“I am really proud to be associated with Callaway Golf,” said Pressel, 17, who had a number of Callaway clubs in her bag prior to turning professional and signing with IMG on November 17. “I truly believe Callaway Golf is the best golf equipment company to help me become a better golfer and reach my goal of becoming No. 1 in the world. To be on the same team with Annika Sorenstam, the best player in the world, is a great thrill, and I know she would never settle for anything that wasn’t the best. Callaway is synonymous with breakthrough technology in golf clubs and golf balls, and they have the best reputation for service on the tours. I look forward to a great partnership for a long time.”

During her final year as an amateur, Pressel excelled in competition against the LPGA Tour pros. She came within a miracle shot of winning the U.S. Women’s Open at Cherry Hills Country Club in June, eventually tying for second place after Birdie Kim holed a nearly impossible bunker shot at the 72nd hole. She made the cut in all seven of her LPGA Tour appearances, with two top-five finishes, none lower than 25th, including a 19th place finish at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, also an LPGA Tour major. Had she been a professional, she would have earned more than $400,000 and placed 32nd on the LPGA money list.

As the No. 1 ranked woman amateur in 2005, Pressel put the finishing touches on an amateur career record that ranks among the best in recent history. At age 9 she broke 80, at age 11 she broke 70. A year later in 2001 she stunned the golf world when she became, at 12, the youngest player ever to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open. Last year, she completed the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) Slam by winning the McDonald’s Betsy Rawls Girls Championship, the Rolex Girls Championship, the Thunderbird International Junior, the Polo Golf Junior Classic and the Rolex Tournament of Champions. With 11 AJGA titles since 2004, Pressel tied for sixth with fellow teenage professional Paula Creamer, 19, on the AJGA career victory list.

Last summer she won the U.S. Amateur and also led the U.S. team to victory in the junior Solheim Cup, a team she had also made in 2002. She played on the winning Canon Cup in 2004 and has been named a Rolex Junior All-American five times, including first team selections in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Her amateur career officially ended last month when she won her third straight Florida State High School 1A title. Pressel’s latest big step forward came with her successful performance at LPGA Qualifying School in Daytona Beach. She easily obtained playing privileges for the 2006 season by tying for sixth in the grueling five-round Q School finals, shooting 66-75-75-71-70 — 357 for a 3-under-par total.

“We are thrilled to have Morgan join the Callaway Golf family,” said George Fellows, President and CEO of Callaway Golf. “Not only is she a tremendous golfer with impeccable credentials and a great amateur record, she has a youthful exuberance and style that will resonate with the many women who play Callaway Golf products and the many others who aspire to do so. As a Company, we have always been in the forefront of partnering with women professionals and in promoting golf for all women. We are fortunate to have a long-term relationship with the greatest woman player in history, Annika Sorenstam, and we believe Morgan is precisely the type of young player to be a part of our great tradition. She is a very special young woman.”

A resident of Boca Raton, Florida, Pressel is an honors student at St. Andrews School and will graduate on May 20th next year, three days before her 18th birthday.

Source – CCNMatthews.com

Votaw said Laupheimer had been suffering from cancer and slipped into a coma a few weeks ago.

“He took great pride in being commissioner of the LPGA Tour, and great pride in whoever held the position, as being somewhat of a club in which only you knew what was involved,” Votaw said.

Laupheimer was a former president of the Pennsylvania Golf Association and executive director of administration at the U.S. Golf Association before taking over the LPGA Tour in 1982, replacing Ray Volpe. During his six years as commissioner, prize money nearly doubled from $6.4 million to $12.5 million.

He was honored last year by the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association with its Distinguished Service Award.

“He was a really decent man, a gentleman, not demonstrative, not in any way ego-driven,” former LPGA Tour commissioner Charlie Mechem said. “I’d like to think each one of us advanced the cause a bit, depending on what we had to go with. And John certainly moved the LPGA forward. He will be remembered fondly.”

Laupheimer left the LPGA Tour to join IMG as an international vice president, and remained active with the USGA. Votaw said he last saw him in August at the Women’s British Open at Royak Birkdale.
“He looked as if he was in the middle of a tough battle,” Votaw said.

Funeral arrangements were not immediately available.

Source – NWSource.com

Former commissioner Ty Votaw rejected Pressel’s petition in June that she be allowed to join the LPGA Tour, if she qualifies, before turning 18. A week later, Pressel was runner-up at the U.S. Women’s Open after Birdie Kim holed an improbable bunker shot on the final hole.

Pressel went on to dominate the field in winning the U.S. Women’s Amateur. She made the cut in all seven LPGA events she played last year, and easily earned her card at LPGA Tour qualifying school two weeks ago.

She asked the LPGA to reconsider the day after Q-school.

“Morgan is an exceptionally talented young player who will be a terrific addition to the 2006 LPGA Tour,” commissioner Carolyn Bivens said. “She presents a unique combination of academic and golf achievements, and I am impressed with Morgan’s abilities.”

Bivens said Pressel, who will graduate in May, has shown in the last six months that she could perform on the course and take on the rigors of travel and competing throughout the year. She also said the tour received numerous letters supporting Pressel.

