Taking On The Men: Anika Sorenstam's PGA Tour Debut

On May twenty second, two thousand and three, Anika's Stormstam becomes the first woman to face off against the men in fifty eight years on the golf course, leaning the way for many others, showing that women can play with the men today. On Daily Sports History, Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a wrap deep dive into sports history. And for today's trivia question to listen out for is who was the first woman to ever make the cut in a PGA event. Now, before we dive into this moment in history, let's dive into Anika's life. Anika Stormstand was born in Sweden and born in the city of Bro, which is probably the coolest city name I've ever seen, which explains why she is so cool because she came from Bro. Now. As a child, she was a involved in multiple sports, not just golf. She was also nationally ranked in junior's tennis and played for her hometown soccer team. And she was such a good skier that the Swedish national coach suggested her family move to northern Sweden so she could ski year round, but Anika chose golf as that was the sport she loved. She wasn't the only one. Her sister Charletta also became a pro golfer and they are the only sisters to ever both make a million dollars on the LPGA Tour. Now, Anika was having a lot of success on the Swedish national team and she had caught the eye of the University of Arizona, who offered her a scholarship to compete in America. She jumped at the chance, knowing the LPGA was based in America and was continuing to grow and she could get a great education. And that first year in nineteen ninety one, she won seven collegiate titles and became the first non American and freshman to win the individual INTAA Championship. And that same year she actually qualified for the US Women's Open and was able to make the cut and tied for sixty third, and a few weeks later she would go on to be the runner up in the US Women's Amateurs And by this point she was ready to turn pro, and she did in nineteen ninety two, but she missed getting her LPGA Tour card, which you need to qualify to be on the LPGA Tour, by just one shot but she was going to continue her professional career with the Ladies European Tour overseas, but she also got invited to a few LPGA tournaments and in nineteen ninety three, she participated in three of these LPGA tournaments, finishing thirty, eighth, fourth, and ninth, collecting more than forty seven thousand dollars. This was enough for her to qualify in nineteen ninety four to get her LPGA Tour card and she was the LPGA Rookie of the Year and had three top ten finishes that year. And she continued to hone her game and in nineteen ninety six she asked the one million mark for LPGA career earnings. She was having a lot of success not only in LPGA, but she was also becoming a household name as she had won multiple LPGA Players of the Year and she had gotten become so dominant that she was winning fifty percent of the tournaments she entered, which is a huge percentage. And in two thousand and three, a woman named Susie Wayey won her local PGA America Section championship and got a lot of attention for this. Now she won while playing on the women's team, which is something that people often deem her for about she had ten percent less yardage as the men played from but this garnered a lot of attention. And then the PGA invited Anica to participate in a PGA event as she was the number one golfer and had been dominating the LPGA and wanted to offer the chance to compete against the men, and she agreed as she wanted to push herself to be the best she could be and she wanted to see how she could compete against the men. Now, this wasn't met with just overall support. The majority of PGA golfers supported her, such as Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, but number four in the world that year, VJ. Singh strongly opposed her as she was taking spots away from men and couldn't handle if he actually had lost to a woman. But Anika didn't care. She soldiered on and she was ready to compete in the Colonial National Invitational, getting a sponsorship exemption to allow her to compete on the PGA Tour, which is an exemption that sponsors are given to allow people that don't have the credentials to compete on the PGA it's how most women or amateurs compete in a PGA event, and this was the first time in fifty eight years that a woman had competed, as Babe Zinhas or better known as Babe Dickerson, who he covered in a previous episode, had done so multiple times and then was the first woman to make a PGA cut back in nineteen forty five. And on May twenty second, twenty twenty three, Annika had finally walked up to hit her first drive, with the almost two hundred journalists all there just to watch this amazing moment. It may have been one of the most pressure filled shots in golf history and was the most attention Anika has ever gotten. She took out her forewood and crushed the ball, traveling two hundred and fifty five yards onto the fairway, getting her off to a great start. And she actually did start really well, getting three straight pars and even a birdie on the thirteenth hole, giving her a brief moment on the leader board, But sadly, she struggled a little bit throughout the tournament, but wasn't far off and she ended her first round at seventy one, which was a very respectable score. And she had only missed one fairway and hit fourteen of eighteen greens. But the next day she struggled a little bit more and hit a seventy four, and she missed the cut and finished in ninety sixth place, but she finished better than eleven men, and this would be the last time Annaka would play against the men. But that doesn't mean her career was over because even after this, it took her game to a new level and she actually won six more women's majors after her battle with the men and drove her to be a better golfer, as she won six majors and thirty six LPGA titles in the next five years, dominating dominating women's golf the likes that had not been seen before and only comparable to the time Tiger Woods was dominating the PGA. She would go on to retire from golf and step away to enjoy life with her family, and she ended her career with seventy two with seventy two wins and a total of ten majors. She's been inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, as well as earning over twenty two million dollars over her career in just LPGA events, but she led the way for other women to have the chance to play with men. Most famously was Michelle Wee, who played multiple times versus men. Susie Wayley also played with the men in two thousand and three, same year as Anika, but she went on to become the president of the PGA, being the first woman to ever do that. There have been others more recently, as Brittany lincicm had Brittany Linscomb played in twenty eighteen. Lexi Thompson made her appearance just last year in twenty twenty three. And though none of these women have made the cut or won any of these events, as long as the opportunity is there, I think one day we will have that option. And I think that's what we can take away from Anica's story is she opened the doors for others to have options. She was so good at what she did on the women's game that she broke down the barriers to play with the men. Because golf is something that women and men play together all the time recreationally, why can't it be professionally as well? And maybe one day, why actually see a woman on the PGA tour full time, which would be a great step in gender equality and maybe, but it all happens because someone stepped up and opened the door for someone else. So despite what you might think you can't do something, or that you can't do it, or that doesn't even matter. You could say Anaca storm Sam missing the cut doesn't matter, But I'm telling you it mattered to those following women and many other women who have competed in the LPGA. Sometimes that's all we need and what we need from you is to just come back tomorrow and subscribe and follow wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode because guess what, the next one's coming out tomorrow, So don't miss any daily sports history. And did you catch today's trivia answer, who's the only woman to ever make a PGA cut? And it is Babe Dickerson