Sorenstam opens 4 shot lead

There are 18 holes left, and even though Annika Sorenstam leads the Jamie Farr Kroger Classic by four shots, it's not a sure thing.

Yeah, right.

"She doesn't make a lot of mistakes,'' Hall of Famer Beth Daniel said, almost shrugging her shoulders. "When she gets it going, she's like a machine. She's a good front-runner. She always has been.''

Driving into every fairway but one and hitting all 18 greens in regulation, Sorenstam shot a 5-under-par 66 in today's third round for a 54-hole total of 10-under 203. That added up to a four-stroke bulge over six players.

None of them -- Daniel, Rachel Hetherington, Jane Crafter, Tracy Hanson, Kate Golden or Heather Bowie -- talked as if they expected to get any help at all from the Swede.

"You know she's going to play great,'' Hetherington said, "so you've got to play better.''

Chasing her 21st victory in seven years on the LPGA Tour, Sorenstam is on top heading into the final round for the 25th time in her career. She has won 15 of those tournaments, including twice earlier in the year at the Welch's/Circle K and the Firstar LPGA.

Sorenstam has never lost a tournament that she has led by more than three shots going into the last 18 holes, winning three times.

The way she's playing -- always hitting from the fairway and always putting for birdie -- she's unlikely to let this one slip away.

"Now that I think about it, I never saw her chip,'' Bowie said. "That did not surprise me at all.''

Sorenstam didn't talk as if she was going to do anything but stretch the margin in the final round, either.

"I know I have a lead,'' she said. "I don't want that lead to get smaller.''

Sorenstam started the day tied for the lead at 5-under with Bowie and was paired with her in the final grouping.

So was Sorenstam looking at it as match play?

"I wasn't paying too much attention to what Heather was doing,'' she said.

Bowie found a greenside bunker and bogeyed the first hole, while Sorenstam curled in a 40-footer for birdie and a two-stroke swing.

Bowie rebounded with a string of birdies at Nos. 6-8 to pull even.

They remained in lockstep for two more holes until another two-stroke swing, this time when Sorenstam birdied the 10th after hitting a 9-iron to 10 feet and Bowie bogeyed when she again bunkered her 8-iron approach.

"Both sides started out the same, with me making bogey and her making birdie,'' Bowie said. "I never felt today I was playing her but that I was playing the golf course. But she hit so many great iron shots, I just tried to hit it where she hit it.''

So confident was Sorenstam in her shot-making that she could ignore the rest of the field.

"I had nothing to fear today,'' she said. "It seemed like I was shooting straight at every flag.''

Sorenstam built the lead to three with a 9-iron to 5 feet on the next hole for another birdie. She closed the round with a 12-foot birdie putt, then calmly walked back to her caddie, handed him her golf ball -- and pumped her fist in an almost private celebration.

"This is what I dream about,'' she said. "When you hit a lot of balls, this is the scenario you want -- taking a lead into Sunday.''

A victory would make her 3-0 in her last three trips to Ohio, winning last October's New Albany Classic and the Firstar earlier this year in Beavercreek.

Sorenstam's 66 matched Betsy King for the low round of the day.

Five shots back at 5-under 208 are two-time defending champion Se Ri Pak, first-round co-leader Terry-Jo Myers, and Sara Sanders. Pak, seeking to become only the sixth player to win an LPGA tournament three years in a row, shot a 68.

A feared front-runner herself with 32 career wins, Daniel said there was no reason for reporters to even talk to the pursuers.

"There's only one you need to talk to,'' she said.

Email this page to a friend | Return to top of page