Despite protests to the contrary, from the moment Annika Sorenstam announced in May that she would be retiring at the end of the season, her programme took on the appearance of a farewell tour. The mistake on her part had been to blunt a competitive edge rediscovered after a year ruined by injury.

Which is why the Swede will be looking to finish on a high note this week when she attempts to defend the Dubai Ladies Masters title that she has won for the past two years. It will be her final tournament and, come Sunday, she hopes to have added another trophy to the 89 garnered during a magnificent professional career dating back to 1992. It would be some swansong.

Sorenstam started 2008 with seven top tens in her first eight events, winning three times and twice finishing runner-up. For her opponents it was an ominous return to form, but one that she could not sustain. In announcing her retirement, the 38-year-old said she wanted to concentrate on a burgeoning business career, as well as remarrying and starting a family.

And from that moment, her game fell away. She played a further 14 times on the LPGA Tour in the United States, but had only three top tens and a best finish of tied second, at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational. For a player unmatched from 2002 to 2006, this was disappointing to say the least. But not half as disappointing as the sour note on which things ended at the ADT Championship in West Palm Beach, Florida, where she not only missed the cut, but was asked to provide a sample for a drugs test, adding insult to injury.

When you consider Sorenstam's record, it is little wonder that she is regarded in most quarters as the finest woman player of all time. She won the US Open title for the first time in 1995, in only her second season playing in the US, and repeated the feat a year later. And although it took her until 2001 to win her third major - the Kraft Nabisco Championship - she won ten of them in all.

“I still love the competition and winning tournaments, but the daily demands and amount of time required to stay near the top have become more than I desire,” Sorenstam said. “I have a lot going on and the last thing I'm going to be doing is sitting on a couch.”

Sorenstam is the first to admit that in her early years in Sweden, there were those who were much more talented. Her first love was tennis, but by the age of 12 she realised that she was not good enough to compete at the highest level so she switched to golf. At her best she was relentless. Her driving was not only long, but deadly accurate - added to which was a _mental approach as strong and intimidating as any in the game.

At times she is difficult to read. She was so shy as a junior that she would deliberately take three putts on a final green if it saved her from giving a winner's speech. She thought that no one had noticed until one day the coaches called upon the winner and the runner-up to speak. And from that point on she thought that she might as well try to win everything she entered.

Shyness aside, Sorenstam is dull in her press conferences, which is not to say that she is a dull person, only that she has been trained to give nothing away, to fear danger in every question. She has the same manager as Tiger Woods and it is no coincidence that the two of them have turned the straight bat into an art form.

There might be spontaneity under that cool Swedish exterior, but it is hard to imagine. It is not helped by the fact that she refers to herself as a brand, as in Brand Annika, as if she were a product. Soon to be launched is an Annika wine label and a perfume, to go with a clothing range, a teaching academy, a charitable foundation and a golf course design company. All of which should add considerably to the $22,573,192 (about £16.1million) winnings picked up in 14 years playing on US soil.

It is right, however, that she should be celebrated. As with Woods among the men, Sorenstam took the women's game to a new level. With a fierce work ethic and desire to improve, she worked harder in the gym than any of her peers, practised tirelessly and, by the start of 2005 - a year during which she won six of the first eight tournaments and ten times in all - she seemed unbeatable. It was the year she famously said that she was going for the grand slam of four major championships and set off by winning the first two - the Kraft Nabisco and the McDonald's LPGA Championship - before falling away.

Among other significant achievements, she became the first woman since Babe Zaharias to play alongside the men in a PGA Tour event; had a 59 in a tournament on the LPGA Tour and had a stroke average of 68.69 in 2002 and 2004 that remains the best recorded. Records are there to be broken, but Sorenstam's are going to take some beating. It would be only fitting if she goes out on a winning note.

The glittering prizes after 16 years as a professional

Place of birth Stockholm, Sweden

Date of birth Oct 9, 1970

Turned professional 1992

Joined LPGA Tour 1994

World ranking No3

Major championship wins Ten (US Open 1995, 1996, 2006; British Open 2003; Kraft Nabisco Championship 2001, 2002, 2005; LPGA Championship 2003, 2004, 2005)

LPGA victories 72

Most wins in one season 11 (2002) LPGA earnings $22,573,192 (about £16.1million)

Lowest scoring average 68.69 (2002, 2004)

Other victories 17

Ladies European Tour earnings €2,983,047 (about £2.6million)

Rolex Player of the Year awards 1995, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005

European Player of the Year 2004, 2005

Inducted into Hall of Fame 2003

Solheim Cup appearances Seven (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005)

- Henrik Stenson had a four-under-par 68 in Sun City, South Africa, yesterday as he cruised to a nine-stroke win in the Nedbank Challenge. The Swede finished with a 21-under-par total of 267 for the tournament's second-largest winning margin - behind Nick Price's 12-shot triumph in 1993. “An eight-shot lead going into the final round made me feel pretty comfortable and I just went out there and took care of business,” Stenson said after receiving the $1.2million (about £860,000) prize.

In Australia, Geoff Ogilvy, who won the US Open in 2006, finally won on home soil with a two-stroke victory in the Australian PGA Championship. Ogilvy closed with a three-under-par round of 69 to finish 14-under on the Hyatt Regency Coolum resort course.