On March 16, 2001, Annika Sorenstam became the first player in LPGA history to shoot 59 at the Standard Register Ping. Sorenstam’s longtime caddie, Terry McNamara, took Golfweek hole-by-hole through the yardage book from that magical day at Moon Valley Country Club in Phoenix. What follows are excerpts from that conversation, edited for length.
Our warmup was terrible. Annika was late. Actually, I was late and worried about it. I was only staying a mile-and-a-half away at my uncle’s and I got up very early, and for some reason I dilly-dallied around. All of a sudden, I had to be there in five minutes. Luckily my aunt drove me down the hill and dropped me off. I grabbed a doughnut and a coffee.
Yardage book from Moon Valley Country Club, site of Annika Sorenstam’s round of 59 on March 16, 2001. (Photo submitted)
I got out there thinking Annika would be there and she wasn’t … which happened never. That may have been the only time until 2008 (when she retired) that she was ever late.
Anyway, her warmup was really bad on the range. I remember a TV crew trying to shoot behind her. She moved, slammed her club down. Walking through the parking I said, ‘What’s up?’
‘Oh, I was running late, couldn’t get out of the house, this and that.’
Dottie Pepper was leading, I remember. … I knew we had to shoot a pretty good score to get up by the leaders. We had a talk walking through the parking lot, just go through the locker room there and sit down a minute, catch your breath. I’ll meet you on the putting green and then we’ll go do it.