annika sorenstam

She is one of the most successful female golfers ever. To date, she has won 69 official LPGA tournaments, including ten majors. Every year from 2000 to 2005 she won at least five tournaments and she tops the LPGA's career money list by several million dollars, with earnings of over $20 million. [1].

Sörenstam has won eight Rolex Player of the Year awards, and is the holder of various all-time scoring records, including the lowest score in a single round (59 in the second round of the 2001 Standard Register PING tournament) and the lowest scoring average for one season (68.6969 in 2004). Sorenstam has also won the Vare Trophy, given to the LPGA player with the lowest scoring average for the year, six times.

Childhood and amateur career

Born in Bro, Sweden in the Upplands-Bro Municipality outside Stockholm, As a child Sörenstam played competitive tennis and skied. At the age of 12 she switched to golf and enjoyed a very successful amateur career. She was a member of the Swedish National Team from 1987 to 1992 and played at the 1990 and 1992 World Amateur Golf Team Championships, becoming World Amateur champion in 1992. Sörenstam moved to the United States to attend college and played on the University of Arizona women's golf team where she won seven collegiate titles including the 1991 individual NCAA National Championship. She was 1991 NCAA Co-Player of the Year (with Kelly Robbins), runner-up in 1992, 1992 Pac-10 champion and a 1991-92 NCAA All-American. In 1992 she was the runner-up to Vicki Goetze at the United States Women's Amateur Golf Championship. She became a professional golfer in 1993, playing on the WPGET (now Ladies European Tour) tour.

Professional career

After turning professional, Sorenstam was invited to play in three LPGA tournaments early in 1993, finishing T38th, 4th, and T9th earning more than $47,000. She finished second four times on the WPGET tour and was named 1993 WPGET Rookie of the Year. She qualified for the LPGA Tour by tying for 28th at the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament to earn non-exempt status for the 1994 season.

In 1994, Sorenstam was named LPGA Rookie of the Year after and had three top-10 finishes, including a tie for second at the Weetabix Women's British Open. In 1995, she won her first LPGA Tour title at the U.S. Women's Open. She also led the 1995 WPGET Order of Merit and won the Jerringpriset award in Sweden, the country’s most prestigious award in sports.

In 1996, Sorenstam won four tournaments including the U.S. Women's Open again, passed the $1 million mark in LPGA career earnings and won her second consecutive Vare Trophy for lowest season scoring average. In 1997 she won 6 LPGA titles, one JLPGA title plus her home WPGET tournament, the Compaq Open in Sweden, and passed $2million LPGA career earnings. 1998 saw her became the first player in LPGA history to finish a season with a sub-70 scoring average (69.99). During 1999 she recorded her first LPGA career hole-in-one and crossed the $4 million mark in LPGA career earnings.

2000 had Sorenstam cross the $5 million and $6 million mark in LPGA career earnings. In 2001, her career started to take off. She recorded eight LPGA wins, set or tied a total of 30 LPGA records, including a 59 (-13) during the second round of the Standard Register PING. She became the first LPGA player to cross the $2 million mark in single-season earnings, and became the first player to cross the $7 million and $8 million mark in LPGA career earnings.

In 2002, she joined Mickey Wright as the only players to win 11 LPGA tournaments in one season, earned her fifth Player of the Year title and fifth Vare Trophy; set or tied a total of 20 LPGA records; won her fourth major championship title by successfully defending the Kraft Nabisco Championship; her 11-stroke victory at the Kellogg-Keebler Classic tied the LPGA record for largest margin of victory in a 54-hole event. She also became the first player to cross the $9 million, $10 million and $11 million marks in LPGA career earnings; There were also victories in the ANZ Ladies Masters in Australia and Compaq Open in Sweden on the Ladies European Tour, giving her 13 wins in 25 starts worldwide.

In 2003, Sorenstam won the McDonald’s LPGA Championship and the Weetabix Women’s British Open to become only the sixth player in LPGA history to complete the LPGA Career Grand Slam. She had 5 other victories worldwide and set or tied a total of 22 LPGA records. She became the first player to reach $12 million and $13 million in LPGA career earnings. This earned her her sixth Rolex Player of the Year award. She competed against Fred Couples, Phil Mickelson and Mark O'Meara in the Skins Game, finishing second with five skins worth $225,000; Sörenstam holed a 39-yard bunker shot on the ninth hole for eagle, only the eighth eagle in The Skins Game history. She was awarded her second Jerringpriset award in Sweden plus the 2003 Golf Writers’ Trophy by the Association of Golf Writers. The United States Sports Academy named her 2003 Female Athlete of the Year.

In 2004, she earned her seventh Player of the Year award to tie Kathy Whitworth for the most in LPGA history. On the LPGA she posted 16 top-10 finishes in 18 starts, including eight wins becoming the first player to reach $14 million and $15 million in LPGA career earnings. She took her own LPGA single-season scoring average record to 68.69696. She had 2 additional international wins.

2005 was a landmark year in Sorenstam's career. She finished finished first on the ADT Official Money List for the eighth time in her career to tie Whitworth for the most in LPGA history. She became the only player in LPGA history to sweep Rolex Player of the Year honors (8th time, an LPGA record), the Vare Trophy (her sixth) and the ADT Official Money List title five times. She joined Mickey Wright as the only players in LPGA history to win 10 or more events in two seasons.Sorenstam won 10 out of 20 tournaments entered. She became the first player in LPGA history to win the same major three consecutive years at the McDonalds’s LPGA Championship. She won her fifth consecutive Mizuno Classic title, making her the first golfer in LPGA history to win the same event five consecutive years. This all helped her to cross the $16 million, $17 million and $18 million mark in LPGA career earnings. She also won the Swedish Ladies European Tour tournament she was hosting.

