At the range, it’s hard-core for Rawson. After hours, it’s easy. “I like to focus all my energy into the time. I don’t go there to mess around and hang out. At the same time, I think it’s important to get out of it, go out with my friends, have a good time.”

It’s a fair bet that, once Rawson has proved herself on the course, at the highest level, her looks will guarantee a potentially mould-breaking profile. “I’m trying to avoid that whole Anna Kournikova stigma: ‘She’s hot, but she can’t play.’ So if I have a year on the Futures Tour, earn my card, get some wins under my belt, then I’ll be ready, come out firing straight away. I’m going to be so driven because everyone’s going to be talking about how I can’t play. I’ll have that drive to prove it and get better.”

A victorious, world-beating Rawson can only be good news for the game as we’d like to see it played in a GolfPunk universe of genius, staunchness and freedom from arsey-ness. She gets hacked off when the dress-code establishment comes on all heavy. “My brother is 25, really cool, into fashion, loves golf. But he won’t play regularly because he gets told off if his shirt’s not tucked in or he’s wearing a trucker hat. And, really, he’s the future of the game.”

Rawson herself is no stranger to reactionary sartorial nonsense: “When I play in America and I’m wearing the short shorts, they’re having a go at me: ‘Have you seen the dress code?’ But why get angry at me? I’m just trying to help the game and they’re trying to shut me down. I feel like, when I’m out there, I stand out like a sore thumb – I don’t feel like I fit in – and I think golf is a very classy game in itself. We have a more relaxed attitude in Australia towards sex. So maybe that’s why it’s not a big deal to see a girl playing golf in a bikini in Australia.”

Rawson says she has no problem tipping her cap at tradition but, at the same time, there’s no disguising her punked-up revolutionary zeal: “The old-school golf is cool – but at the same time you’ve got to move with the generations, move with the times. We’re not wearing long skirts any more, you know. Adjust. I want to break barriers.”

Story by Mike Hodgkinson

Photos by Graham Kuhn
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