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:<nowiki>*</nowiki> As of [[July 6th]] 2006.
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==Solheim Cup Record==
==[[Solheim Cup]] Record==
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Revision as of 13:21, 21 July 2006

Annika Sörenstam
File:Sorenstam15.jpg
Personal information
Sporting nationalitySwedish plus U.S. Citizenship
ResidenceIncline Village, Nevada, USA
Career
CollegeUniversity of Arizona

Annika Sörenstamⓘ (born October 9, 1970) is a Swedish professional golfer and is arguably the greatest female golfer ever.

Background and Amateur Career

Born in Bro, Sweden in the Upplands-Bro Municipality outside Stockholm, Annika Sörenstam as a kid was an extremely good tennis player and downhill skier. At the age of 12 she switched to playing golf and enjoyed a very successful amateur career. She was a member of the Swedish National Team from 1987 - 1992 during which time she played at the 1990 and 1992 World Amateur Golf Team Championships, becoming World Amateur champion in 1992. Studying in the United States, she played on the University of Arizona women's golf team where she won seven collegiate titles including the 1991 individual NCAA National Championship. She was 1991 NCAA Co-Player of the Year (with Kelly Robbins), and runner-up the following year, 1992 Pac-10 champion and a 1991-92 NCAA All-American. In 1992 she was the runner-up to Vicki Goetze at the United States Women's Amateur Golf Championship. She became a professional golfer in 1993, playing on the WPGET (now Ladies European Tour) tour.

Professional career

Annika was invited to play 3 LPGA tournaments early in 1993, finishing T38th, 4th, and T9th earning more than $47,000. She finished 2nd four times on the WPGET tour and was named 1993 WPGET Rookie of the Year. She qualified for the LPGA Tour by tying for 28th at the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament to earn non-exempt status for the 1994 season.

In 1994, Sorenstam was the Rookie of the Year on the strength of three top-10 finishes, including a season-best tie for second at the Weetabix Women's British Open. In 1995, she won her first LPGA Tour title at the U.S. Women’s Open, making her one of 14 LPGA players to have the Open as her first LPGA career victory. She became the second non-American player to be Player of the Year, and she is the only player besides Nancy Lopez to have won Rookie of the Year and then the Player of the Year and the Vare Trophy the following year. She also led the 1995 WPGET Order of Merit and won the Jerringpriset award in Sweden, the country’s most prestigious award in sports.

In 1996, Sorenstam won four tournaments,passed the $1 million mark in LPGA career earnings and won her second consecutive Vare Trophy for lowest season scoring average. In 1997 she won 6 LPGA titles, 1 JLPGA title plus her home WPGET tournament, the Compaq Open in Sweden, and passed $2million LPGA career earnings. 1998 saw her became the first player in LPGA history to finish a season with a sub-70 scoring average (69.99). During 1999 she recorded her first LPGA career hole-in-one and crossed the $4 million mark in LPGA career earnings.

2000 had Sorenstam cross the $5 million and $6 million mark in LPGA career earnings. In 2001, her career started to take off. She recorded 8 LPGA wins, set or tied a total of 30 LPGA records, including a 59 (-13) during the second round of the Standard Register PING. She became the first LPGA player to cross the $2 million mark in single-season earnings, and became the first player to cross the $7 million and $8 million mark in LPGA career earnings.

In 2002, she joined Mickey Wright as the only players to win 11 LPGA tournaments in one season, earned her fifth Player of the Year title and fifth Vare Trophy; set or tied a total of 20 LPGA records; won her fourth major championship title by successfully defending the Kraft Nabisco Championship; her 11-stroke victory at the Kellogg-Keebler Classic tied the LPGA record for largest margin of victory in a 54-hole event. She also became the first player to cross the $9 million, $10 million and $11 million marks in LPGA career earnings; There were also victories in the ANZ Ladies Masters in Australia and Compaq Open in Sweden on the Ladies European Tour, giving her 13 wins in 25 starts worldwide.

In 2003, Sorenstam won the McDonald’s LPGA Championship and the Weetabix Women’s British Open to become only the sixth player in LPGA history to complete the LPGA Career Grand Slam. She had 5 other victories worldwide and set or tied a total of 22 LPGA records. She became the first player to reach $12 million and $13 million in LPGA career earnings. This earned her her sixth Rolex Player of the Year award. She competed against Fred Couples, Phil Mickelson and Mark O'Meara in the Skins Game, finishing second with five skins worth $225,000; Sörenstam holed a 39-yard bunker shot on the ninth hole for eagle, only the eighth eagle in The Skins Game history. She was awarded her second Jerringpriset award in Sweden plus the 2003 Golf Writers’ Trophy by the Association of Golf Writers. The United States Sports Academy named her 2003 Female Athlete of the Year.

