“(Lexi) has been a huge supporter of our events and always comes and clears her schedule without hesitation.”
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:
What does this grande dame of the stick and ba’ game make of the current state of pro golf?
The swingin’ 60s? Well, maybe not quite.
“I’m not enjoying playing at all,” sighed Dame Laura Davies with a self-deprecating chuckle as she mulled over the state of her game at 60-years-young.
The 2024 AIG Women’s Open at St. Andrews could provide a wonderful swansong for this decorated, celebrated champion but Davies herself won’t allow sentiment, and the prospect of a dewy-eyed, visor-doffing last hurrah over the Swilcan Bridge, to cloud her judgement.
“Next year will be the final one of my exemption, but at the moment I don’t think I can tee up,” reflected Davies, who was the guest of honour at the PGA in Scotland’s annual glass-clinking luncheon in Glasgow on Wednesday.
“I’m playing in a few senior events before then and if I show any signs of encouragement at all then I might play. But I don’t want to take someone’s spot. It would be lovely to walk over the bridge on the 18th but not at 35-over-par. It won’t be as much fun.”
About those who left for LIV
It’s all fun and games, meanwhile, in the wider world of golf at the moment. Jon Rahm’s colossal deal with LIV Golf – yes, you can roll your eyes again – has had the kind of earth-shattering impact you’d get with a nuclear weapons test.
So, what does this grande dame of the stick and ba’ game make of the current situation?
“It just goes to show that everyone has their price,” she said. “The trouble is for these players going to LIV is that there are guys going to fill their boots who are very good players. We’ve already got Ludvig Aberg coming through, another superstar in the making.
“And look at Cam Smith? Would anyone actually know how he is doing with LIV and that he was the Open champion before he went? Nobody really knows how he plays any more.
“Don’t get me wrong. If anyone offered me that kind of money, I’d be there. I’m not criticizing them, but they are easily replaced. Maybe people won’t think about Jon Rahm eventually?”
As for Davies actually sitting down and watching any of LIV Golf’s 54-hole product? She’d probably be more interested in gazing at a bucket of soot.
“I’m not interested in the three rounds or the shotgun start,” she added. “As a sports fan, I like 72-hole championship golf where you finish on the 18th, not the fifth. LIV is not for me.”
Davies was making hay in a different financial era.
Laura Davies and John Daly at the 1998 JC Penney Classic in Westin Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida. (Photo: Vincent Laforet/Allsport)
“My biggest check was $240,000 and that was at the JC Penney event with John Daly in 1999,” she reflected. “I think most of my checks on the LPGA were between $60,000 and $90,000 for winning. In the women’s game especially, it has all changed for the better and good luck to them. I’m not envious of these girls one bit as I love to see it.”
With 87 worldwide wins, including four majors, Davies has such a haul of silverware, her mantelpiece is probably the size of the Hoover Dam.
In the team environment, meanwhile, the Solheim Cup would always stir the senses.
“1992 at Dalmahoy is probably my best memory in Scotland,” she said of an against-the-odds European win over a star-studded American team.
“I still think it’s hugely underrated. If you look back over the last 50 years of sport, it’s one the biggest upsets. I think 10 of the U.S. players were all Hall of Famers. We were just a bunch of players who pretty much turned pro in the four or five years earlier and we beat them. Incredible.”
Pearls of wisdom
Davies continues to offer her pearls of wisdom as a broadcaster of both the men’s and women’s game. One wonders what Joey Barton, the former footballer and full-time crank who has made a series of withering, stone age observations about female football commentators, would make of it all?
“I’m a big fan of the fact that if you’ve been there and done it (in any sport) you can talk about it,” said Davies. “Trish Johnson, Dottie Pepper, Morgan Pressel. All the girls who do golf, they’re all multiple winners and major champions. It’s not at the power level of men’s golf but the pressure is no different. I don’t know why Joey would say something like that?”
After a rapid-fire chinwag, it was time for Davies to receive her PGA recognition award.
“I always loved being the certain of attention on the course … but not off it,” she said with a wry smile.
A marquee major championship venue and the need for a dominant player highlight our 2024 LPGA wish list.
Looking ahead to 2024, it’s once again easy to focus on premiere venues and events on the upcoming LPGA schedule. For starters, it’s an Olympic year and a Solheim Cup year, which means there’s plenty to play for beyond the week-to-week grind. Every shot builds toward making a team or the trip to Paris.
And, once again, there’s a jewel on the 2024 major championship rota that’s a household name among non-golfers: the Old Course at St. Andrews. Surely something magical is in store for the third playing of the AIG Women’s British Open on the historic track.
Here’s a look at five things we’d like to see on the LPGA in 2024:
StackaLine offers a hole-by-hole guide for the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland.
The Old Course at St. Andrews – host of 2023 Walker Cup in Scotland – wasn’t originally designed so much as it evolved in the early 15th century. Architectural contributions were made hundreds of years later by Daw Anderson in the 1850s and Old Tom Morris a few decades after that.
