Minjee Lee (born 27 May 1996) is an Australian professional golfer from Perth. She became the number one ranked amateur golfer in February 2014 after winning the Oates Victorian Open, remaining number one until turning professional in September 2014. On 25 July 2021, Lee won her first major championship, the Amundi Evian Championship.
In 2010, Lee became the youngest winner of the WA Amateur Open while still a year 9 student at Methodist Ladies’ College, Perth.[1] At the start of 2012, she was moved from MLC to Corpus Christi College, to be closer to her golf course at Royal Fremantle Golf Club. She left Corpus Christi in 2013.
Lee was the winner of the 2012 U.S. Girls’ Junior. She won the Australian Women’s Amateur in 2013 and successfully defended the title in 2014.
Lee became the number one ranked amateur golfer on 26 February 2014 after winning the Oates Victorian Open on the ALPG Tour. She remained the number one ranked amateur golfer until she turned professional in September 2014 after leading the Australia team that won the Espirito Santo Trophy.
On 18 May 2015, Lee gained her first LPGA Tour victory – the Kingsmill Championship. In 2016, she won the Lotte Championship in April, and the Blue Bay LPGA tournament in October. Lee represented Australia in the women’s golf competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, finishing in a tie for 7th.
In April 2018, she lost the LPGA Mediheal Championship in a playoff to Lydia Ko, then on 27 May 2018, won the LPGA Volvik Championship. Lee finished 2018 ranked second on the money list with $1,551,032 in earnings, finishing second in scoring average with 69.75 shots per round. She also became the first woman to win the Greg Norman Medal for being the best Australian professional golfer on the world stage.
On 28 April 2019, Lee won the Hugel-Air Premia LA Open, her fifth LPGA Tour victory.[10] By late the following month, she had risen to number two in the Women’s World Golf Rankings, but in her home country she still had such a low profile that she was described by The Age as the “Invisible Champion of Australia”.
On 25 July 2021, Lee won her first major championship, the Amundi Evian Championship, by coming from seven strokes behind in the final round and defeating Lee Jeong-eun on the first playoff hole.
Lee qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and competed in the women’s competition. She scored −4 across the four rounds and finished 29th, out of medal contention.
She won her seventh LPGA Tour event, the Cognizant Founders Cup, on 15 May 2022, beating Lexi Thompson by two strokes, 269 (19-under-par) to Thompson’s 271. Her final round of 70 was the only one she did not have in the 60s. The start of the final round was delayed by an hour because of fog. She was ranked fifth in the world before her win, just behind fourth-ranked Atthaya Thitikul who finished the final round with a 63, good for a tie for eighth place at 13-under-par.
