TEMPUS Magazine redefines time, giving you a glimpse into all things sophisticated, compelling, vibrant, with its pages reflecting the style, luxury and beauty of the world in which we live. A quarterly publication for private aviation enthusiasts.
Issue link: http://tempus-magazine.epubxp.com/i/156069
L VIGNETTES Artistic Drive PROFESSIONAL GOLFER SANDRA GAL'S ART TAKES HER ON A DIFFERENT COURSE // BY Steven Tingle While Gal may prefer paint brushes to golf clubs, the golf course is her day-to-day working canvas. (LEFT) The Red Chair, acrylic on canvas. (BELOW) P H O T O G R A P H C O U R T E S Y O F C A L L AWAY G O L F GE R M A N E N GI N E E R I N G BORN IN DUSSELDORF, GERMANY 28 YEARS OLD 6' TALL TURNED PRO IN 2008 1 VICTORY SCORING AVG: 71.7 54TH - WORLD RANKING LET'S GET THE OBVIOUS OUT OF THE WAY: Sandra Gal is gorgeous. Not gorgeous in the "girl next door" or "farmer's daughter" way but gorgeous in the tall, dark, European, could be sitting at a baccarat table next to James Bond kind of way. As a Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour player, Gal (pronounced Gahl) is also good at her job. In 2011 she checked off her frst LPGA win at the Kia Classic, and last year she made twenty-three out of twenty-six cuts, placed third in the U.S. Women's Open, and pocketed close to $600,000 in winnings. It's also obvious that the frst half of Gal's 2013 season has been less than stellar. But that's easily attributed to a couple of early-year swing modifcations she worked through with swing coach Gary Gilchrist that have been slow to take hold. In golf nothing is automatic and you have to get a little worse before you can get a lot better. But going into the LPGA's fall schedule, Gal is confdent. "My foundation is now much more solid," she says. "It's just a matter of putting the scores together." Now for the not so obvious. Gal is thoughtful and introspective and like most only children, comfortable being alone. Her hobbies, like her job, refect her individualism. She used to dance, act, and wakeboard, and now she plays the violin and the piano and recently started singing lessons. But her frst love is painting. It's fairly well known that Gal began playing golf at an early age. For her ffth birthday she unwrapped a set of plastic clubs. But she had begun painting two years earlier. Not fnger painting or randomly swirling watercolors across notebook paper, but actually painting, with someone who knew what she was doing. "A friend of the family was studying art," says Gal, who grew up in Düsseldorf, Germany, "and she introduced me to it, and started painting with me." Although her early interest in golf ran hot and cold—Gal admits that she didn't take the game seriously until she was fourteen—painting was a constant. "As I grew up, it was a good way to spend time by myself." And that constant remains true today. Although she is often on the road, worrying about swing tempo and greens speeds and young South Koreans who often seem unstoppable on the golf course, Gal is never without drawing paper and at least a few pencils. "It's relaxing and calming," she says. "But I don't do it to relax per se, I do it because I enjoy it." As the LPGA Tour prepares for its late-year swing through Korea, China, and Malaysia, Gal hopes her art can do some good and open checkbooks at the pre-tournament proam auctions. "Most players bring a club or some golf-related item to auction off for charity, but I'm going to bring some of my paintings that hopefully people will want to buy." No doubt they will. She didn't take golf seriously until she was fourteen—painting was a constant. Fall 2013 . Tempus-Magazine.com 27