New course for Sorenstam

Legend will retire from golf at end of the season

Annika Sorenstam needs to put it within 60 feet 6 inches while throwing out the first pitch for the Mets last night. (Frank Franklin 2d/Associated Press)

Fresh off her third win in eight starts, a dominating seven-stroke triumph that seemed to be an emphatic statement that she has indeed returned to the top of her game, Annika Sorenstam said yesterday that the time is right.

To challenge Lorena Ochoa for the top spot in the women's golf world?

No.

"To step away away from competitive golf," said the incomparable Swede during a press conference at this week's LPGA tournament, the Sybase Classic in Clifton, N.J. "This is obviously a very difficult decision for me to make, but I know it's the right one."

Sorenstam, 37, said she would play a full schedule on the LPGA Tour, then close out the year with a few tournaments overseas. The Dubai Ladies Masters (Dec. 10-13) is targeted as her finale, but she seemed to leave the door open when she said, "If it is forever, I'm not really sure, but it's definitely for now."

It was noted that Sorenstam never said she was retiring. In fact, she said, "I'm not using the 'r' word. I'm stepping away from competition."

But in making the announcement, Sorenstam indicated she'll have a full life without tournament golf. She will marry her fiancé, Mike McGee, in January, and she talked of having a family. She also in recent years has branched out into various business dealings within the world of golf, from an academy that she has opened in Orlando, Fla., to a clothing line, to golf course design, to hosting an LPGA Tour event in Mt. Pleasant, S.C.

Citing all those ventures, Sorenstam said, "I have other priorities in my life. I have a lot of dreams I want to follow."

The announcement comes just as Sorenstam, who dominated the game from 2001-05 when she won 43 times, appears primed to offer a strong challenge to Ochoa. Having battled back and neck injuries in 2007 - when she went winless for the first time since 1994, her rookie year on the LPGA Tour - Sorenstam talked openly about coming back strong, maybe not to regain the top spot in the world rankings, but to wash away the bad taste of a campaign in which she dropped to 25th on the money list after having been No. 1 in five of the previous six seasons.

With three victories, including last week's romp in Williamsburg, Va., "I've proven to myself that I could do it," she said.

Years earlier, she already had proven to be one of the very best players in LPGA Tour history, a focused and determined woman whose unorthodox swing became one of the surest things in sport. With a cool, quiet demeanor on the course, Sorenstam developed into the model of consistency in all phases of the game, from driving, to her unmatched wedge game, to the uncanny ability to make key putts.

Having burst into public view by making the 1995 US Women's Open her first LPGA Tour triumph, Sorenstam successfully defended that title the next summer, then hit a four-year drought in the majors when her rival from Australia, Karrie Webb, rose to the top of the women's game.

Things began to change in 2001 when Sorenstam won the Kraft Nabisco Championship. That ignited a five-year run during which she triumphed 43 times in 104 starts for an unparalleled winning clip of .413. However, it was in a tournament during that stretch that featured one of her rare failures, a missed cut, that she gained an abundance of fame that helped shape her legacy. At the Bank of America Colonial in 2003, Sorenstam became the first woman in 58 years to compete in a PGA Tour event.

Under intense scrutiny and fiercely criticized by some of the men, Sorenstam maintained great dignity and held up well enough under the pressure to shoot 71-74 and win a legion of supporters.

Nothing she has done since then diminished that respect, nor her incomparable skills. After breaking through for that KNC win in 2001, Sorenstam went on to win seven of the next 22 major championships, including the 2006 US Women's Open at Newport CC in Rhode Island.

When the 2007 season brought on injuries and a stretch of indifferent play, Sorenstam conceded she was "on the back nine" of her career.

Beginning this season fourth in the women's world rankings, Sorenstam has played brilliantly, though the first two wins she had were against fields that did not include Ochoa. Last week at the Michelob Ultra Open at Kinsgmill was different. For three straight days, Sorenstam was paired with the dynamic 26-year-old from Mexico, who has a whopping lead in the world rankings. After those three days, the Swede was five shots ahead, having fired rounds of 64-66-69. With a closing 66, Sorenstam earned her 72d LPGA Tour win.

Many observers felt the time was ripe for Sorenstam to make a serious run at Ochoa and maybe even take aim at Mickey Wright (82 wins) and Kathy Whitworth (88), the only two players in LPGA history with more wins. But Sorenstam thought otherwise.

Chasing Ochoa in the world rankings or legends in the history books "doesn't motivate me to keep on going," said Sorenstam.

"I am very happy in my life. I'm very content with what I've achieved and it just feels right. I'm at peace with what I'm doing."