Morgan Pressel’s competitive career on the LPGA might be over, but her impact in the game and beyond continues to flourish. The 35-year-old major champion turned lead analyst for Golf Channel’s LPGA coverage raised $900,000 this week at her annual Morgan & Friends charity event.
The event, held annually at St. Andrews Country Club in Boca Raton and Banyan Golf Club in nearby West Palm Beach, Florida, has raised a total of $12.5 million over the years in the fight against breast cancer. Pressel’s mother Kathy died of breast cancer in 2003, and her memory is at the heart of the mission.
Golfweek caught up with the former phenom to talk about her foundation, the friends who step up every year to help and the 2024 LPGA season, which gets started next week with the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions:
Golfweek: Another massively successful Morgan & Friends campaign. Who did you honor this year, and what's on the horizon for the foundation?
Morgan Pressel: Our honoree this year was Lynn Brading. She’s a two-time breast cancer survivor. Actually, I met her through my partnership with Perficient, and she is a national board member for an organization called Pink Ribbon Good. She’s just really a warrior in the fight against breast cancer, and just like the spirit that my mom would have embodied had she survived.
And what’s on the horizon for us? Our biggest upcoming project is putting a second (mammogram) van on the streets down here in South Florida. So that’s really our big push and our big fundraising mission at the moment is to get that out.
Do you know how many people visited the MammoVan in 2023?
I know, in its lifetime, about 18,000 is the number of mammograms and detected 60 cancers.
Are many of those first-timers for getting a mammogram?
I think it’s a mix. I think there are some people who rely on it year in and year out to come to their area, their business, or their place of work. So I think it’s a combination. I think there certainly are, I don’t know the exact number of people whose first mammograms there are, but the school districts in our area are some of our biggest clients … teachers really depending on the accessibility of the van in order to get their yearly mammograms and things like that. … You know, women don’t take care of themselves, really, they take care of everybody else before they take care of themselves. So whatever we can do to make it easier for them and not give them any kind of an excuse to not stay on top of their health.
I noticed Lexi (Thompson) was there again. How long has Lexi been involved?
Oh gosh, I have to look back at pictures, but I mean for years and years and years. She has been a huge supporter of our events and always comes and clears her schedule without hesitation, and I’m so grateful for her. Everyone is always so excited to see Lexi. Brittany (Lincicome) has been probably almost every year. Brooke Henderson, as well has been many, many, many times. And they’re just so generous with their time.
Staying on that on the Lexi topic, what do you expect from her in 2024, given what a great fourth quarter she had last year?
I’m certainly excited for Lexi. I think she’s in a really good place with her game as we saw. You know, I got to see it up close at the Solheim Cup. And I think the rest of the world got to see it, whether it was taking on the guys in Vegas, or challenging at Pelican. And, you know, it’s fun to watch her, as always, at Grant Thornton as well.
I don’t know, she just seems to have found something in her golf swing. I mean, if you look at her stats, certainly her ball-striking was not as strong this past year as it typically is. I mean, she’s almost always near the top if not the best iron player on tour, statistically, and you know, that that wasn’t the case last year.
That was caused by a little bit of poor driving, you know, getting yourself out of position off the tee. That just put a lot of pressure on other parts of her game, and it’s when I was watching her at Solheim in person that she just looked really smooth. And she looks just so much more confident. It’s a tough sport when you don’t feel like you can get off the tee as well as you would like. Especially when that’s always been such a strength and then you start to steer, and I didn’t see that at all. I didn’t see any steering in that fourth quarter last year, which was great.
Let's talk about the No. 1 player in the world for a minute. What impresses you the most about Lilia Vu?
Her grit. There’s no question. She has this inner fight and this feistiness that, maybe even people watching don’t really get to see, but I’ve seen it quite a bit and in different conversations that I’ve had with her and things like that.
I mean, think back … what was it in 2019 she lost her card, made one cut and went back to the Epson Tour? I mean, think about that. It’s truly impressive just to make it back to the LPGA tour, let alone win two majors, No. 1 in the world, of course win two other events this year, Player of the Year, just so many incredible accomplishments of the season, but not without her fair share of struggles.
Who is the most underrated player on tour? Who are we not talking about enough?
I feel like, if it’s possible for somebody who’s No. 2 in the world to be underrated, I think she’s (Ruoning Yin) underrated.
I love her golf swing. I think she’s a phenomenal ball-striker. I mean, when she hits 36 greens on her way to a major championship this year, that’s pretty crazy. And I get that they are relatively big greens at Baltusrol, but still a very impressive accomplishment.
But I think similar to Lilia, she’s got that hunger, that kind of youthful confidence and swagger. I think she’s a lot of fun to watch.
A lot of attention will go to the Old Course this year. Tell me about your first trip around the Old Course.
My first time around the Old Course (in 2007) was not great. It was not great. It was my, well, it wasn’t my first, it was my second links golf experience. And I didn’t have a lot of appreciation for links golf at that point in my career.
It was much much better the second time around. I learned that playing links golf is very different than playing in Florida, or anywhere else really in the world. It really it took me quite a few years of disliking links golf to understand and appreciate how to play it and really fall in love with it. It took me a while.
What will it take for the USA to win the Solheim Cup again?
What will it take? I mean, we tied last time. It was an away match. You know, it’s gonna take 14 and a half points.
I think we played really well last time. I mean, I watched some incredible golf. And, you know, it can be just a little bit of a momentum swinging one way or the other. Certainly having the home crowd advantage at RTJ (Robert Trent Jones Golf Club) will be wonderful. Again, it’s gonna take 14 and a half.
