24 Famous Golfers Who Were Photographed in the Nude

Golfers getting naked — on camera. Yes, it has happened, and some of the biggest stars in the game have done it. But don't get too excited by our headline: We aren't going to post any of the photos here. We'll just tell you about the golfers who've gone au naturel on camera.

Also keep in mind that in almost all the cases below, the golfers are actually semi-nude. Which is to say, while they might not be wearing any clothes in the photos (or are only partially dressed), their, ahem, naughty bits are strategically covered by a draped arm or the camera angle or such.

Related products: Golf novelty items

Calendar Girls

Jan Stephenson: Stephenson was an LPGA star in the 1970s and 1980s who openly embraced the "sex sells" approach to marketing, and urged her tour mates to do the same. You can't say Stephenson didn't follow through on her own advice: A photo of her nude in a bath tub, covered only by golf balls, made the 1986 Maxfli calendar in which it appeared a very popular item in golf shops.

Sophie Sandolo: Sophie Sandolo was a longtime member of the Ladies European Tour (in fact, as of 2020 she ranked 11th on the LET's career money list) and was also on the Big Break Ka'anapali season of the Golf Channel television show. Sandolo appeared in several years worth of calendars in the early 2000s, a period she was supplementing her golf income with modeling. In those calendar photos, she was sometimes "strategically" nude, other times actually nude.

Top Shots: Women of Professional Golf 2007 Calendar: The idea behind this calendar was noble — raising money to fight breast cancer. The way the Australian golfers (all ALPG members at the time) went about it caused controversy: many of them appeared topless (but strategically covered). Those included Nikki Garrett, Sarah Kemp, Sarah-Jane Smith, Tamara Beckett, Marousa Polias, Crystal Fanning, Carlie Butler and Belinda Kerr.

ESPN the Magazine: The Body Issue

The Body Issue of ESPN the Magazine debuted in 2009 and appeared annually through 2019. The sports network's print publication pitched it as a way of appreciating the work that goes into being a pro athlete, and also the toll it can take. But let's be real: It was a marketing gimmick intended to rival the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

Kudos to ESPN the Magazine, however, for not limiting the athletes pictured to a narrow age group, or body type, or gender. They were very inclusive in selecting the athletes who appeared. In almost all cases, the athletes pictured were fully nude but, again, the "naughty bits" were hidden through various means.

These are the pro golfers who appeared in the ESPN Body Issue by year:

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue

Natalie Gulbis: In the 2012 Swimsuit Issue, Gulbis, already famous as a calendar girl, appeared in body paint. She was fully nude, and the obscuring tricks were partially done away with. Gulbis was all there. But she had "bikinis" painted onto her body, so it appeared as if she was wearing something. She wasn't.

Paige Spiranac: Spiranac appeared in the 2018 Swimsuit Issue in various bikinis and swimsuits. However, she was topless in several of the photos (but with well-placed arms).

Hacked and Leaked

We wouldn't normally give publicity to nude photos stolen from someone's phone. But in these two cases, the theft and the photo(s) have been publicly acknowledged. We recommend that you don't go searching the Web for these (we're not sure they are even findable still, since we took our own advice and didn't look) because any sites still posting are probably ones you should avoid for fear of malware or other bad stuff.

Tiger Woods: Woods and his former girlfriend of three years, ski legend Lindsey Vonn, apparently enjoyed texting one another nude photos. And good for them: They're adults. Whatever floats your boat. But Vonn's phone was hacked and photos (and in Vonn's case, videos) were stolen. Tiger is full-frontal in at least one of them. Vonn released a statement addressing the theft. Woods has filed lawsuits against websites displaying his photo.

Paige Spiranac: Spiranac was the victim of revenge porn when an ex-boyfriend showed acquaintances topless photos Spiranac had sent him in 2016. At least one of the photos eventually appeared online.

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