Notes: Busy Time for Annika; Stricker Chooses Family

Even if Annika Sorenstam wanted to add an LPGA Tour event to her schedule to try to make up ground in her bid for a sixth straight LPGA Player of the Year title, her schedule won't allow it.
 
Starting next week, she will be playing in four straight tournaments -- but only two on the LPGA Tour.
 
Sorenstam will play in Dubai next week on the Ladies European Tour, then go to Japan for the Mizuno Classic, an LPGA event she has won the last five years. Instead of playing the Tournament of Champions in Alabama, however, Sorenstam has agreed to play in Greg Norman's Merrill Lynch Shootout in Naples, Fla., where Fred Couples will be her partner. The season ends at the ADT Championship.
 
Sorenstam has not played the Tournament of Champions since 2002, and it was never in her plans. Then again, she usually has the points-based award wrapped up by now.
 
"I can't really add any more because I'm playing every week," she said. "If there was some more tournaments, maybe I would add some. I gave it a run. I had a lot of tournaments to catch them."
 
Sorenstam is not mathematically eliminated. She would have to win the Mizuno Classic and ADT Championship, and hope that Ochoa finishes outside the top three at her final two events, in Alabama and the Trump International.
 
FRESNO FALLOUT
Not quite two months after the PGA TOUR announced its fall schedule, it has hit a speed bump with one of them.
 
Because of construction delays and financial issues surrounding the Running Horse Golf and Country Club, tour officials will be going to Fresno, Calif., this week to meet with the developers.
 
The Running Horse Golf Championship is to be played Oct. 25-28 next year, the second-to-last event on the 2007 schedule. Along with falling behind on the course, KFSN-TV in Fresno has reported that the managing partners are trying to sell it.
 
"Things at the golf course are going slower than we thought they were," PGA TOUR spokesman Bob Combs said. "I understand there are one or maybe more groups looking at investing in it. But from our perspective, we're playing in Fresno."
 
One option for the tour if Running Horse is not ready would be to move it to another golf course in the area, such as Fort Washington.
 
"We believe Running Horse is going to be the site," Combs said. "If it turns out to be another one, we'll cross that bridge. The key thing is we'll be there."
 
TIME TO COME HOME
This should sound familiar: A PGA TOUR player deeply devoted to his family stops playing until the Bob Hope Classic because he wants to spend time at home.
 
For Steve Stricker, his decision means leaving a lot on the table.
 
It has been an amazing year for Stricker, who failed to get through the final stage of Q-school and could only get in three tournaments the first 15 weeks of the season. With two top 10s in the majors and solid play just about everywhere else, he was considered for the Ryder Cup team and moved all the way up to No. 32 on the money list.
 
Stricker, however, turned down exemptions to Greensboro and Disney. His season is over.
 
"I really don't have much to gain getting in the Tour Championship, other than the prestige," he said. "I'm in the U.S. majors next year. I've got a 5-month-old daughter, and it's nice to be at home. All my tournaments came at a compressed time, which was good. I have no complaints. It was a great year. But my wife is ready to have me at home. And I was ready to go home."
 
This is nothing new.