Sorenstam
to retire this year
CLIFTON, N.J.
(AP) - Annika Sorenstam ignored her notes and spoke from the
heart. One of golf's greatest players was leaving the game, and
she handled her retirement announcement the way she would a 10-foot
birdie putt with a tournament on the line.
With command
and composure.
Calling her decision
one she'd "been thinking about for a while," Sorenstam
said Tuesday she will retire after the season. The 37-year-old
Swede ends an LPGA Tour career in which she has won 72 tournaments
to date and delivered a defining moment when she teed it up against
the men on the PGA Tour.
"I have
made a decision to step away from competitive golf after this
season," she said at the Sybase Classic. "Obviously
this was a very difficult decision for me to make because I love
this game so much. But it's the right one."
Her final event
will be the Dubai Ladies Masters after the LPGA Tour season ends.
"I'm leaving
the game on my terms," she said.
Tiger Woods called
Sorenstam "the greatest female golfer of all time"
and said it was sad to see her walk away from the game.
"It has
been a pleasure watching Annika play for all of these years,
but even more of an honor to call her a friend," he said.
Sorenstam brought
notes with her but, for the most part, did not refer to them.
She drew a parallel to Brett Favre, but was not overcome by emotion
as the Green Bay Packers quarterback was when he announced his
retirement in March.
"One of
the things he said was that he loved the competition but not
the daily grind," she said. "I feel the same way."
Sorenstam has
hinted at retirement the past several seasons, saying she wanted
to devote more time to her growing business and to start a family.
She is engaged to Mike McGee, son of former PGA Tour player Jerry
McGee.
"I respect
Annika for wanting to go out on top," LPGA commissioner
Carolyn Bivens said. "I'm surprised with the timing, but
it's the way she wants to do it. In the long run, she'll have
just as much of an impact outside the game of golf, if not more."
Even some LPGA
players who know Sorenstam well were surprised at the news.
"It really
is a shock," said Natalie Gulbis, who called Sorenstam her
closest friend on the tour. "Life on the tour has always
been special with her. Knowing she's not going to be out there
is going to be a little different. Knowing Annika as well as
I do, she'd love to have it end storybook, going out at No. 1."
The decision
comes two days after Sorenstam won the Michelob Ultra Open at
Kingsmill by seven shots for her third victory of the season,
and first against a field that included Lorena Ochoa. It was
a sign that Sorenstam had fully recovered from injuries and was
poised to make a strong bid at recapturing her stature as the
best in women's golf.
"The win
the other day was just a bonus, really," said Sorenstam,
who threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the New York
Mets hosted the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night. "I
had made this decision awhile back. I was almost at peace winning
on Sunday, knowing what was going to happen here today."
Sorenstam dominated
women's golf like few others, especially during a five-year period
when she won 43 times and finished among the top three nearly
70 percent of the time. But for all her achievements - the only
woman to shoot 59, 10 majors and one of six women to complete
the career Grand Slam - she became most famous for testing herself
against the men.
Sorenstam became
the first woman in 58 years to compete on the PGA Tour when she
played at the Colonial in 2003. She missed the cut, but earned
worldwide respect for the way she comported herself amid massive
scrutiny.
She won LPGA
Tour player of the year a record eight times, including five
straight seasons until Ochoa ended the streak in 2006. Sorenstam
was ineffective most of 2007, the first time in 12 years she
failed to win on the LPGA Tour, as she recovered from back and
neck injuries.
She won the first
tournament of the year in Hawaii, picked up a playoff victory
in South Florida three weeks ago, then continued a slow rise
in the world rankings toward Ochoa with a dominant victory in
Virginia.
Sorenstam still
faces a large deficit to reclaim the No. 1 ranking from Ochoa,
although LPGA Tour players measure themselves more on winning
the money title and the points-based player of the year award.
Those are easily within reach for Sorenstam with the season not
even half over.
She said Ochoa's
ascendance did not make her want to continue playing.
"Lorena
is playing some fantastic golf, but that doesn't motive me to
keep on going," she said. "I enjoy playing with Lorena.
She's definitely taking the tour to a higher level. She was a
lot of fun last week, and I think we're going to have more of
those type of events in the coming months."
Sorenstam's 72
victories put her third on the tour's career list behind Kathy
Whitworth (88) and Mickey Wright (82). She is tied for fourth
in career majors, five behind record-setter Patty Berg.
But those kind
of marks never appealed to Sorenstam, even when she was winning
at least 10 times during a season. She often talked about stopping
sooner than people imagined to pursue other interests, whether
that meant her affinity for cooking or fitness.
Sorenstam opened
a golf academy last year near her home in Orlando, Fla., also
launching her brand ("Annika") and a Web site. Sorenstam
plans to marry next spring.
"I'm just
very happy with life," she said. "You start thinking,
'What else is more important in life, and what else do I want
to achieve on the golf course?' It's been a year or so where
I've just been very content and I felt like when I came back
from the injury, I've proven to myself that I can do it and it's
a special feeling."
She is not the
first LPGA Tour star to retire early. Wright, whom many regard
as the best, stopped playing a full schedule when she was 34
and won the last of her 82 tournaments at age 37.
At the end of
the '07 season, Sorenstam felt she had arrived at "the back
nine of my career."
"I've done
a lot, and I'm satisfied in a lot of things," she said.
"I've achieved so much more than I ever thought I could."
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