Annika Sorenstam is Golf’s Best
LPGA star is better than Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus
Fresh off of her tenth LPGA Major Championship win, Annika Sorenstam must now be considered as golf's greatest all-time player -- even better than Tiger and Jack.
It's difficult to measure greatness in sports. Legends are compared across positions and eras. The arguments rarely end with definitive winners. In golf, the raging debate over who is the game's best player is usually about Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. It is indeed compelling. The problem is that another of golf's legitimate legends is almost never mentioned with these PGA players.
Although she may never tee off alongside Woods in a Major Championship, U.S. Open Winner Annika Sorenstam is clearly golf's greatest player.
Augusta president Hootie Johnson, and virtually every other sexist sports fan, would certainly scoff at comparing a woman to the aforementioned greats. Sure, Sorenstam can't hit the golf ball 300 yards consistently off the tee, and she rarely sends a 4 iron longer than 190 yards. This lack of pure distance makes it difficult for her to compete with the likes of Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus (if he were in Annika's age group), on the long courses that the PGA has recently embraced.
When it comes to competition, though - where true sports legends are measured - Sorenstam is unsurpassed.
Consider Annika Sorenstam's 14-year career highlights:
- 67 LPGA tournament victories
- finished second 40 times in LPGA events
- 10 Major Championship victories in 47 starts
- 177 top 10 LPGA tour finishes
- finished in the top 10 in 70 percent of her starts
- has earned just under $19 million in prize money
- named player of the year an LPGA record 8 times
Now, by comparison, Jack Nicklaus won 73 PGA titles, but it took him 10 more years to achieve this mark. He also won 18 PGA Majors, but once again, it took him 24 years to compile these wins, while Sorenstam has 10 LPGA Majors in just 14 years.
Those on the Tiger Woods bandwagon will be quick to point out his four consecutive PGA Major wins (dubbed the "Tiger Slam"), and his own quick run to 48 wins in 10 years. What really separates Tiger from Annika, though, isn't about talent or competitiveness; it's about media coverage. The men's game has it, while the LPGA lives in relative anonymity, even though it is laced with plenty of its own wonderful players.
Annika Sorenstam, like Tiger, Phil Mickelson, former great Nicklaus, and other PGA stars, is not only spectacular in her play, she often exudes the emotion and jaw-dropping shot-making ability that brings golf fans to their knees. Sadly, most fans are missing Annika's brilliance.
Still not convinced that Sorenstam is the greatest golfer ever to tee it up? Consider that in 2005, she won exactly one-half of the 20 events she entered. In the past four full seasons, she was victorious in an astonishing 35 of the 78 LPGA events she entered. That's winning a whopping 45 percent of the tournaments Sorenstam enters. In that same span, Tiger Woods played 76 PGA events and won 17 times, for an average of 22 percent - good, but meager by comparison.
Sure, you might say, these are just numbers, and they don't always tell the story. I agree. That's why I'm calling for a challenge match. Let's put Annika and Tiger on the same course - one that is challenging but short, eliminating Tiger's manly advantage.
I'd love to see this match and, by the way, I'll put 20 bucks on Annika.
