Annika Sorenstam knew for weeks, maybe months, she was going to announce her retirement from competitive golf at the end of the LPGA Tour season. She also knew she would make the announcement a couple days after the Michelob Ultra Open, a tournament she badly wanted to win to help symbolize her decision to go out on top.

Sorenstam, 37, did just that, winning her 72nd career LPGA Tour event Sunday and announcing yesterday she will step away from the game she dominated for eight years to start a family and devote more time to her foundation and other outside activities, such as clothing and course design.

"This is obviously a very difficult decision for me to make because I love this game so much," Sorenstam said at a news conference at the Sybase Classic in Clifton, N.J. "But I know this is the right one."

Sorenstam is engaged to Mike McGee, son of former PGA Tour and Champions Tour player Jerry McGee, who lives in East Palestine, Ohio. The couple will be married in January.

Sorenstam has been to East Palestine on at least three occasions, most recently when her fiance's grandfather died.

"That's why last week was so important to her -- she was gearing for that tournament for a long, long time because she had planned to make the announcement this week," Jerry McGee said yesterday from his home. "She felt if she went out and didn't win, everybody would say [she's retiring] because she couldn't beat Lorena [Ochoa].

"That's why it was such an emotional week for her and my son. That's why it's incredible she did that with all that pressure on her. Now she can go out on her own terms. Not very often you get to write your own ending."

Sorenstam had been the No. 1 player on the LPGA Tour for years until she was supplanted last year by Ochoa. She has been the leading money winner and player of the year eight times and won 10 major championships in her career on the LPGA Tour. In 2003, she became the first female in 58 years to play on the PGA Tour when she competed in the Colonial Invitational.

"I have other priorities in my life," Sorenstam said. "I have a lot of dreams I want to fulfill, I want to live. I am very proud of what I have achieved. Golf has been good to me. I have achieved more than I ever thought I would. It's been fun."