PALM DESERT, Calif. (AP) -- Even if Annika Sorenstam wanted to add an LPGA Tour event to her schedule to try to make up ground in her bid for a sixth straight LPGA Player of the Year title, her schedule won't allow it.
Starting next week, she will be playing in four straight tournaments -- but only two on the LPGA Tour.
Sorenstam will play in Dubai next week on the Ladies European Tour, then go to Japan for the Mizuno Classic, an LPGA event she has won the last five years. Instead of playing the Tournament of Champions in Alabama, however, Sorenstam has agreed to play in Greg Norman's Merrill Lynch Shootout in Naples, Fla., where Fred Couples will be her partner. The season ends at the ADT Championship.
Sorenstam has not played the Tournament of Champions since 2002, and it was never in her plans. Then again, she usually has the points-based award wrapped up by now.
"I can't really add any more because I'm playing every week," she said. "If there was some more tournaments, maybe I would add some. I gave it a run. I had a lot of tournaments to catch them."
Sorenstam is not mathematically eliminated. She would have to win the Mizuno Classic and ADT Championship, and hope that Ochoa finishes outside the top three at her final two events, in Alabama and the Trump International.
DAVIES' COMMITMENT: Laura Davies qualified for the Samsung World Championship with a recent surge that put her atop the Ladies European Tour money list. But it wasn't enough to turn her back on a commitment to a friend.
Davies had pledged to walk 56 miles of the Great Wall of China to raise money for Great Ormond Street, the hospital that is treating the 1-year-old daughter of Helen Dobson. Davies and Dobson played on the Curtis Cup team together, and Dobson's daughter has Down's syndrome.
It can be a daunting walk, especially as the wall narrows.
"You know me, I never do anything I don't want to do," Davies told The Daily Telegraph newspaper in Britain.
It was rough, even after walking. The 43-year-old Davies stayed in farmhouses with thin walls, hard beds, cold water and toilets that amounted to holes in the ground. And for meals? An evening bowl of rice.
"If I haven't lost weight, it will be a travesty," Davies said.
One thing she was sure to gain was respect.
SAMSUNG ON THE MOVE?: With sparse galleries and a pedestrian performance from Michelle Wie, perhaps the biggest buzz at the Samsung World Championship was its possible relocation next year to Pebble Beach.
No deal has been signed, nor has the tournament decided where to stage the 2007 event.
The 20-player field has been held at 14 courses in its 27-year history, from Florida to California, from Australia to South Korea. It has been in California since 2000, first at Hiddenbrooke in Vallejo, the last three years at Bighorn.
Should it move to Pebble Beach, the only question is: Which course?
The famous Pebble Beach Golf Links is not one of the options, because the dates for next year already are booked. That could leave a course such as Del Monte or Poppy Hills, perhaps Spyglass Hill or Spanish Bay.
Tournament officials said the Samsung could return to Bighorn next year if a move to Pebble doesn't work out.
STAT OF THE WEEK: The Samsung World Championship was the fifth time since 2001 that Annika Sorenstam has failed to win after leading by at least three shots going into the final round.
FINAL WORD: "No one is ever going to be 100 percent happy with me. I'm not ever going to be 100 percent happy with everyone in the entire world. That's normal. It would be pretty scary if everyone was happy all the time." -- Michelle Wie.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