In 2004, she earned her seventh Player of the Year award to tie Kathy Whitworth for the most in LPGA history. On the LPGA she posted 16 top-10 finishes in 18 starts, including eight wins becoming the first player to reach $14 million and $15 million in LPGA career earnings. She took her own LPGA single-season scoring average record to 68.69696. She had 2 additional international wins.

2005 was possibly Sörenstam's best year ever. She finished first on the ADT Official Money List for the eighth time in her career to tie Whitworth for the most in LPGA history. She became the only player in LPGA history to sweep Rolex Player of the Year honors (8th time, an LPGA record), the Vare Trophy (her sixth) and the ADT Official Money List title five times. She joined Mickey Wright as the only players in LPGA history to win 10 or more events in two seasons.Sorenstam won 10 out of 20 tournaments entered. She became the first player in LPGA history to win the same major three consecutive years at the McDonalds’s LPGA Championship. She won her fifth consecutive Mizuno Classic title, making her the first golfer in LPGA history to win the same event five consecutive years. This all helped her to cross the $16 million, $17 million and $18 million mark in LPGA career earnings. She also won the Swedish Ladies European Tour tournament she was hosting.

On July 3, 2006 after so many near-misses in one of golf's most prestigious events, Sörenstam defeated Pat Hurst in an 18-hole playoff to win her third U.S. Women's Open golf Championship, 10 years after winning her 2nd U.S Women's Open Golf Championship.

Annika Sörenstam is one of the most successful female golfers ever. To date, she has won 68 official LPGA tournaments (see list below), including ten majors. Every year from 2000 to 2005 she won at least five tournaments and she tops the LPGA's career money list by several million dollars, with earnings of over 19 million dollars [1].

She has won eight Rolex Player of the Year awards, and is the holder of various all-time scoring records, including the lowest score in a single round (59 in the second round of the 2001 Standard Register PING tournament) and the lowest scoring average for one season (68.6969 in 2004). Sorenstam has also won the Vare Trophy, given to the LPGA player with the lowest scoring average for the year, six times.

Amid notable controversy, Sörenstam was invited to play in The Colonial golf tournament in Fort Worth, Texas in May of 2003, making her the first woman to play in a PGA event since Babe Zaharias, who qualified for the 1945 Los Angeles Open. Cheered through each hole, she shot a +5, tying for 96th out of the 111 who finished the first two rounds, not enough to make the cut.

She qualified for the LPGA Tour and World Golf Hall of Fame in 2000, but was not eligible for induction until finishing her tenth year on the LPGA tour, which she did in October 2003. Sörenstam was the first international player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame through the LPGA criteria.

She has been named Golf Writers Association of America Female Player of the Year 1995, 1997, 2000-05. She also won the Association of Golf Writers (Europe) Player of the Year award in 2004 and 2005.

She won the "World Sportswoman of the Year" award at the Laureus World Sports Awards in 2004. She won her last two LPGA events of that season and her first three of 2005 to equal Nancy Lopez's LPGA Tour record of five consecutive victories. Sörenstam received the 2005 ESPY Award as Best Female Athlete having previously won six outstanding women’s golf performer of the Year ESPY awards.(1996, 1998-99, 2002-04). She has been named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year 2003-2005.

She has topped the Women's World Golf Rankings since they were introduced in February 2006.

She has been a member of seven European Solheim Cup teams: 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2005. In 2006 she won the Women's World Cup of Golf for Sweden in partnership with Liselotte Neumann.

In 2004, she released a combination autobiography and golf instructional book called Golf Annika's Way.

Professional wins

LPGA Tour

LPGA Majors are shown in bold.

