Perth’s Minjee Lee cemented her status as a Titan of Australian golf after winning her 10th career title on the LPGA Tour.
The Royal Fremantle golfer holed a nerveless birdie putt on the first playoff hole to win the LPGA Tour’s BMW Ladies’ Championship in South Korea.
Minjee (pictured above) saw a two-stroke lead with three holes to play evaporate as American Alison Lee finished birdie-birdie to take the tournament into extra holes with the pair tied at 16-under.
However, WA’s finest was not to be denied as she fired a sublime approach to the first extra hole and rolled in the putt to secure her second LPGA title in her last three starts, and 10th overall in her career – not to mention a payday in excess of AUS$520,000.
The win moved Lee back into the top 5 of the Rolex Women’s World Rankings for the first time since June and up to 11th place in the LPGA Tour’s career money table, with total winnings of US$13.76m/AU$21.7m from 206 events.
From an Australian standpoint, only Karrie Webb (41 wins) and Jan Stephenson (16 wins) have collected more LPGA Tour titles than Lee, who, at 27 years of age, has arguably not yet hit her peak.
Minjee’s latest success followed hot-on-the-heels of younger brother Min Woo Lee’s wire-to-wire victory in the Asian Tour’s Macau Open, where he set a tournament record 30-under-par four-round total. Never before have a brother and sister both won professional tournaments on major tours in the space of a week.
Min Woo kept his foot on the gas in his next event, this weekend’s PGA Tour Zozo Championship in Japan, where he finished T6th, eight shots adrift of runaway winner Collin Morikawa.
As well as winnings of around AU$500,000, Min Woo’s burgeoning reputation took another giant stride forward – just days after he was announced as one of the 24 players who’ll compete in Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s new TGL virtual golf league, which will premiere in January 2024.
Min Woo Lee’s status in the world game continues to skyrocket
Closer to home, Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia rookie Josh Greer continued his excellent start to professional life with a runner-up finish in the Webex Players Series SA event at Willunga GC.
Joondalup CC member Greer finished on 11-under for the event, just a shot behind Austin Bautista. It follows on from Greer’s T9th and T11th finishes in the recent WA PGA and WA Open events on home soil. At this early stage in the season, Greer sits in 7th position on the Order of Merit.
Image credits: LPGA/Getty Images
