COVER STORY : Sorenstam Plays Golf Too Well to Hide Her Light Under a Bushel

By THOMAS BONK

May 29, 1996 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Today’s golf question is a real puzzler, but let’s take a crack at it.

Can a nearsighted, part-time computer nerd from Sweden, who has an uncanny ability to hit a golf ball cleaner than laundry detergent, who’s got a cat named after a British naval hero, who never watches a putt drop into the hole, can this terminally shy 25-year-old find peace, happiness and a few more million dollars in endorsements by winning the U.S. Open one more time?

Well, why not? Or, as they say back in Stockholm, “varfor inte?” which either means “why not?” or “your Volvo just sank in the Baltic Sea?”

Annika Sorenstam could have avoided all the attention she’s getting as the best women’s golfer on the planet if that hole had somehow gotten out of the way of the golf ball on the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open last year at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.

Instead, the ball rolled in, which set off a remarkable chain of events, not all of them welcome. Signs that said “Well done, Annika” started popping up along the roadsides in Sweden, where she also was named athlete of the year.

But that was only the beginning. Corporate outings and other offers to play golf for money flooded into her agent’s office. Sorenstam had so many phone calls, the fiber optics started to melt. And the media were everywhere, asking such questions as, “What club did you use?,” “Do you have five minutes?” and “How do you spell Sweden?”

Pretty soon, Sorenstam became overwhelmed. She felt about as comfortable as Nelson, her cat, when he gets sprayed with water from a squeeze bottle after he hops onto the kitchen counter at home.

“It got to be too much,” Sorenstam said. “It made me sick . . . emotionally drained. In the beginning, I was really happy. In the end, it was too much. I wasn’t used to it. I wasn’t prepared. How do you prepare?”

All right, that’s understandable, but it’s clear that never has anyone felt so badly after playing so well, at least in women’s golf, and what Sorenstam did last year in that forum was unprecedented.

Women’s golf hadn’t seen anything even remotely like it since 21-year-old Nancy Lopez knocked the balata off the ball in 1978 when she won nine times.

Not only did Sorenstam win her first major championship last year, she won five other times on four continents, was the first woman to be the leading money winner on both the LPGA tour and WPG European Tour, was named player of the year and won the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average on the LPGA tour.

Other than that, it was all pretty routine. Just an average year in the life of a one-time Swedish junior tennis player with a two-fisted backhand who idolized Bjorn Borg and Mats Wilander who didn’t take up golf until she was 12 and whose coming to America was sort of a curious piece of luck.

Sorenstam was paired with a player from the University of Arizona in a tournament in Japan. The Arizona coach was there and was impressed by Sorenstam, who said sure she would come to Tucson, even though there was one small problem.

“I didn’t even know where it was on the map,” Sorenstam said. “I’m lucky I didn’t wind up in Idaho with snow up to my waist. It was a little bit of a culture shock. I hadn’t seen a cactus before.”

Sorenstam flourished at Tucson. She took to college golf like a cactus to sand. She won seven titles at Arizona, was the college player of the year and NCAA champion in 1991 and the Pacific 10 champion and the NCAA runner-up in 1992, when she also was the world amateur champion.

Sorenstam was an All-American in 1991 and 1992, which sounds odd for someone who’s about as Swedish as a sauna.

She and her fiancee, David Esch, recently bought a house in Incline Village, Nev., where they retreated at the end of the hectic 1995 golf season to escape the spotlight. The place sort of reminds Sorenstam of Sweden, only prettier.

They are also in the market for a house at Del Mar, near where Esch works at Callaway Golf, which is Sorenstam’s major sponsor. Television executive Terry Jastrow, who recently taped a Sorenstam-Dottie Mochrie match for “Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf,” said Callaway Golf founder Ely Callaway was the first to tell him about Sorenstam.

“I’ll never forget what he told me,” Jastrow said. “He said ‘In my life in golf, she hits it dead, solid more consistently than any golfer I’ve ever seen.’ And this man played with Bobby Jones!”

There is a legion of fans who firmly believe someone ought to hang a frame around Sorenstam’s swing and stick it in the Louvre. Smooth, precise, balanced, it’s a swing of beauty.

It wasn’t always that way. She used to swing a tennis racket, mostly on clay courts, but she also played soccer and volleyball and just about any sport she could. She tagged along with her parents as they played golf at a local club in the suburbs of Stockholm.

Sorenstam considers herself a late bloomer at golf, but her mother often reminds her how she was introduced to the sport.

