Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
The year was 2001 when a middle schooler from Boca Raton, Fla., made golf history. After medaling at a tournament at Bear Lakes Country Club, 12-year-old Morgan Pressel catapulted herself into the game’s spotlight, earning a place in the U.S. Open at Pine Needles in North Carolina to become the youngest to qualify for the women’s national championship at the time.
Though she missed the cut at the Open, the moment was surely the most surprising and significant of Pressel’s budding career—but not the most crucial in her young life.
Only a year before her breakout, when Pressel was just 11 years old, her mother, Kathryn, was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 39.