Sorenstam Still Best Woman for the Job

Annika Sorenstam is going to need her best game if she expects to make a respectable showing next month at the PGA Tour’s Bank of America Colonial, but she showed this weekend that on the LPGA Tour, she can win without it.

Sorenstam shot a one-under-par 71 in the final round of the Office Depot Championship Hosted by Amy Alcott on Sunday at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana and finished with a three-day total of five under, four shots better than Se Ri Pak, Heather Bowie and Pat Hurst. She won $225,000 and a new car.

It is the 43rd career victory for Sorenstam, who has such high expectations that even in victory she talked mostly about her uncharacteristically unsteady play throughout the three rounds.

Known as a solid, steady ball striker who doesn’t make a lot of mistakes, Sorenstam had four bogeys and five birdies in her closing round Sunday. She had 11 bogeys, 12 birdies and two eagles in three rounds and said she was relieved to come out on top.

“I fought so hard today and the last three days,” Sorenstam said. “My game hasn’t been on top and I fought through everything. I just hung in there and kept trying and trying. Now I can breathe and enjoy this. It’s very satisfying.”

Sorenstam has been under a media microscope since announcing her intention to accept a sponsor exemption to play in the Colonial May 22-25 in Texas. She will be the first woman since Babe Zaharias in 1945 to play a PGA Tour event.

Because she is the top woman player and in the prime of her career, a media circus has ensued. Sorenstam said it has been a factor in her erratic play since the season began, even though she finished third and second in two tournaments before winning Sunday.

“This may sound funny because it’s only April, but I’m very, very tired,” she said. “A lot has been going on the last two months. Obviously I know something big is going to happen at Colonial. I would never do it if I wouldn’t expect all this hoopla around it.”

Where it has affected her the most is in her head. Physically, she said she feels fine, but mentally she is worn out. Lapses in concentration have led to a slew of roller-coaster rounds the last two weeks, she said.

“The way I think on the golf course is very uncharacteristic to the way I normally think,” she said. “I can’t really control it, it’s just the way it goes.”

Still, her ability to rebound from those mistakes proved too good for the rest of the field Sunday. Sorenstam began the day with a two-stroke lead, but that disappeared when she made bogeys on the first two holes and was tied with Bowie.

Sorenstam rallied with birdies on Nos. 5, 6 and 7 and made the turn with a three-shot lead. She made a bogey at No. 12 and Pak, playing two groups ahead, had pulled to within a shot.

But Pak sent approach shots over the greens and made consecutive bogeys at 15 and 16 to fall three back. Sorenstam made a bogey at No. 15, but finished with two birdies for her first victory of the season after winning 19 times previous last two years.

“The way [Sorenstam] has been playing the last couple of years, she’s not gonna give up that easy,” Pak said.

Hurst, who began the day three shots behind Sorenstam, said playing catch-up was difficult on a course that yielded only five rounds in the 60s all weekend.

“I don’t know if you can be aggressive here,” Hurst said. “It’s more defensive.”

Even when Sorenstam stumbled at the beginning.

“She made the putts when she had to,” Hurst said. “She’s that type of player that when she makes a mistake, she will make it up later on.”

The LPGA is off this week and Sorenstam said she plans to get some much-needed rest. She is also reconsidering her schedule over the next few weeks leading up to the Colonial. She is scheduled to play in the Nichirei World Ladies tournament in Japan May 5-11, but is rethinking that.

“It’s a little in the air actually,” she said. “Now I’m a little cautious on my schedule so we’ll see what happens the next few weeks.”