Philadelphia, PA (Best E Casino) - TO: Paula Creamer, LPGA Tour golfer
FROM: Golf enthusiasts
DATE: July 13, 2008
SUBJECT: Your career
We were happy to see you hold on to win the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic on Sunday. We think you are the second-best women's golfer in the world. And what a time to be in that position. With Annika Sorenstam retiring at the end of the year, we were hoping somebody else would emerge to challenge Lorena Ochoa for the No. 1 position in the rankings. For golf fans in the United States who have seen an American woman win just one of the last six majors, you represent a promising future.
Ms. Creamer, we first took notice when you won the 2005 Sybase Classic as an 18-year-old who hadn't yet walked in her high school graduation. We were floored when you rolled in that 17-foot birdie putt at the last hole to become the youngest winner in LPGA Tour history. When you won the lucrative Evian Masters just two months later, you did it by beating Ochoa and Michelle Wie by eight shots, and we were convinced that we were witnessing the beginning of something special.
You were still just a rookie when you wouldn't budge in the face of Sorenstam at the season-ending ADT Championship that same year. We agreed with you that Sorenstam benefited from a bad ruling after she hit her drive into the hazard at the 18th hole, even if your "It's her conscience" sound bite was a little over-the-top and didn't show the proper respect to a Hall of Famer. But we had been waiting for somebody to challenge Sorenstam -- anywhere, in any way -- and that day showed us that there was somebody who would.
You didn't win for a while after that, but that was OK. You were still very young. Now you have seven LPGA Tour victories before the age of 22, an impressive feat. Not even Sorenstam can claim that. She was 24 when she won her first title. Ochoa was nearly 25 when she claimed her seventh. But those players have done something you haven't: They have both won major championships. And we'd like to see you win a major soon, too, so we can avoid any prolonged Best Woman Never to Win a Major talk. We grew tired of that spiel when Phil Mickelson was the male equivalent.
We'd also like to see more of the fiery Paula Creamer who challenged Sorenstam as a rookie, and less of the gum-snapping Paula Creamer who appears in those Precept commercials with Nick Price. We're OK with the Pink Panther thing. We get it -- it's your identity, an easy way for people who watch you play for the first time to recognize you the second time. And you deserve to be recognized. But we've never seen Tiger or Phil or Annika blowing bubbles and talking about puppy dogs and crushes, and we're pretty sure we never will. We'd like to see the other Paula Creamer in your next commercial, the one who shows up at most tournaments and gives her all. The one who plays tournaments Ochoa and Sorenstam won't. The one who has made every cut this season.
Congratulations on shooting 60 during Thursday's first round. Posting the second-best score in LPGA Tour history was really something. And congratulations on your third win of the season. Here's wishing you many more.
