Annika Sorenstam: Seeking one more major

"Annika is more than capable and talented enough to do it, and she's closer to me in wins than Tiger Woods," said Whitworth, 68, an LPGA Hall of Famer with 88 titles. "I think if she wanted to keep playing, there's no doubt she'd break my record."

But Sorenstam, with 72 victories, doesn't want to play beyond this season. She wants to marry fiance Mike McGee in January, start a family, build golf courses, develop the Annika Academy and help children through her foundation.

"I have achieved so much on the golf course," Sorenstam said. "I'm happy. I don't need to do this anymore."

But the 37-year-old Swede isn't going quietly into retirement. Having fully recovered from a ruptured disk in her neck that kept her winless in 2007, Sorenstam has three victories and eight top-10 finishes in 12 tournaments this season. She tied for second in the first major of the year (Kraft Nabisco Championship) and tied for the third in the second one (LPGA Championship) three weeks ago.

The third major begins Thursday when the U.S. Women's Open visits Interlachen Country Club in Edina. Sorenstam, the No. 2-ranked woman in the world behind Lorena Ochoa, will try to tie early tour legends Mickey Wright and Betsy Rawls with a record fourth title in the championship she covets most.

"I've always felt this was the most important tournament that we play," Sorenstam said. "It's tough to tell what my emotions will be until the tournament starts. I'm sure it will be emotional. I'm going to enjoy it. Take it all in because it is a tournament that I'm going to miss very much."

Sorenstam paused before making it clear she isn't coming to Edina just to say farewell to her favorite championship. Winning the U.S. Women's Open would be a huge step toward her ultimate goals of winning the money list, LPGA Tour Player of the Year and reclaiming the No. 1 ranking she lost to Ochoa early last season.

"I definitely will be focused," Sorenstam said. "You can believe I'll be trying hard to win it again."

Other players have retired from full-time competitive golf and returned for an occasional tournament. Sorenstam said she doesn't foresee any scenario that would bring her out of retirement to play in a U.S. Women's Open.

"I doubt it," she said. "The conditions are so tough. I don't think that would be the time to come back for one tournament for whatever reason."

Sorenstam's first LPGA Tour victory came at the 1995 U.S. Women's Open. She successfully defended the title a year later.

In 2001, she became the only woman to shoot 59 in a tournament. In 2003, she played against PGA Tour players at the Colonial.

"The pressure that I felt through the Colonial, nothing will ever compare to that," Sorenstam said. "I remember stepping up to [an LPGA] tournament after the Colonial and feeling like it was a piece of cake."

From 2000 to 2005, Sorenstam won 43 of 104 LPGA events. She's won eight LPGA Player of the Year awards. And she ranks No. 1 in career money with more than $22 million.

She'll retire with the third-most victories in LPGA Tour history. Wright is second with 82. On the PGA Tour, Snead had 82 and Jack Nicklaus 73. Woods is third with 65 ... and counting rapidly.

"Every era is defined by the great players, whether it's Mickey or Annika or Tiger," Whitworth said. "Personally, I'd have to put Mickey up there at the top. But Annika is certainly a terrific ball-striker. And she's truly a machine when it comes to making shot after shot without too many mistakes. She'll be missed."

Fellow LPGA Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez made headlines recently when she told Golfweek magazine that Sorenstam, "owes it to the LPGA Tour to keep going," adding, "I have lived for the LPGA Tour. It's my second family. I want her to feel the same way."

Former LPGA Tour player and current television analyst Dottie Pepper said the timing of Sorenstam's retirement definitely hurts the tour, which is in the process of negotiating a new television package. But Pepper does not agree with the notion that Sorenstam owes it to the tour to keep playing.

"She doesn't owe the LPGA a thing," Pepper said. "She has given 110 percent of herself and done so much for the game that I don't see that as being a real valid statement."

Sorenstam turns 38 on Oct. 9. Her last scheduled LPGA Tour event will be the ADT Championship in November. Her final scheduled event of the year will be in December at the Dubai Ladies Masters on the Ladies European Tour.

"Knowing her, I would say she's going to kill herself through the end of the year," Pepper said. "She doesn't have a whole lot of just kind of 'mailing it in' in her personality."

Sorenstam has good memories of Interlachen. She went 3-1-1 as a member of the European team that won the 2002 Solheim Cup there.

"It's a true golf course in the sense that you have to drive it well, it's narrow, it has small greens," Sorenstam said. "It's a true ball-striker's course, which suits me better."

A win would give Sorenstam 11 major victories, moving her past Babe Zaharias and into a tie for third place with Louise Suggs. With one more major left after this week, Soren- stam could move into sole possession of third place behind Wright (13) and Patty Berg (15), the native Minnesotan whose lifelong relationship with Interlachen began with a junior membership in 1931.

"Patty's 15 majors speak for themselves, but I was never motivated by that or Kathy's 88 wins," Sorenstam said. "I joined the tour and I didn't know if I'd win a single tournament. I wasn't motivated by numbers. I enjoyed the journey as much as getting to the top."