I never pass up a chance to talk with a woman golfer who is doing new, exciting things in the field. Recently I had a fascinating conversation with Cindy Reid (in picture above), a well-known golf instructor who has ranked among GFW's Top 50 Instructors for years. She used to be Director of Golf at TPC at Sawgrass in Florida, but if you want to book a lesson with her now, you'll have to book a plane ticket first. In what she calls a personal "reinvention," Reid, 45, has relocated  to Mission Hills Golf Club, the mega golf complex in Shenzhuan, China. In what must be a first for an American female golfer in Asia, Cindy has started her own school, the Mission Hills Golf Academy by Cindy Reid. It's quite an adventure, but I'll let Cindy tell you about it in her own words. Here's our long-distance interview.

How did you get from TPC Sawgrass to China? That's a big move.
I've known the people at Mission Hills for years. A while ago I said, It's time to go to the next chapter in life with golf instruction, and I've always wanted to do something in Asia.

Tell me about Mission Hills Golf Club. I hear it's crazy big.
Mission Hills has 12 golf courses, 3,000 caddies who live on campus, four spas that are outstanding, more than 10,000 members and 7,000 people on staff. It's huge. The clubhouse is 60,000 square feet and four stories. It's the biggest clubhouse in the world.

And you know the Chu family, which developed Mission Hills...
The chairman is David Chu, he's the father. He has several kids, and all of them work for Mission Hills. They do everything. His 32-year-old son, Tenniel Chu, runs the golf courses. He used to be at TPC Sawgrass. His father sent him to the U.S. to pursue a career in golf course operations, and that's how I met him. Carol Chu is pretty powerful. She plays golf; I'm friends with her. She's a great lady, beautiful and smart. She does a lot for the company.

Your golf academy sounds amazing.
It's 28,000 square feet. It has eight state-of-the-art hitting bays, a full-size gym, and club-fitting. My goal is to hire 200 instructors, and I'm training and certifying Chinese instructors as well as those from the U.S. I've taken all my knowledge from 17 years of teaching at Sawgrass and brought it here. I want to leave a legacy behind in China as far as golf instruction.

Can you describe your clientele?
It ranges from brand-new golfers to experienced golfers to professional golfers on the Asian Tour. I cannot begin to tell you how many new golfers who are wealthy are getting into the game. If they want a club, we let them know what they need and they buy it. A lot of women are playing golf out there -- a lot more than I thought there would be. And they're beginning to become a lot more like the men -- they're taking time for themselves. They're a lot more Western than people think. The women are definitely coming out of the woodwork as far as taking golf lessons, especially when they see a woman is teaching. And these women have careers. I've got a couple who have done really well in real estate in Hong Kong, a lot of wives who are married to wealthy men, and a lot of young girls. They're going to be so good. Four of them could be pros right now, and they're 12, 13 years old. There is so much going on here, I can't even believe it. There's so much going on with golf and how it's grown and how Westernized it's become.

That must be very rewarding for you, especially when it comes to working with the locals.
Yes, they're happy we're here. And we've changed a lot of people's lives by giving them an opportunity to become the person they've wanted to be in regards to making  more money and being in an environment that they're happy in.

Do you consider this a "reinvention" of yourself?
Yeah, I probably consider it a reinvention. A little bit. I'm a very optimistic individual. I've traveled all over the world, and I don't find that culture shock. The hardest thing here is the language barrier. Because if you need someone to do something in the business part of the academy, they're like, "what?" And you have to explain it for at least 25 minutes. But I have several translators, and I'm taking lessons. Mandarin is a very hard language, but I use it every day. I'm learning golf instruction right now, and in five months I'll probably be able to say 35 words. So I can't quite put a sentence together, but I will.

How do you say "swing" in Mandarin?
Swing. But you'd be amazed -- so many people speak English over here. My clientele speaks English. I have two or three clients who don't, and when my translators aren't available, i do a lot of sign language type things.

What are your long-range goals?
My goal is to have two more academies like Mission Hills in other parts of China. And to be back in the U.S. in about 15 years. This was a huge step for me, but it was also time. I got to bring my expertise and knowledge to a culture that knows almost nothing about golf. I'm so excited I did this.

Thanks Cindy. We'll be visiting you soon! Stina Sternberg visited Mission Hills in August -- you can read more in Stina's blog post from China.

The pressure of great expectations can sit heavy as an elephant on an athlete's back. Natalie Gulbis may be slender, but when I interviewed her for our March 2007 cover story,  I could sense that pressure to win weighing her down. She was about to enter her sixth year on the LPGA Tour and was still looking for her first Tour victory. She was SO OVER the "Anna Kournikova" comparisons (all looks, no titles); when I brought it up, she answered politely--something about being "flattered by the comparison"--but I could sense her thinking, "next question!" All the trappings of a successful athlete--the beautiful home, the big bank account, the calendars, the many endorsements--mean little in comparison to the sweet (and legitimizing) taste of victory, and in hoisting the Evian trophy, Gulbis proves she is, to state the obvious cliche, more than just a pretty face. And so I wonder if this win is sweeter than her achievement in 2005, when she become the first player in LPGA Tour history to take home $1 million in a season--without winning a tournament.

