Sorenstam struggling on her farewell tour

Source: Agencies  |   2008-10-23  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

THE boisterous ovation she heard walking toward the 18th green was the kind typically reserved for the winner. But if that were the case, Annika Sorenstam would have won her 13th straight tournament last week.

Instead, she tied for 25th at the Kapalua LPGA Classic. It was the ninth time in her last 11 events she failed to record a top 10.

Then she boarded a plane to China, and the countdown to retirement continued.

This is not going the way Sorenstam would have liked, or most people would have imagined, when she announced in May that this season would be her last on the US LPGA Tour. At the time, the 38-year-old Swede had just won the Michelob Ultra Open for her second straight victory, third of the season, 72nd of her career.

She had played eight tournaments and finished out of the top 10 only once. She was runner-up in the first major of the year.

Why stop?

"I have other priorities in my life. I have a lot of dreams that I want to follow," she said that day. "I think I've achieved more than I ever thought I could. I have given it all, and it's been fun."

The question now is why she didn't stop then.

No other sport is more difficult to retire from than golf. Arnold Palmer was lured by the adoration of his army for so long that they quit posting his score at some tournaments. Jack Nicklaus fumed whenever someone congratulated him on making the cut, but was lucky to stumble into a graceful retirement at St. Andrews.

No one made a cleaner break from golf than Ben Hogan.

On the 12th hole of the 1971 Houston Championship, he wrenched his knee on a tee shot, was driven off the course in a cart and never played another tournament.

All of them were well past their prime.

Sorenstam, by contrast, was coming off consecutive victories when she said that she was done. She already had gone over US$1 million in the season for the 10th time in her career.