BENTONVILLE -- Morgan Pressel and Natalie Gulbis will be among more than 100 LPGA golfers in Rogers in June to play in the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.
Tuesday, the pair was in the midst of more than 600 prospective golfers in Bentonville when they spoke at the Sam's Club Home Office as part of a First Tee of NWA event.
The event was a joint partnership between The First Tee and the tournament, designed to reach out to local ninth- and 10th-grade girls. Pressel and Gulbis were the highlight speakers in a session that also featured four area female business executives from Sam's Club, Walmart, P&G and General Mills.
Pressel and Gulbis' portion of the event was a Q&A with a moderator, which also allowed for several of the high school attendees to ask questions of their own.
"When I was growing up, my uncle was a professional tennis player and it was close and attainable for me, but a lot of people don't have those experiences where they think it's possible," Pressel said. "If out of the 600 girls, one of them goes home and says maybe I'll try to pick up golf and changes their life through the sport, that's our goal."
"The kids are great, because they ask great questions," Gulbis said. "What's it like to play in another country? What's practice like? How do you get over a bad round? What do you eat on the course? Things that are very natural to us."
Both golfers flew in for the event with the LPGA in the midst of an off week following the ANA Inspiration, the first major of the year, won by Lydia Ko on Sunday.
"I've never done an event quite like this, spoken to 600 high schoolers," Pressel said. "It was wonderful. There were four women who spoke about their experiences in business and how the nine core values of The First Tee are values they live by in business and then golf has helped them in business."
The veterans are among the more recognizable names and faces on the tour and have each enjoyed success while making more than $11 million between them over the course of their careers. But both are off to slower starts this year -- Gulbis by design.
The 16-year pro, ranked No. 392 in the Rolex Rankings, skipped the first few months of the year and will make her debut in Hawaii this week at the Lotte Championship.
"I'll play maybe 10 or 15 events -- my favorite events," Gulbis said. "Just a mini-season. I've had three back surgeries and hip surgery, so I can't play 30 events anymore."
Pressel, a two-time LPGA winner with a major title to her name, is ranked No. 30 in the world. She missed the cut last week at the ANA Inspiration for the second time in three weeks and has one top-50 finish in seven starts.
Unlike Gulbis, she won't play in Hawaii this week, opting to take some time off to relax and fine-tune her game.
"You need a little downtime to regroup so you can go back out for three or four weeks in a row," Pressel said. "It's early in the season, and I'm just ready for the summer where we can get into rhythm."
Both will hope to be hitting their stride by the time they're back in the area for the June 24-26 NW Arkansas Championship at Pinnacle Country Club. For Gulbis, it'll be a return to the event following a two-year absence, including last year when she worked as an on-course reporter for the men's U.S. Open the same week.
"This is one of my favorite events, absolutely," Gulbis said.
Sports on 04/06/2016