LPGA NOTES
Sorenstam uncertain about PGA invitation
| • | Webb captures Skins Game |
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
WAILEA, Maui — Annika Sorenstam was non-committal when asked about playing in the B.C. Open, a PGA Tour event that offered her an exempt spot last week.
Associated Press
"I don't know nothing about it," Sorenstam said. "I haven't talked to my agent. I told him I was in Hawai'i playing the skins and we'd talk about it when I get home. Somebody asked me about what was in the paper and that's the first time I heard about it so I don't know what to think. I don't even know where it is."
Annika Sorenstam would easily make the cut in the PGA's B.C. Open, says a fellow LPGA pro. Sorenstam has yet to accept the offer.
The tournament is the same week as the men's British Open and the LPGA's Sybase Big Apple Classic. Sorenstam won the Big Apple in 1998 and 2000 and was third last year.
Laura Davies, who has been in special events with Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, John Daly and Tom Watson, is pushing Sorenstam to play — with a warning.
"I'm not saying she's going to get out there the first week and win it, but she'd make the cut comfortably and represent herself real well," Davies said. "It's a little bit different pressure I found playing with the men. Not only are you playing a much harder golf course, but you're trying to justify being there, at least I was. I was trying to justify that I was teeing it up with the men from the back tees. That makes it a little harder.
"It's a very difficult thing to do, but if anyone can do it I would never bet against Annika in anything. I think she'd make the cut comfortably."
Davies looked at Sorenstam and grinned.
"But that wouldn't be good enough, would it?" she said. "You wouldn't want to just make the cut. You'd be trying to win it."
Sorenstam's perfectionist habits were observed as closely Friday and Saturday as they were yesterday.
During the Pro-Am, spectators noticed how meticulous she was about filling her divots with sand. They wondered out loud if she knew she would hit her drives into the same divots yesterday.
Saturday, people watched in awe as Sorenstam chipped to her caddy, crouched on the range like a catcher, grabbing the ball with a baseball glove.
He never had to move from his crouch.
SHORT PUTTS: Each player donated 10 percent to her favorite charitable organization. ... Last year Wailea Golf Resort, Inc., ESPN Regional Television and Trans World International extended their contract to keep the Champions Skins Game at Wailea through 2005. Last August, ConAgra Foods came in as title sponsor for the Skins, Champions Skins and LPGA Skins for three years, which keeps the women and seniors at Wailea through 2005. The regular Skins Game is played Thanksgiving weekend in California. ... Punahou eighth-grader Michelle Wie, who played in three LPGA tournaments last year, had an opportunity to play a practice round with Laura Davies and Karrie Webb Saturday but had to pass because she didn't bring her clubs to Maui. Wie and her parents followed the two LPGA pros Saturday and again yesterday. ... Estimated attendance was 4,000 Saturday and 2,000 yesterday.
