Championships - RICOH Women's British Open 2007
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02.08.2007
Annika Sorenstam gets a little help from a friend
Sorenstam, the Swedish former World No. 1, borrowed the course notes her great friend, Tiger Woods, used to win the 2005 Open Championship and plans to use them in her quest to add to the 2007 Ricoh Women’s British Open title to the she won at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 1993.“I talked to him (about the Old Course) and I have his yardage book, so hopefully that will give me some pointers,” Sorenstam said. “He told me to hit the ball left which I knew already. He also told me to practise my long putting, a lot of lag putting, because that’s going to be the key.”
Sorenstam won the St Rule over the Old Course when she was an amateur back in 1990 but one competitor who is seeing the course for the first time this week is her Solheim Cup colleague, Laura Davies, the Women’s British Open champion in 1986.
Like many of the other competitors, Davies has been entranced with Old Course and the unique challenge it presents.
“It’s a heck of a course,” she said after taking part in the official Pro-Am.
It’s just so natural. When you watch it on telly, you get certain ideas of how you think it’s going to be, but it was nothing like it. It’s much smaller, the way all the fairways, you know, tie together and everything is close by.
“It’s magnificent,” she added. “You can’t appreciate it if you don’t play on it; you hear about it and think people are exaggerating but they are not.”
Davies achieved a first when she played the Old Course for the first time Scotland’s Janice Moodie might well have done the same, albeit not on the course, but in the R & A clubhouse instead.
This week, the R & A has granted competitors full access to their clubhouse and, while inside the locker room, Moodie, took time out to change her son, Craig’s, nappy.
When asked whether she was nervous about undertaking such a task on the R & A’s premises she said: “I was, actually, but it was either there or in the car.
“I was very respectful though,” she added. I put a towel on the floor and it was the players’ locker room so I thought it would be OK.”
Lorena Ochoa, the current World No. 1, is another competitor to have come to St Andrews with her family, in her case with her father and about 26 other relatives.
“My mom didn’t make it but my dad, my two brothers, my sister and an aunt are here along with a lot of close friends and some relatives.
It’s very important they are here so share the moment with me.”
This morning Australia’s Nikki Garrett will have the honour being the first woman professional to hit a shot on the Old Course, teeing off at 6.30 am (BST) in the a company of America’s Dina Ammaccapane and Korean amateur, Hye Yong Choi.
Ochoa starts out at 7.03 am in her quest to add a Major to the multiple titles she has won on the LPGA Tour. “It’s going to be great,” she said, “particularly as we don’t know whether this is going to be the last time. I love it and I know the other girls feel the same.”
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