NORTH PLAINS, Oregon, 2 July 2003 — World No. 1 Annika Sorenstam has a score to settle with Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club when she launches her bid for a third US Women’s Open in tomorrow’s first round.
In 1997, the Swede arrived here aiming to win the title for an unprecedented third successive year, but she crumbled under the burden of expectation and failed to make the cut.
Six years later, it is a very different story. Sorenstam has grown accustomed to coping with the harshest of pressure, none more so than when she lined up against the men in the PGA Tour’s Colonial tournament in May.
In the four LPGA tournaments she has played since then, she has won two - including last month’s major, the LPGA Championship - and lost a third in a playoff.
“Back in 1996, I couldn’t handle all the spotlight and the media hype,” the five-time major champion said yesterday.
“Now I’m much more able to cope with everything out on the golf course. But, yes, I really do feel I have something to prove here this week.”
Sorenstam, who has won three LPGA events and one in Japan in 2003, is clear favorite, but there is a clutch of challengers queuing up to claim the most coveted prize in the women’s game.
American Juli Inkster, who overcame a last-round deficit to beat Sorenstam into second place at Prairie Dunes in Kansas last year, is also chasing a third US Open and the 43-year-old underlined her form by tying for third last week in New Jersey.
South Korea’s Pak Se-ri is firmly established as number two to Sorenstam in the world rankings, and has already won twice this season. The 25-year-old clinched the US Open as a rookie in 1998, and has already added a further three major titles.
Grace Park, another South Korean, has been in outstanding form this year, while Rachel Teske has won her last two tournaments and has overtaken Karrie Webb as the leading Australian on the LPGA Tour.
Not that Webb can be discounted.
Like Sorenstam, she failed to make the cut when chasing a history-making third successive US Open last year, and she has not won anywhere since she collected her sixth career major at the British Open 11 months ago. But the 28-year-old Australian has shown flashes of form in 2003, and she will not be short of motivation as she joins Sorenstam in aiming to prove a point at Pumpkin Ridge. Making her debut in the third women’s major championship of the year is the remarkable 13-year-old amateur from Hawaii, Michelle Wie.
Britain’s Alison Nicholas is also in this week’s field and is set for a nostalgic trip down memory lane.
