Oregon a Sight for Sorenstam Eyes

All right, she’s nearsighted. But you can be sure that Annika Sorenstam has no trouble seeing the golf history laid out in front of her. When the U.S. Women’s Open begins next week at Pumpkin Ridge in the cornfields of Oregon, Sorenstam has a chance to do what no other woman has done since they started playing it in 1946--win the Open for a third consecutive year.

Now, who is going to say she can’t?

Sorenstam, the 26-year-old from Stockholm, isn’t exactly short in the confidence department right

now, not with four victories in 13 events and leading the money list.

And if that’s not enough, Sorenstam says she is looking for help from someplace else.

“I’m hoping for a little luck,” she said. “It’s always possible, you know, the way I’ve been playing this year. It’s given me a lot of confidence. I’m going to give it 100%. If I don’t achieve it, as long as I know I gave 100%, that’s all I can do.

“I still won it twice, and I’m not talking about retirement yet, so I have a chance coming up, anyway.”

So far, Sorenstam has made the most of her U.S. Open chances. In 1995, she won at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs when nobody thought she could, and she won again in 1996 at Pine Needles in Southern Pines, N.C., when everybody thought she could.

That sort of runs the gamut of expectations, which once again are running high in her favor. Mickey Wright, who won Opens in 1958-59, placed herself in Sorenstam’s corner.

“There is no one who is more worthy of winning three in a row than Annika,” Wright said.

After her breakthrough Open triumph at The Broadmoor, Sorenstam became a virtual recluse for a while when she was unable to adjust to all of the attention, but she is much more comfortable with her celebrity now. Part of the reason for her adjustment trouble is she never expected her success to happen quite this way.

“I have to kind of pinch myself and realize that it’s true,” Sorenstam said. “I never really thought that I could have playing golf at a professional level, have your hobby as a job. I grew up reading about Nancy Lopez and Betsy King and Patty Sheehan, my role models, and then, you know, you come out here and you play against them and once in a while you beat them.

“It’s really a nice feeling, but it’s also hard to believe. I can’t believe it myself.”

But is three in a row possible? Sorenstam is keeping an Open mind.

MORE SORENSTAM

Sorenstam is taking this week off before the Open, which probably couldn’t come at a better time for her on the schedule. In 13 events this year, Sorenstam has won four and finished in the top three nine times.

She is a combined 91 under par in her 13 tournaments, averages about two under for her 47 total rounds and $60,113 per tournament. With $781,463 in winnings, her lead is nearly $175,000 over No. 2 Karrie Webb.

Since her first U.S. Open victory, Sorenstam has played 40 events and won 10.

DALY UPDATE

John Daly may not be on a first-name basis with bean sprouts just yet, but after completing a five-day session at a sports nutrition and fitness center in Florida, he probably knows he isn’t speaking a foreign language if he says French fries.

At least Daly showed progress. He reduced his fat intake by 50% by cutting out most junk food, he scaled back his diet soda intake from 15 cans a day to two and he reduced his smoking from three packs a day to about one.

Daly also played tennis, exercised on a treadmill and did stomach crunches to build up his abdominal muscles.

What he didn’t do was hit a golf ball. That comes next week when he shows up at the Callaway Golf test center in Carlsbad.

As for his diet-fitness routine, the follow-up plan is for Daly to fill out a form detailing his smoking and eating habits and fax it to the Florida fitness center each week.

There is no timetable for his return to the PGA Tour, except he certainly will miss the British Open at Royal Troon in two weeks.

GET THE POINTS?

It has been a chaotic year at the top in the world ranking system, where the No. 1 player has changed six times in the last 11 weeks.

The only constant is that it always seems to return to Greg Norman. In the last three months, the No. 1 position has gone from Norman to Tom Lehman to Norman to Tiger Woods to Ernie Els and now back to Norman.

There are four players within one point of Norman’s 10.22 ranking--Els, Woods, Colin Montgomerie and Nick Price.

The ranking is based on a two-year “rolling” period of points awarded for players’ performances. Important tournaments are worth more points, and points accumulated in the current 52-week period are doubled.

For instance, Els can earn points this month for an event such as the Andersen Consulting World Championship as well as the British Open.

Each player is ranked according to his average points per tournament, determined by dividing his total points by his tournaments over a two-year period.

If it sounds confusing, it is. But Els said there is only one thing to remember: The bottom line about the world ranking is the bottom line.

