Nobility in Her Grand Design

This is how the week ended for Annika Sorenstam: As she walked past the packed grandstand on her way to the 18th green Sunday afternoon at Mission Hills, the fans cheered and rose to their feet ... even though her ball had rolled off the back of the green and into the water.

Thus, Sorenstam became one of the few players ever saluted with a standing ovation for drowning her golf ball on the last hole of a major championship.

And just like that ball, which sank quickly and disappeared in a green pond, Sorenstam’s chances for a sweep of all four majors this year were officially all wet.

Realistically, they probably had disappeared on Friday, when she shot a 76 in the wind and dropped nine shots off the lead at the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

In any case, this isn’t the time to criticize Sorenstam.

Actually, the proper approach is to shake her hand, pat her on the back and say thanks for livening things up around here.

When did it become cool to play it safe, risk nothing, go for the ordinary, order vanilla every day and sort of bland yourself around the golf course?

You’ve got to hand it to Sorenstam, who said before she even teed it up this week that she was going for it all, that her goal was to win the Grand Slam this year. That’s not just shooting for the stars, it’s taking on the entire galaxy.

So when she wound up tied for 13th after a second consecutive 69, Sorenstam wrapped up the week in a nice bow and put a big smiley-face stamp on it. She said she didn’t consider her week a failure and she wasn’t going to beat herself up.

She said it’s not as if now, all of a sudden, she can’t play anymore simply because she fell short. Unless Sorenstam and everyone else were greatly mistaken, she wasn’t the only one. The only player who won a major Sunday was Grace Park.

Sorenstam did say she was disappointed she didn’t play better. But she certainly wasn’t disappointed about her Grand Slam goal and letting everyone know about it Tuesday, two days before the first major was to begin.

Here is a player who has already been inducted into the Hall of Fame. What else is there to do? Is there a Super Hall of Fame?

Besides, Sorenstam said if she has done everything, then why is she even playing?

That’s the real reason she laid out her Grand Slam plan. And even though it didn’t work out, there’s a positive to the negative, she said. It’s going to get her fired up to work harder and play better. That’s the whole idea of setting high goals, she said.

That’s also why you saw Sorenstam going for the green with her second shot at the 18th. There wasn’t a good reason not to try. She hit the middle of the green, but she couldn’t stop the ball after it bounced a couple of times and it took off toward its watery destination.

If she had made par, Sorenstam would have broken into the top 10. If she had made birdie, she would have tied for seventh. That’s not winning, but it’s a lot better than it looked Saturday morning when she started the day tied for 37th.

How ingloriously that third round began for Sorenstam -- a 7:40 a.m. tee time, the first group off in the morning and starting at the 10th tee with about a dozen fans on hand.

At least the stands were packed when she finished playing Sunday.

And so it goes. Sorenstam doesn’t have any time to waste before she tees it up again. She leaves today for Orlando, Fla., to play Tuesday in the $1.4-million Tavistock Cup, a new event for pro players who live at the country clubs at Lake Nona and Isleworth.

She is guaranteed $50,000 and could make more than $100,000 if her team wins the event, which is the brainchild of IMG, her management company.

On Wednesday, Sorenstam jets back to the West Coast and to play Thursday in the pro-am at the LPGA’s Office Depot at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, then tees it up Friday when the tournament begins.

If that sounds busy, it is. Come to think of it, isn’t Sorenstam the same person who said six days ago she was going to cut back on her playing commitments? Maybe her new golf goals also figure in a degree of difficulty involving frequent flier conflicts.

After next week, she can start filling in the holes in what’s left of her Grand Slam plans. There are three more to go this year, and Sorenstam vows to be at them all, grinding away, going for broke, shooting the works. Winning majors is what it’s all about, she says, and that’s not going to change just because this one didn’t work out.