ANN ARBOR, Michigan – Throughout Annika Sorenstam’s short career as a senior player, her son Will McGee has been at the forefront. Quick to give advice and a hug, Will has even taken center stage from time to time at the PNC Championship, where the outgoing teen teams up annually with his famous mom. But on Tuesday at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, 55-year-old Sorenstam’s mind was on her eldest child, daughter Ava, playing in her first high school golf match back home in central Florida for Lake Highland Prep. “I want to make sure she survives nine holes,” Sorenstam said with a smile at Barton Hills Country Club in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Sorenstam, a 72-time winner on the LPGA, is one of five past champions in the field this week at the Donald Ross design.
Toward the end of her junior year, 16-year-old Ava, a softball player, announced to the family that she wanted to try out for the golf team in her last year of high school. Ava likes to play more than practice, so if Sorenstam wanted to hang out with her daughter, she had to leave the range. It’s a new strategy for the 10-time LPGA major winner, who smoked the field by eight when she made her U.S. Senior Women’s Open debut five years ago. Will was 10 back then, and already a golf nut who was well-versed in his mother’s resume. His goals these days are lofty: win majors and be No. 1 in the world. When Ava was prepping for her first qualifier, she called her younger brother, who was playing an AJGA event in Pennsylvania, and asked for pointers. "I don’t know how you do it," she said. "I’m so nervous.” Ava, who will debut No. 3 in the lineup, is a willing student. She soaks up mom’s instruction so much, in fact, that practically after every shot she asks what she’s doing wrong. While Will is a lefty, Ava plays right-handed. “She has quite a lot of clubhead speed,” said Sorenstam. “You know, she’s working around the green. She can hit par 4s in one and then walk away with six.” But mom also reports that Ava has put in the work, high praise coming from Sorenstam, known for her meticulous work ethic. “I think she's excited about the bag and outfits and, you know, having fun,” said Sorenstam. “You know, there's always some cute boys on the golf team. There's a lot of reasons to play.”
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The golf bug bit during a hectic time in high school, with college visits, essays, applications in the works. Ava wants to go to an SEC school. Mom was an NCAA champion at the University of Arizona. On Friday, Sorenstam’s kids will fly by themselves for the first time from Orlando to Detroit to watch their parents work inside the ropes. “We figured it's nonstop, what can go wrong?” quipped Sorenstam. Mike McGee has caddied for his wife in this championship from the start. For Sorenstam, coming out of retirement to try and win another major was about growing the game and helping to solidify a championship that was a too long in the making. But it was also always about family. “I think it’s good that our kids see that I work,” Sorenstam once said years ago, “because I want them to understand that what we have today didn’t just show up in the mail.” And, as Ava is now beginning to learn, the challenge can be fun, too. Beth Ann Nichols is a senior writer for Golfweek covering the LPGA and all things women's golf. This article originally appeared on Golfweek: LPGA great Annika Sorenstam now has two kids bitten by the golf bug