Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Annika Sörenstam turns 50 this week! To celebrate, she gives Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols a tour of her trophy case(s).
Annika Sörenstam turns 50 this week! To celebrate, she gives Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols a tour of her trophy case(s).
Renee Powell is set to lead Team USA at the Junior Solheim Cup against Annika Sorenstam and Team Europe.
Two legends of the game will square off against each other as captains of next year’s Ping Junior Solheim Cup. Renee Powell will captain the 12-player U.S. team at Sylvania Country Club in Toledo, Ohio, the AJGA announced on Monday. The LET previously announced that Annika Sorenstam will lead the Europeans.
“I can’t wait to see the growth from when I first meet each player to when the last ball is picked up from the last hole in the PING Junior Solheim Cup,” Powell said. “I’m excited to be able to see the excitement on [the girls’] faces when they are doing what the love and representing the United States. I am proud that my state of Ohio is the host state for both the PING Junior Solheim Cup and the Solheim Cup.”
Powell, 74, learned the game at Clearview Golf Club in East Canton, Ohio, a course her father built with his own hands after he returned from World War II and found it difficult to find a place that would allow him to play.
Powell forged her own trail as well, captaining both the Ohio and Ohio State University golf teams. She fought through racial prejudice, even death threats, as the second Black player to compete on the LPGA.
After retiring from the tour, Powell continued to grow the game as an ambassador, traveling to Africa more than two dozen times.
She returned to Clearview to continue her father’s legacy, running the only golf course in America that was designed, constructed and owned by a Black man. Her focus as head professional places an emphasis on growing the game among veterans, women and juniors. She was the first woman of color elected to membership in the PGA of America and was later named the first At-Large Director of its Board. In 2002, she was named the PGA’s First Lady of Golf.
Earlier this year, Powell was awarded the Golf Writers Association of America’s Charlie Bartlett Award, given to a playing professional for their unselfish contributions for the betterment of society. Last month she received the Donald Ross Award from the American Society of Golf Course Architects.
In 2015, Powell was one of two American women bestowed honorary membership into the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews.
“We’re honored Renee has accepted our offer to captain the U.S. PING Junior Solheim Cup team in 2021,” said John A. Solheim, PING Chairman & CEO. “She’s a true pioneer in the game of golf whose accomplishments speak for themselves and contributions to the sport around the world are long and ever-lasting. Her support of girl’s golf throughout her hall-of-fame career makes her the perfect choice for the captain’s role.”
Previous American Junior Solheim Cup players who have gone on to compete in the main event include Brittany Lang, Paula Creamer, Alison Lee, Brittany Lincicome, Morgan Pressel, Angel Yin and Lexi Thompson. Those from Team Europe include Carlota Ciganda, Georgia Hall, Caroline Hedwall, Charley Hull, Caroline Masson, Azahara Munoz, Anna Nordqvist, Florentyna Parker, Emily Kristine Pedersen, Beatriz Recari and Melissa Reid.
2019: Mary Bea Porter-King
2017: Alice Miller
2015: JoAnne Carner
2013: Kathy Whitworth
2011: Meg Mallon
2009: Nancy Lopez
2007: Donna Andrews
2005: Colleen Walker
2003: Val Skinner
2002: Sherri Steinhauer
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Annika Sorenstam was named the 2021 Junior Solheim Cup captain.
Annika Sorenstam has been named captain of the 2021 European Ping Junior Solheim Cup team, the LET announced.
Team Europe will take on the United States at the Inverness Club immediately prior to the main event, set for Sept. 4-6 in Toledo, Ohio.
Sorenstam represented Europe in eight Solheim Cups and a served as captain in 2017 at Des Moines Golf and Country Club in Iowa. Since retiring from the tour in 2008, the LPGA and World Golf Hall of Famer has placed a significant focus on her foundation, which hosts seven global events for junior girls annually, including the ANNIKA Invitational Europe. At the recent AIG Women’s British Open, 45 players in the field had competed in Sorenstam’s junior events.