Krickstein said among those who sent unsolicited letters were the executive director of the American Junior Golf Association and the headmaster of St. Andrews School.

Pressel becomes the second teenager to receive an exemption from the LPGA’s age limit. Votaw allow Aree Song to join at age 17 two years ago, although she had already graduated high school.

Michelle Wie, 16, a junior in high school, is not expected to join the LPGA Tour until she turns 18.

Pressel said in a statement she was thrilled with the decision.

“I can’t wait for the season to start, to be able to fully compete and be a part of the rookie race,” Pressel said, noting that she would have lost three months accruing points toward rookie of the year.

Pressel likely won’t play more than a half-dozen times before she graduates because of demands at school, although Krickstein said she might start the season in Hawaii at the SBS Open because “that’s not a bad place to be.”

She already has received a sponsor’s exemption to the Safeway International in Arizona.

Source – Fox Sports

McGee is an agent for International Golf Partners, and the son of former PGA Tour player Jerry McGee. Sorenstam said they have known each other for about six years from parties and LPGA Tour functions.

“But it wasn’t until last winter that we reconnected so that our friendship grew strong and, well, now this is what came out of it,” she said.

Sorenstam said her divorce from David Esch was final on Aug. 22. McGee followed her matches at Solheim Cup. He also was at the ADT Championship, escorting her to the LPGA awards banquet at Mar-a-Lago.

She said it was a matter of time before people noticed they were together.

“I think what we have is great, but it hasn’t been anything I have wanted the whole world to know about,” she told the newspaper. “I am still struggling to move on. You can’t get over a divorce in just a few months. But being with Mike makes it a little easier. He helps me move on.”

Source – PGA.com

The Accordia Golf Ladies and the Kinmirai Tsushin Queens Open, two of the three new tournaments, will be held in March following the season-opening Daikin Orchid Ladies scheduled for March 3-5 in Okinawa. The third addition, the Philanthropy LPGA Players Championship, will be played in July.

Seven tournaments will offer 100 million yen or more in prize money, compared with three this year, with significant increases of 40 million yen in the Salonpas World Ladies and 30 million yen in the Japan LPGA Championship Konica Minolta Cup.

The Japan LPGA circuit has enjoyed an upsurge in popularity in recent years with the rise of young talent, most notably Ai Miyazato — an affable 20-year-old who won five tournaments in her first full year on the tour and added six this year.

Miyazato also grabbed attention overseas by winning the inaugural Women’s World Cup of Golf in South Africa in February and earning a U.S. LPGA tour card with her record-setting victory at the qualifying tournament earlier this month.

Miyazato will shift her playing base to the United States next year and is expected to make limited appearances in Japan.

“It’s all on the shoulders of the other players. I believe the fans will continue to pay attention to our tour if they play well and make tournaments interesting,” Japan LPGA chief Hisako Higuchi said.

Source – Japan Times – Japan

Miyazato won the award, which was inaugurated by the Japan LPGA in 2004 to honor outstanding performances by tour members, for the second straight year while Kitada was selected for the first time.

Source – Japan Today

Morgan Pressel, the feisty and supremely skilled 17-year-old from Florida, also earned her LPGA card for 2006, though her official playing status spins in doubt until she turns 18 in May. Pressel will join a wave of fresh and charismatic talent, alongside Paula Creamer, Wie and Miyazato.

All the while, another piece of news showed the LPGA still lacks clout on the crowded sports landscape. The Kraft Nabisco Championship, one of the tour’s majors, moved from ABC to CBS — and sacrificed one day of network coverage on the weekend.

This is a rising sport?

The Nabisco’s shift came in the wake of its move from the last weekend in March to the first weekend in April. The tournament was trying to escape the sizable shadow of the PGA Tour’s Players Championship and the NCAA basketball regional finals.

But the move also prompted the Nabisco to part ways with ABC, which has scheduling conflicts on April 1-2 (including the NBA). CBS televises the Final Four semifinals on Saturday and will carry only Sunday’s final round of the Nabisco.

“We would have loved both days (of network coverage), but it just didn’t work out with CBS,” tournament director Terry Wilcox said. “There were so many other things favorable with moving to CBS. This is still a good plan.”

Wilcox hopes to benefit from his new spot on the calendar, wedged between the Final Four semifinals Saturday and the championship game Monday. Also, CBS will televise the Nabisco for three hours Sunday, one more than ABC did. ESPN2 will handle the first three rounds.

This slice of television reality — the LPGA attracts modest audiences and thus wields little power — increases pressure on new commissioner Carolyn Bivens to let Pressel, and eventually Wie, become full-fledged LPGA members before they turn 18. That’s the current age minimum, though Bivens may make exceptions.

AT&T chatter: Less than two months remain before another AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (Feb. 6-12). And like any PGA Tour event on the horizon, we must pose one succinct question while peering ahead.

Tiger?

No, it appears Tiger Woods will skip the AT&T for the fourth consecutive year. Tournament director Ollie Nutt recently spoke to Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, and Steinberg said Woods plans to play in the Dubai Desert Classic the week before the AT&T. Also, Woods said during a news conference last week that the grand opening of the Tiger Woods Learning Center in Anaheim is scheduled Feb. 10 — the same day as the second round of the AT&T.

In other words, he’s not coming to the Monterey Peninsula.

Woods played in the AT&T in each of his first six full seasons as a pro (1997-2002). Then, apparently disenchanted with the sketchy weather, long rounds and bumpy greens, he shifted gears. The PGA Tour schedule does not help, because the Nissan Open (where Woods got his first exemption) and Match Play Championship (an elite-field event) follow the AT&T.

Given the trip to Dubai, where Woods earns a hefty appearance fee, returning to the AT&T would mean playing four consecutive weeks — something he typically avoids.

Woods’ absence last year did not prevent the AT&T from attracting a record crowd of 151,000 for the week, according to Nutt. Phil Mickelson is expected to defend his title in February, and Vijay Singh and Davis Love III are among other big names likely to return. Jason Gore also probably will play.

Tour-bound: Last week’s anxiety-filled Q-school ended happily for Jessica Reese-Quayle, a 24-year-old pro from Santa Rosa.

Reese-Quayle’s rookie season of 2004 (she was then known as Jessica Reese) was cut short by wrist injuries. Her slow recovery stretched into 2005, when she made the cut in only one of the seven events she entered.

But Reese-Quayle strung together five solid rounds in Daytona Beach, Fla. She tied for 16th at 2-over par and became one of 24 players there to earn her LPGA card.

City reminder: The application deadline is Dec. 21 for the San Francisco City Golf Championships, the local amateur event steeped in history. Past winners include Ken Venturi, George Archer and Juli Inkster.

The tournament will begin on Feb. 3 and run five consecutive weekends before concluding on March 5. Entry forms are available at Harding Park and Lincoln Park golf courses, and also at SFGate.com

Creamer, 19, the LPGA Rookie of the Year, was incensed by Sorenstam’s decision to take a drop from a hazard on the opening day of last month’s $1 million LPGA Tour Championship in West Palm Beach, Florida. The Swede went on to claim victory. Sorenstam appeared to make a peace offering to Creamer when she announced the duo were pairing up for an assault on the inaugural ladies match-play championship in Singapore, which tees off Friday. “I like Paula a lot. I think for me to get a chance to play with her will be a lot of fun,” Sorenstam said at a press conference ahead of the Lexus Cup, where she captains an international line-up against an all-star Asian team.

The duo find themselves in an intriguing battle against South Koreans Jeong Jang and Meena Lee on the opening day of the three-day tournament, with both sets of players their sides’ respective top money leaders on the tour. “We want to come out strong. I think when you get number one and number two on it’s putting a statement so I’m looking forward to it,” Sorenstam, 35, said.

Source – Daily Times Pakistan

It’s the vastness of the US LPGA Tour which the 20-year-old from Okinawa must encounter after she scored a record-breaking 12-shot victory in the final qualifying tournament for the 2006 season. “I am somewhat worried about the vast area I will have to cover in moving from one tournament to another,” Miyazato told reporters Thursday as she returned home from a triumphant weekend at Daytona Beach in Florida. “It might take me some time to get used to it,” she said in a room packed with some 60 reporters, photographers and TV crew members at Narita airport. “I think that is just about it.” It takes five hours to fly the width of North America and the US women’s tour has expanded to Hawaii, Mexico, Britain and the Far East including Japan, requiring players to adjust quickly to different climates and environments.

Asked about her goal in the rookie year, the ever-smiling 154-centimeter (five-foot-one) Miyazato simply said, “Firstly, I want to be seeded. Then, if I have a chance, I will go out to win.” Her confidence is derived from her bitter-sweet taste of world golf, apart from her brilliance at home as the number-two prize earner for the second straight year since her pro debut as a teenager. She has won 11 domestic tournaments so far, helping revive public interest in women’s golf in Japan. Miyazato failed to make the cut in the women’s British Open last year but won the inaugural World Cup in South Africa at the start of this year, making up for her senior teammate’s blunder.

But her US tour debut this year was low-key with a 44th tie in the Kraft Nabisco in March. She missed the cut by one stroke in the LPGA Championship in June. According to pundits, she has since learned a varity of approach shots to tame different courses and managed to keep her composure in any situation. “I could control my emotion well in each round. The flow of play was good through the five days and it was very impressive,” Miyazato said as she recalled the 90-hole qualifying tournament. She led the “Q-School” event on tough Florida grass to finish at a record 17-under-par 343, 11 strokes ahead of Libby Smith and Lee Ann Walker-Cooper in second spot. Miyazato and 36 others won tentative LPGA rookie cards.

Source – Daily Times Pakistan

Hoagland, who graduated in May, fired rounds of 74-72-71-75-76 for a total of 368, eight-over par. The 140 player field was cut to the low 70 scores and ties after 72 holes. The remaining players played the final 18 holes to determine their status. The top 24 players earned exempt status, while the next 35 earned non-exempt status.

Source – CollegeSports.com