Columnist Dean Juipe: Annika’s game isn’t PGA caliber

Dean Juipe

Friday, April 18, 2003 | 10:07 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

If the question is "Will Annika Sorenstam make the cut at the Colonial next month?" the answer is "No."

After walking 18 holes with the Ladies Professional Golf Association superstar Thursday, I'm convinced her status as the finest player on that tour still leaves her well behind her male counterparts. She's a great player by women's standards, but an average one compared to the typical guy on the PGA tour.

Factor in the pressure she'll be under as she plays the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth and I think her fling with the men's tour will prove to be much ado about nothing.

Her first round in the LPGA Takefuji Classic at the Las Vegas Country Club certainly was underwhelming.

Playing in breezy and somewhat cool conditions, Sorenstam birdied only two holes and finished with an even-par 72. She was slightly erratic off the tee, inconsistent with her approach shots and mediocre with the short stick.

Add in the fact that the tees were way, way up and the course is notorious for low scoring at the hands of the pros and Sorenstam's round left a good deal to be desired. The fans noticed it too: The decent gallery she and playing partners Lorie Kane and Kasumi Fujii had as they left the first tee dwindled as the day went on, even though Fujii temporarily was tied for the lead early on the back nine.

Sorenstam, 32, is the finest player on the ladies' circuit and has 43 career victories, qualifying her for the Hall of Fame. She gained entry into the PGA Tour's yearly stop in Fort Worth via a sponsor's exemption, and you can bet the media attention she will receive when she plays May 22-25 in the Bank of America Colonial will be extensive if not suffocating.

But that course plays to a par 70 at 7,080 yards and she's going to be with the guys on the back tees. Compare that to the par 72, 6,494 yards of the Las Vegas Country Club and you can see she's going to have her hands full.

I like Sorenstam and you have to admire her gumption, but she's not going to revolutionize pro golf. She's working with weights and attempting to bulk up, yet the PGA Tour's fear that she will play so well at Colonial that other women will infringe and request the same privilege seems unlikely to be realized.

Her purposeful stride aside, the queen of the LPGA tour is a grinder by PGA Tour standards.

She had a grinder's stats for her first round of the Takefuji Classic, hitting only 12 greens in regulation and requiring 33 putts. She was neither the victim of bad luck nor positioned to shoot better than her 72, as the longest putt she made was straight, uphill and a mere 8 feet on No. 9.

She had one short putt lip out -- a 3-footer for par on No. 3 -- and missed another (for birdie) from 4 feet on No. 8 even though she had the advantage of seeing Fujii miss from the exact same length and line.

The best and most skillful shot she hit all day was a tricky chip on No. 5 that allowed her to save par, and it came after two shots that landed in the right rough of the par-4 hole. But confronted with a low branch, a trap directly in front of her and a bad lie, she expertly placed her third shot within 6 feet of the flag and walked away with an eventful par.

Her two birdies came on par-5 holes, although neither No. 9 nor No. 18 was playing especially long at 460 and 495 yards. Her two bogeys, at Nos. 1 and 3, came during a stretch of three successive holes in which she failed to reach the green in regulation.

Unhappy with the plane of her swing and her positioning at impact, she periodically toyed with a club during breaks in the play and once playfully threatened to toss her putter into a pond adjacent to No. 14. Aside from the occasional chitchat with Kane early in the day, she played quietly and without any give and take with those who followed her.

They were hoping for better.

So was she.

And I think both she and they will feel the same after a round or two at Colonial.