“I am really excited to captain the Europeans in next year’s PING Junior Solheim Cup,” said Sorenstam. “In the last decade, more than 90 percent of the players on the U.S. and European Solheim Cup teams have played in at least one of our seven global junior events. I already know most of the girls who will be aiming to qualify for next year’s European team and I look forward to working with them in Toledo.”
Of the 12 players who represented Europe in the 2019 contest at Glenagles, 10 had previously played on a Junior Solheim Cup team. Recent AIG winner Sophia Popov of Germany competed in 2009 against a U.S. team that included Lexi Thompson and Jessica Korda.
“We are delighted that Annika has accepted the PING Junior Solheim Cup captaincy,” said Alexandra Armas, CEO of the LET. “The young competitors are going to have an amazing opportunity to spend time and learn from undoubtedly, one of the best minds in the game.”
To be eligible for the 12-person team, juniors must not have turned 18 prior to Jan. 1, 2021 or be enrolled in a college program.
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Brittany Lincicome and Annika Sorenstam will be part of a Twitter Multicast featuring nine different coverage streams from Colonial.
As the PGA Tour gets back to business this week at the Charles Schwab Challenge, two women who know what it’s like to compete on that stage will take part in bringing the action to fans.
Brittany Lincicome and Annika Sorenstam will be part of a first-of-its-kind Twitter Multicast that features nine different streams of coverage from the grounds at Colonial. Fans can listen to Lincicome and Sorenstam call the action and talk about their experiences playing against the men from 1-2:30 p.m. ET.
Sorenstam played at Colonial in 2003, and Lincicome became the sixth woman to compete in a PGA Tour event at the 2018 Barbasol Championship.
With no fans on site, the Tour is offering a new way for fans to engage by delivering nine different versions of the same video stream. Other guest commentators include Darius Rucker, Eddie Pepperell, David Leadbetter and Paige Spiranac.
Lincicome joined Golfweek on Instagram Live on Wednesday to chat about her experience competing against the men, the LPGA’s potential restart and her ongoing thumb injury.
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“I’m super nervous, super excited,” Lincicome said of the broadcast. I originally thought it was live on TV and I was going to be shot-calling and all that good stuff. Come to find out it’s a Twitter live thing it’s a little less intense.”
Lincicome said she called fellow major winners Karen Stupples and Michelle Wie for broadcast tips. Wie, of course, competed on the PGA Tour on several occasions and has amped up her broadcast experience while at first out with an injury and then on maternity leave.
“I play with the guys around town all the time and I love it, but never obviously in a tournament,” said Lincicome. “That first tee shot (at Barbasol) was not fun. It was awful. My knees were shaking so bad. Once I was off the tee and I didn’t top it, I felt like some relief was kind of taken off of my shoulders.”
Lincicome and Sorenstam will cover all four featured groups during the livecast window, featuring the likes of Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and Phil Mickelson.
Their stream will also be available on the LPGA’s twitter handle as well as the players’ personal handles.
Click here to see the full list of video streams.
Annika Sorenstam looked back on the impact of her early U.S. Women’s Open success and how it helped define her career.
As a young amateur at her first U.S. Women’s Open, Annika Sorenstam walked into the locker room at Oakmont Country Club, took one look at the frozen yogurt machine and free massages, and thought why would anyone ever want to leave?
The quiet young Swede couldn’t have known in 1992 how much the championship would eventually shape her career as a three-time winner (1995, 1996 and 2006). Or the extent to which she’d shape the game itself.
Sorenstam’s sensational career was bookended by special U.S. Women’s Open moments. She, of course, broke through as a professional by winning the 1995 U.S. Women’s Open in her first appearance as a pro. And then in her final Women’s Open in 2008, Sorenstam said farewell to the championship by holing her final shot into the par-5 18th from 199 yards at Interlachen Country Club. She called it a fairy-tale finish.
To celebrate the U.S. Women’s Open’s 75th anniversary, the USGA named Sorenstam the championship’s official ambassador. The event was scheduled to take place this week at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas, but was pushed back to Dec. 10-13 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Golfweek recently talked to Sorenstam about the impact of the Women’s Open on her career. The following are excerpts from that conversation.
