Annika Sorenstam’s lengthy list of career achievements includes 72 LPGA titles, 10 major championships and one senior women’s major. She is an eight-time winner of the Rolex Player of the Year award and owns six Vare Trophies for compiling the lowest scoring average in a season. And now it appears that the 53-year-old women’s golf legend has added another line to her illustrious resume: member at Augusta National.
According to a Golfweek report, multiple sources confirmed that Sorenstam became a member at Augusta National earlier this month, making her the first LPGA professional to join the club.
Augusta National, which ranks ninth on GOLF’s list of the Top 100 Courses in the World and is the annual host of the Masters, didn’t begin admitting women into its membership until 2012, starting with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Wall Street powerbroker Darla Moore.
Augusta National is famously secretive on membership details, but Sorenstam is the seventh known female member of the club, following former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, former USGA President Diana Murphy, Banco Santander Executive Chairman Ana Patricia Botín and Globicon President Heidi Ueberroth.
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At the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship debut in 2019, Sorenstam was an honorary starter alongside fellow legends of the women’s game Nancy Lopez, Se Ri Pak and Lorena Ochoa.
Sorenstam stepped away from competitive golf in 2008, but served as an assistant captain to the European Solheim Cup team in 2013 and 2015, and as captain in 2017. After turning 50 in 2020, Sorenstam returned to competitive play. She won the 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Open by eight shots after warming up with her first LPGA event in 13 years at the 2021 Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio, where she finished 74th.
Sorenstam also made appearances on the pro-am circuit, and in 2022, Sorenstam played the 2022 PNC Championship alongside her 11-year-old son, Will. The duo finished T17, and are slated to return for another go this December.