Annika makes last appearance in Europe

Annika Sorenstam plays in Europe for the last time at this week s Nykredit Masters in Denmark.

The World No.2, who will step away from the game at the end of the year to pursue business interests and start a family, headlines the 200,000 Ladies European Tour event at Simon s Golf Club near Helsingor.

I m happy to be here and look forward to playing here in Denmark, said the 37-year-old Swede. I m on a kind of goodbye-tour and am happy to play in some of the countries that I don t get the chance to visit too often.

Sorenstam was invited to play in the event by her Danish Solheim Cup team-mate Iben Tinning, who is competing on her home course.

It was Iben who convinced me to play in the Nykredit Masters when we played in Dubai last winter, added Sorenstam, who played in Denmark as an amateur.

Every tournament is a goodbye for me, and now I look forward to soaking up the atmosphere in Denmark. My own tournament was in the north of Sweden and hopefully this will also give me the chance to say goodbye to some of the golf fans from the south of Sweden, which is very close to Copenhagen and Simon s Golf Club.

Sorenstam hopes to secure her fourth title of the season at the event, following three victories in the United States earlier this year, with her most recent at the Michelob ULTRA Open in May.

She will play with Martina Eberl of Germany, the recent BMW Ladies Italian Open champion, and Tinning in the first two rounds, before the cut to the leading 60 professionals and ties on Saturday evening.

Tinning, who won the event in 2005, is one of 15 Danish players in the field, along with Karen-Margrethe Juul, who won the event in 2006 and the current leading Dane Lisa Holm Sorensen.

England s Lisa Hall defends the title she won in a one-hole play-off at Helsingor Golf Club last year. She is targeting a second victory in 2008 following her triumph at February s ANZ Ladies Masters in Australia.