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Golf legend Annika Sorenstam will be back in the field at the American Century Championship, and she’s doing more than just trying to win the celebrity golf tournament.
Sorenstam, who won 72 LPGA Tour tournaments, including 10 majors, during her illustrious career, will raise awareness for the Annika Foundation while competing at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Club near Lake Tahoe next month.
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Annika Sorenstam (Isaiah Vazquez/Clarkson Creative/Getty Images)
The foundation aims to use golf to support young women across the globe.
“My foundation has been around almost 20 years, and it is all about providing playing opportunities and empower and advance young women through the sport,” Sorenstam told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. “Different initiatives, tournament initiatives, resources, mentorship, scholarship, etc., so, we have done some clinics in the area, invite young girls to participate, it has been great.
“We have about 1,000 girls each year, and we have given back almost $10 million to girls’ golf. Wherever I go, I push the foundation and it has been great to get young girls to pick up a club or continue to play.”
Sorenstam said she looks forward to playing in the tournament each year.
She was the runner-up with former NHL star Jeremy Roenick in 2014 when former NFL quarterback Mark Rypien won the tournament for the second time.
Condoleezza Rice, left, and Annika Sorenstam (Kyle Terada-Imagn Images)
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“Every year I am excited. I try every year. These guys get harder and harder to beat, but it is a highlight, no doubt. It is a highlight of the summer,” Sorenstam said. “Tahoe that time of year, the tournament, the atmosphere and everything about it, the players, it is such a cool event. So, having family and friends there, so many reasons to like it.”
Mardy Fish, Stephen Curry, Tony Romo and Vinny Del Negro have been some of the most recent winners of the tournament.
Sorenstam said “it’s amazing” how good some of the athletes who aren’t professional golfers are at the game.
“Well, you know, many of them are half my age, twice my size. They are amazing athletes. What can I say now that I have gotten used to it,” she said. “But in the beginning, I was like, whoa, you know. But it is amazing how good they are. They play a lot more than I do. They hit it so far, not always straight, but many of them do.
“In the end, it makes it very exciting, but to add some pressure, I always tell my husband, I say, ‘Mike, I don’t think you can throw me on a football field or whatever basketball court and start shooting 3-pointers.’ I just think they are amazing.”
Annika Sorenstam (Tom R. Smedes/Special to RGJ / USA TODAY NETWORK)
The American Century Championship festivities take place July 9-13.
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The tournament will also raise money for local and national charities. The event is a 54-hole Stableford format in which golfers earn points for each hole based on the score to par. The golfer who achieves the most points wins.
Fox News’ Connor McGahan contributed to this report.
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