Up to this point, this season hadn't been going well for Gulbis. First, she and her swing coach, Butch Harmon, parted ways (apparently her dad and Butch weren't seeing eye to eye). Then a back injury (she hasn't specified what the problem was exactly) forced her to withdraw from two tournaments and sidelined her for several weeks. She missed three cuts and had three top-20 finishes.

So her victory, quite honestly, came as something of a shock. In her post-round interview, she said that taking time off to heal her back gave her a chance to work on her swing and just chill out--though if you read our profile of her from March 2007, you'll see that she clearly has trouble sitting around, doing nothing. She also said that she was furious at herself for not winning the Evian in regulation, and surely having to endure a play-off against a Korean player brought back unpleasant memories of last year's Jamie Farr, when she lost to Mi Hyun Kim on the third hole of a sudden death playoff. Yet this time, she was displaying a new confidence--and an even less-orthodox swing, her body more bent over than ever (hey, that extra veterbrae has its advantages!)

But this time, history did not repeat itself in sudden death. We are thrilled for Natalie, and her parents, and the LPGA Tour, which surely must be quite pleased that its poster girl is now a champion, too. Now that the elephant is off her back, I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of Natalie in the winner's circle.

I just got off the phone with Nancy Lopez. I was interviewing her for an upcoming article about her pool workouts, which she's used to lose almost 40 pounds in the past year.

I've always admired Nancy (who hasn't?) but I came away from that interview with a new respect for her. After several years of semi-retirement, Nancy has returned to the LPGA Tour, competing against players decades younger than she is. She decided to come back because she's feeling physically better and wants to see how her 50-year-old body holds up--and because she just can't get the competitive bug out of her system.

She's competed in four tournaments so far, and has missed the cut in all of them. Not exactly a fairy tale plot line, but think about it: The woman who arguably remains the most popular woman golfer of all time puts her ego on the line--and comes up short. She goes out in front of thousands of fans and shoots in the low 80s...and keeps on doing it. And stays upbeat about it. And is taking her first swing lessons EVER from someone other than her late father because, as she told me:

"I'm very motivated to play and let next year be the year to see if I can really compete. I’m not discouraged, I know I have a long way to go. I have the desire to work hard and play and take the humiliation that I have taken. I've hit some bad shots, it's very humbling. The fans that come out, I don't want to disappoint them. I'm trying to find that 'Nancy swing' again."

When was the last time any of us took a risk like this? We're all so afraid of failing that we play it safe. Not Nancy Lopez. Here's hoping she finds that Nancy swing again.

There are so many celebrity golf tournaments out there, which is a good thing, I guess—all those actors and retired athletes need somewhere to show off their golf skills! Recently I was invited to phone into a media teleconference for the American Century Championship, a celebrity golf invitational taking place in Lake Tahoe July 13-15. The Lance Armstrong Foundation is the sole beneficiary of this charity event, and since I have had a huge crush on Lance for about 10 years (Lance, do you mind if I call you Lance?) I phoned in to ask him some questions. (Oh, football players Jerry Rice and Carson Palmer were there too, but I didn't care about them.)

Celebrity golf tournaments are heavy on male athletes and actors, but other than Cheryl Ladd, you don't see many women celebs participating. Catherine Zeta-Jones plays in the Michael Douglas and Friends tournament, but he's her husband, so that's understandable. Anyway, I was curious to know which women would be playing in the Tahoe event. And how could I pass up a chance to speak with my longtime crush?

A bunch of writers phoned into the teleconference. As I listened in, I heard that there would be 81 golfers in the field, including Michael Jordan, Donald Trump, Ray Romano (he never misses one of these tournaments!), Matt Lauer, and Bill Crudup, who is well-known for dumping his pregnant girlfriend, Mary Louise Parker, for Claire Danes a couple of years ago, but who apparently has become a diehard golfer. Lance, who claims to not be much of a golfer, will play in the celebrity pro-am.

"I'm a big believer in mulligans," he said. "I'll use as many as they give me. I don't play much; I've played Shadow Creek in Vegas and a lot of great courses in around Austin [he's from there]. I'm going to consider a run at the game one of these days. It's a very frustrating game that takes a lot of patience, and patience is not my strongest suit. If I break 100, I'm happy."

When it came my turn to ask questions, I did my best not to gush (ohmygod I'm talking to Lance!) and asked him which women celebs would be participating. One of the event organizers said soccer legend Brandi Chastain had signed on, and that while they'd extended invitations to a lot of high profile actresses, they hadn't gotten a lot of takers. "A lot of people don't want to put their game on display," he said, referring, I guess, to female people.

Yes, even famous women get first-tee jitters.

When I asked the three athletes if it was important to them that the women in their lives play golf, I heard nothing but silence on the other end for a few seconds. Finally Lance said, "If I played more, sure, why not?" (I was hoping he'd dish about his current involvement with fashion designer Tory Burch, but no such luck. Hey, I tried.)

Jerry Rice was disturbingly honestly, admitting his wife had no interest in the game. "When I go into a golf shop or a clubhouse, my heart rate goes up. When my wife goes to the mall, her heart rate goes up."

Oh, okay. Bye. I love you anyway Lance!!!!