Word: annika
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...GOLF: Annika Sorenstam will tee off with the men at a PGA tournament. Can she hold her own? And what is she trying to prove, anyway...
When people describe Annika Sorenstam, they say she's consistent, efficient, mechanical, driven. Makes you wonder: Are they talking about the world's No. 1 female golfer or a Volvo? And when you meet her, you also wonder whether this nice grinning woman in the lime-green golf shirt really could be a sporting machine...
...perfectionism stems from her hypercompetitive childhood in the small Swedish town of Bro. Her parents Tom and Gunilla were avid athletes. Though they never pushed Annika, who wanted to be a fighter pilot, or her sister Charlotta, "we were the little boys they never got," says Charlotta, also a pro golfer. The girls played soccer, tennis, badminton and random games that the family invented...
That self is an absolute perfectionist. "Not just in golf but in everything I do," says Sorenstam, sitting in the plush lounge of her home course in Orlando, Fla. Friends and coaches talk of how when Annika was a teen, other girls would practice one hour after a round and she would put in three; or the time Annika had the flu, threw up on the course and still won. Sorenstam's strength is "her intrinsic motivation," says coach and mentor Pia Nilsson. "Her ability to look honestly at what she can improve is absolutely the best." The evidence...
...best woman golfer in the world, and I want to emphasize woman. We have our tour for men, and they have their tour. She's taking a spot from someone in the field." Altogether now: awwww. That poor lonely professional male golfer, denied a place in the sun by Annika. To get an idea of how poor such golfers are, consider that Annika, who dominates women's golf the way Tiger Woods dominates men's, has made as much in prize money this year as a male golfer on the PGA tour who ranks around 75th...