The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

(Page 3 of 6)

Annika Sorenstam's two days with the men ranked up there as well. Clearly she had her audience swooning, even if at the end of Friday she trailed by the equivalent of 19 points. No matter. All the reviewed seemed unanimous, as summed up by Newsweek's "Conventional Wisdom": "Smooth-swinging Swede misses the cut but proves she can play with the big boys."

But is that logical? If you haven't qualified for the second half, how have you proved you can play with the big boys? They're the ones who'll still be playing.

Others found consolation in the fact that Sorenstam didn't finish dead last, proving that she could at least outscore some men. Well, woop-dee-doo. It's likely that Sorenstam plays better golf that 99.99+ percent of American men. The test was whether she, by far the best female professional golfer, could hold her own against a field of top male professionals.

Over two days she could not, especially not according to her standards. A number of people, including Tiger Woods, argued that she would need to compete against men more often to get a better sense of her possibilities. But Sorenstam says she's not inclined to try this experiment again. From an athlete who said she wanted to challenge herself in a new way, that amounts to a concession that she knows her limits.

Her defenders insists she was simply under too much pressure from being watched by the largest audience ever to tune in to a female golfer. That's a bit melodramatic, given that on the golf course she wouldn't have known how many television sets were actually tuned in to her round. The gallery, of course, was unusually large, but it couldn't have hurt Sorenstam to know everyone was cheering for her.

The key question is why she doesn't feel confident that she could improve her short game enough to try again. All along she's also known that on other PGA courses she'd be at a greater length disadvantage than she was at the Colonial. Perhaps in those conditions her putting would be the least of her worries.

As good as she is, the amazing thing is how good the elite men are. That's the real story that most everyone takes for granted, if they even care at all.

******

p> From Blair to Dowd (posted 5/21/03 1:20 a.m.) br> By New York Times standards, or maybe just Maureen Dowd's, it was another day in the life. On May 14, the columnist offered up the usual criticism

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