Morgan Pressel has never been one to hang about. As a 12-year-old, she became the youngest player ever to qualify for a US Women’s Open. At 18, she was the youngest to win a women’s ‘Major’. Twelve months on from that memorable victory at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, she is now a fully-fledged Solheim Cup player.

Incredibly, this feisty young American is now in her third year as a professional. Even she admits she almost regards herself as a veteran. So how far can she go?  Will it be a case of a long and glittering career? Or could it turn out to be too much too soon?

A bright kid, Morgan went directly from school in Florida – she got straight As in class - to a full-time, seven day a week worker on the LPGA Tour. While her friends all headed for university and the fun of student life, she decided to grind it out as a professional.

Morgan’s chosen lifestyle may be perceived as glamorous, but it is a tough and demanding routine. Monday is travelling, Tuesday is practice, Wednesday is Pro-am and Thursday to Sunday are the days to earn money. Then it starts all over again.

On top of competitions, there are the sponsor commitments, the media intrusion and the need to spend at least a little time with her boyfriend. Already a dollar millionaire – in fact, she is already getting close to the $2million mark – there is little doubt that she is now on a different planet from her former schoolmates. “It is hard work being on the LPGA and there certainly isn’t much time for myself,” says the girl who admits to being a gadget junkie and a bona-a-fide shopaholic.

“But I do manage the odd time off to go and visit a mall. Besides, I really wouldn’t want it any other way. I love playing golf, and I love playing on the Tour.”

Morgan, who started playing golf when she was just eight-years-old, first hit the headlines at the age of 12 back in 2001 when she became the youngest player in history to qualify for a US Women’s Open.

She missed the cut on her debut at Pine Needles in North Carolina but, just five years later, she came so very close to claiming the trophy at Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver, Colorado when, as a 17-year-old amateur, she tied for second behind eventual winner Birdie Kim of Korea.

It was that close call among the foothills of the Rockies that convinced Morgan that she should skip university and head straight for the world of golfing riches.

 “I felt that playing on Tour would help me achieve what I want to achieve,” she assessed. “One, two or even three years at university wouldn’t help me.”

She turned professional prior to the Tour School in Florida in November 2005 – signing some lucrative contracts in the process – and then sailed through the qualifying process.