FORT WORTH, Texas - Peter Jacobsen leaned over the wall outside the clubhouse at Colonial Country Club to get a better view. Annika Sorenstam had just arrived on the 18th green to finish the second round and her historic appearance at the Colonial.
A couple of autograph-seekers were trying to get Jacobsen's attention, but the PGA Tour veteran was focused on Sorenstam.
"What she did was great," Jacobsen said. "It didn't impact my game. It didn't impact anybody's game. The players who looked at what she did as detrimental need to get a real job. I look forward to the day that a woman player qualifies for the tour."
It won't be Sorenstam, who said after missing the cut here Friday that she will happily go back to the LPGA Tour this week and didn't plan on playing a PGA Tour event for the rest of her career.
But maybe it will be one of her peers on the LPGA Tour or, perhaps, Michelle Wie.
Wie, the 13-year-old phenom from Hawaii, was in contention as this year's Nabisco Championship, the LPGA's first major, and will play with the men in a Nationwide Tour event later this year. Wie has said she would like to qualify for the Masters and maybe try someday to play full time on the PGA Tour.
What Sorenstam, 32, did might have made that possible.
"I think that I feel very fortunate to do what I do," said Sorenstam, who missed the cut by four strokes after shooting rounds of 1-over-par 71 and 4-over 74. "For me to come here, get the opportunity to really push myself and live my dream, I hope other women and girls feel the same way that they just get to follow their heart."
There has been talk of other PGA Tour events offering sponsor's exemptions to some of the other top players on the LPGA Tour, specifically the publicity starved B.C. Open inviting Se Ri Pak to its event in mid-July. Suzy Whaley, a club pro from outside Hartford, Conn., qualified for this year's Greater Hartford Open.
Those who criticized Sorenstam for accepting a spot in the Colonial are no longer spouting off; in fact, Sorenstam said that a couple of PGA Tour players who publicly questioned her appearance here privately apologized to her after her remarkable opening round.
Dan Forsman, one of the most open-minded players on the tour, has a simple solution.
"I would say the best LPGA player is exempt as many times as she wants to play the regular [men's] tour," said Forsman, who shared the second-round lead but dropped out of contention with a 3-over 73 yesterday. "If she wants to play the men's tour on occasion, I would say bring her on."
