LPGA’s 75th season kicks off with Lake Nona’s Annika Sorenstam front and center

The start of the LPGA Tour’s 75th season is a chance for Annika Sorenstam to celebrate and reflect on the staying power of women’s golf while continuing to compete decades after she began a career without peer in the modern age.

Sorenstam is among the headliners Thursday-Sunday during the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions at Orlando’s Lake Nona Golf and Country Club. Playing on her home course, Sorenstam, who retired in 2008, is among 51 players in the celebrity category featuring Hall of Fame athletes, coaches and entertainers from various fields vying for a $500,000 purse.

Meanwhile, competing for $2 million are 32 LPGA winners from the past two seasons, including defending champion and newly minted Hall of Famer Lydia Ko and world No. 1 Nelly Korda coming off a seven-win season.

“I know we’re not in the same competition as them, but I will be playing with some LPGA players,” Sorenstam said Tuesday. “Just to have a foot in the game, I love that. I really still enjoy the game.”

Sorenstam is even working on a swing change a year after she finished runner-up to former Major League Baseball All-Star second baseman Jeff McNeil.

“It never ends,” she said.

An eight-time Player of the Year, Sorenstam’s reign atop the women’s game ended abruptly with her retirement at age 38 to begin a family. Third in LPGA history with 72 wins, including 10 major championships, Sorenstam is the only female golfer to shoot 59 in competition and teed it up at the PGA Tour’s 2003 Colonial Invitational.

The 54-year-old’s place is secure in her sport’s Mount Rushmore, along with 13-time major champion Mickey Wright and 88-time winner Kathy Whitworth — the final member of the foursome open to vigorous debate.

Sorenstam is humbled by her place in the LPGA Tour’s history and her sport’s hardscrabble roots.

“It’s amazing to see the growth of women’s sports and especially golf,” she said. “You look back and you think about the trail blazers, Founders, what they did with their vision. Here we are in 2025 and certainly different level on every aspect I would say.

“Super proud our of the organization, what I’m seeing and hearing and what I’m experiencing.”

Yet, the LPGA Tour enters 2025 facing more headwinds than finding a foothold amid a crowded sports landscape.

Mollie Marcoux Samaan resigned earlier this month and LPGA commissioner, with Liz Moore, the organization’s chief legal and technology officer, assuming an interim role.

“Commissioner Sorenstam” has a nice ring, but is a non-starter.

“I don’t want to be the commissioner,” she said. “But if you have a crystal ball we all want to be seen and heard, whether that’s TV or any kind of exposure. The more the better.

“It’s important to have somebody that can communicate. You have to communicate with a lot of people … the players, media, partners, the fans.”

This week at Lake Nona, Sorenstam will be front and center doing her part to help.

“I look at my years on the LPGA and makes me smile,” she said. “I’m certainly proud of what I achieved. But I think everybody who has contributed feels good about seeing something grow and something getting better every year.”

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com.