ANNIKA TEAM

A familiar shadow falls across the LPGA more than a year since she left competition.

Annika Sorenstam’s influence will continue to be felt with the tour’s second season without her beginning Thursday at the Honda PTT LPGA Thailand event at Siam Country Club’s Old Course in Chonburi.

Sorenstam, 40, will continue to impose her ambition on the tour without hitting a single shot. Anna Nordqvist and Pernilla Lindberg will play under the Annika Team banner. While there’s no financial or management connection uniting these up-and-coming Swedish players to Sorenstam, there’s emotional and spiritual bonds to the LPGA Hall of Famer. The duo is the beginning of what Sorenstam hopes will become a larger alliance of young Swedish professionals.