Sorenstam's LPGA career ends in Florida
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Behind the 18th green, Annika Sorenstam's fiancee was beaming, her father was laughing and her mother clenched a half-empty bottle of champagne.
If they were sad, it didn't show.
For six months, Sorenstam and her inner sanctum have known that her Hall of Fame LPGA Tour career would end at the ADT Championship. So they were prepared when the end came Friday, after she was unable to crack the top half of the 32-woman field and earn a chance to play the weekend.
Sorenstam shot a 3-over 75, putting her at 5 over for the week — two shots from reaching Saturday's surviving 16, half of whom will return Sunday to play for a $1 million winner's prize.
"All of a sudden, the time is here," Sorenstam said.
Everyone wanted to see history, in case it really was the final round of Sorenstam's 72-win, LPGA career.
When Sorenstam was on the 16th tee, hundreds crowded around her and playing partner Laura Diaz. At the same moment, about 100 feet away on the 11th tee, a gallery of exactly nine people watched a South Korean twosome.
Even Lorena Ochoa — the defending ADT champion, who also didn't advance to the weekend — showed up at the 18th green to give her friend and rival a farewell hug.
"I can't imagine how she's doing right now," Ochoa said. "But I guess it will come for all of us at one point. So we can only say that we enjoyed having her and thank you for everything."
Sorenstam won the ADT four times, but never reached the weekend in the unusual double-cut, erase-the-scores format, and knew she'd have to make up some ground Friday. She just never got it going.
"I was hoping to shoot par or better," Sorenstam said.
Par would have been good enough.
Sorenstam missed a makable birdie putt on the opening hole, then split the fairway with a long drive on the second. But her approach nestled in long, dew-soaked grass short and right of the green, and her chip advanced the ball only a few feet, leaving her with a 25-footer for par.
Sorenstam wound up needing three putts to finish that hole, then strung together six straight pars before making bogey on the ninth. On the 10th, she created some hope with a birdie but, barring a comeback, that was the last of her career.
"I hope she would come back, but I don't think so," said Tom Sorenstam, Annika's father, who was there every step of the way Friday, as was mother Gunilla and fiancee Mike McGee, along with about 50 other close friends and family.
Most tour players believe she'll be back, and Sorenstam hasn't ruled that out.
But for now, Friday was farewell.
"There's part of me that wants to stay here and enjoy it a little more," Sorenstam said, her voice getting softer with every word. "I wish I could say goodbye to the people that made plans to come tomorrow. But I hope to see them again another time."
