When the Women's British Open was staged over the Old Course at St Andrews last summer, you could hear the old codgers of the R&A spluttering into their gin and tonics: "I don't mind a few pretty waitresses dotted about the place, but a golf course is no place for a woman." Winner of the Samsung World Championship at Half Moon Bay, California, at the weekend, Paula Creamer makes no effort to hide her femininity - hence the pink club grips, pink tees, pink driver shaft, pink head cover, pink spikes, pink shoes and pink ribbon knotted around her blonde ponytail (her nickname is "The Pink Panther", surprise, surprise) - but she is every bit as committed to her sport as Sergio Garcia, her male counterpart at No 5 in their respective world rankings.
Being the gracious lass that she is, Creamer displays nary a shred of resentment that despite her eight tournament victories it is the continuing trials and tribulations of Michelle Wie - who has yet to win a single tournament -which tend to dominate the women's golf headlines. "If Michelle brings more interest then there will be bigger purses, and ultimately that's better for me," Creamer says. "But it was Annika Sorenstam who took women's golf on to a new level, which is why there are so many young, fresh, new faces now trying to take it on to the next level again. You have Lorena [Ochoa], Suzanne [Pettersen] Karrie [Webb], the Koreans, plus a whole heap of Americans. I think one of the main reasons why our sport is so fascinating right now is because there are so many different countries on the leaderboard."
Creamer's route to the top began when she was in sixth grade in San Francisco and had to make the decision - and a huge one it must have been for a 12-year-old - whether to become a cheerleader or join the school golf team. "Do you want to cheer for others, or do you want the others to cheer for you?" was the way her dad put it. Such was her youthful prowess that two years later her parents, Karen and Paul, took the decision to leave California to settle their family in Bradenton, Florida in order to enrol their daughter in the David Leadbetter Golf Centre at the IMG Academies.
Having become the quickest player to earn US$1million (Dh3.6m) on the LPGA Tour, there have been other lifestyle changes such as the BMW M6 that sits in the driveway of her parents' home, which she still shares when not on the road. Is it true that when she was seven, Creamer and her dad were involved in a near-fatal road accident in which a long metal pole strapped to the back of a truck went through their car windscreen? "Yes, although I can't remember too much about it now. My dad told me that when he turned to me and asked: 'What do you want to do now?' I replied: 'Let's go get a doughnut'."
And is that your attitude on the golf course? Whenever you are in collision with a double-bogey, is your instant reaction 'Let's go get an eagle?' "I wish; I suppose the honest answer is 'yes' and 'no'. I tend to be either very patient or very anxious on the golf course, no middle ground. I'm a very high-energy person, and that's something I have to learn to control. I like to see my name go right up there on the leaderboard and sometimes I try way, way too hard or try to be too perfect. I wish I could just say, 'Let's go get a doughnut' after a bogey, but you're out there for five hours trying to avoid making a single mistake."
The Pink Panther is on the prowl. rphilip@thenational.ae