Paula Creamer sauntered down a runway for a fashion shoot for "Teen People" Wednesday in New York, and was no less conspicuous walking the fairways at Wykagyl Country Club 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 3-under-par 68. "There's so many more opportunities. In high school, young girls are starting to play more and more now."
PHOTO: AP
Creamer was at 1 over, four shots behind the clubhouse leaders Gulbis, Beth Bauer and Han Hee-won, and admitted that she was nervous in her first tournament as the defending champion. The first round was suspended by rain and will 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, Connecticut, in the First Tee Program, which is sponsored by one of Creamer's 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, California, idolizing Nancy Lopez and Juli Inkster, who was one of her playing partners Thursday. Lopez and Inkster played on a rather stodgy LPGA 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, not surprisingly, was involved in a major spat over etiquette with Danielle Ammaccapane in the 2003 US Open -- and Creamer said that after her splash onto the scene last year, "I was not wholly embraced."
The LPGA 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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