Annika Sorenstam Is With Child

By Tom Miller posted Mar 20th 2009 1:00PM

LPGA great walked away from the game less than a year ago and is on her way to having a family.

Recently retired golf super star Annika Sorenstam has become pregnant. Per Chattahbox, the female Tiger Woods and husband Mike McGee are expecting their first child as Annika has posted their imminent arrival on her personal blog.

The Swedish golf machine won 72 LPGA tournaments in her career and was named player of the year on eight occasions. The player of the year awards total is a record and she's mentioned in the same breath as Babe Didrikson and Mickey Wright when discussing the greatest lady golfers of all time.

But, clearly she wanted other things in her life than golf success. She and Mike McGee married this January (2009), eight months after she announced her retirement and about two months after her last pro event.

Evidently, McGee is the manager of Annika's personal brand and the son of a former PGA champ. Interestingly, Annika's first husband, David Esch, was also in golf business. You'd think that it would be nice to get away from work, periodically, but Sorenstam is (was) a consummate professional and has really been the ambassador of women's golf for the past decade or so.

Unfortunately, the 38-year old golfer was at a point in her life that she was running out of time to do the family thing and, if her romantic history is a proper augury, she doesn't do anything partway. This is the rub for female professional athletes. They have an even harder time of 'having it all' than even the most dedicated career woman. Athletic prime time and fertility prime time happen to overlap a touch. Try lumbering up and down the soccer pitch with 30 pounds of baby weight while a 19-year old is kicking you in the shin guards. Maybe tennis stars are lucky that they're generally washed up by the time they turn 29 (please do not tell Martina Navratilova, she's the best). Over on ESPN.com, Mary Buckheit had a great take on this unfairness.

We suppose that life is not terribly fair like that. And now your obligatory Caddy Shack quote: "You'll get nothing and like it!"

Photos: Splash