CATCH Annika Sorenstam while you can.

The Swede has been in Singapore playing in the Lexus Cup and today is the final day.

More than likely there won't be many more opportunities to admire the game of one of the all-time great women golfers.

The curtain has already come down on her LPGA Tour career.

Given the astonishing list of feats achieved by Sorenstam in her professional career, I half-expected her to win her final tournament.

But no. This was beyond even the mighty Swede's grasp.

Sorenstam is a 72-time winner - I'll say that again, a 72-time winner - but last week in her final event she bowed out in uncharacteristically-modest fashion, shooting a three-over par second-round 75 to miss the cut at the limited field ADT Championship.

And that, as they say, was that.

'All of a sudden, the time is here,' Sorenstam said, describing her emotions as she played her last round of golf on the LPGA Tour.

'You're standing there on the 18th fairway and it's your last approach shot.

Coolest thing

'A lot of thoughts go through your head... and what's been the coolest thing this week is all these people who showed up that I don't know, my fans.'

There has been no shortage of those. As I have said in previous columns, Sorenstam is such a decent person.

She is the sort of athlete one can look up to and admire - the perfect role model, basically.

But she is also extremely likeable. Even world No. 1 Lorena Ochoa was among the many players who congregated around the 18th green to give Sorenstam a farewell hug as she finished her round.

'We can only say that we enjoyed having her and thank you for everything,' said Ochoa graciously.

Of course, we knew this was coming. Sorenstam announced in the early part of the summer that she intended to retire at the end of the 2008 season.

And so here we are. Incredibly, she is still the world No. 3.

Making predictions is a dangerous game - and I must say definitely not usually my cup of tea - but I think it will be an awfully long time before we see another top-three player quit the game with so much potentially 'left in the tank'.

Getting out at the right time is incredibly hard.

Okay, golf is different to most other sports in as much that the Senior Tour gives competitors a second lease of life, so to speak. But still, most golfers are well past their best when they quit the main stage.

Not so Sorenstam. Notwithstanding her recent patchy form, understandable given the circumstances, she surely has some great golf ahead of her and there was no reason to believe she could not have returned to the No. 1 spot.

Looking ahead

She is only 38 years of age, remember.

Still, as she said last week, 'I have a lot of fun things ahead of me'.

Sorenstam wants to start a family, and she also has business interests she wishes to pursue. So yes, it is a lot of fun things indeed.

Just a shame for us, I think, that one of them isn't competing in golf tournaments.

There's a bit more left in the old day job, though. After captaining the international 12-player side in the Lexus Cup, she'll play in the Dubai Ladies Masters in a couple of weeks' time.

She hasn't totally ruled out playing competitive golf again, but she's not the sort to do things half-heartedly and to me, that makes the odds of a return seem very slim.

'I love competing, no doubt,' said Sorenstam.

'But to compete at this level, you have to practise and dedicate yourself full-time. I just don't have that anymore.'

That probably says it all.