ASSOCIATED PRESS
Annika Sorenstam got a hug from playing partner and Castle alumnus Dean Wilson after completing the first round yesterday. At right is her other playing partner, Aaron Barber.
All eyes on Annika
Sorenstam makes a solid
PGA Tour debut with a 1 over
in the first round
FORT WORTH, Texas >> The first woman on the PGA Tour in 58 years played just like one of the boys.
In fact, Annika Sorenstam was better than some of them yesterday -- Sergio Garcia, Tom Lehman and two dozen others.
She split fairway after fairway. She had a birdie putt on every hole. The only time she stepped into a bunker was to study the break on the green.
"I played what I think was one of my best rounds ever," Sorenstam said after shooting a 1-over 71 amid the kind of frenzy only Tiger Woods could appreciate.
That still might not be good enough to make the cut at the Colonial, but a historic round in an atmosphere that matched the occasion told her plenty.
Hey, she can play.
"It was more than I could have ever expected," Sorenstam said.
She was seven strokes behind Rory Sabbatini, who took advantage of a soft course to shoot 64. He led by one over Mark Calcavecchia and Patrick Sheehan.
Sorenstam was tied for 73rd -- the top 70 and ties get to play on the weekend -- and will play this afternoon when the conditions likely will be tougher.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Annika Sorenstam watched a putt on the ninth green at the Colonial yesterday. A huge gallery followed Sorenstam's round.
Even if she doesn't make the cut, it might not matter.
For one round, Sorenstam showed why she was worth a sponsor's exemption, and why she has become the most dominant woman golfer in 40 years.
With a gallery that stood a dozen deep and strained to see every shot, Sorenstam missed only one fairway. She missed four greens, but never far enough that she couldn't use her putter.
"She's a machine. She's awesome," said Aaron Barber, who played with Sorenstam and had a 72. "I've never played with someone over 18 holes who didn't miss a shot."
Castle graduate Dean Wilson, the other player in their group, had a 71.
Sorenstam hugged them both when she finished her round, another indication this was no ordinary day.
Also at 71 was Nick Price, the defending champion who was among those protesting her sponsor's exemption. Price has said it "reeks of publicity." Sorenstam finished ahead of 26 players, including Garcia (72) and Lehman (73).
But this wasn't an experiment to see if the LPGA's top player was better than the men. She only wanted to see how her game stacked up on a longer course (7,080 yards), with tucked pins, against the best competition golf has to offer.
Several of those who played in the afternoon watched hole-by-hole coverage of Sorenstam's round on television.
"She hit it a lot farther than I thought she would," Phil Mickelson said after his 67. "It looked like the way she's playing, she could easily compete on this level."
Not many were worried that she would cost them their livelihood.
"It's not like she's robbing a bank," Calcavecchia said. "I don't think any of the guys here feel threatened that she's trying to take money out of our pockets."
The last woman to play on the PGA Tour was Babe Zaharias in 1945. The last time there was this much interest in one round was when Woods made his professional debut in the 1996 Greater Milwaukee Open.
Fans began gathering around the 10th tee nearly an hour before Sorenstam started her round. They crammed into a clubhouse balcony, on a grassy hill to the right of the tee, and covered every inch of rope from tee to green.
Wilson and Barber each hit irons safely to the 10th fairway.
Sorenstam hit 4-wood, and as the ball descended from the smoke-gray clouds and landed beyond the other two, the crowd cheered as if it had been a game-winning field goal.
Hundreds of fans wore "Go Annika" buttons and held up signs urging her on. There was even the odd cry of "You Da Woman!"
The loudest cheer of the day came at the par-3 13th, where Sorenstam made her only birdie with a 15-foot putt from just off the fringe. She pumped her first, kicked her leg and pointed to her caddie.
Sorenstam thought a birdie would calm her nerves.
No such luck.
"I talked to Aaron and Dean a little bit and we were laughing, but once I was over the ball, once I was looking at the flag, I was nervous again," Sorenstam said.
She might have been helped by soft conditions brought on by two days of rain because the greens held her approach shots -- eight of them were 6-iron or longer.
Even so, Sorenstam was never over par until her final hole, when she three-putted for bogey from just over the green.
She missed her goal -- even par -- by one stroke, but was still five better than the odds out of Las Vegas. Her round didn't seem all that remarkable perhaps because she made it look so easy.
Despite missing four birdies inside 15 feet, Sorenstam was satisfied.
"This probably would be in the 60s on my tour," she said.
Sorenstam overshadows LPGA event: At Corning, N.Y., Karen Stupples tied the best opening round ever at the Corning Classic, shooting an 8-under-par 64 to lead the tournament.
Stupples equaled the record set in 1994 by Nancy Ramsbottom. And she did it in the shadow of Sorenstam, the tour's best player, whose play against the men at Colonial was shown on a giant TV screen near the 18th green.
Charlotta Sorenstam, besieged all week by questions about her famous sister, had a 71. That was good for 1 under on the 6,062-yard Corning Country Club course, which is 1,018 yards shorter than Colonial.
Clarke leads Volvo: At Virginia Water, England, Darren Clarke shot a 6-under 66 to take the lead in the first round of the Volvo PGA Championship.
He leads by one stroke over Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand, James Kingston of South Africa and Scotsman Alastair Forsyth, who all shot 67s to finish one ahead of a large group.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Annika Sorenstam paused on the opening hole of her round at the Colonial yesterday. Sorenstam started the course on the back nine and finished with a 1-over 71. One of her playing partners, Castle alumnus Dean Wilson, at right, experienced no ordinary round of golf yesterday.
Wilson witnesses history
FORT WORTH, Texas >> Dean Wilson had never hugged one of his playing partners at the end of the round. Aaron Barber can't remember ever high-fiving an opponent after a great shot.
OK, so you act a little different when playing with the No. 1 female player in the world.
The PGA Tour rookies were Annika Sorenstam's playing partners yesterday in the first round of the Colonial, when she became the first woman in 58 years to play on the men's tour.
When Sorenstam made a 15-foot putt off the fringe at the 178-yard 13th, their fourth hole and her only birdie, she reacted by pumping her fist. She then got the celebratory hand slap from Barber, who was two strokes behind her at the time.
"You can't help but root for her. She's so nice and she plays so solid out there," said Barber, an eight-year pro who didn't earn his first PGA Tour check until two months ago.
Sorenstam finished 1-over 71, her only two bogeys coming in the last five holes. That matched Wilson's score and was one stroke better than Barber, who had two birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey.
"I'm not ashamed to lose to her, she's awesome," Barber said. "It's only 18 holes, too."
After the group putted out on the last green, Wilson -- the Castle grad who had a two-birdie, three-bogey round -- spoke briefly with Sorenstam and then got a hug, as did Barber.
"I just told her I was so proud of her," said Wilson, who had made only six PGA starts before this season. "Just the way she handled herself, the way she obviously played with all the attention that she's been getting this week and it's just been a circus for her. Once she got inside the ropes, she was in her element."
Barber and Wilson had looked forward to playing with Sorenstam since finding out Tuesday that they would be grouped together the first two rounds. Their names were selected randomly by a computer, drawn from the category of players who haven't won or finished in the top 125 on the money list.
They knew yesterday wasn't going to be a normal round. They found out right away, wading through a crowd of people stacked as many as 12 deep just to get to the first tee.
"A little bit of a circus with so many people," Wilson said. "That's the first experience for me with all that. But a great experience playing with Annika."
They get to do it again today when they begin their second round at the No. 1 tee. And they will all be trying to make the cut.
"There's absolutely no reason why she can't," Wilson said. "If she had just a few more putts drop in today, she would be under par easy."
