Annika Sorenstam Biography

Annika S renstamAnnika S renstam has always been an exceptional athlete. The Swedish woman who is now often regarded as the top female golfer in the world, and perhaps the top female golfer ever since Babe Didrikson Zaharias, played tennis and was a swimmer in her formative years. Her dominance in women's golf is often compared to Tiger Woods's dominance in men's golf.S renstam, born October 9, 1970, in Bro, Sweden, just outside of Stockholm, skied and played tennis competitively as a child. When she reached the age of twelve, she switched to playing golf and found she did just as well with this sport. As an amateur, she played for the Swedish National Team for five years, starting at the age of seventeen. Once S renstam achieved the title of World Amateur Champion, she made the move to the United States.While attending the University of Arizona and playing on the school's golf team, S renstam won the 1991 individual NCAA National Championship and seven other collegiate titles. 1991 became a pivotal year for her as she was also named 1991 NCAA Co-Player of the Year, and shared the title with Kelly Robbins. The following year, Sorenstam was a Pac-10 champion and also an NCAA All-American. In 1993, she participated in the United States Women's Amateur Golf Championship, and was runner-up to Vicki Goetze.A year later S renstam turned professional, joining the Ladies European Tour, known as the WPGET, and was also invited to a few of the LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association) events in the United States. She ended that year finishing in second place twice while with the WPGET, and became the WPGET Rookie of the Year. The following year, after qualifying for the LPGA Tour, S renstam became the LPGA Rookie of the Year. One year later she won the U.S. Women's Open and led the WPGET Order of Merit. She also won a very prestigious award for those athletes in her native country of Sweden, the Jerringpriset award.Established as one of the top professional golfers in the world, S renstam continued to win tournaments and had earned over $2 million dollars in career earnings after only being on the pro circuit for four years. In 1998 she became the first member of the LPGA to hold a sub-70 scoring average throughout the season, and one year later had her first hole-in-one while with the LPGA. Winning eleven LPGA tournaments in one season, S renstam and Mickey Wright became the only players to ever accomplish this feat.As S renstam's career continued, she won an LPGA Career Grand Slam, earned eight Rolex Player of the Year Awards (the most for any player in the award's history), was named 2003 Female Athlete of the Year by the United States Sports Academy, and tied Kathy Whitworth for the most LPGA Player of the Year Awards in the history of the LPGA. She is now up the $18 million mark for LPGA career earnings. Although there was much controversy surrounding it, S renstam became the first female since Babe Zaharias to play in a PGA event. This opened the doors for many other female golfers with PGA aspirations, inclusing the young Michelle Wie.While it may seem S renstam wouldn t have any other time to accomplish other goals as competitive as she has been on the golf circuit, she has found time to spread herself out past golf. She married David Esch, a voiceover artist in 1997, only to divorce him in 2005. She wrote a book in 2004 titled Golf Annika's Way. The book is intended to be half biographical account and half golf instruction. Calling cooking one of her passions, S renstam has participated in a few cooking demonstrations. She even found time to lend her name to a clothing line for female golfers, Annika by Cutter Buck Inc. With all of her business ventures, it sees that no matter where her golfing career takes her, S renstam will stay in the public eye, much like retired golfers Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman.

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