LPGAnews.com

Callaway Golf Company (NYSE:ELY) today announced the signing of teenage star Morgan Pressel to a multi-year contract to play and endorse Callaway Golf® equipment. The reigning women’s U.S. Amateur Champion, Pressel will play a full slate of 2006 LPGA Tour events beginning in February. She will endorse Callaway Golf woods, irons, wedges, golf balls, and licensed Callaway Golf Footwear, carry a Callaway Golf logoed bag and wear the Company’s logo on her visor.

“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

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — John D. Laupheimer, the second commissioner of the LPGA Tour who helped attract corporate sponsorship to women’s golf during his six-year tenure, died Monday in London, former commissioner Ty Votaw said. He was 75.

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

The LPGA Tour made an exception Monday for 17-year-old Morgan Pressel, accepting her as a member instead of making her wait until she turns 18 three months after the season begins.
The decision means that Pressel, a senior honor student at St. Andrews School in Boca Raton, Fla., can play wherever she is eligible and have her earnings count on the money list and toward the LPGA Tour’s new playoff system that splits the year in two parts.
“This is good news,” said her grandfather, Herb Krickstein. “We’ve very happy about it.”

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

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (AP) — Annika Sorenstam is feeling comfortable enough about her personal life that her boyfriend, Mike McGee, has become slightly more visible at tournaments. The Swedish star talked about her relationship in a recent interview with The Aftonbladet newspaper in Stockholm.

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 Japan LPGA tour will add three tournaments to its schedule in 2006, taking total prize money to a record level as a new generation of players continue to boost interest in women’s golf in Japan.
The 2006 schedule released Tuesday by the Japan LPGA features 36 tournaments and combined prize money of 2.66 billion yen, an increase of 433 million yen from the amount offered in 33 events this year.

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