01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, June 28, 2006

"Do you mind," the publicist asked, "if Natalie calls you at home?"

I am intrigued by the question.

Is it possible, I wonder, that any red-blooded, non-purple-pill-gulping, American heterosexual male would object to having Natalie Gulbis call him at home?

I mean, does any guy ever say: "Nope. Sorry. I don't take calls from 5-foot-9 blondes with blue-green eyes and a body that sells tens of thousands of swimsuit calendars every year?"

"After nine isn't too late, is it?" the publicist continued, seemingly genuinely concerned that talking to Natalie at that hour would be a gross inconvenience for me.

"Gee, I don't know," I am tempted to reply. "I was planning on watching the Andy Griffith Show on the TVLAND channel at that hour."

Instead, I managed to stammer: "Sure. OK. That's great."

"Natalie's having dinner now," the publicist said. "She'll call you afterwards. By the way, did you know that she likes to cook?"

Cook?

Gulbis is a smart and sexy 23-year-old who can hit a golf ball a million miles and earned more than $1 million last year on the LPGA Tour.

Would any man in his right mind insist that she be able to cook, too?

"I enjoy it," Gulbis says, calling after finishing dinner at the Black Pearl, on Bannister's Wharf. "I like to make blueberry pancakes for breakfast in the morning and stir fry for dinner at night."

It takes me a minute to reply, caught up in a reverie of trying to envision what it would be like to wake up in the morning to a breakfast of blueberry pancakes served by Natalie Gulbis.

But just as she is a professional golfer, I am a professional journalist. Natalie called. Now, duty calls.

Golf talk first. Because -- and don't ever doubt this for a second -- golf is what is most important to Gulbis.

"I'm a golfer," she says, "not a swimsuit model."

Very true, although the old golf course line often uttered after a bad shot -- "Don't quit your day job!" -- doesn't apply to Gulbis, who has other career options beyond life on the links.

She is not, however, interested in pursuing any goals other than winning golf tournaments.

Which, unfortunately, has been a bit of a problem for her.

A standout as a junior, she was the California Amateur champion at the age of 14 -- the same year she became the youngest player to qualify for an LPGA tournament, a record since broken by Michele Wie, when she was 12. Gulbis went on to play at the University of Arizona, where she won four tournaments and was named a first-team All-American.

But in 4 1/2 years on the LPGA Tour, she has yet to win. Which, combined with her good looks, has resulted in some irritating comparisons with tennis player Anna Kournikova, the beautiful Russian who earned more in endorsements than she did on the court, where she never won a tournament.

"When I came out on Tour, if anyone had asked me if I'd go five years without winning, I'd have said they were crazy," she said.

It's not as if Gulbis hasn't come close. She had a dozen top-10 finishes last year, and has finished in the top 10 five times this year, including a tie for third at the Kraft Nabisco.

She has been working hard with Butch Harmon, teaching-pro-to-the-stars, to make changes in a quirky swing.

"We're trying to make my swing more compact and more consistent," she said. "It's a pain. Change is never fun. I go back to my bad habits all the time.

"But I am playing so much better. I'm a much better ball-striker now. I've worked hard at it. People (around the Tour) know my work ethic. This is a full-time job."

She began playing golf for fun, as a little girl, because: "My dad played, and I wanted to be where he was."

It was her father's idea to publish a calendar featuring his daughter.

"I said: 'Are you crazy?' He said: 'Just try it. Be open-minded.'

"So I did a couple of photo shoots, they turned out OK, and that was it."

Well, not quite "it."

This week is an anniversary, of sorts, for Gulbis.

It was two years ago at the U.S. Open that the United States Golf Association banned the sale of her first swimsuit calendar in the merchandise tent at the Orchards in South Hadley, Mass.

"They thought it was too provocative," she said, laughing. "They had ordered a number of calendars to sell at the Open. Then, when they saw it, they changed their minds.

"At first, I was bummed. The LPGA had supported it. I didn't understand why the USGA didn't, as well. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise."

The subsequent furor over golf's governing body frowning at Gulbis' shapely, well-toned body on display in a swimsuit prompted people to see what all the fuss was about.

They liked what they saw. Sales skyrocketed -- everywhere, that is, except at USGA venues -- and Gulbis' annual calendar shoot now is an eagerly anticipated event on the American sporting scene.

Yet Gulbis says she is much more uptight at a photo shoot than she is on the first tee of a major championship.

"I get nervous when I do them," she said. "I'm out of my element."

She also has done photo shoots for FHM, a men's magazine for which she also writes a golf column.

"Didn't they list you," I asked, "among the 100 sexiest athletes?"

"The 100 sexiest women," said Gulbis, quick to make the correction.

And what does she think about being known as a sex symbol, as much as a golfer?

"I'm flattered," she said. "As a female, to get a compliment on your looks is flattering."

jdonalds@projo.com / (401) 277-7340