(AP) — Annika Sorenstam will retire after the season, ending an LPGA Tour career in which she has won 72 tournaments to date and delivered a defining moment when she teed it up against the men on the PGA Tour.

She announced her decision at a news conference Tuesday at the Sybase Classic in Clifton, N.J.

The 37-year-old Sorenstam has hinted at retirement the past several seasons, saying she wanted to devote more time to her growing business and to start a family. She is engaged to Mike McGee, son of former PGA Tour player Jerry McGee.

"This would be very much like Annika to get on top and then quit," said Judy Rankin, a Hall of Famer and television analyst.

The decision comes two days after Sorenstam won the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill by seven shots for her third victory of the season, and first against a field that included Lorena Ochoa. It was a sign that Sorenstam had fully recovered from injuries and was poised to make a strong big at recapturing her stature as the best in women's golf.

I'm shocked that she is retiring when she is very much in reach of Micky Wright and Kathy Withworth's LPGA victory records. (She already has more total professional wins, but they don't count her wins on Australian and Japanese soil towards the LPGA even though most of the big name women golfers, like Webb, played against her in those events). If she continued to play on tour an additional year or two beyond this I think she could get to 90 or more wins on the LPGA tour.

There are 24 events (counting this week) listed on the LPGA schedule for the rest of this year, but there is no way she is going to play in all of them, and it is extremely unlikely that she'll be able to win every tournament she does decide to enter between now and the end of the year. Ten more wins would tie her with Wright's LPGA record, and an addtional six beyond that would tie her with Whitworth's record. I just don't understand why she doesn't postpone her other interests (like starting a family) for another year or two considering what she could achieve in that time span. :(

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Wright
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathy_Whitworth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annika_Sorenstam

What does a golfer do when they retire??

Do they go work in an office?

Because I work in an office and when I retire I'm gonna play golf.

OK.. I admit that was dumb