100 of the Most Influential Women in Sport >> Personalities

Annika Sorenstam, Sweden

Golf

Think of women’s golf and Annika Sorenstam will invariably pop into your head – indeed, the eight-time LPGA player of the year was the first truly world-renowned female face in the game. More than a decade after stepping away from the sport as a professional, the Swede continues to be relevant. The ANNIKA Foundation not only exposes young female golfers to high-level competition but teaches children the value of a healthy lifestyle. Nine tournaments under the ANNIKA brand are currently slated in 2019 for young women, while the financial inequality between genders in the professional game continues to be cavernous. The 48-year-old’s other ventures include course design, women’s golf wear and golf school ANNIKA Academy.

– In 2003 became the first woman to play in a PGA Tour event since 1945, at the Bank of America Colonial.

– By the time she had stepped away from golf, Sorenstam had won 90 international tournaments.

– Received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the HSBC Golf Business Forum in 2016.

Did you know…

As of February 2019, Sorenstam still tops the LPGA career money list at $22.5m, more than $2m more than her nearest rival Karrie Webb.

“I give all effort into something. If it doesn’t turn out, I don’t sit and complain about it. It’s like, you play golf and hit a shot and a gust takes it. Instead of being on the green, now you have to play a bunker shot. Hopefully you prepare, you get it up to the green, and then you go from there.” – Sorenstam

Twitter: @ANNIKA59

Instagram: @annikas59