MacKinzie Kline (born March 30, 1992, in La Jolla, California) is an American female golfer who suffers from a heart defect known as heterotaxy syndrome as a result of being born with only one ventricle. [1] The condition causes the blood in one's body to have little oxygen.
Kline participated in her first LPGA event in 2007 at the Ginn Tribute, [2] and became the first player in LPGA history to ride a cart during competition. [3] [4] Kline, who was just 15 at the time, scored an 89 and thus will be ineligible to appear in another LPGA event until 2008.[ needs update ]
Annika Charlotta Sörenstam is a Swedish professional golfer. She is regarded as one of the best female golfers in history. Before stepping away from competitive golf at the end of the 2008 season, she had won 96 international professional tournaments, making her the female golfer with the most wins to her name. She has won 72 official LPGA tournaments including ten majors and 24 other tournaments internationally. After turning 50, she came back from her retirement and added a win in the 2021 U.S. Senior Women's Open.
Michelle Sung Wie West is an American professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour. At age 10, she became the youngest player to qualify for a USGA amateur championship. Wie also became the youngest winner of the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links and the youngest to qualify for an LPGA Tour event. She turned professional shortly before her 16th birthday in 2005, accompanied by an enormous amount of publicity and endorsements. She won the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year in 2004 and her first and only major at the 2014 U.S. Women's Open.
Pak Se-ri or Se-ri Pak is a South Korean former professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour from 1998 to 2016. She was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2007.
Paula Creamer is an American professional golfer on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. As a professional, she has won 12 tournaments, including 10 LPGA Tour events. Creamer has been as high as number 2 in the Women's World Golf Rankings. She was the 2010 U.S. Women's Open champion. As of the end of the 2023 season, Creamer was 19th on the all-time LPGA career money list with earnings of $12,161,187.
Cristie Kerr is an American professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour. She has 20 wins on the LPGA Tour, including two major championships, and over $19 million in career earnings. Kerr was the number one-ranked golfer in the Women's World Golf Rankings for three time periods in 2010. She is naturally left handed but plays golf right handed.
Morgan Pressel is an American professional golfer and golf commentator who played on the LPGA Tour. In 2001, as a 12-year-old, she became the youngest player to qualify for the U.S. Women's Open. She was the 2005 American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) Player of the Year, and won the 2006 AJGA Nancy Lopez Award. She turned pro at age 17, and is the youngest-ever winner of a modern LPGA major championship, when at age 18 she won the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship and vaulted to a career-high fourth in the world rankings. In early March 2021, she announced she had joined the Golf Channel and NBC Sports to be an analyst and on-course reporter in the 2021 season, while continuing to compete.
Lorena Ochoa Reyes is a Mexican former professional golfer who played on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour from 2003 to 2010. She was the top-ranked female golfer in the world for 158 consecutive and total weeks, from 23 April 2007 to her retirement on 2 May 2010, at the age of 28 years old. As the first Mexican golfer of either gender to be ranked number one in the world, she is considered the best Mexican golfer and the best Latin American female golfer of all time. Ochoa was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2017.
Suzann Pettersen is a retired Norwegian professional golfer. She played mainly on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour, and was also a member of the Ladies European Tour. Her career best world ranking was second and she held that position several times, most recently from August 2011 until February 2012. She retired on 15 September 2019 after holing the winning putt for the European team at the 2019 Solheim Cup, notwithstanding that she had been away from golf for almost 20 months on maternity leave prior to the event.
This article summarizes the highlights of professional and amateur golf in the year 2007.
Alexis Noel Thompson is an American professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour. At age 12 in 2007, she was the youngest golfer ever to qualify to play in the U.S. Women's Open, since broken by Lucy Li who was 11 in 2014. She turned professional in June 2010 at age 15. On September 18, 2011, Thompson set a then new record as the youngest-ever winner of an LPGA tournament, at age 16 years, seven months, and eight days, when she won the Navistar LPGA Classic. Three months later she became the second-youngest winner of a Ladies European Tour event, capturing the Dubai Ladies Masters by four strokes on December 17, 2011. She won her first and only major championship at the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship at the age of 19 years, 1 month and 27 days, making her the second youngest LPGA golfer to win a major.
Jiyai Shin is a former world No. 1 ranked South Korean professional golfer who primarily plays on the LPGA of Japan Tour. She previously played primarily on the LPGA Tour and the LPGA of Korea Tour (KLPGA). She has broken existing KLPGA records, winning 10 events in 19 starts on the KLPGA Tour in 2007. In 2008, playing only 10 tournaments on the LPGA Tour as a non-member, she won three events, including the Women's British Open and the ADT Championship. She has been ranked No. 1 in the Women's World Golf Rankings for 25 weeks and was the first Asian to be ranked No. 1. With 64 wins worldwide on six different tours, she is the winningest Korean golfer, male or female, of all time.
Amanda Blumenherst is an American professional golfer who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. She was a three-time National Player of the Year at Duke University and won the U.S. Women's Amateur title in 2008. In 2013, she announced that she would take a leave from professional golf to spend more time with her husband, major league baseball player Nate Freiman.
María José Uribe Durán is a professional golfer from Colombia, currently playing on the LPGA Tour.
Stacy Lewis is an American professional golfer on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. She has won two major championships: the Kraft Nabisco Championship in 2011 and the Women's British Open in 2013. She was ranked number one in the Women's World Golf Rankings for four weeks in 2013, and reclaimed the position in June 2014 with a victory at the ShopRite LPGA Classic for another 21 weeks.
Anna Maria Nordqvist is a Swedish professional golfer who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour. She has won three major championships: the 2009 LPGA Championship, the 2017 Evian Championship, and the 2021 Women's British Open. She is the only non-American woman to have won major championships in three different decades.
Sandra Gal is a German professional golfer who currently plays on the United States–based LPGA Tour.
Lydia Ko is a New Zealand professional golfer and the reigning Olympic champion. She first reached number one in the Women's World Golf Rankings on 2 February 2015 at 17 years, 9 months and 9 days of age, making her the youngest player of either gender to be ranked No. 1 in professional golf.
Shanshan Feng is a Chinese former professional golfer who previously played on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. She was the first player from China to become a member of the LPGA Tour, which she joined in 2008. Feng had 10 victories on the tour, including the 2012 LPGA Championship, a major title, in which she shot a bogey-free 67 in the final round to win by two strokes. She was the first player from China to win an LPGA major championship, as well as the first player from mainland China to have won a major championship. Her best finish in 16 previous majors was a tie for 22nd at the 2012 Kraft Nabisco Championship. With the victory, she moved from tenth to fifth in the Women's World Golf Rankings. On 20 August 2016, Feng won the Olympic bronze medal in women's golf at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. From November 2017 to April 2018, she was first in the Women's World Golf Rankings.
Ariya Jutanugarn is a Thai professional golfer who plays on the American-based LPGA Tour. She was born in Bangkok. She is the first golfer, male or female, from Thailand to win a major championship. She became the number one ranked golfer in the Women's World Golf Rankings in June 2017.
Atthaya Thitikul, also Jeeno Thitikul, is a Thai professional golfer who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour. Until 2023, she was the youngest golfer ever to win a professional golf tournament at aged 14 years, 4 months and 19 days after winning the Ladies European Thailand Championship as an amateur on 9 July 2017. She was the number one ranked women's amateur golfer in the world for a total of 12 weeks, rising to the top on two occasions, the first time on 26 June 2019.