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RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – Englishwoman Karen Stupples, who burned up the desert with a 5-under-par 67 in the first round of the Kraft Nabisco Championship, is the only golf professional I know whose life outside golf is far more interesting than her life inside the ropes.
Her life could be a movie. Call me John Steinbeck, because I want to write the screenplay.
At 25, Stupples was waiting tables at a golf club restaurant near Dover, England. A man named Keith Rawlings, a regular at the restaurant but hardly a close friend, asked her why she hadn’t turned pro. After all, she had played on two GB&I Curtis Cup teams.
“I’m trying to save up so I can do that,” she explained.
“I’ll give you enough money to play for three years,” he replied.
She turned pro. The year was 1999.
At the 2004 Women’s British Open at Sunningdale Golf Club in England, she started the final round with scores of 3 and 2 on the first two holes. Both were par 5s.
On firm, sun-dried fairways, she hit a 200-yard 5-iron to 15 feet on the first hole and sank the eagle putt. Enough of this putting. On the second hole, she holed a 5-iron shot from 210 yards.
Hello, albatross.
Talk about momentum – 5-under-par after two holes. She finished the tournament 19-under and won by five. She was 30 years old.
Now 34, Stupples has a few things yet to do. Like winning another major championship. Like raising her son, Logan, who will celebrate his first birthday on April 21. Like getting married, which will happen next Tuesday, April 8.
The lucky man is Bobby Inman, who has been her caddie for the past five years. When informed that the husband-on-the-bag arrangement has at times been the kiss of death on the LPGA tour, she laughs gleefully. It’s just another challenge.
Golfer, husband-to-be and baby also travel the professional circuit with a 5-pound Yorkshire terrier named Emma. Stupples loves the life, she declares, but there is one impediment. “The amount of luggage,” she protests. “It is staggering.”
Moms Juli Inkster and Pat Hurst were role models, Stupples says, although a strong case could be made that Inkster is the only golfer on the modern LPGA tour who has fashioned a superlative golf career while nurturing a family. That family would be daughters Hayley and Cori, along with golf pro husband Brian. Lord knows golf pros need a lot of pampering.
About her decision to have the child first and the husband second, Stupples laughs once again. She clearly enjoys being a bit unconventional, although her mom and dad, Eileen and Alan Stupples, are vacationing in America and will attend the Las Vegas wedding ceremony like ordinary, well-wishing parents.
The baby-comes-first decision cost Stupples. Two of her sponsors pulled out, one declining to renew an endorsement deal and the other breaking an existing contract (she later reached a monetary settlement with the company).
“That set me back,” Stupples admits. “I had personal relationships with both of them.”
Without a sponsor for her bag, Stupples decided to show her gratitude to the LPGA by carrying – without compensation – a colorful, eye-popping LPGA bag. It probably is the most distinctive bag in professional golf.
“The LPGA has given me the opportunity to do this to play golf for a living,” she says, “and I wanted to show my gratitude.”
“These girls rock,” the bag announces. Hey, we already knew that. It just so happens that this woman rocks around the clock, no matter what she is doing.
“It helps me to know I have a life outside golf,” Stupples summarizes. “There are so many possibilities out there.”
If this isn’t the most intriguing player on the LPGA tour, then I am indeed John Steinbeck and I made all this up.
Hand over heart, I am telling the truth.
Posted: 4/3/2008
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