[ LPGA GOLF ]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The gallery watched as Michelle Wie hit an iron on the first hole of yesterday's final round.
Sorenstam wins;
Wie finishes tied
for 19thThe Punahou freshman shoots
a 5-over 77 to finished at 2 under
SUPERSTITION MOUNTAIN, Ariz. » Catching Annika Sorenstam is difficult in perfect weather. In the heat and wind of the desert yesterday, there was no chance.
The six-time player of the year conquered the elements and the competition to win the Safeway International at 18-under 270. In her LPGA season debut, she earned her 49th career tour victory with a four-stroke margin over Cristie Kerr.
Sorenstam started the day with a two-shot lead, saw it briefly fall to one, then pulled away in conditions that challenged the skills of the world's best female player.
"It tests your ability to hit the shots, your ability to putt, but most of all your patience," Sorenstam said. "It's all about being patient and not getting too ahead of yourself. It was tough out there."
She punctuated her triumph by rolling in a 25-foot birdie putt on the par-5, 508-yard 18th.
Most of Sorenstam's competition wilted in the 97-degree heat, with the wind hitting 25 mph on the Superstition Mountain Golf Club course 50 miles east of Phoenix.
"I woke up early because the wind was howling at my window, so I knew it was going to be a tough day," Sorenstam said. "It seemed like the wind was strong all day long, and it made the course so different and so much tougher."
Sorenstam shot a 2-under 70 yesterday, mixing four birdies with two bogeys. After near-perfect conditions the first three rounds, there was as much as a three-club difference hitting into the head wind, she said.
"Now I'm tired, just because I've been thinking all day and working so hard," Sorenstam said. "But it's also a lot of fun. This is where you really have to control over your ball."
Kerr, who began the day three shots back, shot a 71.
It was the fourth second-place finish for the 26-year-old Kerr, who earned $109,590. Kerr has one LPGA victory, at the Longs Drug Challenge in 2002.
"I just hit eight greens and shot 1 under," she said. "It was a very, very tough day."
Michelle Wie struggled to a 5-over 77 to wind up 2 under for the tournament.
"Nothing was working at all today," she said. "I mean absolutely nothing."
Still, the 14-year-old said she loved the experience and the crowd support. She had a long, loud ovation after saving par on the 18th.
"I was kind of tired," Wie said. "It was a long, hot four days."
She doesn't like to work out, but said she planned to hit the gym before next week's Kraft Nabisco Championship. Her immediate plans, though, were to go shopping.
"I guess that's cardio," she said. Her father, B.J., said she would get $300 to spend.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Annika Sorenstam celebrated her victory at the Safeway International yesterday. Sorenstam finished at 18-under 270.
Many third-round leaders would have faded in the difficult conditions. Not Sorenstam.
"When you're playing against Annika, even under tough conditions, you have to be on top of your game," Kerr said. "I didn't feel like I was on top of my game today."
Sorenstam, who opened the season three weeks ago in Australia with a victory in the ANZ Masters, earned $180,000 to drive her career earnings to $13.38 million in her 10-plus years on the tour.
She is two-for-two heading into next week's opening leg of her quest to be the first to win the LPGA's grand slam in the same year.
Lorena Ochoa and Grace Park shot 72s to tie for third at 11-under 277.
Nineteen-year-old tour rookie Shi Hyun Ahn, who began the day at 14-under two shots behind Sorenstam, struggled to a 5-over 77 for a 9-under 279, tied with defending champion Se Ri Pak.
Laura Davis was at 11 under until she hit two tee shots out of bounds on the 18th en route to a 4-over 9 on the hole and wound up at 281.
Sorenstam's lead was just one stroke until she sank a 6-foot birdie putt and her playing partner Ahn bogeyed the par-4, 402-yard fifth hole.
In the 72 holes, she had an eagle, 19 birdies and three bogeys to win the Phoenix LPGA stop for the second time in four years.
In 2001, Sorenstam she shot an LPGA record 59 en route to a victory at the Moon Valley Golf Club in north Phoenix. She led after three rounds the past two years but couldn't hold on in the final day.
The tournament moved this year to the par-72, 6,620-yard Prospector Course designed by Jack Nicklaus at the base of the Superstition Mountains, legendary site of the Lost Dutchman gold mine. The layout was longer than any course the women faced last year.
The course was the site of the Tradition, a major on the Champions tour, in 2002.