Other

  • 1994 Holden Australian Open Championship (ALPG Tour)
  • 1995 Australian Masters (ALPG Tour), OVB Damen Open (Ladies European Tour (LET)), Hennessy Cup (LET)
  • 1996 Trygg-Hansa Ladies' Open (LET)
  • 1997 Compaq Open (LET)
  • 1998 Compaq Open (LET)
  • 2002 ANZ Ladies Masters (co-sanctioned by ALPG Tour and LET), Compaq Open (LET)
  • 2003 Nichirei Cup (LPGA of Japan Tour),
  • 2004 ANZ Ladies Masters (co-sanctioned by ALPG Tour and LET), HP Open (LET)
  • 2005 Scandinavian TPC (LET)
  • 2006 Women's World Cup of Golf (team event with Liselotte Neumann; recognised by all the main women's tours, but not an official money event)

In addition to the ten Ladies European Tour events listed above, Sorenstam's wins in the Evian Masters in 2000 and 2002 and the Women's British Open in 2003 also count as European Tour wins as the events are co-sanctioned by the LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour, giving her 13 wins on the Ladies European Tour in total.

Results in LPGA majors

Tournament 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Kraft Nabisco Championship DNP DNP DNP T24 T2 T8 T7 T7 T17
LPGA Championship DNP DNP DNP 10 T14 3 T30 T16 T12
U.S. Women's Open T64 DNP DNP 1 1 CUT T41 CUT T9
du Maurier Classic DNP DNP T22 T45 T6 CUT 2 DNP 3
Tournament 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Kraft Nabisco Championship 1 1 2 T13 1 T6
LPGA Championship 5 3 1 1 1 T9
U.S. Women's Open T16 2 4 2 T23 1
Women's British Open ^ T32 CUT 1 13 T5

^ The Women's British Open replaced the du Maurier Classic as an LPGA major in 2001.
DNP = did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied for place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.


LPGA Tour career summary

Year Majors Other wins LPGA wins Earnings ($) Money list rank Average
1994 0 0 0 127,451 39 71.90
1995 1 2 3 666,533 1 71.00
1996 1 2 3 808,311 3 70.47
1997 0 6 6 1,236,789 1 70.04
1998 0 4 4 1,092,748 1 69.99
1999 0 2 2 863,816 4 70.40
2000 0 5 5 1,404,948 2 70.47
2001 1 7 8 2,105,868 1 69.42
2002 1 10 11 2,863,904 1 68.70
2003 2 4 6 2,029,506 1 69.02
2004 1 7 8 2,544,707 1 68.70
2005 2 8 10 2,588,240 1 69.33
2006* 1 1 2 1,211,614 2 70.23
* As of July 6th 2006.

Solheim Cup Record

Year Total Matches Total W-L-H Singles W-L-H 4somes W-L-H 4balls W-L-H Points Won Points %
Career 32 20-9-3 4-2-1 10-2-1 6-5-1 21.5 67.19%
1994 3 1-2-0 0-1-0 lost to T.Green 1-0-0 won w/C.Nilsmark 1up 0-1-0 lost w/C. Nilsmark 6&5 1 33.33%
1996 5 3-0-2 1-0-0 def. P. Bradley 2&1 1-0-1 halved w/C. Nilsmark, won w/C. Nilsmark 1 up 1-0-1 won w/K. Marshall 1up, halved w/T. Johnson 4 80%
1998 5 3-2-0 1-0-0 def. D. Andrews 2&1 1-1-0 won w/C. Matthew 3&2, lost w/C. Matthew 3&2 1-1-0 lost w/C. Nilsmark 2 up, won w/C. Nilsmark 5&3 3 60%
2000 4 2-2-0 0-1-0 lost to J. Inkster,5&4 2-0-0 won w/ J. Moodie 1 up, won w/ J. Moodie 1 up 0-1-0 lost w/ J. Moodie 2&1 2 50%
2002 5 3-1-1 0-0-1 halved w/W. Ward 2-0-0 won w/C Koch 3&2, won w/C. Koch, 4&3 1-1-0 lost w/M. Hjorth 2&1, won w/C. Koch 4&3 3.5 70%
2003 5 4-1-0 1-0-0 def. A. Stanford 3&2 2-0-0 won w/S. Pettersen 4&3, won w/C. Koch 3&2 1-1-0 lost w/C. Koch 1 down, won w/S. Pettersen 1 up 4 80%
2005 5 4-1-0 1-0-0 def B. Daniel 4&3 1-1-0 won w/S. Pettersen 1up, lost w/C. Matthew 2 up 2-0-0 won w/C. Matthew 2&1, won w/L. Davies 4&2 4 80%

See also

Preceded by
—
 World No. 1
February 21, 2006 - 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
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