Lady golfers should train like athletes because golfers are athletes! Just ask golfing pro Natalie Gulbis! The following are excerpts from a Muscle & Fitness Hers interview in 2003:
She says, “women golfers have always been knocked a bit,” says the 20-year-old phenom from Sacramento. “People didn’t consider us athletes.” But the next wave of female players, she says, will shatter those stereotypes.
Natalie is an elite athlete having been a gymnast before going full time with golf. She made the right choice! She finished second to Beth Bauer in the 2002 LPGA Rookie of the Year voting and had four top-10 finishes. “I love the mental side of golf, dealing with pressure and different situations,” she says. “I love the fact that, unlike team sports, everything comes back to me.” At 14, she became the youngest person to play in an LPGA tournament.
“I have a real good work ethic,” she says. “I like to work and I love to train, and I love to work out hard. It’s great for discipline and confidence. It’s also part of my personality. I have high energy, and I think it’s probably because I always work out.”
Gulbis trains for 60 to 90 minutes a day five days a week, usually first thing in the morning. Her two-days-on, one-day-off training split emphasizes explosiveness, flexibility and strength training. She does minimal cardio–maybe 15 to 30 minutes a couple days a week–because her current fitness goals involve building muscle. It’s been a concern for Gulbis since last year, when some golf-course chicken she ate left her with a case of salmonella. She lost about 20 pounds in a two-week span, leaving her a weak and frail 113 pounds. Besides that unfortunate event, Gulbis says she’s been lucky. “I’ve been mostly injury free for quite a few years, even through being a gymnast,” she says. “I attribute a lot of that to nutrition and fitness.”
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