Annika Sorenstam stood by the 18th green at Pelican Golf Club with a big smile on her face.
She’d been smiling all week, given the success of her tournament. Caitlin Clark’s pro-am return and Kai Trump’s LPGA debut brought buzz and attention to her tournament, The Annika, making it the most-talked-about LPGA event on the calendar.
“A lot of things just kind of aligned beautifully this week,” Sorenstam said Sunday. “Starting the day with the winner, the weather, people, the initiatives, engagement, everything. All the different activities that were planned with sponsor invites, with Caitlin Clark.”
The week started with the Clark-Trump buzz and ended Sunday, with Sorenstam looking on as a woman she has watched grow up in golf put the finishing touches on a classy, effortless win.
Sweden’s Linn Grant, who played in The Annika Cup at a young age and made history when she beat the men by nine strokes in a mixed event hosted by Sorenstam, had full control of this week’s tournament. The 26-year-old Grant went 52 holes without a bogey before finally surrendering a shot on the final hole on Sunday, long after she had run away from Jennifer Kupcho to win her second LPGA title and first since 2023.
“You made this course look easy,” Sorenstam told Grant on the 18th green. “It’s not easy.”
For a week that is all about growing the women’s game, Grant might have been the perfect winner for Sorenstam’s buzz-building event: a young, charismatic player with world-class talent who has the potential to ascend.
“Golf is such a vicious game,” Grant, who posted a winning score of 19 under, said on Sunday. “One day, you can win everything, and the next, you don’t believe in yourself at all. I think today was just a win for me, and with Annika and her event, I think it was maybe a win for little me. Very fun to be sitting here with [Annika] and all the history we sort of have, and with all the events I’ve played — I think I’ve played in all the [Annika] events on every level. It’s a true full circle moment, both personally and sitting here with Annika.”
“It’s all about Linn and what she did this week, and it’s so exciting to sit here with her and happy for her,” Sorenstam said. “I think everybody who has watched Linn growing up knows there is a lot of potential in there and she has already won. … It’s hard out here, so you got to cherish every win.”
Grant is the first Swedish winner of the event that began in 2020. She grew up idolizing Sorenstam and remembers going to chipping clinics the legend held when she was a young golfer. The win had a deeper meaning for Grant, who had struggled this season and battled golf doubt.
“I feel like golf and this lifestyle is always a rollercoaster of trying to figure out how to get better,” Grant said. “Sometimes it’s just about taking a step back and maybe look at yourself and be like, am I happy? Am I making the decisions that make me happy? Sometimes that is what makes golf easier. You have to be kind of strong and confident in those decisions to be able to say, maybe I’m not playing this week because I’m not feeling it, because it doesn’t make me happy, or changing just your plans or how you do things more for yourself to be true to yourself.”
Grant’s victory was the cherry on top of a winning week for the LPGA. However, it also came with hard-to-answer questions for the tournament host and the tour. Sorenstam was pleased with how her event broke through to a larger audience, which saw Grant put on a brilliant display of golf. She said she’d rest her head easy on Sunday after a week that can only be described as a success. From the social media impressions to Grant’s dominant win, the Annika won the week and the LPGA season.
But Sorenstam also knows that replicating this week, building on it and elevating players like Grant is the next step.
“How do we capitalize on this and how do we grow on this?” Sorenstam said. “I think what we have seen is when somebody like Caitlin Clark comes here, there is an extra buzz. She brings more people into this event, more people watch.
“But I think that the key for us is, like, how do we do this more often? How do we carry it from Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, into Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday? The players can only do so much. The interest is there. Those are questions that are on the table for sure. We don’t necessarily have the answers, but we would love to continue that.”
As the LPGA and new commissioner Craig Kessler search for ways to clear the obstacles in front of them, Sunday’s champion — and how she engineered a “full circle” win — offered a clue to how to attack the big questions that come your way, be they in golf, business or life.
“Like I’ve had to change a lot of things in my routines, things that I thought were just things that were good to do because other people were doing them instead of thinking like, what do I actually believe in?” Grant said about what led her back to the LPGA winner’s circle. “What do I think makes me a better person and a better player?”
Grant’s answers led her to a title at the LPGA’s buzz-building event. Now, the LPGA has to find answers to its own big questions.
