Yard stick

Sorenstam's driving goal is to see how she measures up

There is, like it or not, some significant sociological importance to the next few days in Fort Worth. There may even be some historic significance in there somewhere.

You can debate, if you'd like, exactly how much there is. Heck, you can debate whether it should be a debate at all. Go ahead. Please. This thing is made for debate. This is water cooler nirvana.

But as Annika Sorenstam takes on the good ol' boys this week at the Colonial Invitational, as she butts in to try to beat the men at their own little game, as everybody tiptoes around the gender "issues" and offers up their own guesses as to how well Sorenstam will do, we'd best remember what this is really all about.

And that is this: A superb athlete, the best of her kind, is trying to see how she stacks up against the best of any kind.

Forget the sociological or historic implications for a moment. Forget the public relations angle, whether it's the tournament angling for a few more eyes or Sorenstam looking for some better endorsement deals.

This is about the best woman golfer in the world -- maybe the best woman golfer ever -- competing against the best she can find.

"I, personally," Sorenstam said Tuesday, "feel like I've got nothing to lose."

There is a lot going on this week at the Colonial, and a lot of people are paying attention. After all, it's something that hasn't happened in 58 years -- a woman playing on the men's tour. So, naturally, everybody has something to say. Or something to argue about.

Should she or shouldn't she be playing in a men's tour event?

How will she do? What if she bombs? What if she doesn't? What about the men she beats?

What's this mean for women athletes everywhere?

"I'm 52. When I was growing up as a tomboy, the question very much in play was 'Should girls play sports?' That question has very much been put to rest. The question now is 'How far can they go?'" says Mary Jo Kane, the director for the University of Minnesota's Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. "Annika is the first real test of that 21st century question."

Women, of course, have played with the boys before. Women have played on the PGA Tour before. Babe Zaharias was the last, in 1945 at the Los Angeles Open. So, historically, Sorenstam is breaking no ground.

But on the heels of the brouhaha at the Masters over Augusta National's refusal to admit women members into its club, Sorenstam taking a sponsor's exemption to play in the Colonial has become historic in its own way.

Granted, there are more women in the wings. Suzy Whaley is scheduled to play in Connecticut later this summer at the PGA Tour's Greater Hartford Open. Teenager Michelle Wie is scheduled to play on a Nationwide Tour stop in Boise, Idaho. By the time the summer is over, women playing in men's events may be practically ho-hum.

But this ... this is the best woman golfer in the world. Doing something that hasn't been done, on a golf course, in a generation.

And Vijay Singh says she doesn't belong.

"I think that's just indicative of two things," says Dr. Martha Burk, the head of the National Council of Women's Organizations and the one who spearheaded the protests against Augusta National in April. "One is that there's still a good deal of misogyny in the culture that comes out in different ways. I think it indicates that.

"And two, boys in this culture, and in all cultures all around the world, one of the most humbling things in the world is to be beaten by a girl, or a woman, in anything. I think he articulated that."

Sorenstam says she hopes to shoot par on the par-70, 7,080-yard layout at the Colonial Country Club. It's a tight course that supposedly favors her game.

Shooting par, of course, won't win the tournament. But it would get her past the 36-hole cut and allow her to play on the weekend. And that, really, is what Sorenstam is after.

She wants to be tested, against the best, under tournament conditions. And then she wants to resume playing on the LPGA Tour, where she can take the lessons she learned this weekend and continue to smack the heck out of her competition there.

Back in 1986, Nancy Lieberman stepped onto a court to play against men in the United States Basketball League. That was a little different than what Sorenstam will be facing -- "Nobody's going to be out there blocking her tee shot," Lieberman says -- but there are plenty of similarities, as well.

For one, both Sorenstam and Lieberman longed for more competition as a way to better themselves.

"We should applaud her for wanting to distance herself," Lieberman says. "People are saying 'What are you doing this for?' I mean, wake up! I knew it would prepare me for when I had to play against women.

"I think she's going to learn a lot about her game. She'll have tremendous growth. She'll have to think it differently."

If nothing else, the fact that Sorenstam has simply accepted this challenge is noteworthy. She could shoot badly and miss the cut, which would open her up to all sorts of criticism.

But she could shoot par, or around it. And that would open a lot of eyes.

Lieberman, who has run basketball camps for some 20 years, likes to tell the story of how her friend Michael Jordan challenged her to a game of one-on-one during one of her camps. In front of all the campers.

After fighting the urge to find a way out of it, Lieberman agreed. And Jordan, as you might expect, beat her pretty badly.

"The minute I said 'Yeah, I'll play you,' I was a winner," Lieberman said. "[Afterward], Michael told everybody 'She'll never play anybody better than me. She became a better ballplayer today because she played me.'

"I say, don't be afraid to challenge it. I'd tell Annika: Don't be afraid to get out there and grip it and rip it. That's what I teach young kids."

Sorenstam, by many people's figuring, may be overmatched at the Colonial. She'll certainly know soon enough.

But one thing is clear already. She won't be afraid. And that's a lesson for everyone. Man and woman, boy and girl.

"For Annika, I think the sense is 'I have, in effect, mastered my level of my game. Now I want to kick it up a notch and see where I match up, compared to the best golfers in the world,'" Kane says. "To me, that's what sports is all about. I climb the mountain because it's there.

"I admire her courage, and I wish her well. And I think tons of women, and men, do as well."

There should be no arguing that.

John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com.

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