Laura Baugh: a proud pro comes clean on Colonel Sanders, 'bleedouts' and living on two hours of sleep

Golf Digest, Jan, 2004 by Guy Yocom

I need only two hours' sleep a night. I go to bed at 3 or 4 a.m. and get up at 6. I listen to the radio, do the laundry, watch The Golf Channel. On Saturdays, I sleep in.

I've never owned an iron. I'm a clothes folder, one of the best ever. A person learns something in 31 years of traveling. If you were to see my clothes when they come out of a suitcase, you'd be in awe. No wrinkles, no excuses--that's my motto.

You hear players say, "My goal is to get in contention on Sunday. If I do that enough times, eventually things will go my way." They should know that eventually, things may not go their way. How do you think I finished second 10 times? If I were in their shoes, I'd play more aggressively, because there's no guarantee someone else will choke.

I'll be honest. I have my dresses and pants dry-cleaned and pressed. But I do fold everything else.

I have empathy for Anna Kournikova. I see a woman who treasures her sport and who worked harder than you can imagine. The problem is, she's pretty and tried to take advantage of that for herself and, not incidentally, her sport. That's the shame of it--the perception that she exploited her looks and never really loved the game or tried seriously to achieve her goals.

I need plastic surgery on my neck and my knees. Too much sun. I'll be careful when I need to get my face done. I don't want to walk around looking like I'm in a constant state of surprise.

You can fall out of love with a person, stop admiring them and no longer trust them, and still keep a marriage together. It happens every day. But once you lose respect for a person, it's over.

The commercial I made for Ultra Brite toothpaste won a Clio Award. Here's how it goes: A voice in the background says, "Hey, Laura Baugh, how's your love life?" And I say, "What's a love life?"

I'll bet I'm probably one of the few alcoholics who never smoked or took illegal drugs. It's a good thing, because with my personality, I would have gone overboard with them, too.

At one point I switched to beer. It didn't agree with me--made me so sick I threw up. It was monotonous: drink, throw up, start drinking again immediately, throw up. I emptied the fridge eventually, but beer wasn't my cup of tea.

Charles Schulz was the most impressive person I ever met. He was an extension of his Peanuts cartoons. He was carefree, smart, funny, athletic and a great family man. I've never met another person who was so happy being in his own skin. For all his talent, he seemed to admire everyone he met. I always envied the way Charlie looked at life, like it was all too good to be true.

Ladies, to get power you have to move off the ball laterally. Slide your upper body to your right on the backswing and you'll get some extra momentum when you move the other way. That's the key--you have to move back to your left.

At Grand Cypress, we have a rule: If you talk on your cell phone, it's a two-stroke penalty. If you're playing a better-ball match, your team loses the hole. Needless to say, nobody tries to sneak their phone onto the course.