Newport, R.I. – In the midst of a perhaps unparalleled career, one in which victory often meant little more than showing up, the 2006 season has been nothing if not a protracted battle for Annika Sorenstam. So it is perhaps not at all surprising that, in the tournament that has bedeviled her even in the best of times, the Swede finds herself in the midst of yet another grind.
After a week of rain and fog, the battle of attrition known as the U.S. Women’s Open came down to a 36-hole finale Sunday that ultimately did little but add a bit more tingle to nerves that were already quite jingle-jangled. Given numerous opportunities, Sorenstam was unable to grab control of the proceedings, allowing the steady, if unspectacular, Pat Hurst to salvage the equivalent of a World Cup draw. However, instead of a shootout, the two will return to Newport Country Club at 7 a.m. (MDT) for another 18-hole attempt to decide the matter once and for all.
“I’m ready to go one more round,” Hurst said after a final-round 2-under-par 69 that matched Sorenstam’s total of even-par 284. “I’d die for this.”
At the conclusion of a third round that began at 6:30 a.m. Sunday, Sorenstam was tied for the lead with two youngsters, 16-year-old Michelle Wie and Brittany Lincicome, four years Wie’s senior. Sorenstam promptly birdied the first two holes; less than a year ago, that would have been a sign for the trophy engraver to begin etching, but things are no longer so cut-and-dried.
Instead, Sorenstam double- bogeyed the seventh hole and bogeyed the eighth and ninth.
“Well, of course, I wish I could have finished it off. It’s easy to sit here and say what I should have done and could have done,” she said. “But it’s not what you did for a few holes; it’s 18 holes that matter.”
But the misstep allowed a handful of players to enter the fray.
Wie hung tough, extricating herself from trouble with a number of impressive up-and- downs, and even managed to move into a tie for the lead with a birdie at No. 12. However, she bogeyed the 181-yard, par-3 13th and was unable to catch up, finishing two shots behind Sorenstam and Hurst at 2-over 286, settling for her third top-five finish in the year’s three major championships.
“Well, obviously playing a shot or two better would get me there,” Wie said of the prospects of eventually breaking through to her first win. “I’m playing as hard as I can and it’s going to happen. I feel like I just have to keep on grinding, keep on playing, and it will happen.”
Se Ri Pak, Stacy Prammanasudh (both at 286) and Juli Inkster (287) also briefly threatened for the lead, but for the final five holes, it was really a match-play scenario between Hurst and Sorenstam. Hurst took the lead with a birdie on 14; Sorenstam matched by sinking an 18-footer on 15.
When Sorenstam made yet another birdie on 16, to go 1-under for the tournament, it seemed her 10-year drought between Open championships was about to end. Instead, she promptly gave the lead back once again, hitting over the green on the 185-yard, par-3 17th and failing to get up-and-down.
On 18, Sorenstam had a putt for the win, her 25-footer drawing a piece of the cup but failing to go in. Hurst had a 5-footer left to ensure her place in the playoff, but, given her excitement, that was close to automatic.
“We all say, ‘This is for the Open’ and that definitely was,” Hurst said.
“The feelings that you get, it’s indescribable. It’s what we play for, something like that, just to have that chance to make that putt.”
Those sensations have long been Sorenstam’s province. Now, having gone almost four months without experiencing the exhilaration of victory, Sorenstam said she’s not about to let the opportunity go by today.
“Well, I am determined,” she said. “I have a strong mind and a strong will. This means a lot to me.”
Staff writer Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-820-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
