Sorenstam will have won even if she misses the cut

By the end of the day Friday, the world's top female golfer may well be packing her bags and heading out of Fort Worth, Texas. But failing to make the cut at the Colonial Open, one of the main events in the men's professional golf tour, won't mean that Annika Sorenstam bowed out a loser. It will only mean that she took on a mountain of a challenge -- she likened it to climbing Mount Everest -- gave it her all and came up short. Week in and week out, the failed-to-make-the-cut list going into the third round of a PGA tournament contains the names of some world-class players.
For Sorenstam, being invited to play at the Colonial -- there are eight invitations sent out each year -- was undoubtedly a high point in her career. As the first woman in 58 years to compete on the PGA tour, Sorenstam has focused worldwide attention not only on Fort Worth, but on the LPGA. Sorenstam is doing for women's golf what Tiger Woods has done for the men's game. Young girls will be inspired -- just as young boys now emulate Woods.
This was not a publicity stunt -- she has won 49 tournaments and earned a quite respectable $2.8 million last year -- and it certainly wasn't an attempt show up the male players. No one who watched her being interviewed on television or who read the hundreds of column inches leading up to today's start could doubt her word that her participation is only about self-challenge.
Courage
Then why all the attention if her goal isn't to win? Because she's doing something that's unusual, that's courageous and, well, controversial.
There are those, mostly men, who want her to fail miserably so they can say, with all the chauvinistic bombast they can muster, "See, women really are inferior." By the same token, there are women who want her to succeed just so they can use her as a rallying point for their agendas.
But between those extremes are a whole lot of golf fans and fair-minded individuals who share the thoughts of another outstanding female golfer, Juli Inkster: "I just hope people don't put as much emphasis on the score as just doing it. Any time there's a barrier to break or something that's just different, it's big news. I think the more that people do it, the more it will calm down."
That insightful comment stands in sharp contrast to the opinion expressed by one of the world's top male players, Vijay Singh, whose own ethnic background should have made him aware of the barriers so many individuals have to overcome because of their race, nationality or even their sex.
"I hope she misses the cut," Singh said. "Why? Because she doesn't belong out here."
Singh needs to bear in mind what his Indian ancestors went through during the time of the British colonialists. There were those who belonged, and those who didn't.
Annika Sorenstam has taken on a challenge that few others would even contemplate. And if she wants to know what real fans of the game of golf think about what she has done, we would urge her to sign the commitment sheet to play in the Giant Eagle LPGA Classic June 9-15 at Squaw Creek Country Club in Liberty Township.