2001 Pettersen turned professional in September 2000 at age 19 and gained her
Ladies European Tour card with an 11th-place finish at the 2001 LET Qualifying School. She finished second on the Order of Merit and was named LET Rookie of the Year.
2002 Pettersen started 2002 with a playoff loss to
Karrie Webb in the
AAMI Australian Women's Open, and two more top ten finishes led to her winning a place on the European team for the
2002 Solheim Cup. In the singles, Pettersen was five down with five to play and ended up with a tie against
Michele Redman. She tied for 10th at the
LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament to earn exempt status for the 2003 LPGA season.
2003 In 2003, Pettersen played in five events on the LET, missing no cuts and finished runner-up to
Sophie Gustafson at the HP Open. She played a full rookie season on the LPGA, with her best finish a third place at the
Chick-fil-A Charity Championship.
2004 In 2004, Pettersen played in just four events on the LET, with a best finish of T9 at the Evian Masters. On the LPGA, she began her season late after recuperating from elbow surgery. Pettersen recorded four top-10 finishes including a season-best tie for fifth at the
State Farm Classic.
2006 In 2006, Pettersen played five times on the LET, recording two top ten finishes, including a third place at the
Scandinavian TPC. On the LPGA Tour she had three top-ten finishes, with a season's best finish fifth at the
Florida's Natural Charity Championship. At the
Safeway International she recorded her then-best finish on the LPGA Tour, second place, two strokes behind
Lorena Ochoa. A late collapse at the
Kraft Nabisco saw her equal that finish, her second-best at a major. Pettersen became the first Norwegian LPGA winner at the 2007
Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill, beating
Jee Young Lee in a playoff. Pettersen followed up this win by capturing the second major championship of 2007, the
LPGA Championship, by one stroke over
Karrie Webb, which moved her up to fourth in the
Women's World Golf Rankings. On the
Ladies European Tour she won the
SAS Masters in her native Norway. In October at the
Longs Drugs Challenge, Pettersen won her third LPGA victory, beating Lorena Ochoa in a playoff and then claimed wins number four and five in
Korea and
Thailand. On 31 December 2007, she reached the number two position in the Women's World Golf Rankings, surpassing
Karrie Webb and
Annika Sörenstam, trailing only
Lorena Ochoa.
2008 In January 2008, Pettersen signed a multi-year agreement with Nike Golf to represent
Nike in clubs, balls, footwear, gloves and bags. Her first win of 2008 came at the rain-shortened
Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open.
2009 In September
2009, Pettersen won her sixth LPGA Tour event and first in two years at the
CN Canadian Women's Open at
Priddis Greens Golf & Country Club in
Calgary, Alberta. Pettersen won the event by five strokes over
Karrie Webb,
Momoko Ueda,
Morgan Pressel,
Ai Miyazato and
Angela Stanford.
2010 Pettersen was a runner-up six times on the LPGA Tour in
2010, but did not record a victory.
2011 Pettersen broke her 20-month victory drought in May when she captured the
Sybase Match Play Championship at Hamilton Farm Golf Club in
New Jersey. Playing in cool, rainy conditions, she won all six of her 18-hole matches over four days, and defeated, among others, then-world number one
Yani Tseng in the quarter-finals, and
Cristie Kerr in the finals. In early August, Pettersen won the
Ladies Irish Open on the LET with a 198 (-18), six shots clear of the field. It was Pettersen's first victory on the LET in 3 years, her last was the same tournament in 2008, played at Portmarnock Links. In her next start two weeks later, Pettersen won again on the LPGA Tour at the
Safeway Classic in
Oregon. She came from nine shots back at the start of the final round and shot a 64 (-7) to force a playoff against second-round leader
Na Yeon Choi. Pettersen won on the first extra hole with a par after Choi put her approach shot in the water to double bogey. The victory moved her world ranking up to No. 2, ahead of
Cristie Kerr and behind only
Yani Tseng.
2012 Pettersen won twice in October on the LPGA Tour
2012, both in
Asia.
2013 In March 2013, Pettersen won the
Mission Hills World Ladies Championship. In April, she won the
LPGA Lotte Championship. In September, she won the
Safeway Classic, then
The Evian Championship. In October, Pettersen won her fourth event of the
LPGA Tour season when she captured the
Sunrise LPGA Taiwan Championship.
2015 Pettersen was involved in a controversy at the
2015 Solheim Cup match in
St. Leon-Rot,
Baden-Württemberg,
Germany, in the second day afternoon four-ball match between Pettersen and
Charley Hull for Europe against
Alison Lee and
Brittany Lincicome, United States. On the 17th green, with the match all square, Lee missed a putt to win the hole. Taking for granted that the next 18-inch putt was conceded, Lee picked up her ball. However, Pettersen pointed out that it was not conceded, and the Europeans won the hole. The European team captain
Carin Koch and vice captain
Annika Sörenstam tried to convince Pettersen to change her mind and concede the putt, but as it was a fact that Lee had picked up her ball without the putt being given to her, it wasn't a possibility within the
rules of golf, for the players to agree on the outcome of the hole and change the sequence of events afterwards. Pettersen/Hull eventually won the match and Europe took a 10–6 lead going into singles. However, the United States won the Solheim Cup after a strong comeback during the singles play on the last day of the match.
2017 For the
2017 the
Solheim Cup match, 18–20 August in
West Des Moines, Iowa, United States, Pettersen qualified for the team by her
Women's World Golf Rankings, and should have made her 9th consecutive appearance, but withdrew with a back injury. European team captain
Annika Sörenstam had previously named
Catriona Matthew an assistant captain, but replaced her with Pettersen and nominated Matthew as a player instead.
2019 Pettersen was picked for the
2019 Solheim Cup European team by captain
Catriona Matthew, who was criticized for choosing a player who had been away from golf for nearly two years on maternity leave. Pettersen had played only two events before Matthew chose her and missed the cut in both. At the time, Pettersen was ranked 620th in the world. That pick proved to be astute, as, on 15 September 2019, Pettersen holed her birdie putt on the 18th in her singles match at
Gleneagles PGA Centenary Course to defeat
Marina Alex, 1 up, to win the Solheim Cup for Europe. Almost immediately after making the putt, the 38-year-old Pettersen announced that she'd no longer play professional golf. "I think this is a perfect closure," Pettersen said. "A nice 'the end' for [my] professional career. It doesn't get any better." Pettersen retired having won 15 times on the LPGA Tour, including two majors: the 2007 Women's PGA Championship and the 2013 Evian Championship. "Life's changed so much for me over the last year," Pettersen said. "He's [son Herman] obviously the biggest thing that's ever happened for me. But now I know what it feels like to win as a mom. I'm going to leave it like that."
2021 On 29 November 2021, Pettersen was announced as the
2023 European
Solheim Cup captain. ==Professional wins (21)==