I watched a bit of Annika Sorenstam’s first round today at the Colonial. I was extremely impressed with the way she drove the ball and hit her long iron and fairway metal approach shots. I think she played about as well as she is capable of – a couple better putts and she’d be under par. She hit 90 % of her fairways (only missed one I think) and only had to chip once or twice. She was getting it on the green from 200 yards out like it was nothing. It was quite impressive and I’m very glad she did well – if she’d played poorly it could have been a real disaster. As it is, I think it will be a positive thing for professional golf.

That said, the course was playing about as easy as it ever will for a PGA Tour event because of the slow, damp conditions. Hopefully we’ll see it hard and fast sometime this weekend. I think that playing as well as she did today, she’d probably shoot 5-7 over in hard and fast conditions. In normal PGA conditions, 4 irons from 205 yards don’t just stay on the greens, they bounce right through into the rough – I think that will be where the strength and length of the men separate them from Annika.

I’m not anything close to a pro golfer, but they keep talking about how short she is with her clubs and she’s about a club longer than me through the set. I can’t imagine hitting a 7 iron 200 yards…