Natalie Likes Her New Balls
Natalie excited about new balls.
For the past six years, she was known as the Anna Kournikova of golf. A pretty face with a funky swing and no LPGA wins. It’s not like Natalie avoided her dashing good looks and hour-glass figure, after all her swimsuit calendar is a popular bestseller. But still, the lack of wins stuck with her like a 300-pound gorilla hanging on her shoulder.
When she started working with famed swing-muse Butch Harmon many years ago, Natalie noticed that fellow clients Adam Scott and Tiger Woods all got nice new shiny Titlelist balls to practice with. Natalie wondered why they got to hit new Titlelist balls while she was stuck with the distance-challenged range balls? Butch told her that only winners hit new Titlelist balls, you’re not a winner, so you hit the range balls.
Several years later, Butch relented gave Natalie the option of hitting new balls (maybe the dashing good looks of Natalie finally got to Butch), but Natalie refused. She said they made an agreement, and that was that. She continued to hit range balls in practice all the way until this year. At the Evian Masters in France this summer, Natalie finally triumphed and won her first LPGA event. Upon winning Natalie called Butch to let him know to get those shiny new golf balls ready. About Butch, Natalie said, “He always puts the winning flags of the players that have won up in his room in his office. The Evian Masters flag is like a bright, hot pink flag. It couldn’t be any brighter. I finally got to sign that one for him.”
Good for Natalie, and congratulations on your new balls…
LPGA Tour, Longs Drugs Challenge, Suzann Pettersen, Lorena Ochoa
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