Annika Sorenstam watched with keen interest Sunday as 23-year-old South Korean Sei Young Kim made a run at the Swede's all-time LPGA scoring record in Phoenix.

Kim had a birdie putt on the 72nd hole at the JTBC Founders Cup to shoot 28 under for the week.

She missed the record but matched Sorenstam with the 27-under total the Hall of Famer shot in 2001.

With the way the young, fearless LPGA players are firing at flagsticks, the mark will no doubt fall at some point, which causes us to ponder an even greater accomplishment that only Sorenstam owns on the LPGA Tour: shooting 59.

In setting the scoring record in that same tournament in 2001, Sorenstam birdied eight of the first nine holes in the second round at Moon Valley Country Club and went on to shoot 13 under for the first and only 59 in women's pro history.

In the 15 years since, four LPGA golfers have had rounds of 60, though none came on a par-72 course. Paula Creamer was the most recent, firing a 27 seven years ago on the back nine at par-71 Highland Meadows en route to 60 in the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic in Sylvania, Ohio.

Meg Mallon (2003), Anna Acker-Macosko (2004) and Sarah Lee (2004) also shot 60.

No one has really come close to matching Sorenstam's near-perfect day. She missed one fairway and hit every green. No player has scored 12 under, while eight have notched an 11-under total.

“We're all maybe a little surprised not to have seen (another 59) because on the men's tour, when Mr. Al Geiberger shot 59, it seemed like it opened the door and a few more players have done it since,” Sorenstam said on a conference call Tuesday to promote the Golf Channel's coverage of next week's first major of the season, the ANA Inspiration.

“I compare it to other sports. In track and field, somebody would jump a certain height or run a faster mile. OK, now people know you can do it, it gives you kind of a vision or you know it's possible.”

Maybe an LPGA player is just about due.

There have been five 59s on the PGA Tour, and following Geiberger breaking the barrier in 1977, it took 14 years for the second. Chip Beck was No. 2 in the 1991 Las Vegas Invitational.

Eight years later, David Duval fired 59 in the final round to win the Bob Hope. His was the last on a par-72 layout. Paul Goydos notched a 12-under 59 in the 2010 John Deere Classic, and later that season Stuart Appleby scored an 11-under 59 in the Greenbrier Classic.

In storming to tie Sorenstam's scoring record, Kim stirred her own 59 watch. She birdied six of the first eight holes, and when she eagled the 11th she was 7 under. Six birdies would have put her at 59, but she made only half of that.

More women are going lower more consistently.

Kim's closing 62 only tied the course record — set earlier in the week by Mi Hyang Lee. In the six official events this season, the winner has shot 65 or better in at least one round. Lexi Thompson, the only American to win this year, fired two 64s to prevail in Thailand.

“I know it's going to happen,” Sorenstam said. “And the better the courses get, the smoother the greens. ... The ladies make a lot of birdies when the conditions are perfect.”

The biggest challenge remains overcoming the fear and nervousness that comes as the birdies fall. Sorenstam has admitted that she basically tried to make only par on her ninth hole at Moon Valley to relieve stress.

“When you're standing on the first tee, all the players know it's out there,” said former player Karen Stupples, now a Golf Channel analyst on-course commentator. “The physical capabilities are there ... but it's just the mental side that's the tough bit.

“If you start to see your score going down, you stop for some reason playing as aggressively because you want to protect what you already have. That's why you see that sort of stopping of where the numbers are going.”

Sorenstam always had a different mindset. She had grown up with the instruction of Pia Nilsson, who pushed the idea of the perfect round — “Vision 54.”

“We always talked about what it would feel like to hit every green, to make every putt,” Sorenstam said in a recent LPGA video to commemorate her accomplishment. “I always believed it was possible.”

tod.leonard@tribpub.com