In Focus/Annika Sorenstam: The thought is a staggering one, that all we've seen so far is an appetiser; that, in the case of Annika Sorenstam, the best is yet to come. At this moment in time, she's the most dominant golfer - male or female - on the planet. At this moment in time, she's the only golfer - male or female - who can win the Grand Slam this year.

This week, in the US Women's Open at Cherry Hills in Denver, Colorado, she'll seek to complete the third leg of that quest. You know what? Nobody's betting against her.

So far this season, Sorenstam has completely and utterly dominated the women's tour. In eight appearances on the LPGA Tour in the United States, she has won six times - including the first two majors, the Kraft Nabisco Championship and the LPGA Championship - and finished second once. But, then, this is a player who has Tiger Woods as a practice buddy and who has changed her body in recent years from that of a skinny schoolgirl into that of a muscular athlete through obsessive work-outs in the gym.

Just like Woods (with nine) has his target of beating Jack Nicklaus's record haul of 18 major wins, so too does Sorenstam have her goals. When Woods won his US Masters title in April, he sent a simple text to Sorenstam. "9", it said, signifying the number of majors he'd won. After Sorenstam won the LPGA a fortnight ago, she replied. "9-9", went the return message. That win was Sorenstam's third straight at the LPGA Championship and her 62nd career win on the LPGA Tour. Since the beginning of the 2004 season, she has won 14 of 26 starts. Since teeing it up against the men in the Colonial in 2003, she's won exactly half - 19 of 38 - of the events she's entered.

Kathy Whitworth, who holds the record of 88 tournament wins on the LPGA Tour, believes it is just a matter of time before Sorenstam takes her record. "The way Annika is going, she's got an awful good shot at breaking my record (but) for what it is worth, I don't think Annika loses sleep at night wondering if she'll win 89 tournaments. She knows that record will be hers if she keeps doing what she is doing."

Like Tiger, though, it's the majors that are her obsession. Once betrayed by nerves in the majors - between 1997 and 2000 she won 17 times without a major - Sorenstam now shows the steely resolve under pressure that sets the great ones apart. The record number of women's majors is held by Patty Berg, with 15. Sorenstam is closing in rapidly and, at 34, has time on her side.

But it wasn't supposed to be like this at all.

Whitworth's record - established at a time when the LPGA tournaments had fields of only 35 players with no cuts - wasn't supposed to be on Sorenstam's agenda. The grand plan was for Annika to get inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame at the end of 2003 (which she did), have a big year in 2004 (which she did) and then say goodbye to professional golf so that she could settle down to family life with her husband, David Esch.

More than once she admitted that she was too much of an obsessive to be both a tour player and a mother. That's the part that didn't happen. In February, she filed for divorce.

"As important as her golf is to her," said Sorenstam's longtime caddie, Terry McNamara, "and her golf is very, very important to her, her marriage to David was even more important to her. Trying to save her marriage, that was her main goal last year. So what she did on the golf course, as distracted as she was, it's hard to even imagine it."

Sorenstam initially informed the world of her decision to seek a divorce in a press release. More recently, after her win in the LPGA with the process nearing resolution, she remarked: "Playing well and winning tournaments at this particular time in my life is important to me. I'm not saying victories are replacing happiness off the course, but it helps. Hopefully I'll have them both some day."

In the meantime, Sorenstam is spending time with her younger sister, Charlotta, a struggling LPGA player; with old friends, most of whom have no connection to golf; and with newer ones, including Tiger Woods's Swedish wife, Elin. Annika and Elin recently went diving together and attended a NASDAQ 100 tennis match, while Woods and Sorenstam have been practising and playing together at Isleworth, the Orlando development where Woods lives.

Struggling with a certain bunker shot, a frustrated Woods gave Sorenstam his lob wedge, right out of his bag, and for more than a year now Sorenstam has been carrying 13 Callaway clubs and one made by Nike. "We have these little contests," Sorenstam said of her golf with Woods.

"We'll say, 'Hit it here, hit it there, closest to the pin.' It's inspiring. I love watching him hit balls."

If Sorenstam wins this week in Denver, she'll have 63 career wins and the only LPGA players ahead of her will be Mickey Wright, with 82, and Whitworth, with her 88. Wright is widely regarded as the best woman player ever, achieving all she did in only 12 full seasons and parts of 14 others. Whitworth had 33 full seasons. Sorenstam won her first LPGA title in the 1995 US Women's Open.

Wright is impressed with Sorenstam's determination, revealed to her by how dramatically Sorenstam changed her build. But she is not too impressed with the competition she faces week-in and week-out on the tour. "She has everybody out there scared to death," said Wright, "which is a shame." Wright sees one player who is not intimidated by Sorenstam: Michelle Wie, the 15-year-old amateur from Hawaii, finished second to Sorenstam in the LPGA.

Wie's father, BJ, said that Michelle is not interested in taking on Annika in the long-term.

"Michelle has made it clear she wants to be a full-time PGA Tour player (on the men's tour)," he said. "Her impression of Annika is that she has extraordinary concentration. But she is not interested in being another Annika Sorenstam on the LPGA Tour. She has been watching Tiger."

The much-respected Nancy Lopez, the captain of the US Solheim Cup team this year, believes that Wie is getting bad advice by playing so often against the professionals. "She should have played more amateur golf against her peers and gotten used to winning. She says she wants to play on the men's tour. Why? It's a little insulting. She should play out here and try to beat Annika first."

Annika might respect what Wie is doing, but she's entirely concentrated on her own game. Behind her stoic appearance is a singular focus and drive that renews itself with each success. By winning the LPGA Championship and Women's British Open 2003, she became the sixth woman to complete the career grand slam. She is even better now than she was then, and the Grand Slam itself is now within her reach. "If it happens, great," Sorenstam said.

This week is the third leg of four. If she wins the US Women's Open, the final step will be next month's Weetabix Women's British Open at Royal Birkdale.

But Annika's quest for what they're calling the Soren-Slam is one that can only be taken one step at a time. She knows that better than anyone.

Age: 34.

Country: Sweden.

Season's Earnings (LPGA Tour): $1,503,238.

Career Earnings (LPGA Tour): $17,247,820.

Majors: US Women's Open (2) - 1995, 1996, Kraft Nabisco (3) - 2001, 2002, 2005, LPGA (3) - 2003, 2004, 2005, Women's British Open (1) - 2003.

LPGA Tour wins: 63.

International wins: 12.

Lowest Round: 59 (13-under-par) at Moon Valley, Phoenix, in 2001.