01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, June 25, 2006

BY PAUL KENYON
Journal Sports Writer

NEWPORT -- EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first in a series of profiles of some of the players who will be participating in the U.S. Women's Open at Newport Country Club later this week.

Morgan Pressel said it before the decision was announced and she said it after the decision was made. Ask her today and she has the same response. She doesn't flinch or attempt to be diplomatic.

Pressel simply does not agree that the United States Golf Association should have given Michelle Wie an exemption into this week's 61st U.S. Women's Open.

"Everybody else has to qualify. I've always felt that she should," Pressel said after finishing a practice round at Newport Country Club earlier this month. "I don't think she should be afraid of qualifying. But the USGA decided to give it to her, so there's nothing I can do."

Pressel says it all matter of factly, without emotion, without bitterness. It's not anything personal. It is simply the way she feels.

"I think it's the truth. I'm going to tell the truth. I'm not going to try and sugarcoat it," she said. "I think a lot more was made out of it than should have been. I'm just telling the truth, the way I feel."

Such candor is rare in sport these days, especially in the genteel world of golf. To have it come from a rookie, a player who only last month graduated from high school and celebrated her 18th birthday, makes it all the more unusual.

But then again, Morgan Pressel is not exactly your typical professional athlete.

On the course, she is a player far beyond her years. She is still the reigning U.S. Amateur champion, although she obviously will not be able to defend that title since she is now a pro.

She is the youngest player ever to qualify for an Open, having done so in 2001, just before she celebrated her 13th birthday. She was the top-ranked junior golfer in the country. In her final year of junior competition, she played in five AJGA Invitationals -- and won every one of them.

Last year, while still an amateur, she was in position to win the 60th Women's Open at Cherry Hills in Denver. She was in the final fairway when she watched Birdie Kim, in the group ahead of her, hole out from a bunker for an improbable birdie that gave her the title.

Over the winter, Pressel went to LPGA Tour qualifying school and finished sixth, earning a full-time spot on tour. She decided she was ready to turn pro. She petitioned the LPGA for an exemption from its rule that players had to be at least 18 to be a member.

Her request was accepted and she is a full-fledged, card-carrying LPGA player. She already has had three top-10 finishes, won almost $200,000 and rapidly emerged as one of the brightest young stars on the LPGA Tour.

Those who know her say her outspokenness is not new. She has been that way since she began competing.

Unlike some athletes who make outrageous comments because they don't know or care, Pressel is very much aware of herself and her surroundings. Last month, at graduation from St. Andrew's School in Boca Raton, Fla., she was presented the top student-athlete award. She carried a 3.9 grade-point average and scored 1,360 on her college boards. She had agreed to accept a scholarship to Duke and join Rhode Island's Anna Grzebien on the Blue Devils' two-time national championship team before deciding to turn pro instead.

"I was serious when I committed," she said. Then, after a while, I started playing better, started competing in bigger events and realized it wasn't going to help me achieve my goals."

She has had to make many major decisions. As she was winning so many honors on the course as a junior, her mother, Kathy Krickstein Pressel, was battling cancer that began in her breast and spread through her body. Her mother died three years ago, at age 43.

Ever since, Pressel has lived with her grandparents, Herb and Evelyn Krickstein.

Her life now is playing golf. She has not been home since May and will not return until later this month.

"It's great," she says of life on tour. "It's what I've always wanted to do. I'm really enjoying this year. I'm looking forward to great week here and I hope I finish out the year well." She spent four days at Newport on a week off from the tour two weeks ago.

"This place is spectacular. They don't put U.S. Opens on bad golf courses. It's going to be a real tough test," she said.

Her focus, she says, is on herself, not Wie or anyone else. But then again, she will not shy away from answering questions about Wie or anyone else. She almost seems as if she enjoys helping build the rivalry.

"The media is creating it," she said of a potential rivalry with Wie. "She's a great player. I think rivalries are good for the game. I think the Tiger (Woods)-Phil (Mickelson) rivalry has really helped the men's game. I think any rivalry with great players helps."

pkenyon@projo.com / (401) 277-7340