The last time they played in the same event, George Bush was president and TikTok was the noise made by the clock on your mantel. In fact, Annika Sörenstam and Karrie Webb barely see each other these days. Webb was at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship last week watching Hannah Green with her latest Karrie Webb Scholarship recipients, while Sörenstam went from the U.S. Women’s Open to the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed (won by Linn Grant) back to Lake Tahoe where she and her family spend their summers. According to Sörenstam, the only time she and Webb get together now is at World Golf Hall of Fame functions where “we’re wearing blazers and not golf shoes and golf hats.”
But that is about to change. Next week, Sörenstam and Webb will once again tee off in the same tournament as competitors, not in some hit-and-giggle celebrity pro-am or made-for-TV special, but in the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, the last domestic event on the LPGA Tour schedule before everyone flies to France for the Amundi Evian Championship and the European swing.
They won’t be there on sponsor’s invitations or as “special guests.” The Dow is a team event, the only one on the LPGA Tour schedule. The two legends were asked to play by a couple of current, popular competitors. Webb will partner with Marina Alex, already a winner in 2022. And Sörenstam will tee it up with fellow Swede Madelene Sagström.
When asked about the prospect of playing again, Webb said, “I’m probably not as intense as I once was.”
We’ll see. The Australian champion played regularly through 2018 even though her last victory was 2014 when she won twice at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open and the Cognizant Founders Cup. Webb has 41 career LPGA Tour wins, including seven major championships. Even when she no longer was winning, the 47-year-old could be found grinding on the range after a round. Like Sörenstam, she never shows up unprepared.
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