HALFWAY TO THE SORENSTAM SLAM.

Byline: DAVE SHELBURNE Golf

The most dominant golfer in the world will not be playing in the U.S. Open this week at Pinehurst.

Instead, she'll be home in Florida, resting and enjoying her eighth tour victory in 10 starts and her seventh major championship in five years.

Annika Sorenstam, who has won five of the past nine LPGA Tour majors, won't be relaxing for long. Sorenstam will return to competition next week, when she'll contend for her third U.S. Women's Open championship. A victory next week would give Sorenstam her third consecutive major of 2005 and put her in position to win the first Grand Slam in the history of women's professional golf.

Sorenstam's bid for the Slam began with a an eight-stroke win at the Kraft Nabisco in March. She followed that with a three-shot victory Sunday at the LPGA Championship, in which she led by eight shots with nine holes remaining. Should she prove victorious next week in the U.S. Women's Open at Colorado's Cherry Hills Country Club and prevail at next month's Women's British Open, the 34-year-old Swede would become the first golfer - man or woman - to win a Grand Slam since Bobby Jones in 1930.

Winning all four majors in the same season has been Sorenstam's stated goal the past two years. That commitment has produced 42 victories, four Player of the Year awards and a tour-record round of 59. A stronger, more accurate ball-striker than in previous years, Sorenstam has won at least one major title each year since 1999.

Sorenstam has 62 wins in 232 career tour starts and says she intends to savor her latest accomplishment fully before looking ahead even one week to the U.S. Women's Open.

``I really wanted it so badly,'' she said Sunday after winning a record-third consecutive LPGA Championship, with a 68-67-69-73 performance. ``To stand here and hold the trophy is all that really matters to me right now. I'd like to thank everyone for making this possible. It's a wonderful dream I'm living.''

Sorenstam's 73 Sunday snapped a streak of 14 consecutive rounds in the 60s, a tour record.

The Slam isn't the only thing Sorenstam is chasing. By winning her ninth major title Sunday, she moved her past Betsy Rawls into fifth on an LPGA career majors list. She now trails Patty Berg (15), Mickey Wright (13), Louise Suggs (11) and Babe Zaharias (10).

Sorenstam also is in pursuit of Kathy Whitworth's all-time LPGA record of 88 victories, a standard that seemed untouchable five years ago but one Whitworth says Sorenstam has a good chance of breaking.

Sorenstam went into her week of rest leading the LPGA Tour in greens in regulation (.753), driving distance (274-yard average) and scoring (68.0), as well as rounds under par, eagles and top-10 finishes.

Michele Wie, the long-hitting Hawaiian high school sophomore who finished second at the LPGA Championship as an invited amateur, might be Sorenstam's biggest challenge at the U.S. Women's Open. The 15-year-old phenom hit 42 of 56 fairways in regulation last week and shot 69-71-71-69.

``(Sorenstam) put a lot of pressure on herself last year, saying she wanted to win the Grand Slam,'' Wie said. ``This year, she has a very high possibility. She has two more left, but I think all the other players - including me - are going to practice harder trying to stop her.''

Sorenstam, who joins Pat Bradley (1986), Sandra Haynie ('74), Wright ('62), Berg ('55 and '57) and Zaharias ('50) as the only players to win the first two LPGA majors of the year, might be pushed hardest by a surging youth corps.

Paula Creamer, who won an LPGA Tour event before her high school graduation this month, tied Laura Davies for third at the LPGA Championship. College standouts Lorena Ochoa and Natalie Gulbus joined Wie in the top 5 Sunday in what is becoming a strong youth movement on the women's tour.

Right now, they're all chasing Sorenstam, who is trying to maintain a sense of perspective and appreciation as she tries to do something that has never been accomplished by a female golfer.

``I have to be honest. I do have to pinch myself sometimes when I look at my results,'' Sorenstam said. ``I mean, I feel like I'm just a little girl from Sweden that came over here to follow my dreams and hope to win a few tournaments.

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

ANNIKA SORENSTAM

Box:

ON THE GREEN

BY DAVE SHELBURNE