Sorenstam, Wie return for Ginn Tribute
BY Bruce Young | LPGA Tour | 2007 Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika | Preview | 30 May 2007
Annika Sorenstam returns to tournament golf this week for the first time since an ailing back forced her withdrawal from the LPGA Tour in mid April. In the meantime her greatest rival on the LPGA Tour, Lorena Ochoa, has moved ahead of her in the Rolex World ranking and if the Swede is to recapture her place at the top of Women’s game she will need to be at her best to do so.
This week’s tournament is, interestingly, the newly created Ginn Tribute hosted by Annika. Sorenstam has built a commercial relationship with the Ginn Group and she was no doubt keen to be ready to play this event for both herself and her sponsors after being forced to withdraw from their previous event in mid April.
Also in the field is yet another star returning from injury in Michelle Wie. Wie has been recovering from a wrist injury for most of this year and she plays her first LPGA event of the season this week.
“I’m just so excited to be here,” said Wie in a pre tournament interview. “Of course I have expectations, but I’m just so grateful to be out here again. I never realized how much I missed it. How much I actually love golf and I love being out here at tournaments. So I’m just so grateful that my wrists are better and I can actually hit a golf ball and be at this tournament and play this week.”
“Unfortunately because of my wrists I missed out on a couple events. But it was a blessing in disguise. I think that I can always play golf tournaments in the future, but high school will never come to you again.”
“I feel like last semester senior year I really got to enjoy and really got to hang out with my friends. I was actually the one who was calling my friends and telling them get me out of this house. I need to be outside. They’re the ones saying, ‘Oh, I’m sorry. I’m too busy.’”.
The venue, the RiverTowne Country Club near Charleston in South Carolina, is an Arnold Palmer designed facility owned by the Ginn Company which opened in 2002.
The field is headed by the in form and brilliant Ochoa ahead of several other winners on this year’s LPGA Tour including Suzann Pettersen, Stacy Prammanasudh, Paula Creamer, Brittany Lincicome, Mi Hyun Kim and Morgan Pressel.
Karrie Webb takes her place as the number three player in the world but she has been a little off the boil of late after what had been a great start to the year. Sorenstam and Wie are unknown quantities to a large extent given that they are returning from injury but clearly, at their best, they beat any field.
This is a strong lineup reflecting the $US2.3 million purse that the event carries.
