KEY POINTS:
One of the great careers may effectively be over. Annika Sorenstam is out of action with a ruptured disc in her back and even though she's due to host a tournament in Florida starting on May 31, there's no guarantee she'll be fit enough.
Comments last week suggest
she knows the glory days may be over and it's time to get serious about other aspects of the golfing business.
"If I really have to gear up for an event, I can do it," she said at the opening of a golfing academy carrying her name. "But it's almost like 'I've done that so many times'."
Then there's this about tournaments. "Until you get to Sunday it's tough to get the match lit."
She is one of the greats of women's golf in the past decade. Sorenstam, 36, has won 69 times on the LPGA Tour, still short of the 88 held by Kathy Whitworth but what seemed an inevitable march to overtake that record has stalled and may not restart.
Among the total are 10 major championships, the most recent last year's US Women's Open on Long Island, won after an 18-hole playoff.
From 2001 till last year, she was the 'winningest' player in golf, Tiger Woods included. She claimed 43 titles in that period.
Her dominance brought to mind Martina Navratilova in tennis in the 80s. Unbeatable, except that to win a tennis tournament a player has to beat, at most, seven others. In golf, the figure is at least 100. She also took a quick reality check on women competing against men.
She teed it up in the Colonial Invitational in Texas in 2003, creating a sporting firestorm as feminists, including many males, thought their time of redemption had come.
I still smile thinking about the easy money made betting against those who thought she'd make the cut. She didn't, and retreated to the LPGA Tour, aware of the game's extremely significant gender differential. Michelle Wie apart, the phenomenon of women trying to mix it with the men seems to have died off.
Sorenstam still heads the official women's world golf ranking, but is about to be overtaken by Mexico's Lorena Ochoa - the first time the Swede has not been on top since the system was established last year.
Now it looks like she wants to cash in on her reputation. Her agent is Mark Steinberg, who also looks after the affairs of Woods.
Florida's Annika Academy is intended to launch the 'Annika' brand. It seems plenty are prepared to buy in.
Deals include a three-day 'Soren-Slam' package which includes a round of golf with the woman herself. It costs $US12,000 and there are no vacancies this year.
