Morgan Pressel

Morgan Pressel
Pressel at the 2009 LPGA Championship
Personal information
Full name	Morgan Pressel
Born	May 23, 1988 (1988-05-23) Tampa, Florida, U.S.
Height	5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)
Nationality	United States
Residence	Boca Raton, Florida
Career
Turned professional	2005
Current tour(s)	LPGA Tour (joined 2006)
Professional wins	4
Number of wins by tour
LPGA Tour	2
LPGA of Japan Tour	1
Other	1
Best results in LPGA Major Championships (Wins: 1)
Kraft Nabisco C'ship	Won: 2007
LPGA Championship	2nd: 2011
U.S. Women's Open	T2: 2005
Women's British Open	8th: 2010
Achievements and awards
AJGA Player of the Year	2005
AJGA Nancy Lopez Award	2006

Morgan Pressel (born May 23, 1988) is an American professional golfer, currently playing on the LPGA Tour. She turned pro at age 17 and is the youngest-ever winner of a modern LPGA major championship. Pressel has reached as high as fourth in the world rankings.

Childhood and family life

Pressel was born in Tampa, Florida, to Mike Pressel and Kathy Krickstein Pressel. She attended Banyan Creek Elementary School, Omni Middle School, and graduated in 2006 from the Saint Andrew's School in Boca Raton, a private school affiliated with the Episcopal Church. She has stated that her Jewish faith plays a large role in her life.

Following her mother's death from breast cancer in September 2003, 15-year-old Pressel moved in with her grandparents Evelyn Krickstein and Dr. Herb Krickstein, a retired physician and pathologist who is her coach as well as her grandfather, while her two younger siblings stayed with their father. Pressel continues to live with her grandparents, who are the parents of former top-10 tennis player Aaron Krickstein, Pressel's uncle. For the eldest Krickstein, this is the second time he has groomed a young athlete into a star. Aaron Krickstein holds the record for being the youngest player ever to win a men's professional tournament, in Tel Aviv in 1983.

Pressel's younger sister Madison plays golf for the University of Texas.

Amateur career

In 2001, as a 12-year-old, she became the youngest player to qualify for the U.S. Women's Open. This record stood until 2007, when Alexis Thompson, another 12-year-old, beat the record by several months.

In 2005, at the age of 17, she was one of three co-leaders starting the final round of the U.S. Women's Open at Cherry Hills in suburban Denver. Pressel was tied for first on the 18th fairway when Birdie Kim holed out from the bunker just ahead to secure a one-stroke lead. Pressel then needed a birdie to tie, but made a bogey on the 18th to lose by two strokes. Her second-place finish gave her a share of the low amateur honors with Brittany Lang. Pressel played in a total of seven LPGA events in 2005 and made the cut in all of them, with an impressive scoring average of 70.96 in 28 rounds.

In 2005, Pressel won the North and South Women's Amateur at Pinehurst, and the most important amateur event, the U.S. Women's Amateur. Pressel also finished her amateur career as 2005 Girls American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) Junior Player of the Year.

During her amateur career, she won 11 AJGA titles, including all five AJGA Invitationals: the "AJGA Slam".

• 2002 round of 16, U.S. Girls' Junior
• 2002 Junior Solheim Cup Team
• 2004 quarterfinalist, U.S. Women's Amateur
• 2004 quarterfinalist, round of 16, U.S. Girls' Junior
• 2004 Won – North and South Women's Amateur
• 2005 Won – U.S. Women's Amateur
• 2005 2nd place – North and South Amateur
• 2005 Girls AJGA Junior Player of the Year
• 2005 round of 16, U.S. Girls' Junior
• 2005 Junior Solheim Cup Team

Professional career

Pressel at the 2008 LPGA Championship

Pressel finished sixth in the first stage of the LPGA Qualifying Tournament in September 2005 and advanced to the final stage in December. She turned professional in November, after appealing to the LPGA to become a member as a 17-year-old. LPGA rules state that members must be 18 years old. At the five-round Final Qualifying Tournament in Daytona Beach, she finished tied for sixth to earn her tour card for 2006. She played part-time on the tour until her high school graduation in May 2006.

Pressel earned her first victory in 2007 at the Kraft Nabisco Championship and became the youngest-ever winner of a modern LPGA major at &1000000000000001800000018 years, &10000000000000313000000313 days. On her flight home to Florida after her win, Pressel had her golf clubs stolen.

