WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, 23 November 2004 — Annika Sorenstam captured her eighth title of the year here Sunday, beating Cristie Kerr in a playoff for the season-ending LPGA ADT Championship with a bogey on the first playoff hole.
The Swedish superstar captured this event, featuring the year’s top money winners, for the third time in her career.
“I really don’t care (about winning with a bogey). A win is a win,” Sorenstam said. “By the end of the day (if) the trophy is in my hand, I’m happy.”
Sorenstam, who had already clinched her seventh LPGA Player of the Year award, won her 56th career title and the $215,000 top prize.
Sorenstam, 34, began the day with a one-stroke lead and fired a three-under par 69 to finish on 13-under par 275, but American Kerr caught her with a bogey-free 68.
The playoff began and ended on the 18th hole, which each woman parred in the final round. Both hit their tee shots in the fairway but Kerr splashed her second shot into the water and finished with a double-bogey.
Sorenstam’s sent her approach left but chipped onto the green and two-putted for her winning bogey.
“It wasn’t as pretty as all the previous holes we played,” said Sorenstam, who pushed her yearly earnings to $2.54 million. “But I saw Cristie hit it in the water on the second shot. I was going to play it safe on the left side of the green. “I pulled it a little bit and chipped it up.”
Moving past Betsy Rawls into fifth place on the all-time LPGA win list, Sorenstam trails Louis Suggs by two titles for fourth place and is only four crowns behind Patty Berg for third.
“That’s not really one of my goals,” said Sorenstam, who has won 33 tournaments the last four years and clearly still is in her prime.
Kerr actually took a one-shot lead with a birdie at the 15th hole. Sorenstam tied it with a six-foot birdie at No. 16.
“I had that putt before. I knew it was going to break right to left,” Sorenstam said. “The question is, can I do it when I need to?” “I’m a little disappointed, but not a whole lot,” said Kerr, who was denied her fourth win of the season.
Sorenstam almost won it when she just missed a birdie putt at the final hole of regulation, prompting her caddie to throw a rake in disgust. Approximately 15 minutes later, they were celebrating.
“I’m very proud of this year,” Sorenstam said. “To win eight times on the LPGA Tour, 10 worldwide, and I’ve only played maybe 20 tournaments, I’m thrilled, really.”
