Sorenstam completes major set

WORLD number one Annika Sorenstam completed a career Grand Slam when she won her first Weetabix Women’s British Open yesterday with a final-round 70 at Royal Lytham and St Anne’s.

In a thrilling finale, Swede Sorenstam held off her biggest rival, South Korea's Se Ri Pak, by a single shot, with a 10-under-par 278 total to claim the £160,000 first prize.

The pair were tied for the lead standing on the final tee.

But while Sorenstam made the perfect par four, world number two Pak drove into a bunker and took a bogey five for a 72.

Another South Korean, Grace Park, who had a 70, and Australia's Karrie Webb, who closed with a 71, tied for third on eight under. Overnight leader Patricia Meunier Lebouc, from France, slipped back into fifth place on six under after a disappointing 76.

For Sorenstam it was her fifth win worldwide this year, and her second major after winning the LPGA Championship in June.

"This is a championship I have always wanted to win," she said.

"To complete the Grand Slam is just amazing. I can hardly believe I've won another major and now I've won all four.

"This whole year has just been fantastic," continued the 32-year-old, who courted controversy when she played alongside the men at the PGA Tour's Colonial tournament in May.

"Colonial, the LPGA Championship, and now a first British Open. It really is dream season."

Sorenstam began the round two shots off the lead, and it was a day when a number of players jostled for the top spot.

She did drop an early shot at the fourth, but hit back with birdies at three of the long holes, the sixth, 11th and 15th.

Pak missed a bundle of early chances and ended the day with three birdies and three bogeys.

Later, she admitted: "It was a thrilling day, but you always know that Annika is going to play really well.

"I thought I was unlucky with my bounce off the tee shot at the last.

"That was really the story of the day. Nothing went quite right for me."