HAVRE DE GRACE, Md. -- With the LPGA Championship
effectively over, Nancy Lopez sat in front of a scoring computer
and watched Paula Creamer move up the leaderboard and Natalie
Gulbis remain in the top 10.
No one was going to catch Annika Sorenstam, but Creamer picked
up valuable Solheim Cup points.
Creamer is 16th in the Solheim standings with 187.5 points. The
top 10 players make the team and Lopez gets two picks. Wendy Ward
is in 10th place with 254 points.
Lopez is the U.S. captain for this year's match, and while she
was duly impressed with Creamer's final round 5-under 67, she is
reserving judgment on how the American team will shape up until the
final month.
"There's so many things can happen," Lopez said. "What
they're doing now is great. But I want to see who is hot, hot, hot
going into the Solheim Cup."
Lopez has had dinner with the veteran players of Solheim Cup
matches, and she had a separate dinner with the younger generation
to get their thoughts on the team and the uniforms.
A dinner with all prospective team members on Wednesday in
Rochester, N.Y.
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^WINNER'S SPOILS:@ Just days after her 62nd career victory,
Annika Sorenstam will be teeing it up at two of the world's
highest-rated courses.
Sorenstam received invitations to Pine Valley Golf Club in New
Jersey and Merion Golf Club just outside Philadelphia.
Pine Valley, designed by George Crump, is annually rated as the
top course in the nation by golf magazines. There are no female
members and women usually play the course on Sunday afternoons.
Sorenstam will be playing there Monday, a day the course is
usually closed.
She'll be playing Merion, the site of the U.S. Amateur later
this summer, on Tuesday. The Ardmore, Pa., club known for its
"Quarry" hole, hosted its first national championship in 1916.
Fourteen-year-old Bobby Jones was in the field. The club also was
the site of the 1930 Amateur, the event in which Jones closed out
his international career.
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^SORENSTAM BY THE NUMBERS:@ Annika Sorenstam won the LPGA
Championship going away, but her closing round of 1-over 73 ended
her streak of 14 straight rounds in the 60s.
The Swedish star has turned in a score in the 60s in 22 of 30
rounds this season. She still has a chance to reach the tour record
for most rounds in the 60s (51) set by Lorena Ochoa a year ago.
Sorenstam has won nine tournaments three times. If she can
defend next year, she could add the LPGA Championship to the event
she has claimed four times: the Samsung World Championships (1995,
'96, '02, '04) and Mizuno Classic (2001, '02, '03, '04). She has
won 17 tournaments twice.
Sorenstam is a perfect 4-for-4 when entering the final round
with the lead.
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^CHAMPIONS UPDATE:@ Former LPGA Championship winners Laura
Davies, Juli Inkster, Karrie Webb had strong finishing rounds.
Davies, who won the championship in 1994 and '96 and needed a
win in the major to qualify for the LPGA and World Golf Halls of
Fame, closed with a 1-under 71, good enough for a tie for third.
Davies continued her aggressive play at Bulle Rock, and never
second-guessed her plan in pursuit of Sorenstam.
"We just thought that if anything silly happened, we'd be there
to pick up the pieces," she said.
Inkster, who won the McDonald's LPGA title in 1999-00, had a
3-under 69 and settled for a tie for 13th.
"I played good, I just didn't score," Inkster said. "I feel
good about my game. I've just got to keep it going."
That said, Inkster will take a week off to be with her family
before the U.S. Women's Open.
"It's something I have to do," she said. "I've got two kids
at home. It helps me."
Webb, who fulfilled the 10-year tour requirement to get into the
LPGA and World Golf Halls of Fame after the first round, turned in
a 5-under 67 and was tied for 20th.
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^DIVOTS:@ Annika Sorenstam closed out the LPGA Championship with
an over-par score for the third straight year. She finished with
72s the last two years the event was held at DuPont Country Club in
Wilmington, Del., and shot a 1-over 73 Sunday. ... The LPGA
Championship's first year at Bulle Rock Golf Club drew 96,700
people, with the largest crowd of the week on Sunday (29,900). The
event generated $1.75 million for the Ronald McDonald House
charities.
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^QUOTEABLE:@ "I don't think it's all that good if Annika is
winning every week because it makes the rest of us look like we
can't play -- and it's just not true." -- Laura Davies on Annika
Sorenstam's third straight victory at the LPGA Championship and
sixth win in eight events this season.