Annika Sörenstam (listen) (born 9 October 1970) is a Swedish professional golfer whose achievements rank her as one of the most successful golfers in history. Before "stepping away" from competitive golf at the end of the 2008 season, she won 90 international tournaments as a professional, making her the female golf player with the most wins to her name. She has won 72 official LPGA tournaments including ten majors and 18 other tournaments internationally, and she tops the LPGA's career money list with earnings of over $22 million—over $8 million ahead of her nearest rival. Since 2006 Sörenstam has held dual American and Swedish citizenship.

The winner of a record eight Player of the Year awards, and six Vare Trophies given to the LPGA player with the lowest seasonal scoring average, she is the only female golfer to have shot a 59 in competition. She holds various all-time scoring records including the lowest season scoring average: 68.6969 in 2004.

Sörenstam made history at the Bank of America Colonial tournament in 2003 as the first woman to play in a men's PGA Tour event since 1945. Often known simply as "Annika," she achieved the fame of male golfers known in the same way: Arnie (Arnold Palmer), Jack (Nicklaus) and Tiger (Woods). Her growing off-course interests include the ANNIKA golf academy, golf course design, ANNIKA-branded products, and a charitable foundation.

Childhood and amateur career

Annika Sörenstam was born in Bro near Stockholm, Sweden.Annika Sörenstam with the editors of Golf Magazine: Golf Annika's Way, Gotham Books, 2004, ISBN 1-59240-076-0 Her father Tom is a retired IBM executive, her mother Gunilla worked in a bank and her younger sister Charlotta is a professional golfer who coaches at her sister's academy.

As a child, Sörenstam was a talented all round sportswoman. She was a nationally ranked junior tennis player, played football (soccer) in her hometown team Bro IK and was such a good skier that the coach of the Swedish national ski team suggested the family move to Northern Sweden to improve her skiing year round. At the age of 12 she switched to golf, sharing her first set of golf clubs with her sister—Annika got the odd numbered clubs and Charlotta the even—and earned her first handicap of 54. She was so shy as a junior she used to deliberately three putt at the end of a tournament to avoid giving the victory speech.

Her very successful amateur career included a win in the St. Rule Trophy played at St. Andrews and a runner-up finish in the Swedish national mother/daughter golf tournament. As a member of the Swedish National Team from 1987 to 1992, she played in the 1990 and 1992 Espirito Santo Trophy World Amateur Golf Team Championships, becoming World Amateur champion in 1992.