While driving on I-95, it’s not uncommon for Morgan Pressel to see a giant portrait of her mom on the side of a van. With two MammoVans in the fleet managed by Boca Raton Regional Hospital, it was an initiative founded by the golf prodigy turned analyst and breast cancer advocate.
“The No. 1 thing that we wanted to do when we started this, my grandfather and I, was to honor her memory, and what better way to do that than to have a giant portrait of her on the side of a van encouraging women to stay on top of their health?” says Pressel, founder of the Morgan Pressel Foundation.
At 12, she became the youngest golfer to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open. She won an appeal to become a member of the LPGA at just 17, and the next year, she became the youngest player to win an LPGA major, pushing her worldwide ranking to No. 4. In 2021, she retired from professional golf and is now a golf analyst with NBC Sports and the Golf Channel.
What she didn’t retire from was her advocacy for breast cancer awareness. When Pressel was 15, her mother died from breast cancer. When Pressel went pro, she used her platform to raise money for Boca Raton Regional Hospital, where her mother was treated. “My grandfather was very helpful, especially with how things actually work, but I think it was a way that we both grieved,” she says. “Everybody grieves differently, but for us—certainly for me—grieving was, what can we do about it?”
Pressel planned the inaugural Morgan & Friends golf tournament at St. Andrews Country Club, which included some of her fellow golfers from the pro world, and Billi Marcus—a breast cancer survivor who co-founded The Home Depot with her husband Bernie—serving as chairwoman. In January 2027, the event will be celebrating its 20th anniversary. Golf tournaments have also started at Banyan Golf Club in West Palm Beach and Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Md.
The foundation’s partnership with Boca Raton Regional Hospital has spawned a number of initiatives, including the Kathryn Krickstein Pressel MammoVan, a mobile mammogram unit named for Pressel’s mother that serves women across South Florida. Since its inception in 2010, more than 18,000 women have been screened for breast cancer. In 2025, a second MammoVan was added. Plus, the Morgan Pressel Center for Cancer Genetics helps the public identify if they have an inherited risk of developing one of more than 40 cancers. With MedStar Health, the foundation also created a Women’s Nurse Navigator to ensure that women from underrepresented communities have access to healthcare. (morganpresselfoundation.com)
HER INSPIRATION: I watched [my mother] be diagnosed the first time. She was in remission for a couple years, and then eventually it came back, and it was a hard time for a young family. I was the oldest of three—my sister and brother are younger than I am—and I’d always looked up to other golfers who had foundations or had different initiatives that they were really passionate about.
THE GOAL: We really focus on early detection, as you can probably tell from both our MammoVans and the Genetic Testing Center. How can we get ahead of breast cancer? How can we catch it early? Because that still, to this day … gives you the best survival rate, if you catch breast cancer early. So, how can we reach the community? How can we reach the underserved? How can we do more outreach?
LESSONS LEARNED: The No. 1 thing that I say is that I have been given a gift in life of having—through my golf career, whatever it may be—a pedestal and a microphone, where people have listened, and I’m very grateful for that. And if they want to listen, I’m telling you to get your mammogram, telling you to stay on top of your health.
IN THE WORKS: We are currently having more discussions with the hospital about potential next steps. I can’t really say what they are just yet, because we haven’t fully decided on them, but we’re committed to Boca Regional being one of our biggest partners, and what else can we do in the South Florida region to really just improve the lives of women who are fighting breast cancer?
This story is from the September/October 2026 issue of Boca magazine. For more like this, click here to subscribe to the magazine.
