Paula Creamer was wearing a small pin on her collar. It was the American flag, the stars and stripes. The presence of the pin was appropriate when the 17-year-old wunderkind, who is competing this week in the LPGA's BMO Canadian Open near Niagara Falls, was asked if it would help women's golf if the next big star comes from the United States.
"Definitely," said Creamer, an amateur from Pleasanton, Calif. "There should be some Americans.
"I mean, they're coming, there are a lot of them. The most important thing is that it promotes golf. But it would be nice. I hope it happens."
In recent years, the highest-profile players on the LPGA Tour have been from outside North America. Annika Sorenstam is from Sweden. Se Ri Pak is from Korea. Karrie Webb is from Australia.
That obviously has its advantages for golf globally. As American Meg Mallon said this week: "We are the only tour that guarantees the best player from every country is playing against each other every week. Not even the PGA Tour can say that, because they have the European tour and the Canadian tour and the Asian tour.
"With our level of skill and the players from all over the world, the LPGA Tour is where they want to be. It's a competitive environment and a great experience for North Americans to learn all these other cultures."
That said, the LPGA is based in the United States.
Not that the U.S. and Canada have failed to produce quality players. But in terms of an image that transcends the sport, women's golf is awaiting its Tiger Woods.
That would seem to put a lot of pressure on someone like Michelle Wie, the 14-year-old whiz-kid from Honolulu who is not playing in the Canadian Open. But while some already have connected Wie to Tiger, others are predicting Creamer has the potential to shake up the sport, too.
Creamer has accepted the fact she usually gets lumped in with Wie in any discussion about the future of women's golf.
"Yeah, I guess that's fine," said Creamer, who made the cut at the Canadian Open with a one-under-par total of 143 through two rounds. "It just depends on how you look at it."
How you look at women golfers, and whether that's important, often is a point of debate.
Tour player Natalie Gulbis, a 21-year-old native of Sacramento, has put out a calendar that features sexy swimsuit shots. Gulbis, who increasingly is being compared with tennis player Anna Kournikova, says most of the LPGA players and tour executives who have seen the calendar approve, although the United States Golf Association prohibited her from selling it during the U.S. Open last week.
Conversely, it was well advertised yesterday around the Legends on the Niagara course that Gulbis would be available to autograph her calendar in the main pro shop.
"It's just proving women can be attractive and really good athletes, too," Gulbis said. "I don't mind being compared (with Kournikova). She has done a lot of positive things for women's sports."
Not everyone agrees with that. But Charlottetown's Lorie Kane has no problem with the approach Gulbis is taking.
"Natalie is so personable and she's fun," Kane said. "Let's face it, she's very attractive, and guys like to come out and watch her, young guys, old guys, so it's great. I think it's wonderful the way Natalie in particular carries herself."
Others try different methods to stand out. Jennifer Rosales, a 25-year-old from the Philippines nicknamed "J-Ro," is easy to spot because of her funky wardrobe.
"I try to express myself with the way I dress," Rosales said. "It won't hurt people trying to dress up like me, and it's good for the tour, too. But that doesn't mean if the other players don't dress like me, it's bad. I'm just trying to make a statement for myself, not for anybody else."
In the end, the only lasting statements that can be made are on the golf course. The competition has to be exciting and engaging, regardless of what people are wearing. And a lot of that may be left to players like Creamer and Wie.
An American superstar would give women's golf a jolt of electricity in the cut-throat world of professional sports. With that in mind, Creamer was asked if she feels she's being pushed to turn pro at such a tender age, rather than going to college.
"It all depends on what a girl wants, or sometimes it's a case of what the family wants," said Creamer, who has played in four pro events. "No matter what I do, I'm going to get my degree, because I love school. It's going to be tough, but it's good to have those kinds of decisions, knowing your game's good enough to play out here and win."
While Creamer is bursting with the confidence of youth, she doesn't have everything completely figured out yet.
"I'm a pretty aggressive player and it takes a lot for me to lay up," she said.
"It's not really in my vocabulary. But I'm learning how to control it.
"Sometimes there's a need to be aggressive and sometimes there's not, so I'm learning which one is which."
The same thing can be said about the LPGA.
