Sorenstam Stalks Three-Peat Swedish Sensation Has Chance To Rewrite U.S. Open History

As Annika Sorenstam stepped onto the tee, winged sunglasses hiding her steel-blue eyes and the sun accenting streaks of copper in her dusty blond hair, her lips moved in silent instruction to herself.

Behind her, caddie Colin Cann checked her alignment and whispered in barely audible words: “Left,” and then, “Perfect.”

Sure now of exactly what she wanted to do with the shot, Sorenstam swung the driver with an effortless rhythm, a lyrical ease that gave the impression not so much of striking the ball but merely propelling it after a happy collision with the club.

Her head came up shockingly soon, almost traveling with the club as part of her follow through.

Then just as suddenly, Sorenstam was pursuing the ball down the fairway with sure, purposeful strides.

As smoothly as she swings the club, as confidently as she walks the fairway, that’s how easily Sorenstam has dominated women’s golf this year - winning four times in 13 starts on the LPGA tour and finishing in the top-three an amazing nine times.

Since winning her first LPGA event at the 1995 U.S. Women’s Open, Sorenstam has won 10 of her last 40 tournaments.

And starting Thursday at Pumpkin Ridge near Portland, Ore., she tries to do something no woman has ever done: win the U.S. Open for a third consecutive time.

In fact, the only person ever to win three straight - man or woman - was Willie Anderson in 1903-05.

For Sorenstam, a 26-year-old Swede whose shyness fits nicely into a series of routines that makes her one of the most prepared players in all of professional golf, preparation for this Open began 12 months ago.

“I do think about the Open,” she said last week at the Shoprite LPGA Classic, her last tournament before Pumpkin Ridge. “I’ve done it since I won last year. And when I think of it, it makes me smile.”

But the key to Sorenstam is that she measures her success not in terms of how much money she wins or even how many titles she captures, but in terms of how well she plays.

“It’s not like my goal is to be in the history books,” she said. “That’s not what gets me motivated. Winning is not what’s most important. Playing better is.”

Ben Hogan, perhaps the most prepared player, used to tell a story about a dream he had in which he made 17 consecutive holes-in-one and then had the 18th spin out of the cup.

Even in a dream, Hogan was saying, perfection is not possible on the golf course. Yet it is the pursuit of perfection that motivated Hogan - and now Sorenstam.

“My goal is my game,” she said. “I look at scoring average, hitting more greens, making more putts. I always look forward to trying to improve my game.”

Then, with a slight smile, she defined her goal in golf:

“Someday I’d like to hit 18 fairways, hit 18 greens and make 18 putts,” she said. “It seems like nothing is impossible.”

Sorenstam nearly achieved perfection last year in winning the U.S. Open at Pine Needles in North Carolina by a shockingly easy six strokes. She drove the ball into the fairway on 51 of the 56 driving holes - an astounding display of accuracy.

This year she has overwhelmed the opposition with an overall game that shows no weaknesses. Her average tee shot is 250 yards, 15th best on tour, and she puts the ball in the fairway 76 percent of the time - 12th best.

Sorenstam hits 71 percent of the greens in regulation - third best - and ranks 15th in putting, using 29.39 putts per round - nearly a putt a round better than last year.

“That’s the key, her up-and-down game is so much better,” Cann, her caddie, said. “Now she has no weaknesses.”

It all adds up to a scoring average of 70.00, better than the all-time best on the LPGA of 70.32 set by Laura Davies last year.

The key for Sorenstam - a product of the highly successful Swedish youth golf program that was modeled after its equally successful youth tennis program - is leaving nothing to chance. Routine and preparation are the basis of her game.

“I have every shot here,” she said, showing a tiny slip of paper after her first round at the Shoprite tournament. “I’ll go over every shot tonight.”

As her game has grown, so has Sorenstam’s confidence. And as her life has settled even more securely into the routine she so cherishes, she approaches the game with a calm that is unnerving to watch.

“All the pieces of my life have come together this year,” she said, unconsciously touching the wedding band from her January marriage to David Esch, a consultant with Callaway Golf, her equipment sponsor.

“I realize now that golf is not the most important thing in my life,” she said. “I can get away from it now.”

While the certainty of her home life has given Sorenstam a sense of sureness, so has her determined effort to remove any weakness in a game that has improved steadily since she came to the United States on a golf scholarship to the University of Arizona.

A statistic freak who constantly pores over numbers looking for areas of her game that need improvement, Sorenstam now feels she can handle any situation on the golf course.

“Now it seems I’m not afraid of any shot, really,” she said. “I used to be afraid of chips and putting, but I’ve worked really hard on my weaknesses. Now if I miss a green I know I can get up and down to save a par.”