Annika "Stepping Away" Stories

Golfweek's Evan Rothman paints a picture for us of the press conference scene while his colleague Beth Ann Baldry talks to Suzann Pettersen about her disappointment in hearing the news. Meanwhile Brian Hewitt offers a few predictions about how this may play out.

Steve Elling catches up with Kathy Whitworth about Annika's decision to go out while she's at the top. Golf For Women's Dave Allen gets Lorena's "surprise" reaction to the news and also explains how the timing of the announcement came about.

Golf.com (here) and GolfDigest.com (here) offer career retrospectives while Ron Sirak learned of the news Sunday and therefore had a little more time to file this career obit.

Sorenstam's mastery of emotional balance was so complete she gave no hint of inner turmoil. In 2004 she won eight LPGA events and twice more overseas as her marriage to David Esch was crumbling. Divorce papers were filed the following February. She similarly kept her father Tom's prostate cancer battle the last few years private, never using that distraction as an excuse.

And, of course, there was the transformation she made in dealing with the attention that came with being so dominant. As a rookie Sorenstam was so shy she took a month off after winning her first U.S. Open because she wanted to avoid the media. In 2003, the year she played in the PGA Tour's Bank of America Colonial, she handled the nearly four-month buildup to her appearance with aplomb.

Dan Jenkins, the Golf Digest writer who has witnessed virtually every significant event in golf for nearly 60 years, has said Annika's opening tee shot at Colonial -- a 257-yard 4-wood off the 10th tee -- might have had more pressure on it than any single shot in the game's history. It was perhaps the most important shot in the history of women's golf and her superb execution in an opening-round 71, combined with the classy way she handled the attention, earned women's golf new fans and enhanced respect.

"Colonial was my mission," Sorenstam said Sunday as she looked back over her career. "It was my path, my journey and I felt like people accepted that, 'Hey she's an athlete, and she wants to get better.' I've always let my clubs do the talking. And I felt like people accepted me for that."