Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Pressel storms back for history


Morgan Pressel, followed by her grandmother, takes the traditional victory leap. 
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press The Spokesman-Review

Morgan Pressel never lost hope, even after she walked off the 18th green Sunday still three shots out of the lead with little reason to believe she would return an hour later for the greatest swim of her life.

Typical of her career, everything happened so quickly.

Pressel closed with a 3-under 69 at the Kraft Nabisco Championship in Rancho Mirage, Calif., playing the final 24 holes without a bogey. Then she watched a series of collapses unfold on a sun-baked afternoon in the desert, none more shocking than Suzann Pettersen blowing a four-shot lead with four holes to play that made the 18-year-old Pressel the youngest major champion in LPGA Tour history.

About the only thing anyone could have predicted was Pressel in tears.

“Oh my God! Oh my God!” was all she could manage with a camera in her face when Pettersen’s 25-foot birdie putt to force a playoff stopped a few inches short.

These were tears of celebration as a major champion, not even a year after she finished high school. And she sobbed remembering her mother, Kathy, who died of breast cancer four years ago.

“I know my mother is always with me,” she said. “And I’m sure she’s proud of me.”

Pressel was at 3-under 285 and on the practice range when she entered the record books, winning a major at 18 years, 10 months and 9 days. Sandra Post of Canada won the 1968 LPGA Championship at 20 years, 19 days.

The youngest man to win a major was Young Tom Morris, who was 17 when he captured the 1868 British Open.

Pressel returned to the 18th not for a playoff she expected, but for a plunge into the pond with her caddie, Jon Yarbrough, and her grandmother, Evelyn Krickstein. Herb Krickstein, her grandfather and the father of former tennis player Aaron Krickstein, later dipped his toes in the water.

Pressel slipped on a white robe with “2007 Kraft Nabisco Champion” stitched on the back.

“This is a dream come true,” Pressel said.

Pettersen also shed tears, hers out of utter despair.

The 25-year-old from Norway seized control with three birdies in a four-hole stretch around the turn and had everything in hand until she started spraying tee shots under trees and into the ankle-deep rough, and could no longer make putts on the crusty greens.

A bogey on the 15th.

A double bogey on the 16th when it took her three shots to reach the front of the green and three shots with the putter.

A bogey on the 17th when her 7-iron came up short and she missed the par putt from 10 feet.

“I said yesterday that the one who made the fewest mistakes would win,” she said. “I did a few too many.”

Tracy Hanson, formerly of Rathdrum, shot a 78 to finish at 306.

Part of a heralded group of kids on the LPGA Tour that included Michelle Wie and Paula Creamer, Pressel is the first to be a major champion. Wie didn’t play this year because of an injured wrist. Creamer started the final round one shot out of the lead and shot 78.

Pressel earned $300,000 and had no trouble deciding what she was going to do next.

“I’m going shopping when I get home,” she said.

Looking at her grandparents, tears still not dry, she laughed and said, “And they’re not going to stop me.”

PGA Tour

Adam Scott held off defending champion Stuart Appleby in an all-Australian duel in the Houston Open in Humble, Texas, saving par with a 50-foot putt on the 72nd hole after hitting his tee shot into the water.

Scott shot a 6-under 66 to finish at 17 under, three strokes ahead of Appleby and third-round leader Bubba Watson.

Playing together, Scott led Appleby by one stroke as they stood on the 18th tee, but Scott pulled his tee shot into the pond that lines the left side of the 488-yard hole, the course’s most difficult.

Appleby drove into the fairway bunker, then immediately gave Scott a reprieve by hitting his approach into the water near the green.

Scott took his drop, hit his approach safely away from the water, then holed the par-saving putt. Appleby had a double bogey to finish with a 69. Watson birdied the last hole for a 72.

Champions Tour

Keith Fergus became the second player to win PGA, Nationwide and Champions tour titles, closing with a 2-under 70 for a one-stroke victory over Mark O’Meara and Hale Irwin in the Ginn Championship at Palm Coast, Fla.

Fergus finished at 12-under 204.

Ron Streck also has won on all three of the major U.S pro men’s tours.

Irwin closed with a 68, and O’Meara shot a 69.