2005 Samsung World Championship In the End, It's Annika Again By Associated Press - October 16, 2005 PALM DESERT, Calif. -- Annika Sorenstam cares more about winning than sending emphatic statements about her place in women's golf. She managed to do both Sunday in the Samsung World Championship. Lost amid the hype of 16-year-old Michelle Wie making her professional debut, Sorenstam showed her star quality at Bighorn by closing with a 4-under 68 on a rainy afternoon in the desert to win by nine shots. It was the third time this year, and ninth time in her Hall of Fame career, that Sorenstam has won by at least eight. Wie, who started the final round five shots behind, lost hope quickly with three bogeys on the first five holes. She finished with 11 consecutive pars for a 2-over 74, leaving her in fourth place, 11 shots behind Sorenstam. The only consolation was her first paycheck -- $53,126. Sorenstam, who finished at 19-under 269, won for the eighth time this season and earned $212,500 to go over $2 million for the fifth consecutive season. Paula Creamer, the 19-year-old rookie and Solheim Cup star who also has been ignored during the Michelle Wie Show, holed a wedge for eagle on the 12th hole and closed with a 70 to finish second. Gloria Park made bogey on the final hole for a 74 to finish another shot behind. Sorenstam was gracious as ever talking about Wie at the start of the week, although she made it abundantly clear that the 35-year-old Swede has nothing to prove to anyone. ``I know where I am on the money list,'' she said after opening this tournament with a 64. ``If you all watch it, you know where I am. I'm here to reach my own goals, play my own golf.'' Her golf was spectacular as ever. She quickly stretched her four-shot lead over Park into a six-shot margin after two holes, built it to nine shots at the turn, and waited through nearly four hours of rain delays at Bighorn to collect her 64th career LPGA Tour title. ``She's probably sending a statement to the world that says, 'I'm here. I'm still the best player,''' Creamer said. Wie returns to her junior year at Punahou School in Honolulu and won't play again until the Casio World Open in Japan the week of Thanksgiving, her sixth time competing against the men. The only surprise Sunday was the weather -- storms that shifted in and out, leading to a stop-and-start round that took about 7 1/2 hours to complete. Perhaps it was only fitting that even with such a dominant victory, no one paid attention. The delays knocked the LPGA Tour off television, and most of the fans got on courtesy vans and headed for the parking lot after Sorenstam finished the ninth hole. Sorenstam had to wait 95 minutes before teeing off, but it didn't take long for her to put this one away. With the pin tucked to the right behind a deep bunker, Sorenstam calmly fired at the flag for a routine par. This came after watching Wie and Catriona Matthew in the group ahead leave their approach shots at the bottom of the green and three-putt for bogeys. The rest of the front nine was Sorenstam at her best -- down the middle of the fairways, taking bogey out of the picture, stretching her lead on the par 5s. She blasted out of the bunker at No. 3 to within 3 feet for birdie, then reached the par-5 seventh in two and holed a 35-foot eagle putt. With everyone else collapsing around her, Sorenstam had a nine-shot lead at the turn. More thunder rumbled around the Santa Rosa mountains, causing another long delay. It was stop-and-start from there. For Wie, it was mostly downhill. She needed to be at her best to have any chance of making up five shots on Sorenstam, and instead made a series of mistakes to tumble down the leaderboard. The worst of it came on the par-5 third, where she had made double bogey in the third round. Wie went into a bunker off the tee, then shanked her next shot into the desert onto a tight, sidehill lie of rocks packed into the sand. She chipped sideways into a bunker, blasted out to 50 feet and was lucky to escape with bogey. Two holes later, another tee shot into the desert led to bogey, and then she was playing only for the size of her first paycheck.