Professional Career
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 700118000000000000018 years, 7002313000000000000313 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.
In the 2012 Sybase Match Play Championship, Pressel was in contention for her third LPGA Tour victory in the semi-finals when she was 2up 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 would go on to win the tournament.
She is represented by Wasserman Media Group and has endorsement deals with Callaway Golf, Polo Ralph Lauren, Royal Bank of Canada, and Audemars Piguet.
Read more about this topic: Morgan Pressel
Famous quotes containing the words professional and/or career:
“Never be intimidated when you deal with men. Curse, don’t cry.”
—Anonymous, U.S. professional woman. As quoted in Aspirations and Mentoring in an Academic Environment, ch. 4, by Mary Niles Maack and Joanne Passet (1994)
“I doubt that I would have taken so many leaps in my own writing or been as clear about my feminist and political commitments if I had not been anointed as early as I was. Some major form of recognition seems to have to mark a woman’s career for her to be able to go out on a limb without having her credentials questioned.”
—Ruth Behar (b. 1956)