The retirement announcement of longtime LPGAgolfer Annika Sorenstam caught my attention.

It made me realize the lack of attention paid to professional and major college women's sports by the general public.

Sorenstam's biggest claim to fame in Joe Fan's eyes occurred when she teed off with the men in a PGATour event.

Wow!She must be pretty good if she can go against the guys. That was the general feeling.

Actually, she's pretty great. In 15 years, Sorenstam won 72 LPGAevents and 10 women's majors. At age 37, she already has three victories this year and is leaving the sport while still at the top of her game.

If and when Tiger Woods retires under similar circumstances, it will be the story of the year.

Unlike Woods on the PGATour, Sorenstam has a legitimate challenge to her legacy in Lauren Ochoa, a 26-year-old who has posted five wins on the LPGATour this year, including four in a row at one point.

The Sorenstam-Ochoa duels probably are the least known in professional sports.

In women's tennis, players are recognizable to the general sporting public if they have a "gimmick," such as the sister act of Serena and Venus Williams, or the model-like beauty of Anna Kournikova.

Just ask Danica Patrick. If she wasn't attractive, she'd bejust another racecar driver.

But in a way, being considered "just another professional athlete" is all most female pros want. Respect and appreciation for highly skilled athleticism — male or female — is all any athlete wants.

Yet women's athletics continue to fly under the radar.

Who won the NCAAwomen's basketball tournament this year? It was only last month.

The avid sports fan knows it was Tennessee. The casual sports fan has no idea.

Ask Joe Sports Fan who Dawn Staley is and he'll draw a blank. She was a five-time WNBAAll-Star.

Throw out the name of any five-time NBAAll-Star and Joe Sports Fan is likely to identify him.

Who was the first player selected in the WNBAdraft last month?How many people even know there was a WNBA draft last month? How many people can name three franchises in the WNBA?

The answer to the first question is Candace Parker, by the way.

It's not that the WNBA, women's college basketball, the LPGAor women's tennis aren't entertaining events, because they are.

They just take a backseat to the NBA, NCAA men's basketball, the PGAand men's tennis. Call it sexist if you will, but that's our sporting conscience.

All of those questions listed above?Pose them to Josephine Sports Fan. It's doubtful she'll know the answers, either.

It's too bad for someone like Sorenstam, who might be the greatest women's golfer ever and whose career may come and go with little notice.

More fans have heard of Nancy Lopez — perhaps because she married former major leaguer Ray Knight.