Swede joins exclusive club

It seems that modern-day golfers are all focused on rewriting the record books, and the women are keen to get in on the act too. Annika Sorenstam, the player who revolutionised women's professional golfer in the 1990s, was certainly in record-breaking mode at the weekend with her victory in the Standard Register Ping championship in Phoenix, which gave her a second successive title on the US LPGA Tour.

What the Swede didn't want to do was become the first woman on tour to break 60 - which is what she did by shooting a second-round 59 - and lose a tournament. She avoided that particular statistic, shooting a final round 68 for a 72-hole score of 27-under-par 261, a tour record low total for four rounds, which was sufficient to give her a two-stroke margin over Korean Se Ri Pak.

Of the male golfers on the US Tour who shot 59, Al Geiberger won the 1977 Memphis Classic and David Duval won the 1999 Bob Hope. But Chip Beck lost despite a 59 during the 1991 Las Vegas Invitational.

Sorenstam didn't slip up, however. Her performance beat by a shot the previous low established by Kerrie Webb in winning the Australian Masters two years ago and gave Sorenstam her the 25th title of her career on the US LPGA circuit. "I wasn't really looking to beat records," she said, "I was just focused on Se Ri." Indeed, the final round was very much a matchplay affair as the two were so far in front of the rest of the field. By the end, Dottie Pepper and Yu Ping Lin tied for third, 14 shots behind the winner.