Annika Sorenstam and Tiger Woods meet in a golf showdown this weekend here at the $1-million skins game with Australian Adam Scott and 2003 winner Fred Couples completing the fab foursome.
Sweden’s Sorenstam, whose eight titles this year included a major at the LPGA Championship, has been the top women’s golfer for years.
Her historic PGA Tour appearance last year at the Colonial was the first for a woman in half a century.
Couples won last year with $605 000 to $225 000 for Sorenstam, who captured five skins in the 2003 event, which also included Mark O’Meara and Phil Mickelson.
Superstar Woods, dethroned as world number one by Fiji’s Vijay Singh in September, has not won a US stroke-play event in 16 months but won $5,3-million this year and will be the favourite in this made-for-television matchup.
Sorenstam honed her skills against men earlier this month at a Skills Challenge event in Florida, the first time a woman had competed in that event.
”The more you are around the guys, the more comfortable you feel,” Sorenstam said.
Sorenstam placed sixth among nine entrants in the Skills event, winning $75 000 despite being last in long drives.
She beat three-time major winner Nick Price of Zimbabwe, US PGA player Chris Riley and retired baseball player Mark McGwire, the event’s 2003 winner.
Hoping to steal the show is Scott, the Players Championship winner who also won in Washington and finished the year with $3,7-million in winnings.
Couples (45) shared sixth at the Masters but has played only three events since June. He still took home $1,4-million in US PGA prize money this season.
Players will complete the front nine on Saturday and back nine on Sunday at Trinity Golf Club.
Each of the first six holes is worth $25 000 with seven through 12 each paying $50 000 and 13 through 18 each worth $70 000. If there is no single winner on a hole, the money carries over to the next hole. – Sapa-AFP