Supermodel wants to be the next Tiger

By MARY EVERTZ

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 13, 2001

If all goes well, look for a very familiar face on the women's golf tour next year.

Gabrielle Reece, the statuesque volleyball star and international model, has taken up golf with the same drive as she has shown in other pursuits.

Reece started playing volleyball during her high school days at Keswick Christian in Pinellas County. After a very eventful collegiate career at Florida State University, she went on to model here and abroad.

She was named by Elle magazine as one of the five most beautiful women in the world. She has also made People magazine's list of the 50 most beautiful people.

Reece spent most of the past several months in Las Vegas getting pointers from golf guru Butch Harmon, the guy who coaches Tiger Woods.

The Las Vegas Review Journal reports Reece is already driving the ball 250 to 280 yards, which is a lot longer than most of the current golfers on the LPGA tour.

Harmon says he thinks Reece is a natural, and that with her strength and height advantages, she would be unbeatable.

In March, the 6-foot-3 Reece filed for divorce from her husband of three years, surfer Laird Hamilton.

From gridiron to grill

Don Shula has moved from pigskin to rawhide. The former Miami Dolphins coach keeps expanding his restaurant empire. The most recent Shula's Steak House opened June 28 in Tysons Corner, Va., near the nation's capital.

The opening brought out untold numbers of Washington football fans wanting to catch a glimpse of the former coach. It didn't hurt that Shula invited football greats Sonny Jurgensen, Jim Mandich, Roy Jefferson, Pat Fischer, Ron McDole, Ricky Ervins, Joe Jacoby and Andre Collins to his party.

Most of those attending came for autographs and then left the packed party. Those who stayed feasted on juicy steaks. "Steak is in," said Shula, who likes his medium well. The evening, which was a benefit for the American Heart Association, raised $12,000.

This is the third Shula steakhouse in the area. There's one in downtown Washington in the Foggy Bottom area and another in Baltimore. Tampa also has a Shula's.

Sen. Bob Graham, one of Shula's close pals, had to miss the opening, as he was voting on the patient's bill of rights in the Senate. Adele Graham had to miss it, too, as she was in South Florida.

Speaking of the Grahams, they spent the Fourth of July at the Martha's Vineyard home of the senator's sister-in-law, Katharine Graham. Two of their four daughters joined them there. Suzanne and Tom Gibson and their triplet daughters came up from Great Falls, Va., and Cissy and Billy McCullough and their kids came from the Boston area.

On July 20-21, the Grahams will be in Tennessee, where Graham will hold his second annual national park summit in the Great Smoky National Park near Gatlinburg.

Graham has invited Fran Mainella, Florida's former longtime director of park services, who now heads the National Park Service, to the summit.

Bello is tops

Florida-born Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey circus headliner Bello Nock has been selected as one of Time magazine's "Americans at the top of their game."

"His dazzling stunts, goofy gags and big-top hairdo have made the circus a great show again," says Time.

Nock made his debut with the circus in the Tampa Bay area in January. The Sarasota native draws raves for his versatility. His acts include swaying on a high pole, riding a motorcycle on a high wire and performing with a 9,000-pound elephant named Bo.

Nock's trademark is his bright red hair, which seems to stand straight up and stay in place, no matter how wild his stunt.

While his unit of the circus is on tour for the next two years, Nock, his wife and three children will move around the country in a 74-foot motorhome. They still own a home in Sarasota.

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