Annika Sorenstam carries something of a reputation for often being anything but pleasant with the media. It’s a pretty well earned rep for grumpiness if you talk to some tournament officials.

Maybe it’s a burden of being the longtime No. 1 thing.

Regardless, a somewhat different Annika showed up at the PGA Show to promote the USGA’s cocktail hour announcement that it was taking on Lexus as it’s first automotive partner. Lexus sponsors Annika and the car company used this as one of the five appearances she is obligated to make for them a year.

But it seemed more than that made the LPGA’s former lifeline smile. She still didn’t seem that thrilled with the tedious official part of the program. Afterwards she mingled with the crowd though, posed for pictures and gave a lengthy (for Sorenstam) interview with TravelGolf.com.

With her sister there serving as her rep and no husband longer in the picture, Sorenstam seems more relaxed and excited about trying to make a Tiger Woods-like move into course design. (For a full story on Annika’s somewhat surprising views on design, stay tuned).

Of course, it also could have just been the Dom Perignon served to commemorate the historic occasion of commercialism gone wild. The bigwigs on the stage got Dom Perignon, those in the crowd a less expensive brand. Though in truth Annika only sipped hers.

Maybe she’s just happy. It will be interesting to see how that translates onto the course in a season which Annika vowed “to play better” but less often.

Sounds like she’s been talking to Tiger again.

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