast is supported by Arizona Golf Packages, 1-866-444-0992.

Photo Credit: © Bartblog.com/Cartoon: Stuart Carlson

Getting to know us through our YouTube golf video

Hello fellow golfers and everyone who tunes in to our weekly golf podcasts and reads our very special Golf for Beginners blog!

For the past five years, Barry and I have written about golf for the pure love/hate relationship behind it and for the satisfaction we get from offering tips that we learned. We still enjoy taking our twilight walks together (sigh) and keeping you involved in our weekly games, even if we're not always playing up to par!

As a matter of fact, that is precisely how this blog got started!

Barry handed me a gift of a set of golf clubs that he purchased off of the internet (yes, left-handed) and turned me over to a golf instructor. He was smart enough not to teach me himself but, since I was learning about golf anyway, he wound up making a more concerted effort in his own game, eventually attaining a few scores in the 70's!

I wanted to make sure that I would remember what was taught to me and decided to write it all down where I would keep looking at it. I also wanted to keep a log of my improvement and Barry insisted on joining me on this journey.

The rest, my friends, is history!

We thought it might be fun to pull out our camcorder in order for you to get to know us a little better. A friend of mine came into our shop recently and asked if I could teach her how to use her own digital DVD video-maker so that she could record her grandson for posterity's sake. I gladly obliged and, in doing so, realized that I have one of these at home too!

We dusted off our camcorder and have created a short video on balance using one of the contraptions that we keep in the golf sanctuary of our home. (If you are interested in learning more about the styrofoam balance roll in our video, just leave a comment!)

We hope that you enjoy our very first golf-related video realizing never to take this game too seriously, have fun and always play good golf!

---Stacy Solomon




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