Parting drug test for Sorenstam takes LPGA boneheadedness to new level

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Fighting her emotions after playing the final round of a record-busting LPGA career, Annika Sorenstam was delivered a not-so-nice parting gift from the organization.

Annika Sorenstam shows mixed emotions at her final post-round news conference in the U.S. (AP)

Forget the tears. The LPGA needed a solution of a different sort.

Minutes after her second round at the season-ending ADT Championship was complete, the greatest player in LPGA history was ordered to report for drug testing, news that made even the stoic Swede shake her head in disbelief.

Thanks for the memories, Annika. The port-a-potty is right over there.

Still a bit teary when she entered the media center after shooting a 3-over 75 to miss her first cut of the season, she was informed that her name had been drawn for random testing. Worse, Sorenstam said she had been tested two weeks ago.

When she mentioned it after the round, with no small amount of contempt, everybody initially thought she was joking.

"I'm serious and I was tested two weeks ago, so I don't really know what's going on," she said testily.

Guess they hadn't heard that she was retiring.

"I have no idea, but they're not going to let me go," she said, forcing a laugh. "Yeah, I guess you get tested every other week now."

Another 20 minutes later, she hadn't cooled off. As she packed up her SUV for the drive home, she pointed at the portable testing center and said with a dismissing wave, "I sat in that beautiful trailer."

Jill Pilgrim, the LPGA administrator who handles the testing, said the organization has no choice but to screen any player whose number comes up -- otherwise the whole process becomes tainted if exceptions are granted.

"At the end of the day, if the LPGA does not follow the protocol, and we are brought into litigation or arbitration, we will be liable for not following the protocol," she said. "We follow the protocol because we want to keep everything fair for every player.

"That's the way you keep it fair. The procedures don't vary because of any particular set of circumstances."

Even for an organization known for making head-shaking decisions over the years, this ranks at the bottom of the latrine in terms of asinine, idiotic developments. After 15 memorable seasons in which she often carried the tour on her capable back, Sorenstam isn't playing next year, making the whole testing issue decidedly moot.

Apparently, the forever-bungling LPGA still had another foot left to shoot.

Leave it to the LPGA to wreck what should have been a day in which nothing but rose pedals were tossed at her feet, not plastic testing beakers with screw-tops and clinical labels.

If Sorenstam elected to skip the testing out of principle, she could have been docked the $8,000 that each of the tournament's 32 participants were guaranteed for playing.