Annika Announces Her Retirement

Well, crap.

It appears that what was shaping up to be the most compelling rivalry in golf will be short-lived. Today, the most recognizable face of women's golf for the past decade, Annika Sörenstam, announced that she will retire at the end of the 2008 season. I am bummed.

As I was watching the fourth round at Kingsmill last weekend, all I could think every time they showed Annika was "what a perfectly beautiful swing." It was effortless, like the swings of Annika's PGA peers Ernie Els and Freddie Couples. At Kingsmill, Annika dominated the field like Lorena Ochoa, 11 years Annika's junior, had done earlier this year. It was apparent to anyone paying attention that Annika's return from a serious neck injury was complete and that the long-awaited, and surely epic, battle between former world number one, Sörenstam, and current number one Lorena Ochoa had begun. Except that it hadn't.

Recently married, 37 years old (38 by the time the 2008 season concludes), one has to think that the announcement was motivated in large part by the desire to start a family. After battling back from ruptured and bulging discs in her neck, perhaps the thought of having to return from the "down-time" associated with the birth of a child was simply too much for a fierce competitor like Annika, who is used to being at the top of the leaderboard. Or perhaps a woman as focused as Annika wants to focus on family, and family only. Or maybe, after winning at Kingsmill, she realized that the desire just isn't there or the satisfaction of winning isn't the same anymore (although I think either of those is unlikely.)

Whatever the reason, Sörenstam is one of the nicest, most prolific, most talented, hard-working, and important people in women's golf, and she will be sorely missed when she leaves the competitive golf arena. I, for one, hope she changes her mind - even if the odds of a woman as calculating and thoughtful as Annika changing her mind are astronomically weighted against my hopes. So, if the next few months find us watching the end of an era in women's golf, I hope that Annika leaves on her own terms, and on top of her game. Because when she leaves, Annika Sörenstam will have left the game significantly better than she found it. And all of us who play and love golf are the beneficiaries of that gift.

Book Review: "The Greatest Game Ever Played" by Mark Frost

The Greatest Game Ever Played: Harry Vardon, Francis Ouimet, and the Birth of Modern Golf

by Mark Frost

Originally published: November 2002
Paperback: 496 pages

Almost everyone with an addiction to the game of golf has heard of "The Greatest Game Ever Played". Some are familiar with the Disney movie, while others know it as the book by Twin Peaks co-creator and composer Mark Frost. Either way, unless you have delved into its meaty pages, you are probably under the impression that "The Greatest Game Ever Played" is the tale of a single, albeit legendary, golf tournament between an unknown amateur named Francis Ouimet and professional titan Harry Vardon at the 1913 U.S. Open.

It is.

And it is not.

While the 1913 U.S. Open match between Ouimet and Vardon provided Frost with the central framework for the book and it's gripping climax, the truer description of the book's content is contained in its subtitle: "Harry Vardon, Francis Ouimet, and the Birth of Modern Golf". For Frost, the story of Ouimet, Vardon, Ray, and the other cast of characters is, in large part, a mechanism through which he was able to re-create the history of the game from inception through it's acceptance in America. Frost starts his story several years before the epic duel between Vardon and Ouimet in 1913 and describes the people, the development of the equipment, the disparate treatment of professional versus amateur golfers, and everything in between.

If golf was a college history course, "The Greatest Game Ever Played" would be the textbook for the period of creation of tournament golf in Scotland through wide acceptance in America. At times, the shear weight of the detail packed into the text by Frost almost capsizes the central story of the book. Almost . . . but not quite.

Eventually, Frost hits his stride, moves away from a history book mentality, and he does an excellent job of telling the story of the 1913 U.S. Open. And what a story it is.

The Greatest Game Ever Played is not a book for the casual golf historian. It is a deep, rich, time consuming, and occasionally frustrating look at the birth of modern tournament golf. But like any difficult task worth doing, it is a rewarding experience and one not to be overlooked by any true fan of the history of the game.