May 13 (Bloomberg) -- Annika Sorenstam is retiring after 14 years as a professional golfer, ending a career in which she won more than $22 million, became the only woman to shoot 59 in a tournament and competed against men on the PGA Tour.

The 37-year-old Swede said she will retire at the end of this season to focus on her business career and family. She is engaged to business manager Mike McGee, with a wedding scheduled for January 2009.

``I have other priorities in my life,'' Sorenstam said at a news conference today in Clifton, New Jersey, site of the LPGA Tour's Sybase Classic. ``I have a lot of dreams to follow. Mike and I want to start a family.''

Sorenstam has won 89 titles, including 72 on the LPGA Tour, and an unprecedented eight player-of-the-year awards. Her career winnings are the most in women's golf history and she has topped the money list a record-tying eight times.

``She is a huge gallery draw and one of those people who frankly goes by her first name and everybody knows who she is,'' LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens said in a telephone interview. ``So we will miss her on the field of competition, but we are not saying goodbye to her.''

Sorenstam's 10 major championships tie her with Babe Zaharias for fourth all-time, and in 2003 she became the first women since Zaharias in 1945 to play in a professional men's tournament when she competed in the first two rounds of the U.S. PGA Tour's Colonial tournament in Fort Worth, Texas. She missed the 36-hole cut by four shots after rounds of 71-74.

Hall of Fame

Sorenstam, inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2003, won the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill in Williamsburg, Virginia, on May 11 for her third win this season. She finished at 19-under 265 to break the tournament's scoring record by five shots.

She ranks third on the list of LPGA winners behind Kathy Whitworth, with 88 titles, and Mickey Wright, an 82-time champ. Her 10 major titles rank second behind Patty Berg's record 15.

``To beat her record does not motivate me,'' Sorenstam said of Whitworth's mark. ``I'm very content with my life and with what I have achieved.''

Her final event on the LPGA Tour will be at the ADT Championship in November in West Palm Beach, Florida. She will play several events in Europe after that, with her final pro appearance at the Dubai Ladies Masters on the Ladies European Tour from Dec. 10-13.

`My Terms'

``I'm very, very proud of what I have achieved,'' Sorenstam said. ``Golf has been great to me. I have achieved more than I ever thought I could. I have given it my all and it has been fun. I'm leaving the game on my terms.''

The University of Arizona graduate has reined in her tournament play, while younger players including Lorena Ochoa, Paula Creamer, Natalie Gulbis and Cristie Kerr have moved up the world rankings. In November 2006, the 26-year-old Ochoa ended Sorenstam's five-year run as the player of the year and replaced her atop the world rankings.

Ochoa in October retained the player-of-the-year award a week after becoming the first woman to win $3 million in a season. Last season was first since Sorenstam's rookie year in 1994 in which she failed to win an LPGA event. From 2001 through 2005, Sorenstam averaged eight wins a year.

Off the Course

Sorenstam is putting more energy into her career after golf, with construction of her Annika Academy, a 5,400 square- foot (502 square-meter) facility opened in April, in Reunion, Florida. She also has launched her own brand of clothing and started designing courses, with five in the works. Her first course design opened at Mission Hills, China, in 2003 and her second is planned for completion this year at the Euphoria Golf Estate & Hydro in South Africa. Her debut in the U.S. was at Patriots Point, South Carolina, a course she remodeled.

``Annika may very well have an even longer-lasting impact on the game of golf in her next career as a businesswoman, as an entrepreneur and as a spokesperson for women's golf and golf in general than she's had with all the records that she's set on the course,'' Bivens said.

Sorenstam divorced David Esch in August 2005 after eight years of marriage. She was engaged two years later to McGee, the son of four-time PGA Tour winner Jerry McGee.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Buteau in Atlanta at mbuteau@bloomberg.net; Dex McLuskey in Dallas at dmcluskey@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 13, 2008 15:17 EDT