Annika Sörenstam (born October 9, 1970 near
Stockholm, Sweden) is a professional golfer whose
achievements rank her as one of the most successful
female golfers in history. She has won 70 official
LPGA tournaments including ten majors, 18 other
tournaments internationally, and she tops the LPGA's
career money list with earnings of over $21 million
-- over $7 million ahead of her nearest rival.
The winner of a record eight Player of the Year
awards, and six Vare Trophies given to the LPGA
player with the lowest seasonal scoring average, she
is the only female golfer to have shot a 59 in
competition. She holds various all-time scoring
records including the lowest season scoring average:
68.6969 in 2004.
Sörenstam made history at the Bank of America
Colonial tournament in 2003 as the first woman to
play in a men's PGA Tour event since 1945. Often
known simply as "Annika," she achieved the fame of
male golfers known in the same way: Arnie (Arnold
Palmer), Jack (Nicklaus) and Tiger (Woods). Her
growing off-course interests include the ANNIKA golf
academy, golf course design and a charitable
foundation.
Sörenstam has begun the transition from professional
golfer to entrepreneur, hoping to combine her three
major passions—golf, fitness and cooking—into
various businesses under the ANNIKA brand with the
brand statement "Share my Passion. She has launched
her own website and regularly contributes to her web
blog.
Her first golf course design project, the Annika
Course, was completed at Mission Hills Golf Club in
Shenzen, China in 2003 whilst the second design
project was officially launched in January 2006 and
is expected to open in 2008 at the Euphoria Golf
Estate & Hydro in South Africa. As part of her
business partnership with Ginn Resorts, she will be
redesigning Patriots Point Links Course near
Charleston, South Carolina, her first course design
in the United States. This is the sister course to
RiverTowne Country Club in Mount Pleasant, South
Carolina with the LPGA Tour Ginn Tribute Hosted by
ANNIKA event in 2007. Annika's fourth course design
project at Red Mountain Resort, British Columbia
will be her first from scratch in North America.
Sörenstam, who first thought of opening an academy
in 2002, began construction on the ANNIKA Academy at
Ginn Reunion Resort in 2006. The Academy opened in
April 2007, with Sörenstam's longtime coach Henri
Reis serving as head instructor, her sister
Charlotta an instructor and club fitter and her
personal trainer Kai Fusser focusing on overall
fitness training geared toward improving students'
golf skills. The academy will offer a number of
"Soren-Slam Packages" that includes playing golf
with the academy owner. The opening included a
Make-A-Wish Foundation golf clinic conducted by
Sörenstam who is a United States ambassador for the
Make-A-Wish Foundation.
One of Sörenstam's great loves is cooking. She often
participates in cooking demonstrations during LPGA
tournaments and has talked about enrolling in
cooking school. Before the 2003 season Sörenstam
took the opportunity to improve her culinary skills
by working eight hour shifts in the kitchens of the
Lake Nona Country Club. Sörenstam has had a serious
interest in investments, real estate and the stock
market since she earned her first LPGA check and in
August 2006 was invited to ring the closing bell at
the New York Stock Exchange.
Sörenstam met her first husband in 1994 in Phoenix,
Arizona, where David Esch worked for Ping. They got
engaged at the 1995 Evian Masters, married in Lake
Tahoe on January 4, 1997 and were divorced in 2005.
She announced her engagement to Mike McGee, the
Managing Director for the ANNIKA brand of businesses
in August 2007 with a wedding planned for April
2009.
