This day in sports: Annika Sorenstam first woman to tee up in PGA event in 58 years
Annika Sorenstam was one of the boys, and played better than two dozen of them on this date in 2003 when she made golf history as the first woman to tee up a ball in a PGA Tour event in 58 years.
The Swedish star of the LPGA tour shot a 1-over par 71 in the first round of the Colonial in Fort Worth. In 1945, Babe Zaharias made the cuts in both the Phoenix and Tucson opens.
“I played what I think was one of my best rounds ever,” Sorenstam said.
She trailed leader Rory Sabbatini by seven shots and missed the cut the next day by four strokes.
This week, the Dodgers would have started a three-game inter-league series with the Cleveland Indians for Friday Fireworks Night at Dodger Stadium. The Angels were scheduled to travel to Oakland for a weekend series with the Athletics. Both games were postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A look at some of the biggest moments in sports history that occurred on April 13.
Other memorable games and outstanding sports performances on this date:
1902 — Masterman, ridden by John Bullman and owned by August Belmont II, wins the Belmont Stakes by two lengths over Renald in a time of 2:22 1/2. King Hanover finishes third in a field of six horses.
1954 — Hasty Road, with Johnny Adams in the saddle, edges favored Correlation by a neck to win the Preakness Stakes. Correlation, ridden by Bill Shoemaker, had beaten Hasty Road by a head in the Kentucky Derby. A 15-minute inquiry by track stewards confirms the official results, the stewards weighing Hasty Road’s unintentional obstruction of third-place finisher Hasseyampa in the stretch.
1975 — Artis Gilmore, 7-2, scores 28 points and grabs 31 rebounds to lead the Kentucky Colonels to a 110-105 home victory over the Indiana Pacers for their first American Basketball Assn. championship. The Colonels take the best-of-seven series 4-1 with seven players scoring in double figures. Ted McLain tallies 19 points for Kentucky and George McGinnis has 31 for Indiana.
1988 — Dominique Wilkins trades basket for basket with Larry Bird in the fourth quarter of Game 7 of the 1988 Eastern Conference semifinals until the Boston Celtics escape with a 118-116 victory over the Atlanta Hawks. Wilkins finishes with 47 points and Bird has 34 — 20 coming in the fourth quarter. The teams shoot a combined 59% from the field, the second-highest mark in NBA playoff history.
1993 — In a fight advertised as the “Heavyweight Debate,” Riddick Bowe successfully defends his International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Assn. heavyweight titles — he won from Evander Holyfield in 1992 — with a second-round knockout of Jesse Ferguson at RFK Stadium in Washington. After dropping Ferguson with a left hook in the first round, Bowe unleashes a barrage of punches in the second that end the bout.
1997 — The Chicago Bulls win the lowest-scoring playoff game in NBA history, a forgettable 75-68 dumping of the Miami Heat. The 143 combined points are two fewer than the previous postseason low set by Syracuse Nationals and Fort Wayne Pistons in 1955. Miami makes only 25 of 74 shots from the field. Chicago isn’t much better, sinking 23 of 64.
2005 — In a steady rain and a stinging wind from Long Island Sound, Paula Creamer, 18, makes a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole at Wykagyl Country Club near New York City to win the Sybase Classic by one stroke over Jeong Jang and Gloria Park and becomes the second-youngest first-time winner on the LPGA Tour.
A look at what happened April 8 in sports history.
2006 — Pat Summitt is the newest millionaire basketball coach — and the first in the women’s game — when Tennessee raises her salary to $1.125 million for the next season and extends her contract through 2011-12. Summitt, 53, leads men’s and women’s coaches with 913 career wins, while guiding the Lady Vols to six national championships.
2009 — Dara Torres sets an American record in the 50-meter butterfly at a senior meet at College Station, Texas. The 42-year-old breezes in the 50, touching the wall in 25.72 seconds to beat her record time of 25.84 set in that morning’s preliminaries. Both her marks top Jenny Thompson’s American record of 26.00 seconds, recorded in Barcelona in 2003.
Sources: The Times, Associated Press
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