The Week: New Poster Girl

Laura Diaz makes the case for substance over style

By Alan Shipnuck

Diaz earned her first LPGA victory with a two-putt birdie on the final hole. David Walberg GOLF PLUS EXTRA Teeing Off: In Praise of the Also-ran Big Play: Steve Bosdosh TRUST ME Forget Craig Perks, Johnny Miller was the real Sunday hero at the Players Championship. He saved a mostly somnolent telecast with some of his spikiest commentary ever -- brutal, bombastic and unabashedly enthusiastic. NEXT UP PGA: Shell Houston Open LPGA: Kraft Nabisco Championship Senior: Emerald Coast Classic INSTANT POLL Will you play a hot driver knowing that it will later be deemed nonconforming? Yes No View Results

There has been so much talk lately about the physical appearance of LPGA players that it has become easy to forget that they are athletes, not fashion models. Last week's Welch's/Circle K Championship was a welcome reminder that it's possible to balance cutthroat competition with a little slice of cheesecake. In a thrilling battle that went down to the 72nd hole, promising fourth-year pro Laura Diaz trumped Hall of Famer Juli Inkster for the first victory of her career. Diaz closed the deal with a birdie on the 458-yard par-5 finishing hole at Randolph North Golf Course, in Tucson, which she reached in two with a 291-yard drive and a six-iron.

Nancy Lopez once observed that what fans want from the LPGA is someone who looks like a woman but plays like a man. Enter Diaz. Last season she led the LPGA in eagles and was fourth in birdies -- and wore some of the shortest shorts on tour. She also caused a stir by promoting this year's hot-button issue, "selling sex," to use Diaz's blunt term. For all the discussion about her blue-eyed good looks, what truly sets pulses racing is Diaz's fearless style of play.

Over the first three rounds last week she went 14 under without making a bogey, leaving her two strokes behind the leader, Inkster. Diaz seemed poised to finally break through after a frustrating 2001 during which she amassed four runner-up finishes. On Sunday she three-putted the first two holes for bogey but never backed off. Three straight birdies, beginning at the 3rd hole, put Diaz back in the ball game. She caught Inkster with brilliant iron play on the back nine and never trailed after a birdie at the par-3 15th, where she stuck a nine-iron to six feet.

Afterward, Diaz credited her Zen-like calm in the clutch to breathing lessons she learned during off-season yoga classes. The yoga was only part of a self-improvement program that included rigorous weight training and marathon practice sessions. In a triumph of substance over style, Diaz has earned a rep as one of the tour's hardest workers, though, she says, "it's not really work, because I'm usually practicing with someone I love."

Her father owns the eponymous Ron Philos' School of Golf on Amelia Island, Fla., and Diaz's brother, Ron Jr., and husband, Kevin, work there as teaching pros. Another former teacher at the school is Bob Duval, the Senior tour mainstay. Diaz counts his son, David, as a close friend, and there are parallels in their careers. "I think Laura's going to explode, just as David did," says LPGA vet Deb Richard, which is to say, now that she has that first victory she's a threat to add to the total every week. Certainly Diaz plans to continue winning. "My long-term goal is the Hall of Fame," she says.

Diaz is sanguine about a recent honor that she missed out on -- inclusion in the playboy.com poll that featured nine of her colleagues. "It was probably a good thing," she says. "It has gotten me out of the sex spotlight for a while." She has weightier matters to worry about now -- like winning golf tournaments.

O.B.