Columnist Dean Juipe: Sorenstam reaches out to fans, and they accept her

Dean Juipe

Friday, May 23, 2003 | 10:08 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.

Bubbling with a radiance she didn't display just a month earlier in Las Vegas and scarcely straying from the fairway, Annika Sorenstam made a case for women's golf and secured a future of riches and admiration for herself in a single day.

She's set for life.

Her days of isolation or as a curiosity have passed. If she is so inclined, she will be welcomed as a multimedia superstar.

All because she not only handled the immense pressure of competing on the men's PGA Tour, but because she glowed with energy and goodwill.

Once portrayed as mechanical and unfeeling, within the period of playing 18 holes Thursday at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth she completely revamped her image. To call her lovable isn't sexist, is it?

Sorenstam, the first woman in 58 years to play a men's tour event, finished her opening round with a 1-over-par 71. Colonial was playing easy, yet she hit virtually everything straight and her shots followed a designer's diagram of the course.

Yes, she's still going to have to go some to make the cut today. But barring a massive meltdown, she has already endeared herself to a worldwide audience that stretches far beyond the realm of golf fans.

And it's her suddenly engaging personality, as much as those truly struck 7-irons, that seems so inviting.

Sorenstam came out of her shell in Fort Worth. She was spontaneous, responsive, polite.

She did everything to endear herself to the gallery and TV viewers that a person in the spotlight could do. She not only withstood the heat, she was delightfully cool.

Having walked 18 holes with her in April during the first round of the LPGA's Takefuji Classic at the Las Vegas Country Club -- and having studied her from afar for several years -- I can safely proclaim that Sorenstam has recast herself as a glib and giving heroine. The old Annika, the pre-Colonial Annika, was civil yet subdued, contemplative yet restrained.

She hadn't yet realized the advantages of being expressive. But opening with a telltale and exaggerated sigh of relief after hitting her first tee shot at Colonial and seeing it come to rest safely in the fairway, she exuded a most remarkable (and marketable) quality: warmth.

Her golf game was pleasantly satisfactory, too.

Fifteen pars, one birdie, two bogeys ... that was the final tally. She didn't threaten the leader board and she probably can't shoot a low enough score to contend against the men, but she wasn't all over the place either.

She played as well as seemingly possible, and that's good enough to leave those who wagered on her making the cut still uncertain as to how the bet will play out. It was a minus 360 at the MGM sports book that Sorenstam would not make the cut, and, as always, the number reflects the general public's view.

People thought she would implode. Instead, win or lose today, she will always be seen in a favorable light.

She dared to accept a sponsor's invitation at Colonial and had the moxie to back it up with a respectable game. In doing so, she not only elevated her own stature but that of the women's tour she says she'll return to after this high-voltage weekend.

She overcame the subtle and innocuous realities of being the only person in Colonial's women's locker room, of having someone shout "You're the woman!" after a nice shot, of playing from the foreign territory of the back tees, and of being the focus of a massive crowd that was well beyond the capacity of anything she might see on the ladies' circuit.

She did just fine.

She stretched a sport's boundaries and the world's horizons as well.