Morgan Pressel: Record Holder

Filed in archive Golf News on April 2, 2007

Courtesy: Canoe.ca

Records are set and records are broken.

Morgan Pressel, as everyone knows today, has become the youngest women's player to win a major on the LPGA Tour and the youngest player in modern times.

Her victory on Sunday at the kraft Nabisco, one of the LPGA's major tournaments, is an astonishing accomplishment for someone who is just 18 years of age.

Whether she knew it or not, she had broken a record that was one year short of 4 decades long.

In 1968, Canadian golfer, Sandra Post won the LPGA championship just three weeks after turning 20. She was in her rookie season. Until Sunday, Sandra was the youngest modern golfer on any tour to win a major.

Pressel played five tournaments in 2005 and a full season in '06. She was no rookie.

But there were signs of her greatness on the tour two years ago when she finished tied for second in the Women's US Open.

When Sandra Post captured her major in 1968, she had to face a daunting task. In the final round at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Sutton, Mass., she walked off 18 tied with Kathy Whitworth, the defending LPGA champion that year. Whitworth would record 81 tournament victories on the LPGA - the most wins of any golfer anywhere, male or female.

The following day, the two players, raw rookie and tournament-hardened veteran star, went head to head in a playoff. And they both played superb golf but Sandra won the playoff by seven shots.

This past Sunday, Morgan Pressel had started her final round at even par, four shots behind Norway's Suzann Pettersen.
She finished at 3 under for the tournament. Pettersen struggled with two bogies on the front nine and then a Jean Van de Velde-like collapse on the last four holes, going bogey, double bogey, bogey, par.

Pressel watched from the clubhouse as she backed into the win.

Nothing takes away from a victory in a major.

Pressel deserved her win. She did not falter in the stretch. She has shown tremendous resilience, maturity, poise and talent. No question.

Yes, records are set and records are broken. But how often are they set and broken in such different manners?