Sorenstam: new poster girl for Tour

Wednesday, April 16, 2003 | 9:48 a.m.

A provocative 1978 poster of Jan Stephenson lying in a bathtub of golf balls led to a $125,000 layout offer from Playboy magazine, which she politely declined.

Stephenson knows a thing or two about attracting attention to the LPGA Tour.

Annika Sorenstam made a modeling splash, too, by wearing only dark, athletic underwear and her Nikes in a feature on her golf swing that ran in Sports Illustrated two months ago.

Next month, Sorenstam will push Stephenson's publicity campaign one step -- actually, a major leap -- further when she becomes the first female to compete in a PGA Tour event in 58 years.

Sorenstam will hit from the same tees as the men at the Bank of America Colonial, on the hallowed grounds of the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, May 22-25.

Ben Hogan won there five times.

Stephenson has been a Colonial member since 1985.

"I think it's been good for the LPGA," Stephenson said Tuesday afternoon at Las Vegas Country Club, where she practiced for this week's LPGA Takefuji Classic.

"I can't wait to see how she does at Colonial. At first, I thought, 'If she does badly, it isn't going to be good for the LPGA Tour.' But her answer was, 'You can have one bad tournament and one bad week.' So it shouldn't reflect (poorly) on her."

Stephenson, 51, was the LPGA rookie of the year in 1974, and became the first Australian female to earn $1 million in her career in '85. Seven years later, she hit the $2 million mark.

Last season alone, Sorenstam, 32, made $2.86 million in tour earnings. In a sand trap once, Stephenson learned of Sorenstam's mettle. Stephenson aimed to get a few balls within 6 feet of the pin; Sorenstam wouldn't leave until she holed out twice.

"She works so hard," Stephenson said. "I think it's raised the bar for everybody. We're all working twice as hard. It's actually really, really interesting. I think it's made everyone more aware and better golfers."

Sorenstam's reserved Swedish demeanor has always belied her tenacity with a club in her hand. At a press function Tuesday, she vividly recalled how "scared" she was when she met the media after winning the 1995 U.S. Women's Open.

"I'm fine inside the ropes," Sorenstam said. "Give me a putter or give me a driver, I'm totally fine. But in front of everybody, it's always been scary for me. But I've gotten a lot of practice the last few years."

Especially over the past three months, since she committed to playing with the men. Tuesday, she was typically comfortable and classy, answering questions until there were no more.

"She's really doing well with the publicity," Stephenson said. "I didn't know that about Annika, because she seems so quiet. But she's very driven, and it's nice that we get to see what her goals are."

Told that the Palms race and sports book has posted her Colonial first-round over/under score at 76 1/2, Sorenstam chuckled.

"I can do better than that," she said with a blush.

Anyone paired with her will go out of his way to beat her, as will the men who find themselves near her on the big board in Fort Worth. Or, maybe that is all those guys will need to go into a mental spiral.

Sorenstam has heard plenty.

"It's pretty funny when you think about it, all the things that go through people's minds," she said. "We'll see. I'm just going to play my game. It's going to be conservative, because it's a tough course. I'm not going to pay attention to the guys I play with.

"If they pay attention to me, I think they're in trouble."

In 1945, Babe Zaharias made the 36-hole cut of the Los Angeles Open before firing a 79 and missing the 54-hole cut in an event won by Sam Snead.

Sorenstam admitted that she would not have attempted the feat at "90 or 95 percent" of the courses on which PGA Tour members play. "I wouldn't have a chance," she said.

Colonial is a par-70, 7,080-yard course that Nick Price, Corey Pavin and David Frost -- hardly majestic bashers like John Daly or Tiger Woods -- have tamed for victories.

"It's a tough, tough golf course," Stephenson said. "But she's longer, and her short game is so brilliant. She'll be challenged on the long par 4s and par 3s. Where the guys can carry the doglegs, she's going to have to play the proper way.

"The difference is, instead of being 10 or 15 yards away she'll be 45 or 50 yards away. If she makes the cut, that's a huge accomplishment."