By Leonard Shapiro
Special to washingtonpost.com
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 5:27 PM

Some will remember the 72 career victories, the 10 major championships, the eight player of the year awards, the $22 million in earnings and the stunning round of 59 in Phoenix in 2001.

But when I think about Annika Sorenstam, my mind's eye almost always focuses on that scene at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, in the spring of 2003, when she stood on the 10th tee surrounded by thousands of golf fans and and a small army of photographers and cameramen as she was about to play in a PGA Tour event against the men, the first female golfer to do so since 1945.

Deny it if you will, but the primary thought of any golfer who has ever felt those first-shot-of-the-day butterflies on the opening swing of any round had to be: How could anyone, man or woman, hacker or playing professional, possibly hit a golf ball straight down the middle of any fairway on the planet in this sort of crushing, nerve-jangling atmosphere?

Not long after she arrived on that 10th tee -- her first hole of the day -- Sorenstam answered that question decisively. She pulled a 4-wood from her bag, took a couple of practice swings and smacked her drive 257 yards straight down the middle of the fairway, accompanied by her own mock swoon after she saw the result and a mighty sonic boom roar from a most appreciative, and mostly equally relieved gallery.

Dan Jenkins of Golf Digest, a man who has chronicled the sport since the 1940s, has since written that it may have been the most pressure-filled tee shot in the history of golf. And anyone who witnessed it, up close and personal or on television around the world, would have to agree.

I also recall the grace and dignity Sorenstam displayed throughout that frenetic week, in packed news conferences, in signing a zillion autographs, in her by-play with her fellow pros -- some of whom, like Vijay Singh, thought she had no business being there -- and her two classy playing partners, Dean Wilson and Aaaron Barber. After she made one last 15-foot putt to save a par in her first round, she hugged both men and even shed a few tears as she walked back to the clubhouse.

Sorenstam shot 5-over par 71-74 over those two memorable days and missed the cut by four strokes. And yet, in the way she carried herself, and yes, even in the way she played, she arguably did more to advance the cause of women's golf over that week than any player past or present. It also was the first, and last time she ever entered a men's event, just as she had always promised.

On Tuesday, Sorenstam made more big-time news with the announcement that she will give up competitive golf at the conclusion of the 2008 season. Never mind that she's won her last two events, with three victories in her eight tournament starts this season.

Never mind that she shot 66 in the final round at Kingsmill in Williamsburg, Va., this past Sunday to win the Michelob Ultra by seven shots with a tournament-record score. And never mind that she has completely recovered from that ruptured disk in her neck to get back to the same majestic form that made her the finest female golfer of this or any other generation.

Sorenstam is no longer the No. 1 player in the world, a distinction that Mexico's very worthy and equally gracious Lorena Ochoa has earned with spectacular play over the last two seasons. But Sorenstam is now a very close No. 2, and you have to know that her goal for the rest of the season will be to win enough tournaments to catch Ochoa and bow out of the game at the very tippy top of the sport she has dominated for so long.

Still, even if she doesn't get back to No. 1, would anyone -- save for Annika Sorenstam -- really care? Over the next seven months, she has absolutely nothing to prove, even though you have to believe her when she says, "there's still plenty of golf to be played ¿ and my goal is to win tournaments, many tournaments."

I'm also not quite ready to believe that this truly is The End.

Sorenstam said when she watched Brett Favre's retirement press conference earlier this year, she could identify when the veteran Green Bay quarterback said he still loved the competition, but hated the grind of preparing to play the games. I still think Favre is going to play again, just as I'm certain that Sorenstam, only 37, likely will tee it up in tournaments every now and then beyond the 2008 season.

As one of her main rivals, defending Woman's U.S. Open champion Cristie Kerr, said on Tuesday, "it's not uncommon for athletes to retire and unretire."

But tournament golf unquestionably no longer will be the dominating priority in her life, and that's what always set her far above the chasing pack. No one ever outworked Sorenstam. No one ever put in more hours at the driving range, at the practice putting green or the gym. Repeat: no one.

The sacrifices she made to achieve that No. 1 ranking were enormous, possibly including the dissolution of her first marriage. Plainly put, Sorenstam had given the game everything she had, and now it's apparently time to let the game go one way, and follow a different path herself.

A year ago, in a one-on-one interview with Sorenstam at the Kraft Nabisco Championship in Palm Springs, I got the sense that she was already eager to change the direction in her life, and much sooner than later.

She spoke that day about all the new projects she was immersed in -- the golf academy she had just opened in Florida, the new line of clothing with her Annika brand attached, the possibility of designing golf courses and her oft-stated goal of starting a family now that she was getting serious with the new man in her life, player agent Mike McGee.

In retrospect, I honestly believe Sorenstam might have considered walking away after the 2007 season, at least until that painful neck injury forced her to stop playing shortly after we spoke in the California desert. She eventually came back toward the end of the season, but if you knew Sorenstam, you also knew that no way would she retire after a year that saw her play in only 13 tournaments and finish 25th on the money list.

Clearly, Sorenstam was not about to go out like that. She has always been about setting lofty goals for herself and working maniacally to achieve them. That's how she got through a tough rehab on her neck, and that's how she's back in peak form now, a threat to win any tournament she enters, just the way it's always been for most of the last dozen years.

"I'm a huge competitor and right now I'm second on the money list," Sorenstam said at her retirement news conference Tuesday. "People that know me know I don't settle for second. I know what to do and I look forward to it. ¿I'm leaving the game on my own terms. I made this decision totally on my own. This is something that came from the heart."

And clearly so did this, from her pal and frequent practice partner, Tiger Woods: He described Sorenstam on Tuesday as "the greatest female golfer of all time. It has been a pleasure watching Annika play for all of these years, but even more of an honor to call her a friend."

The best there ever was? Absolutely, with plenty of greatness still to come this year, and, we can only hope, maybe just a little more after that.

Leonard Shapiro can be reached at len.shapiro@washingtonpost.com.