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Sorenstam Balances Golf Career
With Busy Off-Course Work |
With 85 international victories, including ten major championships, eight Player of the Year awards and having set more than one-third of all LPGA records during her 13-year pro career,
ANNIKA SORENSTAM is perhaps the most dominant performer in the history of women's golf. In '01 she was the first female to break 60 in an LPGA tournament. Two years later, she was inducted into the LPGA and World Golf HOFs and became the first woman since
BABE ZAHARIAS in '45 to compete in a PGA Tour event. Sorenstam endured an injury-plagued '07 while balancing a busy schedule on and off the course. She opened the golf-and-fitness Annika Academy, established the Annika Foundation and the Annika Cup, an annual amateur tournament in her native Sweden, launched a Web site and a blog and continued to pursue an interest in golf course design. Sorenstam found some time at the end of the year to speak with SportsBusiness Journal N.Y. bureau chief
Jerry Kavanagh.
Favorite piece of music: I like modern music -- U2, MADONNA.
Favorite movies: "Gladiator" and "Forrest Gump."
Favorite vacation spot: Bermuda, but I also love to ski.
Favorite quote: "You don't get a second chance to make a first impression."
Last book read: I like biographies. LANCE ARMSTRONG's book was very inspiring.
Pet peeve: People who drive slow in the left lane.
Athletes you enjoy watching: Lance Armstrong, ANDRE AGASSI and MIA HAMM.
Best professional advice you received: Find balance in your personal life and what you want to achieve on the golf course.
Best decision: Coming to the U.S. to play golf on a scholarship [at the Univ. of Arizona].
Most influential person: My parents.
Sports executives you admire: I admire a lot of people -- NANCY LOPEZ for her charisma, TIGER WOODS for his power, SEVE BALLESTEROS for his incredible short game. In business I admire successful people. For example, JACK WELCH. I read his book and try to learn something from it. STEVE JOBS did a fabulous thing. And RUDY GIULIANI. What he did in New York was fantastic with September 11. It's little traits here and there that I like to learn.
Q: Before we get started, how is your health? You had two ruptured disks in your neck.
Sorenstam: I feel great. I had kept playing with the injury, but it was hurting very badly in April. That's when I saw the doctor and it was diagnosed. It was the first injury I ever had.
Q: That had to affect your game: Just one tournament victory in 2007.
Sorenstam: I was sidelined from competition for two months, and then when I did start again, I felt like I was starting from scratch. It's taken a long time to get back to where I want to be. I'm still trying to get the strength back and the consistency in my swing. It's a long recovery, for sure.
Q: RAY FLOYD said, "They call it golf because all the other four-letter words were taken," and WILLIAM WORDSWORTH called golf "strenuous idleness." How would you define golf?
Sorenstam: It's just the biggest challenge that I've ever come upon. But it's also the most rewarding. It can be frustrating. The emotional spectrum when it comes to golf is amazing.
Q: Etiquette seems to be in decline in some sports. Is it still strong in golf?
Sorenstam: I think so, and I hope it stays that way. I think what we have going is the tradition of a gentleman's game starting many years ago in Scotland. You're your own coach. When you're out there, you're playing by yourself. If you need help with the rules, you can get an official. But it's really a game where you trust yourself. You know, you mark the ball. There are so many things when you're on your own, when you don't have somebody supervising you.
Q: What's the best part of competition?
Sorenstam: I love the adrenaline-pumping. I love to hit that shot when I need to. I just love performance.
Q: Tell me about the Annika Academy.
Sorenstam: It is a dream of mine come true. A vision of giving back to the game. I thought, "How can I share my knowledge about golf and fitness and my passion and share my coaches?" So, we came up with this Annika Academy, which is golf and fitness in an exclusive, high-end facility where [participants] share Annika drills and exercises. There are packages where I'm involved. You can play golf with me. I do clinics, and you can work with my coaches.
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Sorenstam Surveyed Sports Fans Before
Opening Golf & Fitness Academy |
Q: Before you launched the Annika Academy, you commissioned a survey of thousands of sports fans. What did you learn?
Sorenstam: This was a way to figure out who are my fans and how they look at me. You know, do they see me as a stoic champion? Or do they know a lot about me personally? What areas can I improve and what areas am I strong in? When they hear my name, what companies do they think of? And what companies would make sense to align with? Sometimes when you do surveys, you get things in black and white. It's one thing to think you know what people think, and another thing to know what they think.
Q: One question asked fans to identify a female athlete who has set herself apart outside her sport. No one stood out. That would seem to indicate a wide-open opportunity for female athletes.
Sorenstam: Absolutely, and that's what I'm trying to achieve. There are so many great athletes out there -- and have been out there -- who have been so successful. But not many have really taken the next step. That's my goal. I feel like there is a window of opportunity, and I want to take on that challenge.