• • •
Two things that really stick out. Some people were very interested in this player from Sweden. As you know, I’m quite shy and had missed shots on purpose growing up (to avoid a victory speech). I never really felt comfortable in the limelight. All of a sudden you win a U.S. Open, being so new, all of a sudden everyone wanted to know everything about me, so that was quite a change. I think the biggest thing was just knowing that I had made the right decision to turn professional. That I was good enough to play on the biggest stage. To play against Meg Mallon, Laura Davies, all the top players that were playing at that time.
I knew at that time that I hadn’t reached my full potential. I’d been on tour for a year and a half; I didn’t have the experience yet. I was still evolving as a golfer. It was really an important victory just knowing I was on the right track and doing the right things. But then I had to open up and maybe show some (other) sides, more of who I am. I always felt like I wanted to take the trophy and run. That’s what I wanted to do. I was terrified to do anything else. I had to grow up and mature and learn what it takes. It’s more than just hitting shots. That was a big learning thing.
I won a few times after that (first) U.S. Open. I started out the year kind of at the top. All of a sudden, I’d come to these tournaments and I’d never really been a defending champion. And expectations of doing media and talking about it … all of a sudden, my schedule started filling up with things I never really thought that I would do. So I remember just thinking that I was so busy. I was so busy and I felt like I had to share everything with everybody, and I had to just learn how to say no. I think that was the biggest thing.
When I won the U.S. Open in 95, I was 24. All they were saying is ‘This is the new Nancy Lopez.’ There’s only one Nancy. I just felt like those shoes are too big to fill. I’m not Nancy and I didn’t come out here to be another Nancy. I can only be who I am. We are different personalities. I felt like I was kind of put in a box, you know what I mean? Like I had expectations of being Nancy and that was difficult for me because they put me on the Letterman Show and all those things to promote and that just wasn’t easy for me. So I told the commissioner, ‘I’ve gotta learn.’
If you think of it, all you do as young players is practice golf, golf, golf. But a lot of times we don’t practice what it takes when you win a golf tournament – expectations, so many things. I think that’s why you very seldom see players win back to back. They don’t win 10 tournament a year. You really don’t see that very much. You only see them win one or two. They get so mentally tired from winning. The expectations of wining. We don’t practice that.
I told the commissioner, I’m here for the long haul, but for me to be here for the long haul and have the best value to you, I told this to Charlie Meacham, my best value to you is if I go about it the way I need to go about it. But you just can’t throw me in the media circle like this. I said if you go underwater and you can’t swim, you’re just going to sink.
After I won the U.S. Open, I realized that I’ve got to focus my schedule around these four majors, and that’s what I did. One of the things I learned from a Meg Mallon practice round (in 1992), was that she had her coach there. I thought well, the next major I’m going to have my coach there. Well, I realized quickly that did not fit me. I need more than just a few days to get ready for a major. I felt stressed having him there, learning new things while I was preparing for the biggest tournament. It took me a few years to realize that I need to see my coach two weeks before a major.
I would say the one in Kansas. Juli Inkster ended up winning. I believe she shot 66. I was at the very top most of the first three days. I played very well, and on Sunday she just had an amazing round. I think I shot in the 60s, and she ended up winning. I remember one of the USGA officials coming up to me saying, ‘Good playing, this type of thing only happens in 1 percent of all major championships.’ I don’t know if it was supposed to make me feel any better, but it certainly didn’t make me feel any better. Juli just played exceptionally well. It was hot and humid in Hutchinson, Kansas. I just felt like I had it, you know what I mean?
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With the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open postponed, there will be classic reruns aired this week.
This week was supposed to be U.S. Women’s Open’s week. But with the COVID-19 pandemic pushing back the dates to Dec. 10-13, it’s instead a time to celebrate the championship’s rich history and prominent role in advancing the women’s game as the storied event turns 75.
