Morgan Pressel

Morgan Pressel
Pressel in May 2013
Personal information
Full name	Morgan Lee Pressel
Born	(1988-05-23) May 23, 1988 (age 36) Tampa, Florida, U.S.
Height	5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)
Sporting nationality	United States
Residence	Boca Raton, Florida, U.S.
Spouse	Andrew Bush (m. 2013)
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)
Chevron Championship	Won: 2007
Women's PGA C'ship	2nd: 2011
U.S. Women's Open	T2: 2005
Women's British Open	T4/4th: 2013, 2019
Evian Championship	T11: 2015
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 and golf commentator who played on the LPGA Tour. In 2001, as a 12-year-old, she became the youngest player to qualify for the U.S. Women's Open. She was the 2005 American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) Player of the Year, and won the 2006 AJGA Nancy Lopez Award. She turned pro at age 17, and is the youngest-ever winner of a modern LPGA major championship, when at age 18 she won the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship (now known as the Chevron Championship) and vaulted to a career-high fourth in the world rankings.^[1] In early March 2021, she announced she had joined the Golf Channel and NBC Sports to be an analyst and on-course reporter in the 2021 season, while continuing to compete.^[2]

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.^[3] She has stated that her Jewish faith plays a large role in her life.^{[4][citation needed]}

Following her mother's death from breast cancer in September 2003, 15-year-old Pressel moved in with her maternal grandparents, Evelyn and Herb Krickstein, at St. Andrews Country Club in Boca Raton, Florida. Her two younger siblings stayed with their father. Her grandfather, a retired physician and pathologist, is also her coach. The Kricksteins' son and Pressel's uncle is former professional tennis player Aaron Krickstein.^[5]

Pressel's younger sister Madison played collegiate golf for the University of Texas^[6] and won on the Symetra Tour in 2014.

In January 2013, Pressel married Andy Bush, a senior vice president at Octagon Global Events. The two met at a pro-am event in 2007.^[7][8]

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 Lexi Thompson beat the record by several months.

At the age of 17, she was one of three co-leaders starting the final round of the 2005 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 a scoring average of 70.96 in 28 rounds.^[9]

In 2005, Pressel lost to Yani Tseng at 39th hole during the North and South Women's Amateur at Pinehurst, but won the most important amateur event, the U.S. Women's Amateur. Pressel also finished her amateur career as 2005 Girls Rolex Junior Player of the Year.

During her amateur career, she won 10 AJGA titles, including all five AJGA Invitationals: the "AJGA Slam".^[10]

Pressel finished sixth in the first stage of the LPGA Qualifying Tournament in September 2005 and advanced to the final stage in December.^[11] 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.^[3] At the five-round Final Qualifying Tournament in Daytona Beach, she finished tied for sixth to earn her tour card for 2006.^[12] 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 18 years, 313 days,^[13] a record that would stand until Lydia Ko won the 2015 Evian Championship at the age of 18 years, 4 months and 20 days. On her flight home to Florida after her win, Pressel had her golf clubs stolen.^[14] The win moved her from 17th in the world rankings to fourth.^[1]

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 148-yard (135 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.^[15]

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 was undefeated (3–0–0) in Solheim Cup singles play.

In the 2012 Sybase Match Play Championship, Pressel was in contention for her third LPGA Tour victory in the semi-finals when she was 2 up after 11 holes to opponent Azahara Muñoz. Pressel won the 12th hole but a slow play penalty resulted in the loss of the hole instead. She would lose the match and Muñoz went on to win the tournament.^[16]

On April 26, 2015, Pressel came in second at the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic in San Francisco. She and Lydia Ko finished at 8-under-par 280 with Ko making a birdie on the par-5 closing hole while Pressel missed a birdie effort to end the tournament. Ko won on the second playoff hole. Pressel's last victory was in 2008 at the Kapalua LPGA Classic.^[17]

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

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	Brittany Lincicome Catriona Matthew 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 (0–2)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent	Result
1	2009	Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic	Eunjung Yi	Lost to birdie on first extra hole
2	2015	Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic	Lydia Ko	Lost to birdie on second extra hole

• 2010 (1) World Ladies Championship Salonpas Cup

• 2012 (1) CVS Caremark Charity Classic (with Jay Haas), unofficial event

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

Results not in chronological order before 2019.

^ The Evian Championship was added as a major in 2013

LA = Low amateur
CUT = missed the half-way cut
WD = withdrew
NT = no tournament
T = tied

• Most consecutive cuts made – 12 (2009 U.S. Open – 2012 LPGA)
• Longest streak of top-10s – 3 (2015 ANA – 2015 U.S. Open)

^ Official through 2021 season.^[18][19][20]
*Includes matchplay and other tournaments without a cut.

Position in Women's World Golf Rankings at the end of each calendar year.

Pressel's career-high in the world rankings is fourth, in the spring of 2007.^[1]

Amateur

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

Professional

• Solheim Cup (representing the United States): 2007 (winners), 2009 (winners), 2011, 2013, 2015 (winners), 2019
• Lexus Cup (representing International team): 2006, 2007

• List of Jewish golfers

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Morgan Pressel.

• Morgan Pressel at the LPGA Tour official site
• Morgan Pressel at the Women's World Golf Rankings 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
• Morgan P Foundation on Twitter