GOLF: For the second successive year, Annika Sorenstam has discovered that being the most dominant golfer on the planet doesn't mean you get the plaudits such dominance probably deserves.
Despite winning 13 tournaments around the globe - including 11 on the US LPGA Tour where she was a runaway winner of the money list - the Swede has again had to play second fiddle to a team, after Europe's Ryder Cup team emerged as the overwhelming winners of the Golf Writers' Trophy for 2002, announced yesterday.
Last year, Sorenstam finished second in the voting to the winning British and Irish Walker Cup team. However, the victory of the European team at The Belfry in September was adjudged the most significant for European golf this year.
Despite starting as underdogs, Europe eventually triumphed 15½-12½ with Paul McGinley sinking the winning putt on the 18th green to halve his match with Jim Furyk.
"I am very honoured for the team," said captain Sam Torrance. "They are the ones who deserve it."
Sorenstam finished second again, with British Open champion Ernie Els in third place.
Padraig Harrington, Justin Rose, Colin Montgomerie and Torrance himself also featured in the poll of members of the Association of Golf Writers.
The award is presented annually to the "person, or persons, born or resident in Europe, who have made the most outstanding contribution to golf during the preceding 12 months".
It is the fourth time the European Ryder Cup team has won the award, having previously done so in 1985, '87 and '95 . Torrance was a playing member of the team on each of those occasions.
"It is incredible, really," Torrance said. "To captain a winning Ryder Cup team is something you can only dream about but it became reality at The Belfry. It was a wonderful performance from our team. We were the underdogs but we completely outplayed them. I was never surprised by anything our players did. I was full of expectations for every single member of the team. Some of them lived up to those expectations and the others exceeded them."
The members of the winning European team were: Harrington, McGinley, Darren Clarke, Phillip Price, Niclas Fasth, Pierre Fulke, Thomas Bjorn, Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Jesper Parnevik and Bernhard Langer.
Torrance has since confirmed he will not be seeking the position for the rematch in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in 2004. Ian Woosnam and Langer have emerged as the front-runners for the job then but the European Tour has announced no decision will be made before May 22nd.
