Annika - Sportsman of the Year

TO: SI editors
FROM: Seth Davis
RE: 2005 Sportsman of the Year

Greetings, bosses. I realize we benefit greatly from the annual buzz surrounding our year-end choice for Sportsman of the Year. In fact, that announcement is kept so far under wraps, some of us staffers don't know who it is until the big unveiling. (I know, I've got to get into the office more.) But this year's selection is so obvious that I propose we ditch the whole hush-hush, wait-until-the-end-of-December buildup and just pick our winner now.

That winner? In a word, Annika.

Let's face it, it's not even summer yet and this contest is over. Even if Annika Sorenstam doesn't strike another golf ball this year, she has done enough to merit our esteemed honorific. It's a good thing, too, because we need a mulligan for passing on her in 2003. Not only did Sorenstam win two majors that year, she was also the center of the year's biggest sports story when she teed it up against the men at Colonial.

Frankly, I still don't know why we went with Tim Duncan and David Robinson. They're nice guys and great players who led the Spurs to the NBA title, but last time I checked, the NBA crowns a champ every year. Annika was the first woman in 48 years to compete against the men.

Do any of you still doubt that Annika deserves to be added to our SOY pantheon? Not only is she having a dominant year, she has superior lifetime credentials. She has won four tournaments in five outings this year, including her triumph at last week's Chick-fil-A Charity Championship by a mere 10 strokes. That's a career year for most pro golfers, man or woman, but it's still seven shy of the 11 tournaments Sorenstam won in 2002.

Annika won the year's first major in March and tied Nancy Lopez's record of five straight victories. Though she's just 34, Sorenstam is third on the LPGA Tour's alltime wins list with 60. The player at the top of that list, Kathy Whitworth, was 46 when she won her 88th tournament in 1985.

Annika's blistering start this season is merely an extension of what she has done the last four years. She has won five of the last eight majors. She has won 37 times since 2001. Not only is she the best female golfer right now, she's the best ever.

Keep in mind we don't often get the chance to make the Sportsman a woman. Over the last 20 years, we've done it twice -- in 1994 for speed skater Bonnie Blair, whom we paired with fellow skater Johann Olav Koss; and in '99 when we gave it to the U.S. women's soccer team. (Though it should be noted that two of the eight "Athletes Who Care" in '87 were females.) The last individual woman to win it by her lonesome was Mary Decker in 1983. The last female non-Olympian? Chris Evert in 1976.

Our own Rick Reilly called Sorenstam "the most dominant athlete in the country." Yet, he couldn't believe Sorenstam could go through an entire day in public without being recognized by anyone. Who better to recognize her now than us?

Look, I understand it's Sorenstam's own fault she doesn't inspire double-takes when she walks into Starbucks. Watching her give interviews can be nails-on-a-chalkboard painful. She smiles, she's polite, and like her pal Tiger Woods she speaks for long periods of time without saying anything. This doesn't lend itself to turning heads and winning awards, but hey, she is who she is. Her game speaks loudly enough.

I'm sure it's frustrating to the public that Sorenstam keeps her private life so guarded. Scanning my mind of all the articles I've read about her, the only interesting thing I can recall is that she likes to cook. She hasn't gone on Dr. Phil to talk about her recent divorce from her husband and former caddie, David Esch. She didn't use her Colonial experience as a springboard to speak out for women's rights.

In fact, Sorenstam doesn't speak out on anything. I remember at last year's U.S. Women's Open, I asked her to weigh in on the criticism Michelle Wie was receiving for getting a special exemption into the Open without having to qualify. It was similar to the flak Sorenstam got for her sponsor's exemption into the Colonial, and I thought she should stick up for Wie. But no matter how many different ways I asked, Sorenstam refused to take a stance. She said she was just there to play golf and try to win the Open. Sigh.

Still, I don't much remember Tim Duncan saying anything all that interesting, and that didn't disqualify him from sharing our award with Robinson. When I mentioned to an editor two years ago that Sorenstam's presence in the Colonial (not to mention the two majors) should lead her to be named our Sportsman of the Year, he replied, "She missed the cut." Well, yeah, but she still finished ahead of 11 men that week -- men who weren't playing in the intensely pressurized fishbowl that Annika endured with such aplomb. Exposing herself to that kind of crucible, not to mention the small-mindedness of her male counterparts, took a great deal of guts. Anyone who watched her play that week could tell she belonged out there. She's done nothing since to prove otherwise.

We may have whiffed on Annika in 2003, but it's never too late to do the right thing. It's also never too early. So can't we just slap her on our cover right now and call it a year?