Golf Channel Makes Major Decision on Morgan Pressel After Four Years in Lead LPGA Role

When major champion Morgan Pressel was handed the microphone as Golf Channel’s lead voice for the LPGA in 2022, she stepped into pretty formidable shoes, succeeding LPGA Hall of Famer Judy Rankin. What followed was a defining chapter in her broadcasting career, complete with notable milestones, including becoming one of the few women to serve as an analyst during a men’s U.S. Open broadcast in 2023. Pressel has since made the role her own, but things are about to change.

Golfweek confirmed on Nov. 13, in a report by senior writer Beth Ann Nichols, that Pressel will no longer serve as the lead analyst of the LPGA on Golf Channel. Golf Channel’s owner, Versant, has decided not to renew Pressel’s contract for the 2027 season. Two clues had signaled this shift.

First, at the start of the 2026 season, the broadcaster added a third person to the booth for many of its broadcasts. Golfweek believes it is likely those familiar voices will rotate through the vacancy and share the work alongside play-by-play commentator Grant Boone. The three analysts are Karen Stupples, Mel Reid, and Paige Mackenzie.

Second, Pressel’s absence at this week’s The Annika. She was replaced in the booth by longtime Golf Channel colleague Mackenzie. Pressel, however, declined to comment when Golfweek reached out. It’s one of the biggest news stories coming out of the booth since Jim Furyk joined the broadcast as lead analyst for the PGA Tour this season. But is Pressel’s broadcasting career over? Well, not really.

At 38, Pressel could still call some of the biggest moments in the women’s game. Golf Channel and NBC now work under separate talent contracts, so Versant’s decision does not close the door at NBC. Nichols further confirmed that Pressel will be in the booth for the final round of the CME Group Tour Championship for NBC, as confirmed by a spokesperson.

“The first two rounds of the LPGA season-ender are on Golf Channel, and Saturday’s coverage will be on CNBC. Pressel will not be in the booth for any of the first three rounds. As first reported by @golfweek, Pressel’s contract at Golf Channel was not renewed for the 2027 season,” Nichols added on X.

So, her connection with broadcasting isn’t over. But is it surprising? Yes, given everything.

Back in 2023, Pressel told the Associated Press that COVID likely sped up her move away from playing, confessing, “I was unhappy on the golf course and it was time to do something else. I’m fortunate to be with the Golf Channel and NBC. It’s been quite a 2 1/2 years.” But Golf Channel wasn’t her first broadcasting role.

In 2015, Pressel worked as an analyst on Fox’s digital coverage of the U.S. Open in what was her first on-air experience. In 2019, she served as the broadcaster’s analyst during the U.S. Senior Women’s Open. She switched to NBC and Golf Channel in March 2021 as an analyst and on-course reporter.

When talking about it, Pressel had shown little confidence but was ready to make it work anyway. “Just try it and see how it works, see if I even enjoy doing television, which I think that I will. But I guess you never know. And if I’m any good at it. That as well,” she had confessed back then.

She decided to handle both her playing and broadcasting careers together. The time spent broadcasting was limited, but three tournaments in, Pressel still decided to stop playing. In 2022, when Rankin retired from broadcasting at 77, Pressel stepped in to take her place as the lead analyst of Golf Channel’s LPGA coverage.

In 2023, she continued, “It’s really about being ready and prepared… I’m prepared with endless notes and using 5-10% of it is all that you might use in a broadcast, but you never know when it might come up. I’ve got a big catalog of all of my notes that I’ve ever really had for a broadcast, and I can.”

Trust her confidence; she did pretty well in that area. Nerves came with the job, though. Earlier that year, ahead of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, Pressel told Golfweek that broadcasters feel even more nervous than players at events like a U.S. Open, a major or Augusta National, with “the same adrenaline and the same desire to bring your best.”

In the last six years, she has been at the center of the call for all sorts of big tournaments, including the LPGA’s majors and the final round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur on NBC. She chronicled much of it on Instagram, posting frequent photos from the booth and behind-the-scenes looks at her travels.

Besides this, Pressel always had the credentials to back her up.

For instance, when she won the Kraft Nabisco Championship (now the Chevron Championship) in 2007 at 18, she was the youngest modern major champion at the time, a record Lydia Ko later broke. It was the first of her two LPGA wins, and the Kapalua LPGA Classic followed the next season. She was also the youngest player to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open at 12 in 2001, a mark Lexi Thompson later broke, followed by Lucy Li. Her qualifying sparked a trend among junior players.

Golfweek also pointed to her off-camera work as her best. She has quietly mentored many rising stars, and every January she gathers LPGA players and hundreds of supporters at her home club in Boca Raton, Florida, for Morgan & Friends, raising seven figures for the fight against breast cancer. The 19th edition, held in January 2026, brought in a record $1.3 million and lifted the event’s total to $15.3 million.

She is a six-time Solheim Cup participant and a two-time assistant to captain Stacy Lewis. In fact, she is on the shortlist of future U.S. Solheim Cup captains. She already led a U.S. side this year as captain of the winning Junior Solheim Cup team in the Netherlands.

Will that be the direction of her new gig? Too early to say.

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