USA unearth next generation

AFTER a bit of an intermittent start to both the LPGA Tour in America and the LET in Europe, the season is now well and truly in full flow. On the LPGA Tour, it seems that America finally have a crop of outstanding young players who will replace the likes of Beth Daniel, Meg Mallon, Rosie Jones and Juli Inkster as the backbone of the Solheim Cup team and who are potential world-beaters.

Morgan Pressels win at the Kraft Nabisco leapfrogged her from being a precociously talented teenager with huge potential, to becoming the youngest-ever winner of a womens Major tournament at the tender age of 18.

Ever since Morgan narrowly missed winning the US Womens Open two years ago when the Korean Birdie Kim snatched victory from her by holing what looked an impossible bunker shot at the 72nd hole, the golfing world has been well aware of Morgan Pressel.

Actually, four years before that Morgan alerted the golfing world to her talent when, aged 12, she became the youngest-ever person male or female to qualify for a US Open. Last year, Morgan was granted the right to become a member of the LPGA Tour before her seventeenth birthday in May by the LPGA Tour commissioner Carolyn Bivens. Morgans third place in the Rookie of the Year stakes and 24th-place finish on the money list was impressive enough, but probably not quite enough to set the golfing world alight. Also, to a large extent, Morgans progress and results have been overshadowed by her slightly younger contemporary Michelle Wie. Sometimes players who win Majors disappear into obscurity. Somehow, I dont think that will be the case with Morgan Pressel!

As well as Morgan, the USA have Brittany Lincicome knocking at the door of superstardom. Winner of last years HSBC Womens Matchplay Championship, and of the event following the Kraft Nabisco, Brittany is a certainty for this years Solheim Cup Team.

Her long hitting and matchplay record will make her a great addition to the US team. With all the focus at the conclusion of the Kraft Nabisco being on whether or not Suzann Petterson would hold on to win, or as it turned out force a play-off, it is easy to forget that Brittany also had a putt on the 18th green to get into a play-off.

Another young American who has hit the headlines this year is 25-year-old Meaghan Francella. Meaghan qualified to play on the LPGA Tour by virtue of her performances on the developmental Futures Tour in 2006.

Then, playing in only the third event of her rookie season, she hit the headlines when she beat Annika Sorenstam in a four-hole play-off to win he Mastercard Classic in Mexico. Another top-five finish at the Kraft Nabisco confirmed that Meaghans early-season win was no flash in the pan.

As Morgan, Brittany and Meaghan have been busy winning, so too has the 2005 Rookie of the Year, the Pink Panther AKA 21-year-old Paula Creamer.

It was always going to be difficult to follow up her great rookie year, and by the standards which she set, last year was disappointing for Paula. Being the determined and talented golfer that she is though, this will make her work even harder and she has come back with a bang, winning in Hawaii, and contending until the final round of the Kraft Nabisco when she uncharacteristically fell away.

With Lorena Ochoa about to overtake Annika Sorenstam as the worlds No 1 female golfer, and such a talented crop of young Americans waiting in the wings, not to mention the great form of Suzann Petterson, Catriona Matthew, and Laura Davies, I cant wait to see the results each week. We are in the
midst of very exciting times for womens golf!