Annika Sorenstam and Gary Player will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Donald J. Trump on March 23.
The two legends join Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Charlie Sifford and Tiger Woods as the only golfers who have received the honor.
The award is the nation’s highest civilian honor and is given to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the security or national interests of America, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors. Notable recipients include Muhammad Ali, Nancy Reagan, Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.
“I am extremely honored to have been chosen to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” said Sorenstam in a tweet. This is America’s highest civilian honor and certainly the most distinguished honor I’ve ever received. I am enormously grateful to the president for this honor and all it represents to me, to my family, to the LPGA and the Annika Foundation. I am proud to be the first female athlete who is a naturalized American citizen to be recognized in this way. It is an overwhelming feeling. I am grateful, I am humbled, I am moved, and I am blessed.”
Sorenstam, 49, won 72 times on the LPGA, including 10 majors. The eight-time LPGA Player of the Year was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2003. She’s the only player in LPGA history to card a 59.
Born near Stockholm, Sweden, Sorenstam, won the 2006 U.S. Women’s Open title, her third, 19 days after she was sworn in as an American citizen at a ceremony in Orlando, Florida. Back then, Sorenstam said that she kept the American flag the government gave her on Flag Day displayed in her kitchen, a most beloved spot for a woman who authored a cookbook.
