Hawaiian Counterpunch

With her SBS Open victory -- No. 70 of her career and her first since late 2006 -- Annika Sorenstam makes it clear: She's back

That does it: Sorenstam put the win on ice with a 24-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole Saturday.

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By Ron Sirak
Photos By Andy Lyons/Getty Images February 22, 2008

Any questions? Well, OK, one: Did she pull the shot? Maybe, maybe not. Doesn't really matter. The point is when Annika Sorenstam needed to, she executed. And when she needed the big putt, she made it. Just like that, a disappointing, injury-plagued 2007 moved farther away in her rear-view mirror and the high beams illuminated the season ahead as Sorenstam birdied the 16th and 17th holes Saturday and closed with a perfectly executed par to win the SBS Open at Turtle Bay in Kahuku, Hawaii. It was her first LPGA triumph since September 2006, and the 70th of her career.

There probably is one other question: Can Sorenstam catch Lorena Ochoa as the No. 1 player in the Rolex Rankings? What seems, in the short run, to be a mathematical impossibility became a much more intriguing query when Sorenstam's play reminded everyone how her career has made a mockery of numbers. Just like that, the win in Hawaii moved Sorenstam from fourth to second in the Rolex Rankings.

Sorenstam, healthy for the first time since mid-2006 when a ruptured disk in her neck (diagnosed last April) started hurting, has her power back and is striking the ball with a crispness not seen since she won 10 times in 2005 and completed a five-year stretch in which she captured 43 of 104 LPGA events. Her ball-striking improved with each round over the Turtle Bay Resort's Palmer course as she finished at 10-under 206, two strokes ahead of Laura Diaz, Jane Park and Russy Gulyanamitta. Saturday was vintage Sorenstam as she hit every fairway and missed just one green -- by two yards -- and averaged 266.5 yards with her drives. Most impressively, she gave a clinic on how to close out a tournament. It's an act familiar to anyone who has tried to beat her.

Standing in the 16th fairway locked in a tense duel with a half-dozen players -- none of whom gave any indication of folding -- Sorenstam attacked a back-left pin cut dangerously close to the water on a crusty, slick green and knocked a sand wedge to four feet, then converted the birdie putt. Was she going after the pin or did she pull it a couple of yards? "The shot I hit in on 16 was good," she said. "You just can't help but fire at the pin," her caddie, Terry McNamara, said with an impish grin. "She pushed it -- two inches," added her fiancee, Mike McGee. "It should have gone in."

Sorenstam put the tournament away on the next hole with a 24-foot birdie putt she seemingly willed in, sinking to one knee, with a low fist pump as the ball approached the cup. "It was one of those putts I'm going to remember for a long time," she said. "It was just good golf the last six or seven holes. I was never really in trouble." Although caught several times by several challengers, Sorenstam never trailed Saturday as she won for the 47th time in 70 tries with at least a share of the lead going into the final round.

Actually, it was Sorenstam's second win in a row. After being shut out last year in LPGA events for the first time since 1994, she won a Ladies European Tour event in Dubai in December. This week she will play the Fields Open, also in Hawaii, followed by the HSBC Champions in Singapore -- where Ochoa will make her season debut -- then the Safeway International outside Phoenix before the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first major of the year. It shows how motivated Sorenstam is that she will play four events before the Kraft Nabisco, which in recent years she has entered after having played only a tournament or two.

"We all have talked so much about '07, I think it's time to talk about '08," she said. "My clubs did the talking this particular week. There are some tournaments that mean a little bit more, and they come at a special time. I would say this is one of them. I really want to put '07 behind and say, 'Hey, I'm a contender, and I intend to be that all year.' "

It was the first time she had at least a share of the lead going into the final round since the Samsung World Championship in October 2006, which she lost to Ochoa, and she won for the first time since the 2006 State Farm Classic, ending a run of 18 events without a victory, her longest drought since 1994.

Sorenstam started the final round tied with Erica Blasberg at seven under par, one stroke ahead of Japanese rookie Momoko Ueda, who completed their threesome. Diaz, Jane Park and Cristie Kerr were also six under par. Blasberg, who has never been in a situation anywhere near this stressful in her three-year professional career, closed with a respectable 74. Ueda, only 21, hung tough with a 71, while Diaz and Park, also 21, both posted 70. Kerr carded a 73.