Gulbis started finding interest in the game at the early age of 4 years old. By the time she reached 7 years old, she had won her first tournament. In three years, at age 10, she was breaking par. She played in her first LPGA tour event as an amateur at the age of 14 years old. She attended Granite Bay High School and graduated when she was 16 years old. She turned professional at age 18 after playing for one season on the women's golf team at the University of Arizona. Gulbis did not win a tournament in the first five years of her professional career but still finished sixth on the LPGA money list in 2005 with over $1 million (U.S.) in earnings and played on the winning United States Solheim Cup team. She placed in the top 10 in four consecutive major championships from the 2005 LPGA Championship to the 2006 Kraft Nabisco Championship. Gulbis' first professional win came in 2007 at the Evian Masters where she defeated Jeong Jang in a play off to claim the winner's share of the $3,000,000 purse.
