At age 21 Morgan Pressel has become a very familiar face among successful Americans on the LPGA. Although she is young, she is anything but inexperienced. A much accomplished junior competitor, Pressel splashed onto the scene in 2001 as the youngest player to qualify for the US Open at the age of 12! At the 2005 US Open at Cherry Hills, as a 17 year old ametuer, she made even more of an impact as a co-leader going ino the final round. But that afternoon she stood in the 18th fairway stunned to watch Birdie Kim chip in out of the bunker to dash her hopes of winning a major as an ametuer.
After that season she turned pro at age 17 and only two years later realized her major dream by taking the plunge into the winner’s circle at the 2007 Kraft Nabisco. This title dubbed her as the youngest player to win a major at just under 19 years of age. Since then she has only one other tournament win (2008 Kapalua), but has a bundle of top 10 finishes.
With her petite frame, Pressel is widely known as one of the shorter hitters on Tour, but more than makes up for it with her pinpoint accuracy and excellent short game. She was a very impactful contributor on the 2009 US Solheim Cup team going 2-0-1 in her three matches. Like most people, I expect a better season performance wise out of Pressel in 2010 than a season ago. She has too much talent not to rack up at least one win, and don’t be surprised if a US Open championship is in her future because of her high fairways and greens percentage.
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