To mark the milestone occasion, the USGA has named three-time U.S. Women’s Open champion Annika Sorenstam as ambassador of the championship. The LPGA and World Golf Hall of Famer because the first international player to win back-to-back titles in 1995 and 1996. She added a third victory in 2006, defeating Pat Hurst in the championship’s final 18-hole playoff.
“I am proud to represent the U.S. Women’s Open as their ambassador during this historic year,” said Sorenstam, one of six players to have won three or more USWO titles. “The championship means a lot to me and my career and I look forward to celebrating and reliving moments that have meant so much not only to me, but the sport of golf as a whole. It’s truly a special occasion for so many of us.”
This year’s championship will be held at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas. On what would’ve been championship Sunday (June 7), Fox will replay In Gee Chun’s 2015 U.S. Women’s Open victory at Lancaster (Pa.) Country Club in prime time. The event featured record-setting crowds. In addition, Golf Channel will air several USWO classics from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.:
Due to travel restrictions and safety concerns, the Reunion of Champions has been rescheduled for 2021 at the U.S. Women’s Open at The Olympic Club in San Francisco.
To celebrate 75, the USGA has also launched the U.S. Women’s Open History Experience, a fully immersive timeline that brings the first 74 years to life on uswomensopen.com. Beginning on Sept. 26, the organization will start a 75-day countdown to the championship with unique and never-before-seen-content.
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Annika Sorenstam will award $50,000 in grants to current Symetra Tour players through her foundation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The new ANNIKA Foundation Crisis Relief Fund plans to give 100 players grants in the amount of $500 each. …
Annika Sorenstam will award $50,000 in grants to current Symetra Tour players through her foundation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The new ANNIKA Foundation Crisis Relief Fund plans to give 100 players grants in the amount of $500 each.
There are currently 146 players on the Symetra Tour that have competed in Sorenstam’s junior and college events and more than 60 LPGA pros.
The Symetra Tour held one event in March before the season was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic. The tour has 10 tournaments left on its schedule with a couple of events pending. The total number of LPGA cards on offer has been cut in half from 10 to five. The 2020 Q-School has been canceled.
“You think of all the players – a lot of alumni – they are just starting out their dreams,” Sorenstam told Golfweek, “and it’s been cut off. We wanted to figure out a way that we can help. This is one way that we thought can help them.”
Applications for the initial round of funding are due June 12 and foundation organizers expects to distribute funds around July 1.
Players will be asked to share basic earnings information to demonstrate financial need.
That shouldn’t be difficult given the lack of playing opportunities.
Other individuals wishing to help can also make a 100 percent tax-deductible contribution by visiting annikafoundation.org/crisisrelief.
Symetra Tour rookie Bethany Wu and Annika Sorenstam (Photo credit: ANNIKA Foundation)
Last year, more than 600 girls from 60-plus countries competed in Sorenstam’s events. Her foundation annually hosts six girls-only invitational tournaments on five continents. The LPGA icon has gotten to know so many players of the players on a personal level through her events and clinics.
“Many of them need some support, and also for them to know that we’re thinking of them,” she said. “We had a little extra money. We said we can we do that, and tell them we’re thinking about them, and continue to inspire them and make sure they’re ready when we do open up again.”
A three-win senior season boosted Natalie Srinivasan to the top of college golf. College players, coaches voted her the ANNIKA Award winner.
Natalie Srinivasan has a tendency to let phone calls go unanswered if she doesn’t recognize the number. Knowing this, Furman coach Jeff Hull told his senior a few weeks ago to make sure she answered one that would be coming in the next morning.
“I think somebody wants to interview you,” he told her nonchalantly a few minutes later. She still didn’t think much of it.
Srinivasan had just pulled up to the golf course the next day when “No Caller ID” flashed on her phone screen. She dutifully answered and would have recognized the voice right away even if, “Hello, this is Annika,” weren’t the caller’s first words.
It felt like minutes passed before Srinivasan could make a sound. On the other end of the line, Annika Sorenstam was explaining that Srinivasan had won her namesake ANNIKA Award as the best player in women’s college golf.
Srinivasan already was named the Women’s Golf Coaches Association player of the year last month. The ANNIKA Award, however, is based on a vote by her peers, plus coaches, golf media and SIDs.
