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Creamer was born in Mountain View, California,[3] and
was raised in Pleasanton. The family's home overlooked the
first tee
of the Castlewood Country Club's
golf course. She started playing golf when she was 10 years old. At the age of
12, she won 13 consecutive regional junior events in Northern California, and the following year she
became the top-ranked female junior golfer in the state.
During Creamer's amateur career, she won 19 national
tournaments, including 11 American Junior Golf Association
events, and was named Player of the Year by the AJGA in 2003. On two occasions
(2002 and 2003), Creamer played on the United States team in the Junior Solheim Cup. She was a semi-finalist in
the 2003 U.S. Girls' Junior Championship and
U.S. Women's Amateur Championship,
and reached the same stage of both events the following year. In June 2004,
Creamer placed second in the LPGA Tour's ShopRite LPGA Classic, finishing one stroke
behind Cristie
Kerr. Later that year, she tied for 13th in the U.S. Women's Open and represented the
United States in the Curtis Cup.
Due to her fondness for wearing pink, Creamer's friend Casey
Wittenberg nicknamed her the "Pink Panther. The sobriquet followed her
when she turned pro. In addition to her pink outfits, Creamer sports the color
on several of her golf accessories, including her club grips and golf bag. Creamer also uses a Pink Panther club head cover, in a nod to her nickname.
In December 2004, Creamer won the LPGA Tour Final
Qualifying Tournament by five strokes, thus gaining membership on the Tour for
the 2005 season. She turned professional immediately after the event at the age
of 18.
Upon joining the LPGA Tour in 2005,
Creamer quickly became a top player. On May 22, she holed a 17-foot birdie
putt on the final hole of the Sybase
Classic in New Rochelle, New York to win by one stroke.
Creamer became the youngest winner of a multiple-round tournament in LPGA
history. On July 23, she claimed her second title of the year, winning the Evian
Masters tournament in France by an eight-shot margin. She
became the youngest and quickest player to reach $1 million in LPGA career
earnings. In August Creamer won the NEC Open on the Japan LPGA
tour,
and added a victory at the Masters
GC Ladies tournament two months later. Creamer earned a spot on the U.S. Solheim Cup
Team, becoming the youngest player to do so. She helped the U.S. team win the
cup, going 3–1–1 for the competition. Creamer won the LPGA
Rookie of the Year award for her season, in which she earned over
$1.5 million, second on the money list behind Annika Sörenstam, and recorded eight top-three
finishes.