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AP 2006
Local Ties Annika Sorenstam's retirement announcement hit home for some Tucsonans who knew her.
"Probably my favorite Annika story was in 2006; she did a fundraiser for us. She actually came early and sat with our team for breakfast. The girls were able to do a Q&A with her here. They have the No. 1 player of all time sitting in front of them, having breakfast. She was able to share some stories about her life. In the beginning, she was very shy. When she first started playing, she didn't want to win, because she didn't want to get up and give a speech. The one thing she told every one of our girls is to stay in school and appreciate what you have. Enjoy it while you're in college, because it doesn't last very long."
— Shelly Haywood, UA women's golf coach
"I've been at the club since her freshman year at the U of A, the 90-91 season. Basically, I got to know her quite well. She played a lot of times at the club. Unequivocally, anyone who came in contact with her from a golf standpoint knew she was destined for incredible things. No one could have seen what she did.
She's done what a lot of athletes at the top of their game do. She's a savvy individual. A lot of people look at her as being one-dimensional, but she's brought so much more to the table. I think that's what it is in her mind — a little bit different direction.
Annika is truly the greatest female player, if not one of the greatest female athletes to ever play any sport."
— Michael Haywood, director of golf at Tucson Country Club
Annika Sorenstam profile
Bio
• From: Stockholm, Sweden
• Age: 37
• Family: Sister Charlotta also plays on the LPGA Tour
Career highlights
• 2005: Won 10 LPGA tournaments, 2 majors
• 8: LPGA Tour Player of the Year honors
• $22,081,561: Career earnings
• 10: Major championships
• 72: LPGA tournament victories
• One of six: Women to complete the career Grand Slam
• 2003: Played in the Colonial, a PGA tournament
UA career
Won seven titles at the UA before turning pro in 1992
• 1991: NCAA champion, NCAA Co-Player of the Year, NCAA All-American
• 1992: Pac-10 champion, NCAA All-American

Golf

Annika moving on in life

Third in LPGA Tour victories, Sorenstam leaving on her terms
By David Porter
The Associated Press
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 05.14.2008
CLIFTON, N.J. — Annika Sorenstam ignored her notes and spoke from the heart.
Sorenstam, one of golf's greatest players, was leaving the game, and she handled her retirement announcement the way she would a 10-foot birdie putt with a tournament on the line — with command and composure.
Calling her decision one she had "been thinking about for a while," Sorenstam, 37, said Tuesday she will retire after the season. She will end an LPGA Tour career in which she has won 72 tournaments to date and delivered a defining moment when she teed it up against the men on the PGA Tour.
"I have made a decision to step away from competitive golf after this season," Sorenstam, a former UA All-American, said at the Sybase Classic. "Obviously, this was a very difficult decision for me to make, because I love this game so much. But it's the right one."
Her final event will be the Dubai Ladies Masters after the LPGA Tour season ends.
"I'm leaving the game on my terms," she said.
Tiger Woods called Sorenstam "the greatest female golfer of all time" and said it was sad to see her walk away from the game.
"It has been a pleasure watching Annika play for all of these years, but even more of an honor to call her a friend," he said.
Sorenstam brought notes with her but, for the most part, did not refer to them. She drew a parallel to Brett Favre, a Green Bay Packers quarterback who announced his retirement in March.
"One of the things he said was that he loved the competition but not the daily grind," she said. "I feel the same way."
Sorenstam has hinted at retirement over the past several seasons, saying she wanted to devote more time to her growing business and to start a family. She is engaged to Mike McGee, son of former PGA Tour player Jerry McGee.
Some LPGA players who know Sorenstam well were surprised at the news.
"It really is a shock," said Natalie Gulbis, who called Sorenstam her closest friend on the tour. "Life on the tour has always been special with her. Knowing she's not going to be out there is going to be a little different."
The decision came two days after Sorenstam won the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill by seven shots for her third victory of the season, and first against a field that included Lorena Ochoa, the top-ranked woman and another former UA golfer.
"The win the other day was just a bonus, really," Sorenstam said Tuesday. "I had made this decision a while back. I was almost at peace winning on Sunday, knowing what was going to happen here today."
Sorenstam dominated women's golf like few others, especially during a five-year period when she won 43 times and finished among the top three nearly 70 percent of the time. But for all her achievements — the only woman to shoot a 59 and win 10 majors, and one of six women to complete the career Grand Slam — she became most famous for testing herself against the men.
Sorenstam became the first woman in 58 years to compete on the PGA Tour when she played at the Colonial in 2003. She missed the cut but earned worldwide respect for the way she comported herself amid massive scrutiny.
She won LPGA Tour Player of the Year honors a record eight times, including five straight seasons until Ochoa ended the streak in 2006. Sorenstam was ineffective for most of 2007, the first time in 12 years she failed to win on the tour while recovering from back and neck injuries.
She won the first tournament of this year in Hawaii, picked up a playoff victory in South Florida three weeks ago, then continued a slow rise in the world rankings toward Ochoa with a dominant victory in Virginia.
Sorenstam still faces a large deficit to reclaim the No. 1 ranking from Ochoa, although LPGA Tour players measure themselves more on winning the money title and the points-based Player of the Year award. Those are easily within reach for Sorenstam with the season not even half over.
Sorenstam's 72 victories puts her third on the tour's career list behind Kathy Whitworth (88) and Mickey Wright (82). She is tied for fourth in career majors, five behind record-setter Patty Berg.
"I'm just very happy with life," she said. "You start thinking, 'What else is more important in life, and what else do I want to achieve on the golf course?' It's been a year or so where I've just been very content."
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