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More than a few questions were raised about the legitimacy of the women's world golf rankings when they debuted last month. But Annika Sorenstam, No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings, urged patience with the new standard --- which has Michelle Wie ranked No. 2.
Sorenstam won 10 times last year, including the now-named Atlanta Charity Championship, and had more than twice as many ranking points as any other player. That's not the problem.
The rankings had the highly marketed Wie ranked No. 2 in the world. Wie played in the minimum number of tournaments required to be included in the rankings; she's not won a professional event, and her last amateur victory came at the U.S. Public Links in 2003. She did have three top-three finishes in pro events last year, but staggered badly on the final dayof the U.S. Women's Open and did not play in the U.S. Women's Amateur.
Yet Wie is ranked ahead of established pros such as Paula Creamer, Christie Kerr, Lorena Ochoa, Jeong Jang and Natalie Gulbis, who each won more than $1 million on the LPGA Tour in 2005. Creamer and Kerr both won two tournaments; Ochoa and Jang each won one.
Even Nancy Lopez, the host of the Atlanta Charity Championship, admitted the players "are not as happy as they'd like to be" about the ratings.
Sorenstam, who will defend her Atlanta championship April 20-23 at Eagle's Landing Country Club in Stockbridge, encouraged all parties to give the rankings a chance.
"It's a good starting point," Sorenstam said. "Will it have to be tweaked? Absolutely. They have to work out the kinks and hope it will be an accurate measurement of who is the best player in the world."
There's no question that Sorenstam is No. 1. Sorenstam, who skipped the two LPGA events in Hawaii, makes her LPGA debut this week at the MasterCard Classic in Mexico, an event she won a year ago.
"Last year I played probably as good as I can," Sorenstam said. "I had a great offseason, got some rest and have had a lot of practice for the last two weeks. I'm ready to go."
If Sorenstam, 35, can continue to dominate the LPGA Tour, she has a chance to break Kathy Whitworth's career mark of 88 victories. Sorenstam has 66 wins, 43 in the past five years; she's won nine majors.
"That's something I never thought possible, and I still have a long way to go," she said. "The competition is getting tougher and tougher."
Like her pal and No. 1-ranked male counterpart Tiger Woods, Sorenstam has taken great pride in her conditioning. She works with a personal trainer 4-5 days a week during the offseason, concentrating on strength rather than cardiovascular workouts.
"Conditioning is something that takes months and years," she said. "The last three years I've noticed a big difference. Being in good shape has a lot of advantages, especially on long days, rainy days. You really notice it at the end of the year."
Sorenstam's stamina wasn't a question at last year's Atlanta Charity Championship. She beat runner-up Candie Kung by 10 shots, one of three tournaments she won last year by at least eight shots.
Copyright 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
