She Seems to Be Perfectly Happy

By Thomas Bonk

March 24, 2005 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

She is all about going after lofty goals, which is why Annika Sorenstam said last year that she was setting out to win all four majors. She won one, but because this is a new year, it’s probably time for another goal for the top player in the world.

How about winning every tournament she plays?

“It would be awesome to see her win everything,” Nancy Lopez said.

Sorenstam wouldn’t mind it either, goals or not.

“It’s not like I look back at last year and say it was a bad year because I didn’t achieve my goals,” she said. “I won a total of 10 tournaments [worldwide]. That’s probably the best year I ever had.”

The new one hasn’t started so badly. Sorenstam’s victory streak is four dating back to last season, which means that she has a shot at history when the $1.8-million Kraft Nabisco Championship begins today at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage.

No one has won five in a row since Lopez in 1978.

“I don’t have any doubt that she might do it,” Lopez said.

If so, it’s going to take an even more concentrated burst of power than Sorenstam has come up with in 2005 -- a playoff victory over Lorena Ochoa last week near Phoenix and a three-shot victory over Karrie Webb in Mexico -- because of the pressure associated with a major championship.

It’s a crowded field at Mission Hills, where 15-year-old amateur Michelle Wie, 18-year-old rookie Paula Creamer, 19-year-old Japanese star Ai Miyazato and 26-year-old defending champion Grace Park conspire to keep Sorenstam from adding any more material to her professional highlight reel.

Since 2000, Sorenstam has played 108 LPGA events and won 40 -- about 37%. It’s 100% in her last four tournaments.

Now in her 12th year, Sorenstam has won 58 times and has a shot at passing Patty Berg, in third place all time with 60. Kathy Whitworth (88) and Mickey Wright (82) are in the distance.

Sorenstam said she’s in a good place right now, in her life and in her game.

“I want to win majors. I got off to a great start. I know I’m playing well, I couldn’t have better preparation. I know this golf course. I really don’t have any excuses,” she said. “The only thing that’s going to hold me back is the other players playing really good golf, which they are all very capable of doing, and I’ve just got to play my own golf and see if it’s enough or not.”

Good enough to be the seven-time LPGA player of the year, the seven-time (and all-time) leading money winner and the five-time Vare Trophy winner for the lowest scoring average. She would have won that seven times too, if she had played the minimum of 70 rounds each of the last two years.

She fell 10 rounds short in 2003, when she played only 17 times, and missed by four rounds last year while playing 18 times. She plans to add one or two tournaments to her schedule this year to make sure she plays the necessary rounds.

An increased workload would be in contrast to her philosophy of the last two years, but it is directly related to a change in her personal life. Last month, Sorenstam filed for divorce from her husband, David Esch.

If some waited for her personal life to upset her golf, they’re still waiting.

“I’m moving forward, I know where I’m going,” Sorenstam said. “I think last year was a lot harder than it is right now. Now, I feel happier than I have in a long time, so I know what I’ve got to do. I love playing golf and here I am.”

Sorenstam, who had hinted broadly in the past about the possibility of retiring and starting a family, said she is operating under a different set of parameters. “Some of the plans I had have changed,” she said.

Lopez said she feels Sorenstam was deciding not to play as much because she was married and now thinks it’s all going to change, for obvious reasons.

“I know she’s probably going to be thinking about playing even more now that she’s not going to be married,” she said. “I’m sure she’s preoccupying her time with more playing and trying to keep her mind off those things.”

To outgoing LPGA Commissioner Ty Votaw, Sorenstam’s apparent preoccupation with winning has paid dividends for her fellow players. Votaw said prize money on the LPGA Tour increased $108 million from 1999 through 2005 compared with the previous seven-year period. Sorenstam took home $12 million of that $108-million increase.

“So the other 90% of that increase has been distributed among all of the other players,” Votaw said.

“That demonstrates what her notoriety, her dominance, her excellence has made on the economics of the LPGA and its players.”

Park, the defending champion, understands the weight of Sorenstam’s contributions as well as her skill. Park played in the pro-am Wednesday wearing a back brace and said she hoped to be able to play the first round today.

Park is in a group with Patricia Meunier-Lebouc and Sorenstam.

No matter that Park won here last time and that Meunier-Lebouc won the year before that; Park anointed Sorenstam as the favorite.

“She is the favorite wherever she goes,” Park said. “We are all very much aware of it.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

On a Roll

Annika Sorenstam’s current four-tournament winning streak:

* Mizuno Classic, Nov. 7, Seta Golf Course in Shiga, Japan, won by nine shots over three runners-up.

* ADT Championship, Nov. 21, Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., won on first hole of sudden-death playoff over Cristie Kerr.

* MasterCard Classic, March 6,

Bosque Real Country Club in Mexico City, won by three strokes over Karrie Webb.

* Safeway International, March 20, Superstition Mountain Country Club near Phoenix, won on first hole of sudden-death playoff over Lorena Ochoa.

Sorenstam is trying to equal Nancy Lopez’s record of winning five consecutive tournament starts. A look at the five in a row Lopez won in 1978: