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ANNIKA SORENSTAM MAKES A MUCH-ANTICIPATED RETURN TO THE AMERICAN CENTURY CHAMPIONSHIP BY CRAIG DOLCH
Annika Sorenstam has long been considered among the greatest women golfers of all time. She won 10 majors, 72 LPGA Tour titles and eight Player of the Year awards.
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nd, oh, yeah, she’s the only woman to shoot 59 in competition. But the Swede wasn’t content just beating other women. She also liked taking a shot at the guys. She memorably did so at the 2003 Bank of America Colonial, becoming the first woman to play in a PGA Tour event since Shirley Spork in 1952. And Sorenstam will do so again at the American Century Championship at Lake Tahoe, competing in the event for the first time since she tied for second place in 2014. Sorenstam isn’t making a gender statement by playing with the boys (and three other women – Today Show meteorologist Dylan Dreyer, Golf Channel reporter and 2015 Miss America Kira K. Dixon and NBC Sports studio anchor Kathryn Tappen); she’s done this since she was a kid. “I have always enjoyed challenging myself against the guys,” Sorenstam said. “I grew up in Sweden playing ‘open golf’ where they just pair you on the tee and you play. I always played with the guys and never thought much about it. These guys in Tahoe are all superb athletes and fantastic golfers. It’s a great test for me.” Sorenstam stepped away from the game at the end of the 2008 season when she was 38 and wanted to start raising a family. She has two children with husband Mike McGee. At 50, she started to get the itch to return to competition this year. She made the cut in this year’s Gainbridge LPGA, played at her primary home in Lake Nona, which was impressive considering she hadn’t played in an official tournament in more than 12 years.
18 2021
AMERIC AN CENTURY CHAMPIONSHIP
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