Q: Was that part of the motivation for "Team Annika," the two-day sponsor summit you hosted in October '07 that included officials from Callaway Golf, Lexus, Rolex, Merrill Lynch, Kraft, Oakley and Net Jets?
Sorenstam: It's definitely part of the whole Annika brand that I'm trying to build. We're just trying to put a study together, and one of the things is to help me in the PR department. How can we get the message out? If you think of a business as an octopus with all these arms, I think we have a really good, solid body. We just need to expand.
Q: You talked about giving back. Is that the basis for the Annika Foundation?
Sorenstam: I feel like I'm living a dream. What I want to do is have other young kids, girls and boys, be able to follow their dreams. That's going to happen through golf scholarships. It's happening through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which I am a spokesperson for. The whole concept is to fulfill dreams.
Q: What is the Annika Cup?
Sorenstam: It is a junior tournament, like a mini version of the Solheim Cup. It's 12 promising young girls, ages 13-16. We gather them for three and a half days. Two of those days are practice, one day is for competition and the other day is to meet with me, talk to me, see how I practice and ask questions. We give them media training. The bottom line is to build friendships and increase the golf ability and competition.
Q: You launched a Web site in July and a blog in November. You are interacting directly with your fans.
Sorenstam: It's something that I've been wanting to do for a while and have been trying to figure out the best way to do it. Thanks to the Web site we've been able to do that. And then I wondered how to reach out more and really get input and questions from fans. It's me participating in different ways. You might see me on TV or you might see my score on the Internet, but there's so much more, I think, to the Annika brand and to me as a person than golf scores.
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Sorenstam Among Golfers
Involved In Course Design |
Q: You are among a group of golfers (including Tiger Woods, PHIL MICKELSON, ERNIE ELS, VIJAY SINGH, SERGIO GARCIA, FRED COUPLES) who have shown an interest in course design. How did you first become interested in this?
Sorenstam: I got involved because I enjoy the game in so many ways. I want to give back in different ways. I want to learn more about the game. I feel like I have so much knowledge about different courses and places I've been. And I want to continue to build my legacy. So that's an area where I can learn a lot, but I also have so much experience from a player's perspective.
Q: You are involved in the design of courses in China, South Africa, British Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina.
Sorenstam: I consider myself a global person, a global player. I play in Asia several times a year. I play here in the U.S. I play in Europe. It's a global game. So, I want to help to expand the game globally. To me, that's a very natural step to take.
Q: How do you fit all that into a schedule that involves golf and travel?
Sorenstam: I try to be organized. I manage my time quite well. I'm a person who loves to work. I love what I do. I really don't consider it work. It's just a passion of mine. But if you think about the whole picture, it really all ties in one way or another. It's golf, it's experience, it's competition. And then you pull in the fans and you also give back. There is a theme to the whole thing.
Q: Are you satisfied with the direction of the LPGA and with its leadership?
Sorenstam: Yes, I am. I think it's gone really well. I was a little questioning of [LPGA Commissioner] CAROLYN BIVENS' steps in the beginning, but now she's turned me around and I'm a believer in what she does. Just looking at the purses and the tournaments, I definitely think we're going in the right direction.
Q: What steps turned you around?
Sorenstam: It's run more like a business. It's more thinking long term. We're trying to get more independent. Obviously when the purses go up, the sponsors are happy, and that's always a good thing. It's putting more credibility to the tournaments with sponsorships and so forth.
Q: What are the biggest challenges facing the LPGA, the biggest hurdles still to be overcome?
Sorenstam: I think it just takes time. We need to be on TV. TV reaches a lot more people and if we have TV, then companies are more interested in their exposure. I think the biggest thing is that it's women's golf, and people wonder how good the LPGA really is. It's usually because they don't know. As players, we can educate them and introduce them to our game.
Q: Carolyn Bivens, in an interview in USA Today in November, said that the LPGA's challenge is securing additional television coverage. She said that because the events air at sporadic times, it's difficult for the casual fans to find the LPGA.
Sorenstam: I would agree.
Q: Do you have any suggestions on how to gain more exposure, how to reach the casual fan?
Sorenstam: Obviously, it's important in the local areas when we go to the different sites. And then when you get it locally, you have to expand it regionally and nationally and now globally. I just think consistency builds brands. You have to consistently deliver, and we need to convince the TV [networks] that we are something they should invest in.
Q: What do you think is the biggest threat to the business of sport in general and to golf in particular?
Sorenstam: Integrity and role models are very important. Fair game and sportsmanship.
Q: What do you know now that would have been most helpful to you earlier in your life or career?
Sorenstam: I'm sure I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but I think you learn from them. I recommend you listen to people who know what they're doing.
