And the woman she wants to beat, Annika Sorenstam, reveals how she separates Annika the golfer from Annika the person

'Now what have you got for me?' asks Annika Sorenstam. The world number one fought off everything Grace Park and Team Asia could throw at her at the Lexus Cup and now she's challenging me. Better underclub, I think, because you don't want Sorenstam at her combative best too early in a round. We'll leave the husband-divorce curveball for later. Cool, calm, and calculating - Annika is all of them with a club in her hand and presents that front for another stranger quizzing her in another strange golf club in another strange land. So I play it straight down the middle, asking her that she must be very proud of her international team, who thrashed their Asian counterparts 16-8 in the Ryder Cup-style event in Singapore. 'I didn't really know what to expect when we came to Singapore, but it was a really good week in many ways. It's been fun to play with a team, you work a lot on friendship, there's a lot of camaraderie . . . with people you might not spend much time with otherwise. The pairings turned out well, the matches were good and obviously it's fun to walk away as the winner because I thought it looked very even.' A nice safe wedge into the heart of the green: Your performance against Grace got lost in the euphoria of victory? 'Yeah, I played well but I think Grace was happy with the way she played, too. There were lots of birdies. I think she had one bogey and that was it. Grace is a great player. It wasn't easy for me to go out and just beat her. It's easy to say you're world number one so you'll beat everyone, but you know golf, any day, anybody can beat anyone.' Typical Annika, tee to green - cool and clinical. So Annika, do you treat golf as a job or do you still have the passion for it? 'I love to compete,' she says and something inside her stirs. 'That's really what keeps me going. Hitting lots of putts, I love that. I think everything around it is becoming more of a job. 'But it's the competition itself I love. I like to just cut to the chase if you know what I mean. The back end on Sundays is what I really look forward to. The rest, you come and go with the flow.' Do you have trouble dealing with all the baggage of being world number one? 'I try to be very picky. I try to separate Annika the golfer and Annika the person. For me it's a big difference. I want to be me, I want to be able to enjoy my hobbies [she loves cooking], and not always feel like I'm the golfer. 'On the golf course it's fine if people want autographs and everything, but I like to be able to go home and just be me. I like to go to the neighbourhood store without all that stuff, otherwise it is 24-7. I try to separate those things and I think I've done pretty well.' Who is Annika the person? 'I'm quite a homey person. I like to hang out with close friends and family. I enjoy sports. I'm a little laid back. You know, when people look at me, they think you play golf to be in the limelight. Well, I don't. I play golf because I enjoy it. I have a passion for the game. 'When I'm off the course, I don't need to be on centre stage. I'd rather be in the background with my friends. Most of my friends don't even play golf.' The Swede, who started playing golf at the age of 12 after first wanting to be a tennis player [fellow Swede Bjorn Borg was her hero], had a sensational 2005, winning 11 of the 21 tournaments worldwide, including two major championships. She has won nine majors altogether and 66 LPGA titles, and is fast closing in on Kathy Whitworth's record of 88. The multiple sportswomen of the year and athlete of the year also became the first woman in 58 years to compete against the men on the US PGA Tour in the Colonial at Fort Worth in 2003. She also became the first woman to shoot 59 in a professional event at Carlsbad, California, in 2001. You've achieved just about everything in golf. What is left? 'On the golf course, it's the majors that I'm really going to focus on for the next few years. I have won a lot more tournaments than I thought I would, but it's the majors that drive me now. I'd like to get to 10 majors. 'I'm at nine now, and next year I'm going to try to win the grand slam, I think it's possible, I really do. I want to find a way to do it. So that keeps my interest up, the really lofty goals; the challenge to see if I can do it.' At 35, the biological clock is ticking. Have you got any idea when you're going to call it a day? 'No I don't. It does get tough travelling week after week and it's tough to stay on top. I'm a very competitive person and I believe if I can't be on top, then of course I wouldn't want to continue because I've been there so long there is no other place I want to be. With these young players coming up, everyone's knocking on the door. It's almost harder to stay there than to climb up because I don't really know where I'm going and I have to find my own way. That's a lot of hard work. After 11, 12 years of doing that, it comes to a point, is it worth all the extra push? When you do come to that [the end], what do you want to do? 'I'm about to open a golf school, but I have many interests outside of golf. I'd like to start a charity, a foundation to raise money for young girls. There are so many things. In a way, I'm looking forward to that time. I'm already starting to put the little seeds out for the future.' Speaking of which, what about children? 'Oh yeah, I'd love to have ... I would have to find a husband first.' And all of a sudden she's not Annika the golfer, but Annika the woman and the taboo topic in her private life is out in the open. To find a husband must be very difficult as a professional golfer? 'Yeah. Well, I mean, I was married for eight years so all of a sudden my life took a little turn. At the moment I don't really think about that. Without golf, it would have been really difficult. But down the road, yeah, I can't wait too long ... time will tell.' First, there is the grand slam to think about.