End of an era when record shows that none could challenge Annika

SO ANNIKA has had enough. After 72 LPGA victories that included 10 major championships, a round of 59, a brief and ultimately ill-advised sojourn onto the PGA Tour and an endless stream of tedious, almost monosyllabic press conferences, the ice-cool Ms Sorenstam is calling it a competitive day at the end of this year.

Even at the comparatively early age of 37, this news hardly qualifies as a complete surprise. The outwardly stern Sorenstam has never given the impression that she is in love with golf; for her the game seemed always to be more about the drug-like high that comes from the beating of others rather than the more esoteric and ultimately transient pleasure provoked by the hitting of truly great shots.

Indeed, other than the pressure-packed tee-shot she struck off the first tee in the 2003 Colonial Invitational, the Swede has never been known for hitting shots that stick long in the memory. Her strength and effectiveness came in the Tom Kite-like hitting of the same shot, time after time. Only rarely was there any kind of 'wow' factor in her plodding style of play and on-course demeanour, a fact that, rather as Nick Faldo had before her, provoked admiration rather than love in the hearts and minds of those watching.

Still, it would be more than churlish not to acknowledge the fact that Sorenstam's impending retirement represents the end of an era in women's professional golf. Almost ever since her first LPGA Tour victory at the 1995 US Women's Open, the eight-time Solheim Cup player (not surprisingly, she has won more points than anyone else on either side) has dominated the game, only a combination of injury and the emergence of Lorena Ochoa knocking her from the number one spot last year.

That she owns five of the six lowest annual stroke-averages ever posted on the LPGA Tour – in 2005 she shot a record 14 consecutive rounds in the 60s – is but one indication of her peerless consistency, as is the fact that she has eight times been named Player of the Year. And, while prize-money has never been a lasting measure of success on tour, the fact that Sorenstam has won over $22m, almost $8.5m more than her nearest 'challenger', says everything about the sustained intensity with which she has gone about her business.