Known as the Home of Golf, the Old Course ranks No. 2 on Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of classic courses in the United Kingdom and Ireland built before 1960.
The Old Course will be stretched to 7,313 yards with a par of 72 for the 49th Walker Cup, the biennial match between amateurs from the United States versus amateurs from the United Kingdom and Ireland. The length of each hole for the Walker Cup is noted in the captions below.
The teams will play four foursomes matches Saturday morning, eight singles matches Saturday afternoon, four foursomes matches Sunday morning and 10 singles matches Sunday afternoon. (Foursomes is often called alternate-shot in the U.S., and each two-man side will play one ball, alternating shots until the ball is holed.)
The Walker Cup will be broadcast on Golf Channel in the U.S. at 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m. EDT on Saturday, then 8 a.m.-2 p.m. EDT Sunday.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the players face this week.
Here’s who will represent the United States at St. Andrews.
CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE, Colo. — The roster for the United States Walker Cup team is set.
Following the conclusion of the 123rd U.S. Amateur on Sunday, the United States Golf Association’s International Team Selection working group and coach Mike McCoy announced the final selections to represent the American team in the 49th Walker Cup at the Old Course at St. Andrews from Sept. 2-3.
The Walker Cup is a 10-man amateur team competition between the U.S. and Great Britain and Ireland. The Old Course has hosted eight previous Walker Cups, more than any other venue, most recently in 1975, when the USA defeated GB&I, 15½-8½.
Rising Stanford senior Michael Thorbjornsen, second in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, would’ve represented the United States but withdrew from the competition, as well as the U.S. Amateur, because of a back injury.
Meet the 10 members of the 2023 United States Walker Cup team.
The best women in the world are headed to Pebble Beach for the first time ever in 2023.
The USGA is visiting some of the best golf courses in the world in 2023.
Not only are the men headed to Los Angeles Country Club for the U.S. Open, but the women are visiting the Monterey Peninsula and Pebble Beach Golf Links for the first time ever for the U.S. Women’s Open.
The Walker Cup heads to the Old Course at St. Andrews and for the second year in a row, the Adaptive Open will be played at Pinehurst.
The first one on the schedule is the Latin America Amateur (Jan. 12-15) while the year ends in Abu Dhabi at the World Amateur Team Championship (Oct. 18-21).
After three days of rotating between three world-class venues – the Old Course, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns, the 63 players who made the 54-hole cut at the Alfred Dunhill Links on the DP World Tour will play their final round at St. Andrews.
Richard Mansell leads by four at 15 under after posting a 5-under 67 at Carnoustie on Saturday. After making the turn with a 1-under 35, Mansell made four birdies and no bogeys coming home to separate himself from the field.
The 218th-ranked golfer in the world has missed two straight cuts but finished third at the Omega European Masters in August. If he does go on to win Sunday, it’d be his maiden victory on the European circuit.
Daniel Gavins, Alex Noren and Ryan Fox are tied for second at 11 under, while big names such as Rory McIlroy, Billy Horschel and Robert MacIntyre are T-11 at 7 under.
Catch the final round action on Golf Channel from 6:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET.
Playing golf in this weather doesn’t look like a good time.
The Alfred Dunhill Links is one of the best events on the DP World Tour schedule. Players rotate between three courses for the first three days — the Old Course, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns — before the final round is played at St. Andrews.
Thursday’s conditions were built for low scores as the first-round leader was 11 under after 18 holes.
Friday, however, was a completely different story.
Weather was brutal on day two, as rain, wind and cold temperatures made for miserable conditions.
Billy Horschel and Matt Fitzpatrick, somehow, shot 1 under, while Richard Mansell leads by two thanks to a heroic 4-under Friday.
To be honest, playing golf didn’t even look enjoyable, regardless of the courses the field was playing.
It’s time for one of the most fun events on the DP World Tour.
Several stars of the game of golf have made their return to the Old Course after July’s Open Championship for the Alfred Dunhill Links, although The Home of Golf isn’t the only course hosting play this week.
Carnoustie and Kingsbarns will also be featured and so will family members of the DP World Tour players.
Rory McIlroy will tee it up alongside his father, Gerry, while Matt Fitzpatrick will play with his mom, Susan.
If Smith leaves, it’d be a gigantic blow to the PGA Tour.
What a week.
Rory McIlroy entered the final round with a four-stroke (with Viktor Hovland) lead, shot a bogey-free 2-under 70 and lost by two strokes.
Cameron Smith was on another planet with the putter.
His up and down on 17 will go down as one of the best in the golf’s recent history and that was only one of the spectacular shots he hit on his way to hoisting (and drinking out of) the Claret Jug.
Now rumors are swirling he way be the next big name headed to LIV.
This week on the Twilight 9 podcast, Andy Nesbitt and I quickly discuss the rumors but focus on his outstanding final-round comeback.
We also cover McIlroy’s missed chance, Tiger’s (possible) final walk across the Swilcan Bridge, Cameron Young and much more.
