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Sorenstam completes dream season Swede heats up to reclaim scoring mark
Karrie Webb may have won the season-ending Tyco/ADT Championship on Sunday, but Annika Sorenstam wasn't too upset about finishing second, especially since she fulfilled her goal of shooting a final-round 65. On Saturday night Sorenstam sat in her room at the luxurious Mar-a-Lago Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., dreaming of a 7-under par round. Trailing Webb by five shots, Sorenstam thought that score might be good enough to win her ninth event of the year. But that wasn't the motivation behind her thinking.
However, after making a triple bogey on the final hole Saturday, even Sorenstam thought her chances of breaking the record were slim. The miscue definitely didn't put her in a good mood. "There's a lot of water on the hole and I think we dropped my ball 20 times near the green," Sorenstam said. "It was no fun. I'd been playing well and leading the tournament and [recording a 7] just ruined my day." When Sorenstam opened her final round Sunday with a bogey, her quest for the scoring record did not get any easier. But even though she was only 1 under through eight holes, she remained positive. When you've shot a 59, it's easy to think you could close with six birdies over the final 10 holes. "I felt like I was playing good. I was feeling so comfortable out there," Sorenstam said. "I felt the wind -- it was strong like the previous days, but for some reason I liked this wind better. The holes were playing more to my favor than it has been the last few days." Sorenstam started her assault on the record by birdieing three of the next four holes. On the 496-yard, par-5 15th, she knocked a 7-wood to 12 feet and slam-dunked the putt for an eagle 3, getting her two strokes closer. The tournament out of reach with Webb at 9 under, Sorenstam turned her focus to the scoring mark. Only one more birdie stood in her way. On the 16th hole, she pulled out a driver instead of the 3-wood she had used all week. She would settle for a par. "I wasn't afraid. I mean, I had nothing to lose. I knew I had a chance," Sorenstam said. "I looked at the pin, just fired at it." And that's exactly what she did on the par-3 17th. Her 8-iron shot settled just four feet from the cup. Sorenstam knocked in the simple birdie, but her work was far from over. To maintain her 7 under, she would need a par on 18 -- the same hole that caused her stomach to turn the day before. Sorenstam safely hit the 18th green in two and two-putted for her par and a 7-under 65, giving her a season average of 69.42 -- .01 better than Webb's mark. "I'm walking on clouds," Sorenstam said afterward. "I pretty much knew what I had to shoot today. Knowing the conditions and the course, I knew it would be a tough thing to do. But I wasn't going to let it go if I had a chance. To play the back nine in 5 under is a miracle." The second-place finish also assured her of becoming the first women's golfer to earn $2 million in a season. But Sorenstam's joy was in the scoring record, which seemed more important than the money title or the Player of the Year award, the fourth of her career. "[Setting the scoring record] finishes off my checklist," Sorenstam said. "I wanted to win Player of the Year, scoring average and money list. This is No. 1 on my priority. I had a goal of winning 10 tournaments; I won eight. But Korea got cancelled, which I intended to play. So who knows? But those were my main goals this year. Shooting 59 was not really a goal of mine, but I've always talked about shooting 54. That was really close to it." Sorenstam's biggest compliment came from her archrival Webb, who wasn't sad about seeing her record fall, considering who broke it. "You know, she really wanted to be the best. She went out and did it," said Webb. "I'm happy for anyone who puts in that amount of work and does what she's done this year." Tom Hanson, a regular contributor to Sports Illustrated's Golf Plus section, is a longtime caddie on the LPGA Tour. Click here to send him a question or comment.
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