Again in 2003 Annika Sorenstam turned the primary lady in over half a century to tee it up alongside the lads in a PGA Tour occasion on the Financial institution of America Colonial.
It is now 20 years since that historic look at Colonial and girls’s golf is a totally sport from what’s was again then though nonetheless a way off the publicity and rewards discovered within the males’s sport.
Fifty-eight years after Babe Zaharias had made the halfway reduce on the Los Angeles Open, it was Sorenstam who made the subsequent try and face the lads on the PGA Tour.
It was seen as one thing of a sideshow again then, with quite a few gamers, most infamously Vijay Singh, not precisely being taken by the thought.
Let’s look again at that unimaginable occasion twenty years in the past, and what’s occurred in ladies’s golf since.
How did Sorenstam get on?
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The sight of Sorenstam exhaling with aid after hitting her opening Thursday drive down the center was proof of the strain the 32-year-old was underneath. It was a problem she had not confronted within the years the place she had dominated beforehand.
The Swede was paired with Aaron Barber and Dean Wilson, and making regular progress on the entrance 9. Her consistency was with out query; she hit 13 of 14 fairways from the tee and even bombed one drive all of 282 yards.
Her strategy play was additionally in fantastic tune, hitting 14 greens in regulation. As anticipated, the damp circumstances did have an effect on distance general, but it surely was to be a vital three-putt bogey on the final that thwarted hopes with a one-over-par 71.
Sorenstam let the feelings out after lacking the reduce
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In Friday’s second spherical, Sorenstam’s four-over-par 74 meant a five-over complete of 145. She would miss the reduce by 4 strokes.
Three bogeys on the entrance 9 and two on the again meant there can be no repeat of Zaharias’ 1945 feat. To the delight of the galleries, Sorenstam continued in model all through her damaging spherical, even firing at pins as she chased birdie alternatives down the closing stretch.
Nevertheless it wasn’t in regards to the end result; her manner had shone from begin to end, and her feelings confirmed as she shed tears on leaving the 18th inexperienced.
What they stated…
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It was a blended response at finest, with the likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson being much more constructive than different PGA Tour execs who most likely felt a bit extra threatened about Sorenstam’s presence.
The 2-time Main winner threatened to tug out of the event if paired with Sorenstam.
Two-time Main winner Vijay Singh threatened to tug out if paired with Sorenstam: “I received’t play. There are guys on the market who’re attempting to make a dwelling What’s she going to show by enjoying? She doesn’t belong out right here. It’s ridiculous.”
Scott Hoch: “Most guys hope she performs properly and that what comes out of that is that she realises she will be able to’t compete towards the lads.”
Tiger Woods: “It might be fairer if she may play 4 or 5 tournaments – then you may choose on these outcomes and he or she’ll get on a roll. In a single event loads can go incorrect for her.”
Annika Sorenstam and Aaron Barber at Colonial
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Kenny Perry: “She’s going to have Tiger Woods’ media. I’m anxious to see how she handles that. I don’t suppose she actually is aware of what she is stepping into.”
Phil Mickelson: “Guys who’re having a tricky time with this are considering that is the lads’s tour. It’s not. It’s one of the best tour, for one of the best gamers.”
Kelli Kuehne: “She’s taking a look at it from her perspective. She’s not taking a look at it general, to assist develop the ladies’s sport. She has loads to lose and nothing to achieve.”
Taking part in accomplice Aaron Barber: “She’s a machine. I’ve by no means performed with somebody over 18 holes who didn’t miss a shot. After I acquired the decision in regards to the grouping, I used to be nervous, after which I shortly turned that into pleasure.”
Annika Sorenstam on her first tee shot: “Clearly I used to be very nervous, however I had labored so exhausting in preparation for the event that I had nothing else to lose at that time. As soon as I hit the opening tee shot, I had a way of aid. I simply let my feelings move.
Vijay Singh after the occasion: “It was not an assault on Annika and if it was, it was not put that approach. I really stated that if I missed the reduce, I’d slightly see her miss the reduce as properly. I don’t wish to return and know {that a} lady beat me…”
Jesper Parnevik post-tournament: “She performed wonderful. I assume we now have the ‘Shark’, the ‘Tiger’ and now we now have the ‘Superwoman’…”
Superb Annika boosts ladies’s golf
Annika Sorenstam’s Colonial look and subsequent profession impressed 1000’s of younger ladies to play golf
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Regardless of extra requires her to tee it up once more towards the lads, Sorenstam felt she’d executed sufficient by rattling a couple of cages, and thought one of the best ways to spice up ladies’s golf was to exit and dominate the scene.
“I wished to problem myself and didn’t suppose I wanted to do it yet one more time,” stated stated after Colonial. “I smelled the blood, and that’s what I wished to do.
“Since 2003, I had my finest years, and I credit score that to Colonial. Whenever you’re all the time being chased, it’s powerful to see the trail forward of you. However I noticed the trail, and I knew the place to go.”
And that is precisely what she did, going again to the LPGA and including one other six Majors and 36 LPGA titles to her title within the subsequent 5 years.
This week in 2003, @ANNIKA59 turns into the primary lady in additional than 50 years to play in a @PGATOUR occasion when she teed it up at Colonial Nation Membership. 👏⛳️#DriveOn | #LPGA70 pic.twitter.com/PncSctcerBMay 23, 2020
And in the same technique to Tiger Woods, turning into a family title helped her to transcend the sport and shine a lightweight on the ladies’s sport excess of if she’d performed in additional sideshow occasions on the PGA Tour.
There was simply one thing particular about her. Overpowering however not overbearing, Annika Sorenstam shortly turned the candy darling of the ladies’s sport as her profession blossomed with a smile.
In 2001 she turned the primary ladies to shoot a 59, and in 2005 she would win ten LPGA Tour occasions – a staggering 50% success price of the tournaments she entered.
By the point she ended her profession on the finish of 2008, there have been no fewer than 10 Majors and 90 worldwide wins within the locker.
20 years on…
Michelle Wie West and Brittney Lincicome are the one two different feminine golfers to have taken on the lads in a PGA Tour occasion since Sorenstam.
Sorenstam nonetheless impressed loads of folks although, and girls’s golf has taken off in different methods, without having to go up towards the lads within the PGA Tour.
“Trying again at this, I am certain some folks will say what was the aim,” Sorenstam stated this yr. “However I feel within the massive image, it was good for ladies’s sports activities and for younger ladies to have the ability to share that story.”
“It was simply actually cool for ladies’s empowerment and saying, ‘Gender just isn’t the factor that divides these gamers,'” Lydia Ko advised Golf Channel.
“It’s so distinctive and that second is simply one of many wonderful moments that Annika had, and out of doors of that, she’s executed so many wonderful issues and he or she’s grown golf basically, not simply in ladies’s golf.
“I reckon that she’s a job mannequin not simply to women rising up, and never only a function mannequin to me, however I’m certain junior boys would say, ‘Someday I wish to play like Annika Sorenstam'”
