Annika Sorenstam insists an LPGA-LET merger would be 'beneficial for everybody'... but warns LIV Golf for women could RUIN the ladies' game as it 'would become too crowded'

Annika Sorenstam just missed out on a win at the Tournament of Champions The legend opened up on the growth of women's golf and warned against LIV  DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news

Annika Sorenstam may claim she’s lost her touch on the golf course, almost 16 years on from stepping away from the LPGA, but she is still undeniably a voice of authority on the women’s game.

Sorenstam, arguably the greatest female golfer in history, likely disheartened her fellow celebrity competitors at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions – the LPGA’s event that sees the tour’s winners from the past two seasons compete in stroke play, while A-List stars of sport and entertainment face off in their own Stableford competition.

The 53-year-old, who retired from professional golf in 2008, carded an incredible 40 points in the opening round and seemed slightly shocked by her own game, claiming to DailyMail.com that she doesn’t have a lot of rounds free of ‘silly mistakes’ these days.

But while Sorenstam, a 72-time member on the LPGA, may not be able to produce the same game that won her 10 majors and to compete with the pros but she certainly proved she still has that competitive edge as she finished second, two points behind winner Mets star Jeff McNeil, and more importantly, that she cares about the state of the women’s game.

The event opened the LPGA’s new season with a bang over the weekend with a part-filled atmosphere, which was only fitting with 2024 set to bring plenty to celebrate for women’s golf.

Annika Sorenstam competed at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions

The icon claimed that she doesn’t have a lot of rounds free of ‘silly mistakes’ these days

The 53-year-old won her first on ten major championships at the US Open back in 1995

The LPGA’s 2024 season promises to be its biggest and best yet with a record $118million on offer in prize purses.

It is a stark difference from Sorenstam’s day – with the total money on offer on the LPGA $21.98million during her first season in 1994 – and the Swede couldn’t be happier for the likes of Lydia Ko, Brooke Henderson and co.

‘I’m super happy for them,’ she tells DailyMail.com. ‘It’s going in the right direction. We see sponsors writing bigger checks and getting more involved. And we are talking top companies and global tournaments. The LPGA is getting more TV time and getting more recognition, which the lady’s game certainly deserves because it’s the very best in the world.

‘We compare men’s sports with women’s sports and it’s nice that we are increasing as well.’

But the work isn’t done yet, not according to Sorenstam anyway. The 53-year-old insists that there’s still room for further growth, if the LPGA gets the greater exposure it deserves.

The LPGA’s 2024 season promises to be its biggest yet with a record $118million in prize purses

Tournament of Champions winner Lydia Ko signs autographs for young fans at Lake Nona

A 24-year-old Sorenstam competes for Team Europe at the 1994 Solheim Cup

‘It’s about being seen and being heard. People hear about the players and they see them, and they get excited and get engaged and they want to follow it.

‘If there’s an interest, then there’s a demand, and if there’s a demand and other people want to be involved. So it’s exciting and I think people are starting to see that.’

While Sorenstam rightfully stresses that women’s sport is constantly being compared to men’s, a certain topic has meant that the men’s game has dominated headlines in the world of golf over the past couple of years.

The PGA Tour’s bitter feud with LIV Golf has plagued the sport since the breakaway reared its head in 2022 with the civil war still creating controversy as the two sides battle it out at the negotiating table in an effort to reach an agreement over its ‘merger’.

But while that dispute navigates its supposed ceasefire, the ladies’ game could be closing in on a merger of its own, only more peacefully and logically.

The vote of Ladies European Tour members on a merger with the LPGA was delayed in November but the tour hinted with the new season underway, it may not be far away, which Sorenstam wholeheartedly welcomes.

‘I am hoping that it’s going to happen,’ she says. ‘We should all work together and create opportunities for women in general. Together, we can be better than having two separate tours, because there’s enough players, and I think we can fulfill everybody’s role by having two tournaments.

Sorenstam would welcome a merger between the LPGA (pictured commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan) and the Ladies European Tour

‘I’m a European, and I came over here, but, if there was a way to make this very seamless back and forth and elevate both of them, I don’t see why that wouldn’t be beneficial for everybody.’

But while Sorenstam is hopeful of a merger between the LPGA and LET in order to elevate the two tours, she isn’t convinced there’s room for a LIV Golf-style circuit too.

The legend surprisingly admitted she believes there’s space for the Saudi-backed circuit in the men’s game but isn’t convinced it has been rolled out in the right way.

However she warns that if Greg Norman’s claim of being open to a ladies’ version of his rebel breakaway comes to fruition, it could ruin women’s professional golf.

‘LIV Golf for the men, I think there is room for it,’ she says. ‘It’s just that the lines are not clear, right?

‘I thought in the beginning that there was a certain group of people that would go to LIV – the 40+, so to speak. It’s the next phase in their life.

She warned there’s not room for LIV Golf in the women’s game due to the Aramco Series

‘But then, that hasn’t been the case. It’s now just very cloudy. I don’t even know who it’s for and how they’re going to do it.

‘As far as LIV Golf for women, we already have the Aramco series, and I think they have fit in well and why not give the ladies a chance to play for other opportunities.

‘But I do think it gets crowded or would take away from the existing events, if there were more events or more players went, because you need the top players for LPGA to have the sponsorships. So if you only have half of them, then then that will be an issue. So I would love to see it, like it is today.

‘It’s working and if they expand, well, hopefully they will continue to work together. Because women don’t have as many opportunities, so we shouldn’t be ruining what we have.’