To be sure, there are some interesting story lines to be told during this year’s United States Women’s Open, among them Oakmont Country Club outside Pittsburgh, a difficult course where the members take an almost sadistic delight in watching the best players in the game suffer.
There’s also Cristie Kerr. The first American player to reach the top of the world rankings since the system was instituted more than four years ago, she has a chance to win a second consecutive major when play begins next week.
However, almost as equally compelling will be how the LPGA and the United States Golf Association deal with the players who won’t be at their showcase event, namely Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam. One reason Kerr is the first U.S. player to reach the top of the heap is because Ochoa, from Mexico, and Sorenstam, from Sweden, have dominated women’s golf from the time the rankings system was developed.
From that time, only three other players have been No. 1: Kerr, South Korean Jiyai Shin and Ai Miyazato of Japan — and all three of those players only reached the mark over the last three weeks.
Ochoa, who famously missed a chance to win the 2005 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills when she took an eight on her 72nd hole, will be missing her first Open in six years, having abruptly announced her retirement this season. That decision shocked Sorenstam, who walked away from the game herself two years ago.
“I was very surprised. We all knew she wanted to get married and was a family person, but I thought she’d stay for a few more years,” Sorenstam said on a recent trip to Colorado Springs to kick off the countdown to the 2011 Women’s Open, which will be played at the Broadmoor. “But I think it’s hard to stay at the top for a sustained period of time; there’s no alternative. There’s no ‘I’ll only play a little and I won’t practice as much.’
“That doesn’t exist. It’s either you’re on 100 percent or you don’t play. I know what it’s like to hit a good 8-iron, I know what it’s like to make a pressure 6-footer, and if I can’t do that, then why would I want to play at all?”
Wherever she goes these days, Sorenstam is unfailingly asked whether she is planning a return to golf in the near future — and it’s clear that the answer is a resounding no. Watching Sorenstam in her duties as the ambassador for the ’11 Open, one wondered what it must be like to no longer have to be “Annika Sorenstam,” the winner of 88 professional tournaments and the woman who played against PGA Tour pros in 2003.
That player showed unflinching concentration and dedication to her craft. Now, things are far more relaxed.
“I’m still competitive and busy, but it’s different,” Sorenstam said. “That’s one of the reasons why I had to step away. It’s hard to always feel the pressure of performing, to wake up in the morning every day feeling like you had to shoot a 68 or else something was wrong.
“I pushed myself very hard, whether it was on the range or the gym or the putting green — I was always focused on performing. Now I perform, but it’s a different type of performing. I went from golf 2 4/7 to hardly playing at all, and I haven’t looked back.”
Sorenstam is certainly busy. There is her work with USGA, as well as course designing all over the world, her golf academy in Florida and the launch of a new perfume. But the most important project in her life is her daughter, Ava Madelyn, born last September to Sorenstam and husband Mike McGee.
“Players have asked me to compare having her to winning a major championship,” Sorenstam said, “and I always say: ‘Are you kidding me? Having her is my Grand Slam.’ “
