Annika: Don't Let The Drug Testing Trailer Door Hit You On The Way To Retirement

Beth Ann Baldry sums up Annika Sorenstam's surreal LPGA farewell:

It will be impossible for those in attendance Friday to forget how one of the LPGA’s greatest players ended her career. It was disappointing that several seats behind the 18th green were empty when she doffed her cap. It was emotional when she talked about how the urge to cry sat in her throat all week long. It was both comical and crazy to hear her spend several minutes of her final interview talking about an upcoming drug test.

Steve Elling explains what happened and offers this on the need to test the retiree two weeks after another test.

"I have no idea, but they're not going to let me go," she said, forcing a laugh. "Yeah, I guess you get tested every other week now."

Another 20 minutes later, she hadn't cooled off. As she packed up her SUV for the drive home, she pointed at the portable testing center and said with a dismissing wave, "I sat in that beautiful trailer."

Jill Pilgrim, the LPGA administrator who handles the testing, said the organization has no choice but to screen any player whose number comes up -- otherwise the whole process becomes tainted if exceptions are granted.

"At the end of the day, if the LPGA does not follow the protocol, and we are brought into litigation or arbitration, we will be liable for not following the protocol," she said. "We follow the protocol because we want to keep everything fair for every player.

"That's the way you keep it fair. The procedures don't vary because of any particular set of circumstances."

Even for an organization known for making head-shaking decisions over the years, this ranks at the bottom of the latrine in terms of asinine, idiotic developments. After 15 memorable seasons in which she often carried the tour on her capable back, Sorenstam isn't playing next year, making the whole testing issue decidedly moot.

Ron Sirak writes:

Still, it's hard to imagine any LPGA player would have complained if Sorenstam had been allowed to slide in her last event. What were they going to do is she failed? Suspend her retirement?

And if you choose to remember her career in a more positive light, Larry Dorman files a lovely career send off for the New York Times. And GolfDigest.com offers this shrine to the great one's epic career.