ANNIKA Sorenstam's first time inside the ropes at a professional men's tournament was on the European tour at the Scandinavian Enterprise Open. She was a caddie.

'I was on the national team, and my sister (Charlotta) and I went to caddie, and there was another girl there,' Sorenstam said. 'At that time, people didn't have regular caddies. You showed up early and waited in the parking lot. Of course, we were the last ones picked.'

She recalls caddying for Peter Teravainen, and while he missed the cut, Sorenstam felt rich by the end of the week.

'He played balata golf balls. They were expensive, and he changed them out on every hole, which I couldn't believe,' she said. 'And he gave them to me, and so my pockets were filled with balatas balls.'

Teravainen years later had another caddie, golf author Michael Bamberger, who wrote about the experience in the highly entertaining book, To The Linksland.

But there was another name from the past.

At the end of the week, the other girl in the parking lot had such a good time as a caddie that she asked Sorenstam if she had any interest in joining her at the next stop, the PLM Open, in the south of Sweden.

'I said: 'That's not what I want to do. I have to go practice,'' Sorenstam said.

And so she continued to hone her game, which eventually took her to the University of Arizona, a pair of US Women's Open titles, eventually 72 wins on the LPGA Tour and 10 majors, becoming a household name by competing on the PGA Tour at Colonial.

That other girl was Fanny Sunesson. She caddied that week for Jaime Gonzalez, which led to Jose Rivero, Howard Clark and eventually to Nick Faldo and two of his Masters titles.

Sunesson remembers the day well at the Scandinavian Open. She had played a few junior events with Sorenstam and realized she was going to follow Swedish greats like Liselotte Neumann and Helen Alfredsson.