West Palm Beach, Fla. -- Annika Sorenstam arrived at the first tee Thursday morning, shook a few hands and got a kiss on the cheek from Donald Trump.

Then she turned to the gallery and waved.

Unless she moves a bit up the leaderboard today, she'll be waving goodbye.

Sorenstam shot a 2-over par 74 in Thursday's opening round of the ADT Championship, good for a tie for 23rd in the 32-woman event, her final LPGA Tour appearance before "stepping away" from competitive golf. The field gets trimmed to 16 after today's play, meaning Sorenstam has some work remaining just to reach the weekend.

"I was a little nervous. I feel like I'm playing good. I'm excited about the week," Sorenstam said. "But I'm telling you, nothing went my way today."

Indeed, it was not a dominant round for the woman who once controlled her sport. She went barefoot into the water on the par-3 seventh to salvage a bogey and was 4 over through 10 holes, putting her into what seemed like a precarious spot.

But as she's done so many times throughout her 72-win career, the Hall of Famer rallied.

Sorenstam put together consecutive birdies on the par-4 14th and par-5 15th to stop the bogey bleeding and eventually finished six shots behind Katherine Hull (68).

Sorenstam is a four-time ADT winner and a giant fan of the Trump International course, but in this double-cut, erase-the-scores format, she's never even reached the weekend.

The scores are erased after today's play, then get wiped clear again after Saturday's round, after which only the top eight get invited back Sunday to play for the $1 million winner's prize.

"You can't really practice this format. It's once a year," said Sorenstam, who announced her plans to leave the game six months ago. "You just have to go out and play your best golf and see where you stand."