Annika Sörenstam

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Annika Sörenstam
2008-06-03-Annika-Sörenstam.JPG
Personnel
Nation: SwedenSweden Sweden
Career data
Professional since: 1993
Tournament wins: 93
Major wins : 10
Awards: Vare Trophy (1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2005)
World Golf Hall of Fame (2003)
Patty Berg Award (2003)
Laureus World Sports Awards (2004)
Associated Press Athlete of the Year 2003, 2004, 2005
Old Tom Morris Award (2014)

Annika Sörenstam (born October 9, 1970 in Bro near Stockholm ) is a former Swedish professional golfer .

Childhood and amateur time

Annika Sörenstam grew up in Bro near Stockholm. Her father, Tom, was a retired manager at IBM, and her mother, Gunilla, was a bank clerk. As a teenager, Sörenstam was a promising youngster in Swedish tennis: "I wanted to be like Björn Borg." She was also a talented skier. The Swedish national coach recommended that the family move to the north of Sweden to enable them to train better. She also played soccer in her home club Bro IK. At the age of 12, her passion for golf increased, as did her sister Charlotta. At first she shared the set of clubs with her younger sister, Charlotta received the odd numbers, Annika the irons with the even numbers.

As a junior she was very shy. This went so far that she needed more putts than actually necessary to avoid the short speech the winner had to give after the tournament. The coach then ordered the runner-up to give a speech too, whereupon Sörenstam decided that she could win just as well. She refrained from doing the extra putts. Since none of the Swedish universities had a golf team, Sörenstam enrolled at the University of Arizona in Tucson in 1990. The move got her career going. There was no language barrier as the Sörenstam family had lived in London for three years in the 1980s. Both the climate, which offered good training opportunities, and competent trainers promoted their development. In 1991, she won the NCAA Championship with her Wildcats team and was named College Player of the Year. In 1992 she won the amateur world championship with the Swedish team in Vancouver. In the same year she qualified for the first time for the US Open. Despite taking 24 more strokes than winner Patty Sheehan, she was convinced that she wanted to turn pro.

Sporting success as a professional

Since 1993 she has been playing on the LPGA Tour (Ladies Professional Golfers Association). In 2003 Sörenstam was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame .

Their successes and their exceptional position are comparable to the dominance of Tiger Woods in the men's area. In 2003 she was the first woman in almost 50 years to take part in a men's PGA TOUR tournament, which made her very popular even beyond the limits of golf.

Sörenstam was represented in the European team in all eight Solheim Cup matches between 1994 and 2007 . In 1995 she was honored with the Svenska Dagbladet gold medal. In 1995 and 2003 Sörenstam was awarded the Radio Sports Jerringpris .

Annika Sörenstam led the world rankings for women, which was newly introduced in 2006, until she was replaced by Mexican Lorena Ochoa in April 2007 .

She won ten major tournaments in her career and is fourth in the list of the best. She achieved a total of 93 tournament victories, 72 of them on the LPGA Tour (3rd place), making her one of the most successful players in modern golf. In 2002 she won eleven tournaments in one season, which she shares with Mickey Wright. In addition, Sörenstam is the only person in golf history to win a tournament five times in a row, which she achieved at the Mizuno Classic in Japan between 2001 and 2005.

Announcement of the resignation

In May 2008 she announced her departure as an active player at the end of the year. “I'm just tired of the daily grind. But there will still be a lot of golf in my life. In addition, this season has seven months full of tournaments and my goal is to win as many of them as possible, ”she explained at a press conference in Upper Mountclair CC in Clifton, New Jersey. In the future she will concentrate on her role as tournament organizer, the management of the golf academy Annika's Academy of Golf & Fitness in her adopted home Orlando ( Florida ) and the design of golf courses.
In the press, her announced resignation has also been linked to her desire to have children. In January 2009, she married her longtime partner, Mike McGee. Sörenstam's first marriage to David Esch in January 1997 was divorced after eight years.

LPGA Tour victories

  • 1995 (3) US Women's Open , GHP Heartland Classic, Samsung World Championship of Women's Golf
  • 1996 (3) US Women's Open , CoreStates Betsy King Classic, Samsung World Championship of Women's Golf
  • 1997 (6) Chrysler-Plymouth Tournament of Champions, Hawaiian Ladies Open, Longs Drugs Challenge, Michelob Light Classic, CoreStates Betsy King Classic, LPGA Tour Championship
  • 1998 (4) Michelob Light Classic, ShopRite LPGA Classic, Big Apple Classic, Safeco Classic
  • 1999 (2) Michelob Light Classic, New Albany Golf Classic
  • 2000 (5) Welch's / Circle K Championship, Firstar LPGA Classic, Evian Masters, Jamie Farr Kroger Classic, Big Apple Classic
  • 2001 (8) Welch's / Circle K Championship, Standard Register PING, Nabisco Championship , The Office Depot, Chick-fil-A Charity Championship, Canadian Women's Open, World Ladies Match Play Championship, Mizuno Classic
  • 2002 (11) LPGA Takefuji Classic, Kraft Nabisco Championship , Aerus Electrolux USA Championship, Kellogg-Keebler Classic, Evian Masters, ShopRite LPGA Classic, Williams Championship, Safeway Classic, Samsung World Championship, Mizuno Classic, ADT Championship
  • 2003 (6) The Office Depot Championship, Kellogg-Keebler Classic, LPGA Championship , Women's British Open , Safeway Classic, Mizuno Classic
  • 2004 (8) Safeway International, Office Depot Championship, LPGA Corning Classic, LPGA Championship , John Q. Hammons Hotel Classic, Samsung World Championship, Mizuno Classic, ADT Championship
  • 2005 (10) MasterCard Classic, Safeway International, Kraft Nabisco Championship , Chick-fil-A Charity Championship, ShopRite LPGA Classic, LPGA Championship , John Q. Hammons Hotel Classic, Samsung World Championship, Mizuno Classic, ADT Championship
  • 2006 (3) MasterCard Classic, US Women's Open , StateFarm Classic
  • 2008 (2) SBS Open at Turtle Bay, Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill

See also

literature

  • Golf Annika's Way (2004) a combination of autobiography and golf instruction.

Web links

Commons : Annika Sörenstam  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Welt-online.de: Blondes prefer, or: Annika's adventures alone among men , May 20, 2003
  2. ↑ lpga.com: Hall-of-Fame Golfer and Ski Enthusiast Sorenstam's New Mountain Golf Course Gives New Meaning to the Term 'Slope Rating' , November 30, 2007
  3. ↑ a b jockbio.com: Annika Sorenstam - Biography
  4. ↑ Player Rankings ( English ) Women's World Golf Rankings. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
  5. ↑ golf.de: Sörenstam resigns  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , May 14, 2008@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.golf.de  
  6. ↑ Welt-online: No more at 37: Desire to have children - Golfer Sörenstam stops May 14, 2008
personal data
SURNAME Sörenstam, Annika
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish golfer
DATE OF BIRTH October 9, 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH Bro near Stockholm