“Annika’s name, it’s her award and she’s the greatest player in women’s golf, ever,” Srinivasan, said. “It’s just an honor to be associated with that. All the other girls who have won have gone on to become awesome leaders and role models in this game.”
Srinivasan grew up 45 minutes from the Furman campus in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She won three times in an abbreviated senior season that included only six starts. Playing in the Southern Conference, Srinivasan flew under the radar despite winning the league title as a freshman and earning All-America honors as a sophomore.
Sometimes it’s hard to put yourself in the category of best players in college golf. That may be easier for Srinivasan to do now. It’s different when you see it in print, whether that’s at the top of the Golfstat rankings (Srinivasan is No. 4 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings) or etched onto the base of the ANNIKA Award.
The awards are piling up, and it’s hard to say what else Srinivasan might have accomplished, particularly in the postseason. She’d have every reason to be bitter about the abrupt end to her senior year caused by the coronavirus.
“Things happen and I think that’s what’s so good about playing college golf and being a student athlete, it teaches you to deal with the unexpected,” she said. “There have been so many tournaments that have gone not as I thought, professors throwing things your way, having that mindset of not being able to control it.”
A global pandemic is just the ultimate example of that. Srinivasan had attended a U.S. Curtis Cup practice session in December. She likes to think she’d have made that team – the June event was postponed a year to 2021 –but she’ll never know.
The Furman campus was on spring break when the women’s golf team returned from the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate in Hilton Head, where Srinivasan was runner-up individually, and Hull dispatched his players for a few days of rest. The next meeting they had was about the season being called off. Hull told his players to keep it sharp – the Southern Conference Championship was still a distant possibility – but eventually that fell off the table, too. Everything did.
A conversation about returning for a fifth year in Greenville was brief, Hull said. Srinivasan’s path is forward. She has Symetra Tour status and says LPGA Q-School is on the horizon. The ANNIKA Award comes with an exemption into the Evian Championship, an LPGA major.
Srinivasan landed at Furman as a consistent, if not all-world, junior player. Hull was the Furman assistant coach then. Srinivasan thinks he and then-head coach Kelley Hester (the same woman who recruited Stacy Lewis to Arkansas in the early 2000s) saw a talent in her, and ultimately Hull would be the one to cultivate it. He took over as head coach the same year Srinivasan came in as a freshman.
When Srinivasan climbed out of the van in Minneapolis for that first college start in the fall of 2016, she didn’t know much about how this whole thing worked.
“Nobody told me it was 36-18 until two days before we left,” she said, “so they literally threw me into the fire. Thirty-six your first college round.”
But that tournament week also included a trip to the Mall of America. Srinivasan was instantly enamored with her teammates. College golf has suited her.
The conference title at the end of her freshman season was the first of four career wins, but Hull sometimes boils her career down to just one shot: a pure 5-iron into the 18th green in the final round of the 2017 NCAA Lubbock Regional – all the postseason pressure on her shoulders.
“She hit the prettiest 5-iron I’ve ever seen anybody hit,” he said. “It just literally came off the club, climbed up in the sky, fell right on the flag. We still talk about that shot.”
When he brings it up, Srinivasan smiles, maybe gives him a nod, but generally plays it cool.
Srinivasan admits she wasn’t always sure where the ball was going when she arrived at Furman. She and Hull doubled down on her wedges, her in-between shots and go-to shots. She learned how to play much smarter, learned where to “miss it” and that you don’t always have to take less club and swing harder.
“Even when I’m not hitting it well now, I can kind of manage that with that type of shot,” she said. “Even in qualifying, Jeff will give me some ideas and a game to play with myself where I play with more club or less club depending on the hole.”
They spent hours at Furman’s golf facility, particularly on the putting green. It was an investment of time that went both ways.
“We tried to work on a couple extra shots she would need to get to that next level,” Hull said. “When she had to hit a shot, she knew she could.”
On the greens, Srinivasan spent much of the past year working on “makeable” putts, those in the five to 15-foot range. Hull says Srinivasan’s growth in mental game has been huge.
