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Annika Sorenstam's dominance has dwindled on the LPGA tour of late, but the Swedish star is still in the running to make history at this week's LPGA Championship.
Sorenstam is seeking her fourth straight victory in the tournament, the second major championship on the women's calendar.
Her triumph here last year made her the first LPGA player to win the same major three years in a row. She could stretch that to four straight, and also become just the fifth LPGA player to win at least 10 major titles.
"This could be an historical week, so I'm excited about that opportunity," Sorenstam said. "But I think I'm just going to try and focus on the things that I control.
"What I keep on saying is one day at a time, one shot at a time. But I'm definitely aware of what's at stake this week, so I'm excited about the opportunity, for sure."
However, Sorenstam, 35, arrives at Bulle Run looking slighty more mortal than she did last year.
By this time last season she had won five of the 10 titles she claimed in 2005, while her only victory so far in 2006 came in her first outing of the year.
In her last two starts she came up short despite playing in the final group on Sunday.
"Obviously, I'm not as happy with the season as I was last year when I came into this event," she said. "I can't really pinpoint what it is, other than that I haven't performed as well. I'm making still a lot of birdies, but I'm making a ton of bogeys. And it's been tough for me to score that way."
Despite her difficulties, Sorenstam maintained her confidence in her game.
"That's the funny part, I go out there and I feel as good as ever and when I'm done after 18 holes the results are not there.
"So, I guess I feel disappointed because it feels good."
Mexico's Lorena Ochoa and Australian Hall of Famer Karrie Webb are the only multiple winners on the tour this year.
Ochoa tops the money list with two victories, five runner-up finishes and a tie for fourth in 11 starts this year.
Webb, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in November, surged back from a winless 2005 to win the year's first major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship, and also won the Michelob ULTRA Open.
"She seems a lot more confident," Sorenstam said of Webb. "She's got a little bit of an attitude in a good way out there. And it seems like she's believing in herself a little bit more.
"Karrie's had a fantastic career and she is still only, I don't know what, she's 29, 30, so I think it was to be expected to see her come back."
Precocious professional Michelle Wie returns after a superb runner-up finish to Sorenstam here last year as an amateur.
In two LPGA events this year, the 16-year-old has finished third and tied for third.
She has also continued to test herself against the men. Wie made the cut at the SK Telecom Open in South Korea in May, becoming the first woman since Babe Didrikson Zaharias in 1945 to make the cut on a men's international Tour.
But she fell short in her bid to qualify for the second men's major of the year, the US Open, on Monday.
The LPGA's full-time teens, including 19-year-old Paul Creamer and 18-year-old Morgan Pressel, will also be seeking to make a splash, as will the talented flock of South Koreans now swelling the tour's ranks.
Six of 13 tournaments this season have been won by South Korean players, including last week's ShopRite Classic, which went to 20-year-old rookie Lee Seon-hwa.
"They work hard, and they're very, very committed," Sorenstam said of the South Korean players as a group. "If you do that, you're going to produce some great results. And that's what you're seeing."
bb/bc06
Golf-USLPGA
AFP 062200 GMT 06 06
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