Annika Sorenstam coasts to eight shot victory

Here's something that has to be troubling to the other players on the LPGA Tour:

Annika Sorenstam doesn't think she's quite peaked yet.

The most dominant player in golf believes she's close after blowing out the field by eight shots and winning the first major of the year Sunday in the Nabisco Championship.

But there's still work to be done, especially if she wants to reach her goal of winning the women's Grand Slam.

``I feel I'm starting to reach my peak and I want to get there,'' Sorenstam said. ``That's what keeps me going every day.''

There doesn't seem to be much to make Sorenstam any better. She's won her last five LPGA Tour events, and is a quarter of the way toward her goal of winning all four major championships this year.

But Sorenstam is all about goals, and she sets the bar high.

``I figure out for me first and I look at some of the records and say if this is possible and this is not,'' Sorenstam said. ``Putting that together, that's what gets me motivated and gets me going in the morning.''

Much of what Sorenstam has done in golf wouldn't be considered possible by any other player. She's shot a 59, won 59 LPGA Tour titles and now has eight major championships to her name.

What she did on the weekend at the Mission Valley Country Club -- not making a bogey and shooting rounds of 66 and 68 -- left players past and present trying to figure out just how good Sorenstam is.

``It only shows that she's that much better than the rest of us,'' defending champion Grace Park said.

The player whose record of five straight wins Sorenstam tied with the victory went even further.

``I think really, and truly, she's better than Tiger Woods,'' Nancy Lopez said. ``We have a lot of great players out here and nobody is even coming close to her.''

Despite all the highly touted young talent at the Nabisco -- including a pair of teenage amateurs in Michelle Wie and Morgan Pressel -- the only player who could get closer than 10 shots to Sorenstam at the end was 45-year-old Rosie Jones.

Jones is retiring at the end of the year and, after getting blown away by Sorenstam over the weekend, is probably making the right decision.

``She didn't show any nerves at all,'' Jones said. ``Her ball striking was just great.''

Sorenstam had barely finished her impressive performance when her thoughts turned to the rest of the season. Her goal is to do something no woman has done and win all four majors in the same year, but the way she's playing, she might as well have a goal of winning every tournament she plays in.

Sorenstam said she plans to take some time off to refresh herself and see how she can improve her already formidable game. So far, though, she's more than pleased with the way things are coming together.

``I'm getting better and better at every part of the game, and it's all coming together,'' she said. ``I mean, I've always felt like I was a good ball-striker. I've always felt like I was a good putter but didn't seem like I could really put them together. I'm able to scramble and that's what it takes to win tournaments.''

Sorenstam's win was not only her fifth in a row over two seasons, but her seventh in her last nine tournaments. She hasn't shot a round over par since last June 27 in the Rochester LPGA, where she had a 1-over 73.

Since then, Sorenstam has played 43 rounds at par and better.

Sorenstam didn't make a bogey in her last 39 holes, playing methodically as she made her way around a 6,535-yard course that was supposed to play tough with narrow fairways and deeper than normal rough.

Just for fun, Sorenstam capped off her command performance by going for the green in two on the 485-yard final hole. Her 4-wood safely cleared the water, and Sorenstam took a victory lap on her way to the green, exchanging high-fives with spectators as she walked past the grandstands.

She promptly three-putted from about 100 feet, but it was of little consequence. When she tapped in for the win, her sister and a few others raced on the green and sprayed her with champagne.

Then she and her sister took the traditional winner's plunge into the pond next to the 18th green together, followed by her mother and then by her caddie.

Her swimming form wasn't great, but Sorenstam is trying to win golf tournaments, not gold medals.

``I'm here and I'm soaking wet and now I'm looking forward to the rest of the year,'' she said.

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