Morgan Pressel’s spectacular year continued Thursday with her victory at the McDonald’s Betsy Rawls Girls Championship . The victory means that Morgan Pressel has completed the “career AJGA slam” by winning all five AJGA invitationals in which she has been eligible to compete.
Only one other player – boy or girl – has achieved this feat in the Association’s 27-year history: Kellee Booth in the early 90s. Back then, however, the AJGA staged only four invitationals in which she could compete (the Thunderbird International Junior did not begin until 2000). Grace Park and Beth Bauer came close in the 90s, winning all but the Rolex Girls Junior Championship.
Even more impressive is the rapid pace at which Pressel claimed these five titles, taking slightly more than a year to do it. Her first invitational win came at the Rolex Tournament of Champions July 9, 2004. She then won the Polo Golf Junior Classic (Nov. 26, 2004), Thunderbird International Junior (May 30, 2005), Rolex Girls Junior Championship (June 17, 2005), and finally the McDonald’s Betsy Rawls Girls Championship Thursday. Add to this distinction that she was a member of victorious teams at the PING Junior Solheim Cup (2002) and Canon Cup (2004), and there is little doubt that Pressel is one of the all-time great junior golfers.
She has won 11 AJGA titles in her career, placing her tied for sixth with Paula Creamer in the AJGA record book, behind Kellee Booth (18), Grace Park (18), Leigh Anne Hardin (18), Beth Bauer (17) and Vicki Goetze-Ackerman (15). Along the way, she has been named a Rolex Junior All-American four times, including a first-team selection in 2003 and 2004.
Mixed in among all her victories, of course, is her runner-up finish at this year’s U.S. Women’s Open. Next up on Morgan’s AJGA schedule: the PING Junior Solheim Cup in September.