COLONIAL Spotlight squarely on Sorenstam

Media credentials are up more than three times from last year.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- Annika Sorenstam walked off the practice range, got into a cart and was surrounded immediately by two dozen media, who formed a wall so thick that the cart couldn't move in any direction.
Cameras flashed.
Microphones were thrust toward her face.
Questions were shouted to her in presidential fashion, the last of which summed up the circuslike moment Monday at Colonial.
How do you think you'll handle the media attention?
The answer could have applied to just about any question she faces this week -- at least until she tees it up Thursday and becomes the first woman in 58 years to compete on the PGA Tour.
"I don't know," Sorenstam said with a sweet smile and a shrug of the shoulders.
Pressure severe
No one knows how she will handle the spotlight, as severe as anything Tiger Woods ever faced when he turned pro and started winning majors.
No one knows what she will shoot.
No one knows whether she will finish high enough to play on the weekend.
"We're about to find out," two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen said.
Sorenstam at least handled the first test with ease. Instead of weaving her way through nearly 80 media who stood guard outside the Colonial clubhouse under a blistering sun, she sneaked in the back gate and went straight to the range shortly before 6 p.m.
No matter. It wasn't long before everyone found her. Media scampered across fairways, at times cutting in front of players in a Monday pro-am, like ants heading for a bread crumb at a picnic.
Clearly, the Colonial won't be any picnic.
The tournament has issued 583 media credentials. Not only is that up -- way up -- from 178 last year, it computes to nearly five media for every player in the field.
Even the players are curious.
"I was expecting all this wildness," Kenny Perry said after spending close to two hours in solitude on the practice green and chipping area. "I came to see what it was all about. I think everyone is fired up about it."
Fairway challenge
Sorenstam will be tested by the 7,080 yards of Colonial, a par-70. The rough is not as dense because of dry conditions, but keeping the ball from running through the fairways could be a difficult chore for Sorenstam.
She has played practice rounds at Colonial when nobody was watching, and planned two full rounds before her historic tee time Thursday.
Sorenstam will have a female security guard assigned to her at all times, the ladies' locker room all to herself, and thousands of people watching her every move.