“My mom started playing golf when she was pregnant with me,” Sorenstam said. “She always says that’s how I got the vibrations for golf.”

Sorenstam tries to make sure they remain good vibrations. A tireless worker on the golf course, Sorenstam enjoys pounding balls almost as much as whipping up a little something special out of a cookbook. And to keep track of how she’s playing golf, Sorenstam keeps a detailed record in her laptop computer, storing such information as scores, greens in regulation, number of putts, practice time and clubs hit into each hole.

She also does her accounting on the computer, makes her schedule, works on her airline reservations and sends e-mail. Actually, Sorenstam is the same with her laptop and her putts--on line.

“I love numbers,” she said.

Good. Then here are two more: 1993 rookie of the year in Europe and 1994 rookie of the year in the LPGA. If Sorenstam thought she was sneaking up on anybody, she wasn’t. Laura Davies knew from the start that Sorenstam was the real deal.

“It wasn’t hard,” Davies said. “All you had to do was look at her. She has all the ability in the world. She can drive, chip, putt, all her shots are top class. And her temperament. She’s an ice-cool Swede, one of the best talents in golf.”

Even so, Sorenstam is not without her quirks. For one thing, she doesn’t watch her putts. It’s a habit that seems to be working pretty well. Her 70.61 scoring average leads the LPGA this year. Colin Cann, Sorenstam’s caddie, helps her find the correct line. He says “Perfect” and backs away. Sorenstam hits the putt, keeps her head down and waits to hear the ball drop in the hole.

Then there is the personality issue. To put it simply, Sorenstam is shy. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing, unless you happen to be a world-class golfer dipping into tournament titles like fondue.

Sorenstam said she always has been shy. When she was young, she was so afraid of making speeches, she sometimes misplayed shots on purpose down the stretch to lose so she wouldn’t have to talk afterward.

“I think Swedish people are known for being real shy,” Sorenstam said. “You don’t want to stand out, maybe.”

Sheehan was paired with Sorenstam the first two days of the Nabisco Dinah Shore in March and eventually won, with Sorenstam finishing second.

“It’s hard for her because she’s very shy,” Sheehan said. “She’s not outgoing at all, but she’ll come out of her shell as time goes on. I think she’ll be OK.”

But Sorenstam was not OK at the end of last year. The only thing she could think about wasn’t how it felt to hold up that silver U.S. Open trophy, but how good it would feel to be skiing, far from the cellular phones. Right after her victory in Colorado, Sorenstam took three weeks off to clear her head.

It became a familiar pattern. At what should be the height of hype for her 1995 success, Sorenstam played hooky. She skipped the season-opening tournament of champions this year. As the U.S. Open begins Thursday at Pine Needles, N.C., Sorenstam will have played only six tournaments.

“I had to think about the season overall,” Sorenstam said. “I mean, I did things I didn’t think I could do in a career. Where do I go from here? The last thing I wanted to do was be burned out and be tired of golf. It’s no fun if you don’t enjoy it.

“There are other things in life that are important besides golf. I realized that now when I achieved these things, and No. 1 is being happy. When you are happy, it doesn’t matter how many tournaments you win or how much money you make. You have a life. I have one now.”

Now if she could only see better. Sorenstam wears contacts, but not always. In fact, she has been known to borrow Cann’s glasses when they’re standing there on the fairway.

The good thing about the contacts issue is that Sorenstam doesn’t look as her putts drop anyway. This weekend at Pine Needles, odds are that plenty of them will be finding their way into the hole. Maybe she will win again and the whole mad dash will start all over. In any event, Sorenstam said she’s ready.

“We’ll see,” she said. “I’ve never defended a major title before. I’m going to try to pretend it’s just a regular tournament. Besides, I’ve won it once and there’s nobody saying I’ve got to win it twice.”

Sure. In truth, everybody who can tell a Swedish meatball from a golf ball expects Sorenstam to win more majors, maybe even this one. She just doesn’t want to put any pressure on herself, not the way she feels these days.

“I am at peace,” Sorenstam said.

Until the next time. Put that in your computer and print it.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Annika Sorenstam File

PERSONAL

* Born: Oct. 9, 1970

* Residence: Stockholm, Sweden

* Joined LPGA: 1993

LPGA CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

* Victories: three 1995 U.S. Women’s Open, GHP Heartland Classic, Samsung World Championship

* Earnings: $958,042.00

* Low round: 65