Irving, Texas, May 19: Annika Sorenstam will now not face the player who has most harshly criticised the decision to allow her to play in next week's PGA event after Vijay Singh announced he had withdrawn from next week's colonial. Fijian Singh, who said last week Sorenstam had no place in the men's tour event and that he hoped she missed the cut, announced after his two-shot victory at the Byron Nelson Championship yesterday that he would not be at the colonial.

''I told my wife last week if I won a tournament I would take a week off,'' Singh said. ''It was a decision not taken at all this week. It was a two-week affair. It just came at the right time, I guess. Just as well.'' Singh also said he planned to attend Wednesday's memorial service for sports agent Mark Mccormack, who died on Friday, and did not want to play too many times prior to next month's US Open at Olympia Fields in Chicago.

As Singh will play in the memorial tournament in two weeks, playing in the colonial would have had him competing for four straight weeks. Singh said the media criticism of his comments about Sorenstam had not affected him.

Bureau Report