Annika Sörenstam.

Annika Sörenstam. Annika Sörenstam, born in 1970, Swedish golfer, one of the top players in the world. Sörenstam is a seven-time winner of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) player of the year award (1995, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004) and a five-time winner of the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average (1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002). Sörenstam was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and began playing golf when she was 12 years old. From 1987 to 1992 she played with the Swedish national team. During this time she also attended the University of Arizona, where she won seven tournament titles and was the 1991 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) champion. In 1992 she won the World Amateur Championship and was named an NCAA All-American. Sörenstam joined the LPGA tour in 1994 and won the rookie of the year award. She won the United States Women's Open, one of four major championships in women's golf, in 1995, 1996, and 2006. Known for her precision drives, Sörenstam was a dominant player throughout the late 1990s. In 1998 she finished the season with a scoring average of 69.99 per round, becoming the first woman to average under 70 for a year. When rival Karrie Webb of Australia won the player of the year award in 1999 and 2000, Sörenstam increased the intensity of her training regimen. In 2001 she led the tour with victories in eight tournaments as she passed the $8-million mark in career winnings and became the LPGA's all-time leading money winner. Sörenstam was even more dominant the following year, winning 11 LPGA events, the most by any player on the men's or women's professional tour since Mickey Wright won 13 LPGA tournaments in 1963. Sörenstam won the third and fourth major titles of her career by capturing the Nabisco Championship in both 2001 and 2002. In 2003 Sörenstam accepted a sponsor's exemption to play in the Colonial, a tournament on the men's PGA (Professional Golfers' Association) Tour held in Fort Worth, Texas. Sörenstam shot five-over-par for two rounds and missed the cut (the qualifying score to play in the final two rounds), but she was hailed as an inspiration--the first woman to play in a PGA tournament since Babe Didrikson Zaharias in 1945. A few weeks after the Colonial, Sörenstam won her fifth major title by capturing the LPGA Championship in a sudden-death playoff. She also won the 2003 Women's British Open, giving her a career grand slam (winning each of the four major championships at least once during a career). Sörenstam is the sixth woman to accomplish the feat. In 2004 she again won the LPGA Championship, her seventh major title, and earned more than $2.5 million for the year to top the money list for a seventh time. Her average score per round of 68.69 broke her own LPGA record, set in 2002. Sörenstam continued to dominate the sport in 2005, winning seven of her first nine tournaments. In March she captured the Nabisco Championship and in June won the LPGA Championship, both by comfortable margins. The wins gave her nine career major titles. In July 2006 Sörenstam won an 18-hole playoff to capture her third U.S. Women's Open title. It was her first victory in the Open since 1996, and it boosted her career total to ten major titles. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.