Long Last Day Gets Away

There was a definite act of finality to it, as Annika Sorenstam reached her car in the players’ parking lot, when it became certain her clubs were destined for the bottom of a darkened trunk and not a place in the sunshine, next to the record book.

It took Sorenstam four days, 54 holes and 212 shots to look like somebody who could win a record sixth consecutive tournament and then three holes and about 35 minutes to look like somebody who didn’t have a chance.

“I was in great shape. Unfortunately, my wheels came off early,” she said.

A last-day charge fizzled in the 36-hole marathon Sunday at the Michelob Ultra Open, where Sorenstam ran off the road with a bogey, par, double bogey start in the last round, just after she had moved to within shouting distance of the leaders at Kingsmill Resort & Spa.

Sorenstam was a victim of a numbers game. She had too many of them and plenty were putts.

Sorenstam crept to within six shots of Cristie Kerr during the third-round morning session with a 69, but wound up 10 shots behind tournament champion Kerr in a tie for 12th after her three-over 74 in the fourth-round afternoon portion of the doubleheader.

Her 76-67-69-74 added up to a two-over total of 286 and was the first time in 25 tournaments that she has played over par, since the 2003 John Q. Hammons tournament in Broken Arrow, Okla.

It wasn’t her finest week. After showing up here with a streak of 43 rounds of par or better, Sorenstam played two of her four rounds over par.

And this thing about not winning is unusual for Sorenstam, at least lately. The last time Sorenstam played in a tournament and didn’t win was October at the CJ Nine Bridges Classic in South Korea, where she tied for second.

But after winning two in a row to end 2004 and three consecutive to start this year, then coming up empty here, Sorenstam’s scheduling could come into question.

This was her first tournament in five weeks, dating to her victory in late March at the Kraft Nabisco Championship at Mission Hills. She said the layoff didn’t affect her at all.

“I’m not going to find any excuses for it,” she said. “It was totally me. I just didn’t putt very well. I missed a few shots out there, a few mistakes. I couldn’t read the greens and then [caddie] Terry [McNamara] had a difficult time also. Put that together and you’re not going to make a lot of putts, unfortunately.”

Sorenstam made only 10 birdies in 72 holes. But if majors are still what drive Sorenstam, then her hiccup here might not be long remembered.

She’s playing next week at Atlanta and, one week after that, at the Corning Classic. Then after another week off, she plays two majors -- the McDonald’s LPGA Championship and the U.S. Women’s Open -- in a span of three weeks.

“Now I’m going to play, and I’m looking forward to it,” she said. “Besides, a lot of good things happened out there. It’s just I couldn’t put it together.”

The end came quickly enough, and quite unexpectedly. At the first hole of the fourth round, Sorenstam missed the green to the left and made a bogey -- only her second in the last 39 holes.

It got worse at the 485-yard, par-five No. 3. She had a simple explanation for what went wrong.

“I hit a lot of bad shots,” she said.

Her bad drive sailed to the right and into the rough, then her second found more rough. Sorenstam topped her third shot and the balled rolled into the high grass.

She missed the green with her fourth shot and the ball dropped into a bunker at the back of the green. Forced to take an awkward stance with one foot in the sand and one foot out, Sorenstam left the ball short of the green. From there, she chipped on and one-putted.

Sorenstam had rolled a seven. As far as double bogeys go, this was an ugly one, but that’s sort of the way the week went for Sorenstam, who went looking for history and found misery.

In the end, she would have to settle for sharing the LPGA record of five consecutive victories with Nancy Lopez, something that Sorenstam had no trouble handling.

“It’s tough to win out here once. You have to be happy about that,” she said. “Here I won five times. You can’t take anything for granted.

“I did win five times even though I’m disappointed I didn’t win here, I start over and maybe do another streak.”