Annika's Driving Ambition

But now that she's playing against all those titanium-equipped Ken dolls, she knows the media circus "will be unlike anything I've ever experienced before." Can she even take her self-imposed pressure? She has shanked before. Her 43 pro wins include four majors, but she has also blown up big time. In 1997, as two-time U.S. Open defending champion, she missed the cut. Last year she did it at the British Open. "I have a tendency to want it too much," she says. "Sometimes I think about Sunday."

Of the nine men's tournaments she was invited to, she chose the Colonial because the course favors shotmakers, not ball whackers. At 7,080 yds. — with one par five that stretches 609 yds. — the Colonial is still 700 yds. longer than the typical LPGA setup. But it is also the kind of classic course Sorenstam loves, with narrow, tree-lined fairways, deep, ball-eating bunkers and small, slick greens. "Length is not the most important thing," says Colonial head pro Dow Finsterwald Jr. "This is a position golf course" — a plus for Sorenstam, one of the most accurate hitters in the game. She'll have to hope her straight shooting will make up for her power disadvantage — her current 275.4-yd. average drive would rank her 159th on the PGA tour.

Against a player like Singh, she'll be giving up 20 to 25 yds. on each drive, leaving her with longer, more difficult second shots. On some long par fours, she'll be hitting a harder-to-control 6-iron when Singh will be hitting a wedge. On par fives, she'll be at a particular disadvantage, since the men can reach the green in two. She'll need three. Her goal is to shoot even par and to make the cut, which last year was at three over. "If I don't succeed," she says, "people will say, 'I told you so.' What's changed?"

That sounds a bit disingenuous considering the frenzy she's creating, but Sorenstam is sticking to her Scandinavian stoicism. "I'm very competitive, but at the end, golf is just a game," she says. Oh yeah? Just tell that to the boys.