WILLIAMSBURG, May 5 – With her 300-yard drive placed perfectly in the middle of the fairway at the short par-5 seventh hole at Kingsmill’s River course, 195 yards from the flag, Annika Sorenstam had a 5-iron in her hands and birdie or better on her mind as she stepped up to strike her second shot Thursday in the first round of the Michelob Ultra Open.
But almost from the moment the ball left the club face, her head sagged, then came up again just in time to watch the errant shot go dead left into a clump of trees, buried in deep grass with rocks all around. Ten minutes later, Sorenstam walked off the green with a double-bogey 7 on the 495-yard hole – her 16th of the cool, breezy day – that left her at 6 over par for the round.
Though Sorenstam would hit another 300-yard drive and sink a 50-foot chip on her last hole, the 400-yard No. 9, for her only back-nine birdie, she began her quest for an LPGA-record sixth straight victory and fourth straight this season with a 5-over 76. It marked the first time in her last 44 rounds that she didn’t post a score of par or better.
Even worse, by the end of the day, Sorenstam found herself nine shots behind first-round leaders Catrin Nilsmark of Sweden, the European Solheim Cup team captain, and Silvia Cavalleri of Italy, the 1997 U.S. women’s amateur champion. Both came in with 4-under 67s on a difficult course that won’t get much easier with rain and even stronger winds predicted in the Tidewater region for Friday. Then again, Sorenstam once overcame a 10-shot deficit at the start of the last round to win the 2001 Office Depot event in Los Angeles, tying the greatest final-day comeback in LPGA history.
Told that her countrywoman Sorenstam had shot 76, Nilsmark said, “She’s human, thank God.”
“It’s not the start I had in mind. . . . It bounced everywhere I didn’t want it to bounce,” said Sorenstam, aiming for her 60th career victory.
“I’ll have to shoot very low the next three days. It’s just another challenge.”
Sorenstam came here after a planned five-week break from competitive golf following her eight-shot victory at the Kraft Nabisco, the first major championship of the LPGA season. However, she was typically deadly accurate off the tee, hitting 12 of 14 fairways, and insisted afterward that “I thought I played pretty good.”
She posted her worst score in relation to par since she shot 5-over 77 in the second round and missed the cut at the 2002 women’s British Open, also the last time she didn’t play on the weekend.
“The finish was good,” Sorenstam said of her birdie chip into the cup on her final hole. “I really can’t complain. It just didn’t go my way at all. I didn’t make any putts. It was just one of those days. You just forget about it and move on. What else can you do?”
For one, she’ll have to start playing like the Sorenstam who leads the tour in hitting greens in regulation, because she found only 11 of 18 on Thursday. For another, she’ll have to stop three-putting, which led to two of the five bogeys on her card. And her chipping, at least until her final hole, also was spotty, leading to the other three bogeys.
The double bogey at the seventh could have been even worse, because her third shot from a rugged lie moved about two yards and almost hit her (a two-shot penalty if it had) on a ricochet off a rock.
Asked later if she still was thinking about six in a row, she said: “Well, I thought about it this morning, but after my first bogey, I had more things to think about than that. . . . I just want to move forward. Three more days and I’ve got to go low. I play well enough to do it.”
Others were playing far better this day, particularly Nilsmark and Cavalleri, who both finished late in the day and have never won an LPGA event. Five players were at 3-under 69, including Cristie Kerr, a three-time winner last season who tied for sixth here in 2004 and said she relishes the challenge of having Sorenstam in the field.
“She’s a good enough player to be in contention every week, obviously,” Kerr said. “I’m kind of at the point in my career now where I’ve got to focus on how I go forward. I see getting in contention and playing head to head with her as an opportunity now instead of most people would be scared to play her. . . . We can’t control what she does. We’re all trying to win the tournaments. . . . We’re not focusing on her. She’s not focusing on us, I can tell you that.”
Leta Lindley, also in with a 68, said neither she nor anyone else in the field is ready to count Sorenstam out of the tournament after only one round. “It changes the dynamic when she is not in the tournament,” she said.
“You feel like you have a better chance. You know she’s a machine. You know you have to play well, for me, my super-duper best golf ever. She’s just not going to make mistakes, she’s not going to give it to you by any means. I have to go after her.”
LPGA Notes: Danielle Aimee, the 28-year-old winner of the Golf Channel’s Big Break III reality series, was given a sponsor’s exemption into the field. She posted 43 on her front nine before settling down with 36 on the back and an opening-round 79, the same score as defending champion Se Ri Pak.
By WashingtonPost.com
