Sports

ANNIKA SORENSTAM GOES OUT IN STYLE

By Harry King/SPORTS COMMENTARY
Friday, May 23, 2008 11:32 PM CDT

LITTLE ROCK — Choosing family over flop shots and parenting over putting. Why, the gall of Annika Sorenstam, deciding to quit playing a game and start living a life as close to normal as possible for a person who is recognizable and rich.

She has explained her decision simply and eloquently: "I have a lot of dreams that I want to follow," she said last week.

She is getting married in January, she has various business interests, her own foundation, and is in the process of starting her own clothing and equipment line.

At the risk of being labeled a sexist, it should be pointed out that she wants to begin a family and that she will turn 38 before the end of the year.

From afar, Sorenstam has always been pure class. I remember that she handled that whole thing at the PGA Tour's Colonial Invitational in splendid fashion, and the archives filled in some blanks.

It began in January 2003 when a reporter asked her about playing in a men's event. She said she would love to participate and, suddenly, she had 10 invitations.

She chose Colonial with the frank assessment that she would not have a chance to compete in about 90 percent of the men's events because of the emphasis on bombing the tee shot. Even at Colonial, with a premium on accuracy, she was behind the 8-ball. On the second day of the tournament, she had 135 yards for her third shot to the green on the 565-yard opening hole and playing partner Dean Wilson two-putted for a birdie.

She finished the 36 holes at 5-over 145 and missed the cut by four shots. She was applauded on every hole and she cried when it was over. Talking to 800 media members, she said, "It was a great week, but I've got to go back to my tour, where I belong. I'm glad I did it, but this is way over my head."

If only Michelle Wie had been as honest.

For the LPGA, Sorenstam's retirement comes at a bad time, short-circuiting a rivalry that had the look of the real thing. In 12 tournaments this year, Lorena Ochoa - the new No. 1 - has won six times and the old No. 1 has won three times. It was only last year that Sorenstam, bothered by injuries, failed to win an LPGA event for the first time since 1994. Add in two victories by Paula Creamer this year and you have a Big Three that could have rivaled Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.

The PGA Tour's semblance of a rival for Tiger Woods is a collection of players in their 20s.

Not everybody will accept Sorenstam's promise to quit cold turkey.

During the weekend, the host of a national radio show proposed that Sorenstam take off five or six years, give birth to a couple of children, and then return.

In six years, she would be in her mid-40s, Ochoa would be 33 and Creamer would be 28. At least two or three others in the Top 10 on the money list will be 30 or less and there is no telling how many other youngsters will be proficient by that time.

Like Nicklaus and others, Sorenstam is not interested in teeing it up unless winning is a possibility.

Sorenstam is not the first great female player to retire early.

Betsy Wright recorded the last of her 82 career victories at 37, but quit playing a full schedule three years earlier. Nancy Lopez was in her mid-30s when she began cutting back to concentrate on raising her three daughters.

Sorenstam is leaving on her terms. Good for her. It's been a heckuva run and now it's time for her to succeed at something else.

Print this story   |   Email this story