LPGA legend’s emotional goodbye week ended with a message

Anna Nordqvist has always been wired to compete. You don’t win 16 times worldwide, including three majors, and make nine Solheim Cup teams without loving the grind and the fight. So, even as the 39-year-old, who announced Wednesday that she’d be retiring from competitive golf after this week’s FM Championship, was playing the final holes of a legendary career, she could only think about one thing.

“I’m a competitor. I don’t know how the putt doesn’t go in on eight or how the putt doesn’t go in on the last hole,” Nodqvist said on Sunday after shooting a final-round even-par 72 to finish T38.
“You know, I’m just — that’s just who I am and who I think I will always be, just very competitive. I’m kind of glad that I had this year to be able to kind of think back at some moments. I’m sure it’s going to hit me when I have time. … Give me another two or three weeks and I feel like it’s probably all going to hit me at once.”

Nordqvist, who will captain Europe at the Solheim Cup in a week, made her retirement announcement on Wednesday via a video posted to Instagram.

“I am not sure what the future has in store for me,” the letter read, “but it is with a grateful heart that I have decided to retire from playing professional golf to focus on my health and family.”

Nordqvist’s career lasted longer than most. She won nine times on the LPGA, five times on the Ladies European Tour and bagged three major titles. Her first major triumph came at the 2009 Women’s PGA Championship. She won the 2017 Evian and nabbed the 2021 AIG Women’s Open. When Nordqvist spoke with the media on Wednesday, she became emotional while discussing a career that began at Arizona State in 2007 and saw her win the Women’s PGA in 2009 in just her fifth start as a professional.

Then, Nordqvist’s final jaunt as a professional began. She opened with a 2-over 74 but bounced back with a 68 to make the cut. She went 73-72 on the weekend and tapped in on Sunday to finish a legendary career with a par after her birdie attempt narrowly missed.

With her final scorecard signed and the champagne ready, Anna Nordqvist was asked to look back on a career that lasted a lot longer than she thought it would. While it will take some time for Nordqvist to process the end of her career, one message stuck with her as she looked back on a 20-year run — one she wanted to pass on to those who are chasing what she did for two decades.

“So many people think your career is a straight line upwards. I feel like I’ve gone through a lot of ups and downs both on and off the course,” Nordqvist said. “I think what I want to be remembered for is the fact that I never gave up. At times, it took me a couple of years to get back on my feet. At times in my life, it’s just been — I thought about quitting in 2012, 2013. I was really, really close to walking away.

“If my younger brother hadn’t come out and caddied from me that summer I don’t think I would be sitting here. So he saved my career. And the last couple years too. It’s been a little bit of an upward battle, but I battled through it, and I think I hope to show a lot of people that never give up and keep fighting. You know, it’s worth coming out on the other side. This game teaches you a lot.”

As Nodqvist readied to drink some champagne and digest the end of an impressive career, she was asked what advice she’d give to LPGA rookies just starting out, hoping to follow in her footsteps. Nordqvist said that being “injury-free” was key to having a 20-year career, but she boiled it down to being comfortable in her skin — owning her swing and believing she could win playing how she wanted to play.

“I kind of did things my way. I was never going to be an explosive player and have a lot of distance in me. You know, I kind of had my swing and tried to own that part of the game,” Nordqvist said. “There are so many people wanting you to do things a different way, and I think it’s even more with more technology and more coaches nowadays. So it’s easy to fall into what everyone else thinks you should be doing. Deep down, I think what carried me through all these years was really listening to my heart. I think all the best decisions came from my heart and what I wanted to do.”

Nordqvist will eventually have time to think back on her career. That will come after the Solheim Cup in the Netherlands. Once the biennial competition is over, Anna Nordqvist will soak in everything she’s achieved and try to decide what the future holds.

“I think there is going to have to be a time in the next couple weeks where I have to sit down and kind of look at myself, like be proud of myself, too, for what I’ve accomplished,” Nordqvist said. “But probably all going to hit me after I come back from the Solheim Cup and all of a sudden I’m — I don’t really have anything on the schedule for the near future.

“But I love the game, and I hope to still be involved in one way or another. I always said I was going to focus on my career and put everything into it until the last shot, and then once I hit the next chapter, I was kind of like going to work about what was going to happen next.”