She opened 2006, with a successful defense of her title in the MasterCard Classic, then went winless in eight starts, causing some to talk of a slump. She emerged to win the U.S. Women's Open in an 18-hole playoff for her 10th major championship title, tying her for third among women with the most major championship wins of all time.

Amid notable controversy, Sörenstam was invited to play in The Colonial golf tournament in Fort Worth, Texas in May of 2003, making her the first woman to play in a PGA event since Babe Zaharias, who qualified for the 1945 Los Angeles Open. Cheered through each hole, she shot a +5, tying for 96th out of the 111 who finished the first two rounds, not enough to make the cut.

She qualified for the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2000, but was not eligible for induction until finishing her tenth year on the LPGA tour, which she did in October 2003. Sörenstam was the first international player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame through the LPGA criteria.

She has been named Golf Writers Association of America Female Player of the Year 1995, 1997, 2000-05. She also won the Association of Golf Writers (Europe) Player of the Year award in 2004 and 2005.

She won the "World Sportswoman of the Year" award at the Laureus World Sports Awards in 2004. She won her last two LPGA events of that season and her first three of 2005 to equal Nancy Lopez's LPGA Tour record of five consecutive victories. Sörenstam received the 2005 ESPY Award as Best Female Athlete having previously won six outstanding women’s golf performer of the Year ESPY awards.(1996, 1998-99, 2002-04). She has been named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year 2003-2005.

She has topped the Women's World Golf Rankings since they were introduced in February 2006.

She has been a member of seven European Solheim Cup teams: 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2005. In 2006 she won the Women's World Cup of Golf for Sweden in partnership with Liselotte Neumann.

In 2004, she released a combination autobiography and golf instructional book called Golf Annika's Way.

She was ranked 91st place on Forbes 2006 Celebrity 100 list, and 89th place on the 2005 list. [2]

Professional wins

LPGA Tour

• 1995: U.S. Women's Open, GHP Classic, Samsung World Championship of Women's Golf
• 1996: U.S. Women's Open, CoreStates Betsy King Classic, Samsung World Championship of Women's Golf
• 1997: Chrysler Tournament of Champions, Cup Noodles Hawaiian Open, Longs Drugs Challenge, Michelob Light Classic, CoreStates Betsy King Classic, ITT LPGA Tour Championship, Hisako Higuchi Kibun Classic
• 1998: Michelob Light Classic, ShopRite Classic, JAL Big Apple Classic, Safeco Classic
• 1999: Michelob Light Classic, New Albany Golf Classic
• 2000: Welch's/Circle K Championship, Firstar Classic, Evian Masters, Jamie Farr Kroger Classic, Japan Airlines Big Apple Classic
• 2001: Welch's/Circle K Championship, Standard Register PING, Kraft Nabisco Championship, Office Depot Championship Presented by HP, Chick-fil-A Championship, BMO Canadian Women's Open, Cisco World Match Play Championship, Mizuno Classic
• 2002: LPGA Takefuji Classic, Kraft Nabisco Championship, Electrolux Championship, Kellogg's Classic, Evian Masters, ShopRite Classic, Williams Championship, Safeway Classic, Samsung World Championship, Mizuno Classic, ADT Championship
• 2003: Office Depot Championship Presented by HP, Kellogg Classic, LPGA Championship, Women's British Open, Safeway Classic, Mizuno Classic
• 2004: Safeway International, Office Depot Championship Presented by HP, LPGA Corning Classic, LPGA Championship, John Q. Hammons Hotel Classic, Samsung World Championship, Mizuno Classic, ADT Championship
• 2005: MasterCard Classic, Safeway International, Kraft Nabisco Championship, Chick-fil-A Championship, Shoprite Classic, LPGA Championship, John Q. Hammons Hotel Classic, Samsung World Championship, Mizuno Classic, ADT Championship
• 2006: MasterCard Classic, U.S. Women's Open, State Farm Classic

LPGA Majors are shown in bold.

Other

• 1994 Holden Australian Open Championship (ALPG Tour)
• 1995 Australian Masters (ALPG Tour), OVB Damen Open (Ladies European Tour (LET)), Hennessy Cup (LET)
• 1996 Trygg-Hansa Ladies' Open (LET)
• 1997 Compaq Open (LET)
• 1998 Compaq Open (LET)
• 2002 ANZ Ladies Masters (co-sanctioned by ALPG Tour and LET), Compaq Open (LET)
• 2003 Nichirei Cup (LPGA of Japan Tour),
• 2004 ANZ Ladies Masters (co-sanctioned by ALPG Tour and LET), HP Open (LET)
• 2005 Scandinavian TPC (LET)
• 2006 Women's World Cup of Golf (team event with Liselotte Neumann; recognised by all the main women's tours, but not an official money event), SAS Scandinavian TPC (LET)

In addition to the eleven Ladies European Tour events listed above, Sorenstam's wins in the Evian Masters in 2000 and 2002 and the Women's British Open in 2003 also count as European Tour wins as the events are co-sanctioned by the LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour, giving her 14 wins on the Ladies European Tour in total.

Results in LPGA majors

^ The Women's British Open replaced the du Maurier Classic as an LPGA major in 2001.
DNP = did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied for place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

LPGA Tour career summary

* As of September 4, 2006.

Solheim Cup Record

See also

• Golfers with most LPGA Tour wins
• Golfers with most LPGA major championship wins
• List of Swedish sportspeople
• LPGA

External links

• LPGA bio page
• LET bio page
• Annika Sorenstam at Golf Stars Online Links to feature articles, interviews, her career statistics etc.