Natalie Gulbis
Golfer Natalie Gulbis may not be used to wearing collared shirts and khakis on the putting green, but she stripped down to nothing but body paint for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition this year. Reuters

Golfer Natalie Gulbis may not be used to wearing collared shirts and khakis on the putting green, but she stripped down to nothing but body paint for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition this year.

Natalie Gulbis appears in just body paint for the 2012 SI Swimsuit Edition with a green-and-white polka dot bikini painted onto her muscular frame. The green was meant to resemble grass and the white dots were the golf balls.

It was very cool that Sports Illustrated specifically had designed a suit for the shoot for me, said Gulbis. It was bright green with white golf balls on it. It was a string bikini with these beautiful pink ribbons.

I thought the process would take a couple hours... but 12 hours later they were still painting me. The process was incredible. It was just an incredible experience. I can't believe how much work and detail goes into this body paint.

Though the pro-golfer felt like she was naked the entire time and we nervous about the body paint. But when she looked at the final product, she saw what looked like a full bikini. The Sports Illustrated team was very excited to shoot me today and I think you feed off their energy, she said.

Natalie Gulbis poses alongside two other female athletes - Alex Morgan and Natalie Coughlin - in the body paint. Though it might sound quite scandalous, the artists did such a fantastic job that it truly did look like clothing.

I loved the way that you can't see anything but you're kind of revealing a little bit, said Morgan. I was really happy and definitely willing to do this.

I felt like it was art... I didn't feel like I was naked at all, she added. Sometimes I would get uncomfortable and then I'd look at myself in the mirror and say 'Oh! I'm fine. I have a swimsuit on.'

Gulbis' polka dot bikini stood in contrast to Morgan's geometric-patterned one and Coughlin's aquamarine monokini with a wave-pattern.

Last year, cover girl Kate Upton (who was 2011's Rookie of the Year), stepped under the paint brush and wore the body paint suit for the issue.

Check out photos and videos from this year's SI Swimsuit Edition body-painted beauties here.