Donald Trump presents Annika Sorenstam, President Gary Player’s Medal of Freedom

by

President Donald Trump presented the President’s Medal of Freedom Thursday to Annika Sorenstam and Gary Player. Babe Didrikson Zaharias also won the medal, later.

The show took place in the East Chamber of the White House with 50-60 people in attendance and “went without a hitch,” one of the guests told GolfChannel.com. The event was not open to the media. WL Pate Jr., president of the Babe Zaharias Foundation, was expected to accept the medal in honor of Zaharias, who died in 1956.

Sorenstam and Player both played golf with President Trump in 2019, with Sorenstam and Sen. Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) defeating Trump and Player.

GAN Associated Press

–

President Donald Trump had a special mix of playing partners for his golf tour on Saturday, although his partners report that he eventually finished.

The trio join Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Charlie Sifford and Tiger Woods as the only golfers to receive the award.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom recognizes “a contribution particularly deserving of the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultures or other important public or private efforts.” The Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal are the highest civilian awards in the country.

Sorenstam, 50, won 72 LPGA titles, beating just Kathy Whitworth (88) and Mickey Wright (82) as the most in tour history. She won 10 top champions, just dragging Patty Berg (15), Mickey Wright (13) and Louise Suggs (11) as the majors in women’s golf history. Sorenstam has won the LPGA Rolex Player of the Year Award eight times and the Vare Cup for averaging six times low scoring. She is the only woman to have fired 59 in LPGA history.

Player, 85, was proud to take the game around the world, winning 165 times worldwide, with 24 of those PGA Tour titles, nine of them major tournaments. He is one of only five men to win the Grand Slam title, joining Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.

Zaharias, perhaps the greatest female athlete of all time, went golf at the age of 24 and won 10 major titles. She is also the only woman ever to cut a PGA Tour. In addition to her Hall of Fame golf course, she won gold medals in the 80-meter races and dinghy at the 1932 Olympics.

.Source