Furman has produced some of women’s golf’s greatest over the years, from Betsy King to Beth Daniel to Dottie Pepper. No Furman player has won the ANNIKA Award, first awarded in 2014. Brad Faxon, Furman alum, won the Fred Haskins Award (the men’s equivalent) in 1983.
That’s not lost on Srinivasan. If there’s any way to return the investment Hull & Co., have made in her, then this is it.
“It’s just awesome to put Furman back on the map,” she said. “It’s been a little while since we had this recognition.”
2020 – Natalie Srinivasan, Furman
2019 – Maria Fassi, Arkansas
2018 – Maria Fassi, Arkansas
2017 – Leona Maguire, Duke
2016 – Bronte Law, UCLA
2015 – Leona Maguire, Duke
2014 – Alison Lee, UCLA
RELATED: Pepperdine’s Sahith Theegala wins 2020 Haskins Award
These are some of the more iconic moments of women teeing it up in a different arena and making history in a men’s pro tournament.
Few women have teed it up in a men’s professional golf tournament on the highest stage. Two of the LPGA’s earliest stars paved the way in this department, and there have been a handful of notable starts since then.
What follows is by no means an exhaustive list of females who have teed it up against the men (on any level, from state amateurs to mini tours).
Instead, these are some of the more iconic moments of women teeing it up in a different arena and making history.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic interrupting competitive golf as we know it, add another name to this list, too: Maria Fassi. The LPGA rookie is about to test her game on the Moonlight Tour, a men’s mini-tour, this week.
Zaharias, one of the game’s great athletes, was instrumental in attracting early fanfare to the LPGA. Zaharias had the kind of game that allowed her to fit in on the PGA Tour, too, and in 1935, she played the Cascades Open. Zaharias missed the cut but it started an 11-year stint during which she teed it up a handful of times with the men (becoming the first woman to do so).
Zaharias missed the cut at the 1938 Los Angeles Open (now known as the Genesis Invitational), but she played the event again in 1945 and did one better, making the 36-hole cut but missing a second cut to play the final round. She also played the Tucson Open and the Phoenix Open that year and teed it up again at the 1946 Los Angeles Open.
Two European Tour events, the Scandinavian Mixed Hosted by Henrik & Annika and Stockholm and Sweden’s Trophée Hassan II, will be postponed.
As scheduling changes continue to rock the golf world, another pair of European Tour events were pushed back on Monday due to the coronavirus pandemic — including the highly-anticipated debut of a mixed event hosted by Annika Sorenstam and Henrik Stenson.
The Scandinavian Mixed Hosted by Henrik & Annika was scheduled to take place at Bro Hof Slott Golf Club in Stockholm, Sweden, June 11-14, featuring 2016 Open Champion Stenson and 10-time major champion Sorenstam. The field was scheduled to consist of 78 European Tour players and 78 Ladies European Tour players. Prize money was set for €1.5 million ($1.65 million) with the event going to different venues in 2021 and 2022.
The Scandinavian Mixed marked the first time Europe’s top players from the two main tours were expected to go head to head for the same prize money on the same course in a 72-hole stroke play event.
Also, Stockholm, Sweden’s Trophée Hassan II was on the schedule for June 4-7, but officials have announced that the event will be postponed. It will be moved to the 2021 schedule.
“We will continue to monitor the global situation in relation to Coronavirus and evaluate its impact on all our tournaments, with public health and well-being our absolute priority. We thank all stakeholders involved in Trophée Hassan II and the Scandinavian Mixed – including His Royal Highness Prince Moulay Rachid and the Hassan II Trophy Association, the Ladies European Tour and Henrik Stenson and Annika Sorenstam,” European Tour Chief Executive Keith Pelley said.
“Discussions regarding the possible rescheduling of all postponed tournaments will remain ongoing until we have clarity on the global situation.”
A total of 11 events on the European Tour have now been moved or canceled, and the next event still standing is the BMW International Open. The event is scheduled to be played at Golfclub München Eichenried from June 25-28.
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