She became the face of women's golf for more than a decade, the player who made the tour appointment viewing, and she built a résumé that placed her firmly in the argument for the greatest women's golfer of all time. In 2001 she shot a 59, becoming the first woman to break 60 in an LPGA Tour event. In 2003, at the peak of her career, she became the first woman in 58 years to compete in a PGA Tour event, entering the Colonial on a sponsor's exemption, shooting 71-74, and finishing ahead of 11 men. The coverage treated it as a spectacle. She had four majors before she arrived and would win six more after she left. She finished her full-time LPGA career with 72 victories, 10 major championships, and a record eight Rolex Player of the Year awards. No player since has matched that combination of winning, major success, and sustained dominance.

She married Mike McGee in 2009 and they have two children together. Off the course she built ANNIKA Enterprises into a platform spanning golf course design, an eponymous collegiate award, and junior development programs. The shy teenager who dropped shots to avoid a microphone spent her retirement building infrastructure for the next generation. The sport she played is measurably different because she was in it.