Fear never told Sorenstam what she couldn't accomplish
It was just like Annika Sorenstam to start dropping hints about retiring right after one of the most spectacular seasons in LPGA history.
"I don't think I'll play another 10 years because I have a lot of other interests," she said in November 2002, a year in which Sorenstam won 13 tournaments and was in contention nearly every week.
Most of the people in women's golf saw a 32-year-old coming into her prime and figured it was simply fatigue talking at the time. One of the few exceptions was Judy Rankin, already a Hall-of-Famer herself and then, as now, a TV analyst. Maybe that's why Rankin's first reaction upon hearing the news Tuesday was, "This would be very much like Annika to get on top and then quit."
Sorenstam has three wins this season and is currently No. 2 in the rankings, trailing recent sensation Lorena Ochoa, after struggling for most of 2007 while recovering from back and neck injuries. But more than Rankin's prescience suggests the Swede will regain the No. 1 spot before the season ends and the rest of her life - starting a family perhaps, pursuing her business and culinary interests for certain - officially begins.
Sorenstam does nothing halfhearted and little else without a plan. Not just the time, but the place she chose for her formal retirement announcement proved that.
It came two days before she tees off at the Sybase Classic in New Jersey, a couple of par-5s from the New York media market. A few hours later, Sorenstam threw out the first pitch at the Mets game and Wednesday night she was scheduled to read the "Top Ten List" on the Late Show with David Letterman. In two weeks, she'll play hostess once again at the Ginn Tribute, which should see a nice bump at the gate.
Lest anyone forget what's most important to her, however, Sorenstam spelled it out in her news conference.
"Last but not least," she said after thanking her fiancee, caddie, agent, sister, coach, sponsors, friends, reporters and fans, "there's still plenty of golf to be played. "I have another seven months left, and my goal is to win tournaments.
"Many tournaments," she added.
Sorenstam has won 72 already, including 10 majors and a career Grand Slam, been the only woman to shoot 59 and the first in 58 years to compete on the PGA Tour when she played at the Colonial in 2003. She was looking for a challenge then, and when Michelle Wie began taking about qualifying for the PGA Tour, someone asked Sorenstam whether she, too, was interested in playing against the men.
"I haven't thought about qualifying," she said coyly, "but if I got an invite, I would say yes in a heartbeat."
Agent Mark Steinberg's cell phone started ringing almost immediately and soon after that, she settled on Fort Worth. Sorenstam played with precision and enviable poise the first two days before missing the cut. At her best, finessing her way around a tough golf course that her male counterparts merely overpowered, she turned out to be just good enough to reach the middle of the pack. Trying to hang on at anything less than her best eventually wore her down.
"I'm glad I did it, but this is way over my head," Sorenstam said. "I wasn't as tough as I thought I was."
There was no convincing golfers on the LPGA tour of that. Sorenstam picked up where she left off, but the buzz generated by her gender-bending weekend failed to last. She knew there was no future measuring her game against men, and only so much upside continuing to do so against women.
Passing Mickey Wright (82 career wins) and Kathy Whitworth (88) on the all-time career win list apparently isn't enough to motivate Sorenstam to stay; ditto for Patty Berg and her 15 career majors. That seems strange, since Sorenstam actually rose to the top echelons of Sweden's state-sponsored junior sports programs as a tennis player, but abandoned that game at age 16, once she realized she couldn't dominate it, and only then switched to golf.
Back in 2002, when most of her competitors doubted Sorenstam would actually leave without ownership of every important mark in the women's game, she said, "That doesn't mean much to me. I don't want somebody to ask, 'How many tournaments did Annika Sorenstam win?' I would rather they say she was a great athlete, she loved sportsmanship and she loved what she did."
That love was rekindled by, of all things, the injuries that made Sorenstam's 2007 campaign the first in a dozen years she failed to win even once on the LPGA Tour; that, and perhaps the emergence of Ochoa as a worthy rival. Sorenstam had already ushered out most of the great players of one generation - Karrie Webb, Juli Inkster and Laura Davies, among others. The chance to reclaim her spot at the top as a new generation takes over proved irresistible, no matter if it only lasts a few months more.
Sorenstam was asked later Tuesday how she wanted to be remembered.
"As somebody that enjoyed the competition and the challenge. I wasn't afraid to push myself. That," she said finally, "is important to me."