The USC win touched off a ripple effect that reached back to Australia. “I got invited to the Australian Open as an amateur,” she says. “But I missed the cut.” The word, however, was out. Back at college, during her final year, the legend of Rawson gained momentum. “My friends would walk into the fraternity house and see people Googling me. So they created my website, to see how many hits I could get in a month.”

Last year, 2004, she played her first tournaments as a pro, finishing fifth in a strong field at the Orient Masters in Beijing, China. “No one expected me to make first stage, so I shocked everyone. I was riding on confidence a lot. I hit the ball great and I had a great time. The Chinese love the fashion. They wanted me to wear ‘sexy’ – they were telling us to wear shorter.”

In 2005, Rawson will play the Futures Tour, the official developmental tour for the LPGA, and if all goes to plan with a top-five finish, she’ll get her card at the end of the year. “My swing’s there,” she says. “It’s just having that mental competitive edge. I never played summer tournaments because I was so burnt out at college and I never had a coach or anything. I wasn’t the stand-out player until the Nationals, when I really applied myself, so I never really gave golf my full attention.”

Now, she’s full-on, coached in LA’s San Fernando Valley by Brady Riggs, and has re-jigged her fitness routine to complement the game: “I used to run a lot, and now I don’t run anymore. I walk – because I walk when I play golf. ‘Practice like you play.’ It’s amazing how much you can get in tune with it. I’m obsessed with getting better and stronger. I used to be stick-thin but now my jeans are too tight around the butt because I’m getting the butt muscles. I love working out my body for golf.”

There’s no denying Rawson’s fighting spirit and fierce work hard, play hard approach to life. She’s as Australian as her hero, Greg Norman, who has produced wineries and clothes as well as some of the greatest shots the game has ever seen. “For me, golf is a job, it’s work,” she says. “I treat it like a nine-to-five. After five o’clock, I try not to talk about it. People see it as a game, and as fun, but to me it’s my job. I want to make it, I want to be the best at it, so I’ve got to work hard. It kind of consumes my life.”

» Anna Rawson part 3