“Most of the players pay a lot of attention to it,” Els said. “Some try to downplay it a little bit, but I don’t.

“Sponsors, organizers, tournaments, they all take the ranking into consideration. The higher you are, the better deal you get. Bonuses, fees, contracts, a lot of deals are based on rankings.

“I don’t care who you are, if you’re No. 50 and you win a major or two, your ranking goes up and, believe me, you pay a lot of attention to that.”

TROON DAYS

The last time the British Open was played at Troon was in 1989, when Els was a 19-year-old amateur from South Africa. He missed the cut.

Els said he doesn’t remember many of the holes at Troon, but he has a good reason.

“I was only there for two days,” he said.

HE’S ARNOLD

Yes, Arnold Palmer finished 68th, the lowest of anyone who made the cut at the U.S. Senior Open at Olympia Fields.

No, even though he is 67, Palmer isn’t about to say goodbye.

As he walked off the course, Palmer was asked if he had just played his last round in Chicago.

“It’s certainly not my last appearance, unless I fall dead going up this walk,” he said.

MONEY NEWS

For what it’s worth, Norman’s victory at Memphis represented a monetary milestone for the 42-year-old superstar.

He became the first player to pass $11 million in earnings. He now has won at least one tournament in each of the last six years, since the 1992 Canadian Open.

Norman has 17 PGA Tour victories. Sam Snead’s 81 victories were worth a total of $620,126.

PEARL JAM

There are only three LPGA players who have won more than once this year: Sorenstam, Michelle McGann and the surprising Terry-Jo Myers.

Myers hadn’t won since 1988 but then passed Sorenstam on the last day to win the Los Angeles Women’s Championship at Oakmont Country Club in Glendale in February.

Myers, who won the Sara Lee Classic in May, has come back from a decade-long battle with interstitial cystitis, a bladder disease. A movie project and a book deal about her comeback are in the works, she said.

Myers is going to defend her title next February at Oakmont, where the biggest news isn’t a $650,000 purse but a $1-million pearl necklace that will be given to the first person who aces the 14th hole.

Myers already has developed a game plan.

“I’m going to play the 14th hole 54 times,” she said. “That’s the only hole I want to play.”

BIRDIES, BOGEYS, PARS

Classic golf? “Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf” begins its summer series of legendary matches Tuesday from 6-7:30 p.m. on ESPN with a 1995 Tom Watson-Jack Nicklaus match from Pebble Beach. The other matches are July 15, Phil Mickelson-Els from 1995 in the Canary Islands; July 22, Sorenstam-Dottie Pepper from 1996 at Kiawah Island; Aug. 4, Nick Faldo-Norman from 1994 in Sunningdale, England, and Aug. 11, Nicklaus-Palmer from 1994 at Pinehurst. . . . How to capitalize on success: For Graham Marsh, who has two victories in two weeks with one of them the U.S. Senior Open, it’s a matter of good timing. Marsh just announced he is breaking into the golf course design market in the United States. . . . U.S. Junior Amateur qualifying will be held Tuesday at Los Coyotes Country Club in Buena Park. The 98th SCGA Amateur championship will be played July 18-20 at Lakeside Golf Club in Toluca Lake. California Amateur champion Jason Gore of Valencia is part of a field of 96 in the 72-hole stroke-play event. Others expected to compete are former three-time SCGA Amateur champion Craig Steinberg, 1996 California Amateur champion Mark Johnson, 1996 U.S. Amateur Public Links champion Tim Hogarth and 1996 SCGA Senior Amateur champion Ralph Rubenstein. Details: (818) 980-3630. . . . The Fathers of St. Charles charity tournament will be played Monday at Oakmont Country Club. The event benefits the Villa Scalabrini Retirement Center and Special Care Unit in Sun Valley. Details: (818) 768-7500. . . . Titleist, which pulled more than $1 million in ads from Sports Illustrated in April in a protest over coverage of women’s golf, has ended its boycott. . . . Ryder Cup captain Tom Kite is the spokesman for Chrysler’s Junior Golf Program that will award 40 $1,000 scholarships to students ages 12-18. Details: (800) 586-0764. . . . Pacific Bell is the title sponsor of the Campanella Golf Classic, which will be played Nov. 10 at Riviera Country Club. The event benefits the Roy and Roxie Campanella Physical Therapy Scholarship Foundation.