Sorenstam rights ship just in time
WILMINGTON, Del. – Annika Sorenstam pretended like it was another practice session with caddie Terry McNamara, the kind where he stands in a spot with a mitt and catches one wedge shot after another.
The distance was 94 yards. There was no margin for error. The shot was exquisite.
Playing down the wrong fairway, Sorenstam hit a 54-degree wedge over a row of 60-foot trees, beyond a bunker and to within 3 feet for a birdie on the 16th hole that wrapped up an extraordinary victory in the LPGA Championship.
“You’re not supposed to play it that way,” she said. “I needed that at the time. I wanted to win, and this is a shot I’m going to remember for a long time.”
This Sunday will be difficult to forget.
It was the longest final day at a major in 14 years – 36 holes because of rain earlier in the week at DuPont Country Club. Sorenstam opened a six-shot lead with a flawless round of 64 in the morning, nearly lost it all with a miniature collapse in the afternoon and held off a late charge by Shi Hyun Ahn to win her seventh major championship.
“This one feels great,” Sorenstam said. “I played really well in the morning, but for some reason it started to slip away. Obviously, I’m very glad I turned it around.”
Sorenstam joined Mickey Wright as the only player to successfully defend in three majors. Wright won all four majors back-to-back, and Sorenstam could match that with a victory later this year in the Women’s British Open.
Sorenstam shot 64-72 on Sunday and finished at 13-under 271, her fourth victory this year and 52nd of her career. She earned $240,000 to go over $1 million for the season.
Ahn, a 19-year-old rookie from South Korea, shot a 66 in the final round and finished three behind. She twice got within two shots of Sorenstam, until the 33-year-old Swede came up with unlikely birdies.
Sorenstam knocked down the flag on the par-3 eighth for a tap-in birdie that gave her a seven-shot lead with 11 holes to play.
Everything changed with one shot.
With a wedge in her hand on the par-5 ninth, Sorenstam attacked the back pin and went long into deep rough, leaving her a delicate chip. She compounded her error by getting too cute with the shot and leaving it in the rough, and wound up missing a 6-footer to take double bogey.
She missed the 10th fairway and made bogey. She missed a 3-foot par putt on No. 11 for another bogey. And when her wedge came up 40 feet away, it looked like the final round was about to unravel.
The recovery was just as shocking as the collapse.
Sorenstam rolled in the long birdie putt.
“I was relieved, to say the least,” Sorenstam said. “It was a big momentum shift.”
Ahn kept it interesting with birdies on the 15th and 16th to get within two shots. But Sorenstam holed a 25-footer from the fringe on No. 14, then clinched it with the bizarre birdie on 16.