Annika Sorenstam Biography

Annika Sorenstam dominated the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour in the 1990s and 2000s, winning 72 LPGA events and just over $22 million. She also won 18 international tournaments for a career total of 90 pro victories.

Annika Sorenstam played her first LPGA events in 1993 and joined the tour in 1994, winning Rookie of the Year honors. She quickly became one of the leading players in the women’s game, winning the U.S. Women’s Open in 1995 (her first career victory) and again in 1996.

Sorenstam was named the LPGA’s Rolex Player of the Year in 1995, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005. In 2002 she won an amazing 11 tour victories, bringing her career total to 42. (She also won 2 international tournaments that year, making 13 victories in 25 starts.)

In May of 2003 she entered a men’s PGA event, The Colonial — becoming the first woman to play a PGA event since Babe Didrikson Zaharias played in the Los Angeles Open in 1945.

Sorenstam was also the first player ever to break 60 in an LPGA event; she shot a 59 at the par-72 Moon Valley Country Club in Phoenix in the second round of the 2001 Standard Register PING tournament.

Annika Sorenstam quit competitive golf at the end of the 2008 season, although she did not use the word “retirement.” A decade later, she returned to playing occasional professional events.