Sorenstam Waves Off Firing 73

Annika Sorenstam, who seemed exceptionally relaxed all week at Oakmont, remained stress-free despite shooting a final-round 73 and blowing a five-shot lead over Terry-Jo Myers.

“I’m not worried about my game,” she said. “Golf is a funny game. Sometimes you can’t explain it.”

Perhaps Sorenstam’s plans over the next few weeks are what has her so relaxed.

She is playing in next week’s Hawaiian Ladies Open, but will skip the Australian Ladies Masters the following week so that she and her husband, David Esch, can honeymoon in Bermuda.

Sorenstam and Esch were married five days before to the season-opening Tournament of Champions, which Sorenstam won, but spent the next three weeks on business-related trips.

After the honeymoon, Sorenstam will rejoin the tour at Tucson, March 13-16.

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Sorenstam could have used a little sisterly advice.

Charlotta Sorenstam, Annika’s younger sister, who is in her rookie season on the LPGA Tour, carded a final-round 68.

Charlotta made the cut by one shot, at 149, after opening with rounds of 75-74, but finished the tournament tied with four others for 32nd place, 11 strokes behind winner Terry-Jo Myers and nine behind sister Annika.

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Local favorite Emilee Klein, whose parents are members at Oakmont Country Club, lost some of her gallery when she hit into a tree on the eighth hole and ended up with a bogey.

One spectator was heard saying, “I was going to follow her, but that ends that,” as he walked away from the eighth green.

But a loyal following of about 50 stayed with Klein, including 11-year-old Lauren Huhnerkoch, who was with her father, Gary, and was wearing a shirt reading “Emilee Klein Fan Club.”

Huhnerkoch is from Burnsville, Minn., and has been following Klein since 1993, when she saw her at an LPGA Tour stop in Minneapolis, where Klein qualified as an amateur.

She usually only saw Klein live at the Minneapolis event thereafter, but saved her allowance for a year so she could travel to a different tournament this year.

Klein finished with four birdies on the back nine and came in tied for eighth place, six strokes behind Myers.