First off, Paula is very moody-the volunteers at the tournament never knew if she was going to be nice, or bite their heads off. She was either very friendly or very b*tchy. She even reported one of the volunteers to tourney officials for asking for an autograph. Other times, very accommodating-you never knew...
She has open-carry armed guards everywhere she goes. Can’t say I blame her, though...
As a hole marshal, we traded positions every fourth foursome. I had the immense pleasure of following her for about 200 yards down the fairway during a changeover-she’s all there, lemme tell ya!
It was also our duty, when players walked onto the tee, to escort them across the cart path. Paula stopped to give a little girl one of her pink balls. Paula signed it and spoke briefly with the girl. As she walked past me, I whispered “Where’s mine”? and grinned. She locked eyes with me, scowled, gritted her teeth, and said “Thank you for volunteering this week”!
Now, I heard this story from the hole marshals on an adjacent hole as we were leaving for the day:
During the Pro-Am, Paula walked down the fairway, looked around and didn’t see her caddy. He was back on the tee BS’ing with some people. She teed up a ball, hit it toward him and hit the bag. The witnesses said he jumped about 2 feet straight up, grabbed the bag, and RAN down to her!
I had a lot of fun on Tuesday, the player’s practice round. All the ladies were very friendly, signing autographs and posing for pictures. (When the actual play starts, though, don’t even make eye contact)! The only person who gave me any guff was Christina Kim. Unusual, because she’s supposed to be one of the most fan-friendly on the tour. I was mistaken several times for a reporter, so maybe that was her problem.
Morgan Pressel and Helen Alfredsson were extremely nice. Helen was non-stop hilarious! Stacy Lewis was very friendly too, but she hangs with an awfully “rough looking” bunch.
Many years ago, (mid 80's) one of my clients, who was a board member of the Wykagyl CC in New Rochelle, NY, gave me a pair of VIP passes to the LPGA event the club then used to host. I took one of my top producers with me..we went on the pro-am day..and had a really nice time...we got to meet a few of the players, and liberally enjoyed the superb food and adult beverages at the corporate hospitality tents. Late in the afternoon, we're walking towards the car, and we pass the driving range, and there's Joanne ( Big Mama) Carner by herself, just booming them out dead center. Nobody else is around...We're watching her for about 15 minutes, somewhat in awe...and my friend, who had way too much in the way of adult beverages, finally, in what was a very loud "whisper" said "Holy s**t! Would you looked at the size of the ass on her!" She obviously heard him, yet proceeded to whack the ball on the tee about 300 yds...then turned towards us..I half thought she was coming after him with the driver...but she smiled, and said "Yup! Wanna kiss it?" then went back to hitting balls.