Three's a crowd for world best

The ardent desires of the LPGA Tour, of ABC television and of the sponsors, Nabisco, become one on Saturday when the world No. 1 and No. 2, Annika Sorenstam and Karrie Webb, were paired for yesterday's last round of the Kraft Nabisco championship.

Together with Liselotte Neumann they formed a final group that has won a total of 70 tournaments and nine major championships and although there were 14 players within four shots of the lead, no one was looking beyond Sorenstam or Webb, the dominant players since the mid-90s.

The two Swedes and the Australian were on four under, 212, after three rounds played either in difficult weather conditions or on a course set up with difficult pin positions. The greens, too, were firm and fast and the record score of 19 under, set by Dottie Pepper in 1999, was a long way out of reach.

Although Sorenstam and Webb come from totally different backgrounds they are practically identical in the way in which they both approach and play the game. Sorenstam, from Stockholm, and Webb, from the tiny Queensland town of Ayr, reached the same conclusions when deciding what would serve them best.

As a result they both concentrate on accuracy off the tee, they both play mostly for the middle of the green and they are both sound, if not spectacular, putters. For both the elimination of mistakes is their profoundest wish and although both are capable of really low rounds they tend to happen because they are such good ball-strikers, not as a result of aggression.

Sorenstam, for instance, had a round of 59 in last year's Standard Register Ping event and went on to equal or break 30 LPGA records during the season. Webb, at 27, four years younger than her rival, has had a 61 in competition and on Saturday, when it was needed because she started six behind the leader, she produced the lowest round of the day, a 67.

Webb has five majors, including a career grand slam; Sorenstam, strangely for a woman who has 32 LPGA victories to her name, has only three majors, two US Women's Open's and this event last year. The winner in 2000? Webb, of course.

Although they have so much in common and are frequently pictured together in laughing mode, they are not close off the golf course. Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player are the same for the same reason: their competitive instincts do not allow it.

There is mutual respect for each other's achievements, though. "Annika does bring out some good golf in me," said Webb on Saturday. Sorenstam said: "We've played so much together. She's won her share. I've won mine. I think our games and attitude on the golf course are similar. I think we are going to push each other."

At the same time, both are anxious not to make the mistake of assuming that one or other of them is going to win and, in effect, playing match play. "It's not match play," said Sorenstam. "It's a big mistake to focus on one player, even though Karrie is one of the greatest. There are good players right behind us so I'll just focus on my game and try to post a low score."

Webb added: "Annika is not going to lay down easily, but its not only her - there's a good leaderboard, a lot of people who have a good chance."

One who probably hasn't is Laura Davies, who, after qualifying at six over par, 11 behind the leader, found her form too late and produced a third-round 69.

Davies, alas, can no longer rely on what has always been her strength, her extreme length off the tee, and even when she takes her driver she cannot "tee it high and let it fly." Instead she taps a little mound from the ground and squeezes the ball away: straighter certainly, but much, much shorter.

Her fellow Briton Alison Nicholas moved through the field with a 70 for one-over 217 to end the day five shots behind the leading trio.

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