Pressel made her first hole-in-one as a professional golfer on July 15, 2007, at the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Ohio. It was a 152-yard (139 m) par 3 – hole 6 for the tournament. It was not enough to win, though; Se Ri Pak won the event for the fifth time.

Pressel qualified for the 2007,2009,and 2011 Solheim Cup teams; earning a spot on the 2007 team in her second full-year on the LPGA Tour as a 19-year-old. Through 2011, she is undefeated (3-0-0) in Solheim Cup singles play.

She is represented by Wasserman Media Group and has endorsement deals with Callaway Golf, Polo Ralph Lauren, Royal Bank of Canada, and Audemars Piguet.

Professional wins (4)

LPGA Tour (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up	Winner's share ($)
1	Apr 1, 2007	Kraft Nabisco Championship	74–72–70–69=285	-3	1 stroke	Catriona Matthew Brittany Lincicome Suzann Pettersen	300,000
2	Oct 19, 2008	Kapalua LPGA Classic	72–72–67–69=280	-8	1 stroke	Suzann Pettersen	225,000

LPGA Tour playoff record (0–1)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	2009	Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic	Eunjung Yi	Lost to birdie on first extra hole

LPGA majors are shown in bold.

LPGA of Japan Tour wins (1)

• 2010 (1) World Ladies Championship Salonpas Cup

Other wins (1)

• 2007 (1) Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge (with Natalie Gulbis and Cristie Kerr), unofficial event

Major championships

Wins (1)

No.	Year	Championship	Winning Score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	2007	Kraft Nabisco Championship	−3 (74–72–70–69=285)	1 stroke	Brittany Lincicome, Catriona Matthew, Suzann Pettersen

Results timeline

Tournament	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Kraft Nabisco Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	T19	T13	1	T38	T40
LPGA Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	69	14	T6	CUT
U.S. Women's Open	CUT	DNP	52	DNP	T2 TLA	T28	T10	T17	T13
Women's British Open	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	T56	CUT	CUT	T42

Tournament	2010	2011
Kraft Nabisco Championship	T19	T3
LPGA Championship	T7	2
U.S. Women's Open	T34	T21
Women's British Open	8	T49

LA = Low Amateur
DNP = did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

LPGA Tour career summary

Year	Tournaments played	Cuts made	Wins	2nd	3rd	Top 10s	Best finish	Earnings ($)	Money list rank	Scoring average	Scoring rank
2001	1	0	0	0	0	0	CUT	n/a		77.00
2003	1	1	0	0	0	0	52	n/a		76.00
2005	7	7	0	1	0	2	T2	n/a		70.96
2006	23	21	0	0	1	9	3	465,685	24	71.51	20
2007	25	23	1	1	3	8	1	972,452	9	71.34	6
2008	26	21	1	1	0	5	1	711,261	24	72.04	42
2009	24	21	0	2	0	3	5	630,313	22	71.38	29
2010	23	22	0	1	0	7	T2	767,455	13	71.05	11
2011	22	20	0	1	1	7	2	845,466	13	71.34	14

• official as of November 20, 2011

Team appearances

Amateur

• Junior Solheim Cup (representing the United States): 2002 (winners) and 2005 (winners)

Professional

• Solheim Cup (representing the United States): 2007 (winners), 2009 (winners), 2011

Solheim Cup record

Year	Total Matches	Total W-L-H	Singles W-L-H	Foursomes W-L-H	Fourballs W-L-H	Points Won	Points %
Career	11	7–2–2	3–0–0	2–1–0	2–1–2	8.0	72.7
2007	4	1–2–1	1–0–0 def. A. Sörenstam 2&1	0–1–0 lost w/ N. Gulbis 3&2	0–1–1 halved w/ P. Creamer, lost w/ C. Kerr 3&2	1.5	37.5
2009	3	2–0–1	1–0–0 def. A. Nordqvist 3&2	1–0–0 won w/ K. McPherson 2 up	0–0–1 halved w/ M. Wie	2.5	83.3
2011	4	4–0–0	1–0–0 def. A. Nordqvist 2&1	1–0–0 won w/ R. O'Toole 3&2	2–0–0 won w/ P. Creamer 1 up, won w/ C. Kerr 1 up	4.0	100.

See also

• List of Jewish golfers

External links

• Morgan Pressel at the LPGA Tour official site
• Morgan's Yahoo Group
• Newslib.com feed of articles about Morgan Pressel
• MorganPressel.org
• Swing Sequence
• South Florida Sun-Sentinel - photo gallery: Morgan Pressel through the years