Golfing great Annika Sörenstam has agreed to join Golf Channel’s new morning show, Morning Drive, as a weekly contributor. Sorenstam – the LPGA Tour’s career money leader with more than $22 million in earnings and winner of 72 official LPGA Tour events, including 10 major championships – will make her first appearance today with co-hosts Erik Kuselias and Gary Williams. She will appear each Thursday, either in-studio or via telephone.
“I look forward to being a weekly guest with Erik and Gary on Morning Drive,” said Sorenstam. “I have always been interested in doing television work and I am thankful for the opportunity.”
Early Career
Annika was born October 9th 1970 Bro, near Stockholm, Sweden and was a talented all-rounder and a nationally ranked junior tennis player, played football (soccer) in her hometown team Bro IK. Sörenstam was such a good skier that the coach of the national ski team suggested the family move to Northern Sweden to improve her skiing year round.
At the age of 12, she switched to golf, sharing her first set of golf clubs with her sister - Charlotta the even - earning her first handicap of 54. As a Junior she was so shy she used to deliberately three putt at the end of a tournament to avoid giving the victory speech which the coaches noticed. At the next tournament both the winner and the runner-up had to give a speech and Sörenstam decided that if she were going to have to face the crowd anyway she might as well win.
Her successful amateur career included a win in the St. Rule Trophy played at St. Andrews and a runner-up finish in the Swedish national mother/daughter golf tournament. As a member of the Swedish National Team from 1987 to 1992, she played in the 1990 and 1992 Espirito Santo Trophy World Amateur Golf Team Championships, becoming World Amateur champion in 1992. When she was waiting to start college in Sweden, Annika worked as a personal assistant at the Swedish PGA and played on the Swedish Ladies Telia Tour, winning three tournaments during 1990/1991.
After a coach spotted Sörenstam playing in a collegiate event in Tokyo, she moved to the United States to attend college at the University of Arizona. winning seven collegiate titles and in 1991, became the first non-American and first freshman to win the individual NCAA National Championship. The same year she was 1991 NCAA Co-Player of the Year with Kelly Robbins, runner-up in the 1992 NCAA National Championship, 1992 Pac-10 champion and a 1991-92 NCAA All-American.
At the 1992 United States Women's Amateur Golf Championship, she was the runner-up to Vicki Goetze and thus received an invitation to play in the 1992 U.S. Women's Open, where she finished tied for 63rd- turning professional the same year.
She missed her LPGA Tour card at the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament by one shot and began her professional career on the Ladies European Tour or LET, formerly known as the WPGET.
Professional Career Record
8 Rolex Player of the Year Awards: 1995, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005
Inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2003
6 Vare Trophy wins, for LPGA player with year’s lowest scoring avg: 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002 and 2005
1993 WPGET Rookie of the Year
1994 Rolex Rookie of the Year
2003 Patty Berg Award, for contributions to women’s golf
8 Golf Writers Association of America Female Player of the Year awards: 1995, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005
2 European Player of the Year awards: 2004 and 2005
3 Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year awards: 2003, 2004 and 2005
8 ESPY awards, including Best Female Athlete and Best Female Golfer
Lowest score by any female in a single round: 59 (Achieved in the 2nd round of the 2001 Standard Register PING tournament)
Lowest scoring average for one season: 68.69 (2004)
LPGA Major Victories
McDonald’s LPGA Championship: 2003, 2004, 2005
U.S. Women Open: 1995, 1996, 2006
Weetabix Women’s British Open: 2003
Kraft Nabisco Championship: 2001, 2002, 2005
