Annika Sörenstam won the Kraft Nabisco Championship for the third time on 27 March 2005, finishing eight strokes ahead of Rosie Jones at Mission Hills Country Club. It was the eighth major title of a career that would eventually reach ten.
No contest after the second hole
The final round in Rancho Mirage was a procession. Sörenstam opened with a bogey-free 68 on Sunday and led by at least six strokes from the second hole onward. She navigated the last 39 holes of the tournament with the outcome effectively decided, building a final score of 273, fifteen under par.
Only Jones stirred a brief flicker of pressure. Consecutive birdies at the ninth and tenth holes hinted at a late charge, but Sörenstam answered immediately with a birdie of her own on the eleventh. The gap never narrowed meaningfully.
A third title, a rare club
The victory placed Sörenstam alongside Amy Alcott and Betsy King as the only three-time winners of the championship. She had first claimed the event in 2001 by three strokes, then defended it successfully in 2002 by a single stroke over compatriot Liselotte Neumann — the first player to defend the title since it became a major in 1983.
By the close of her career, Sörenstam held ten majors, 72 LPGA Tour wins, three U.S. Women’s Open trophies, and a career grand slam completed in 2003. She had also shot the first 59 in women’s professional tour history. “I truly think she’s better than Tiger,” Nancy Lopez told reporters afterwards, adding that no one was coming close.
When Sörenstam reached the 18th green, her usual composure gave way to high-fives with spectators leaning over the railing. The day’s only unpredictability came during the traditional leap into Poppie’s Pond, where she jumped in with her sister, her mother, and her caddie, who launched himself from the nearby bridge.
She already knew what remained unfinished. A single-season sweep of all four majors had never been done in the modern game, and she carried that ambition quietly into the months ahead.
