Sorenstam Has Set the Standard

By THOMAS BONK

March 28, 2002 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

RANCHO MIRAGE —

Last year, Annika Sorenstam won eight tournaments, made more money than any female golfer ever had, posted the lowest scoring average of all time, shot a 59, came from 10 shots back on the last day to win a tournament, set another record with the lowest score ever in relation to par and generally dominated the LPGA as no player has in decades.

So what do you say after you do all that?

“I was satisfied last year,” she said.

Satisfied? Most players would be pretty close to calling it a career after producing a year like the 31-year-old Swede did. When they finally finished adding everything up, Sorenstam either set or tied 30 records in 2001. It was such a good year that after years of coming close, Sorenstam won at Mission Hills Country Club for the first time.

So when the $1.5-million Kraft Nabisco Championship begins today at the layout with the lake, Sorenstam will be the defending champion with a few different goals that she might be able to crank out of that laptop she carries almost all the time.

The answer to the question of how you follow up your own act has an answer: Win more majors.

“I won eight times last year [and] it doesn’t mean I have to win nine to make it a better season,” she said. “I think that’s putting too much pressure on myself. But I have set some different goals, and one of the goals is to perform better in the majors.”

In that case, this would be a good place to start. Karrie Webb and Se Ri Pak, the other parts of the LPGA’s Big Three, are on hand to make sure it doesn’t happen. Both players showed last year that they could win majors just as well as Sorenstam, although they also managed somehow to get lost in the Sorenstam shuffle. Last year, Webb won the U.S. Open and the LPGA Championship to bring her total of major victories to five. Pak not only won five times, she also won the British Open and has three major titles in the bank.

Sorenstam, who has been playing five years longer than Pak and is seven years older, has the same number of major titles. In fact, Sorenstam’s three-shot victory over Webb, Rachel Teske, Akiko Fukushima, Janice Moody and Dottie Pepper was her first victory in a major since 1996, when she won the second of her consecutive U.S. Open titles.

Since she joined the LPGA Tour in 1994, Sorenstam has missed the cut only seven times in 160 tournaments, but three of them have been in majors, including the 1997 U.S. Open. Sorenstam blamed her early departure on putting too much pressure on herself to play well and win three in a row. She also missed the cut at the 1997 DuMaurier and at the 1999 U.S. Open, which was her last missed cut in any tournament.

She agreed that majors define a player’s career, and Sorenstam said she could do better. “Of course I’m a little disappointed I have not done as well in the majors,” she said. “Winning last year here meant a lot to me, knowing that I can do it.

“I think my game fits really well for majors. I hit a lot of fairways, I hit a lot of greens. I just think in the past, in some of the majors, I get too excited. It’s almost like I try too hard, and that’s just something I’ve had to deal with a little bit. When I tee up [today], I’m going to think it’s Thursday and I’m just going to hit one shot at a time and not think too much about Saturday and Sunday, which I have done in the past.”

The past doesn’t matter, starting today, but it is a relaxed and confident Sorenstam who defends her title. No one has repeated as champion since the tournament became a major in 1983, so there is the matter of history against her.

At least her putting won’t be against her. When she lost to Teske two weeks ago at Phoenix, Sorenstam shot a 76 on Sunday, blew a four-shot lead and lost in a playoff. Afterward, she worked with her coach, Henri Reis, and said she corrected the putting problem in about two minutes. The problem was that her hands were too far back in her motion. Still, Sorenstam wound up in the Phoenix playoff when her approach shot on the 72nd hole ran through the green and into a bunker, not because of a putt.

There is still money and possibly some history to be made, and Sorenstam seems ready for both. Look at it this way: She is already in the LPGA Hall of Fame, which she accomplished three years ago, so where exactly do you go from there?

“I’m ready to play,” she said. “The question is, is it there tomorrow? I’ll find out. But I’m ready. I’m looking forward to playing. This is what I’ve been waiting for.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

This Week

LPGA TOUR

Kraft Nabisco Championship

When: Today-Sunday.

Where: Mission Hills Country Club, Dinah Shore Tournament Course (6,460 yards, par 72); Rancho Mirage.

Purse: $1.5 million. Winner’s share: $225,000.

TV: ESPN (today-Saturday, 1-3 p.m.), ESPN2 (Sunday, noon-2 p.m.) and Channel 7 (Sunday, 2-3 p.m.).

PGA TOUR

Houston Open

When: Today-Sunday.

Where: TPC at the Woodlands, Texas (7,018 yards, par 72).