Back in time on LPGA for Sorenstam and Tseng
Annika Sorenstam had won consecutive starts on the LPGA Tour in 2008 when she announced she would retire at the end of the season. The surprise decision was still fresh three weeks later when 19-year-old Yani Tseng won her first major.
Their paths cross again this week in a manner few could have imagined.
Both are playing the Gainbridge LPGA.
That’s news for different reasons. Sorenstam turned 50 in October and has not competed on the LPGA Tour since the final event of 2008. Retirement never comes easily in golf, and Sorenstam was among the few who managed to walk away at the peak of her game. That’s not to suggest this is the start of a comeback, and she hasn’t said if anything else is in the works.
The Swede played the PNC Championship with her father in December and said she was being motivated to play more because her son, Will, was getting into golf. She also played the LPGA Tour season opener last month, although Sorenstam was part of the celebrity division.
She talked in December about wanting to dabble in senior events, specifically mentioning the U.S. Senior Women’s Open. Trouble is, that’s around the time of the Olympics, and Sorenstam recently was appointed to a largely ceremonial role of president of the International Golf Federation.
This week at Lake Nona, her home course in Orlando, Florida, she’ll be in the field alongside Jin Young Ko, the No. 1 player in women’s golf.
Ko was 13 when Sorenstam retired. “I’m not sure I know Annika, just I heard Annika is legend,” Ko said. “But I want to play with her this week.”
That’s true for most everyone in the field.
And then there’s Tseng, who should be in the prime of her career.
Tseng was 22 when she won her fifth major, making her the youngest player, male or female, to have that many majors at that age. She had 12 wins around the world in 2011. When she won the Kia Classic in March 2012 for her 15th LPGA Tour title, she was four points short of the LPGA Hall of Fame.