US Girls’s Open champion Minjee Lee displays on a ‘huge step’ for girls’s golf after historic payout
Lee headed into the final day driving the tide of an unprecedented first three rounds, capturing 67, 66, 67 to interrupt Juli Inkster’s 23-year-old file throughout 54 holes with a 13-under par 200.
The scintillating begin meant that even a level-par 71 on the ultimate spherical did not cease the 26-year-old from breaking the 72-hole championship scoring file, pipping Inkster, In Gee Chun and Annika Sorenstam by one stroke together with her 13-under 271 end.
Main by six photographs on the twelfth gap and ending 4 strokes forward of American Mina Harigae, her victory had seemed to be a procession even earlier than the Australian took to the ultimate tee — however to not Lee.
“I used to be nervous as hell,” Lee admitted to CNN’s Coy Wire. “However it was fairly cool.
“Strolling down that 18th gap … all the group, trying on the end line — it was only a actually particular second.”
‘It is an excellent factor for the ladies’s sport’
In lifting the Harton S. Semple trophy, Lee turned the primary Australian to take action since Karrie Webb in 2001, and was rewarded for her efforts with a champagne bathe courtesy of compatriot Hannah Inexperienced.
Second-placed Harigae earned the most important runner-up sum in ladies’s golf historical past, taking residence $1.08 million of the file $10 million total prize purse.
“We’re aiming for increased and better every time,” Lee stated. “For the USGA and the US Open to step up and begin that, it is a huge step in the suitable route.
“It is an excellent factor for the ladies’s sport and the LPGA.”
Whereas Lee admitted she hadn’t been following the story carefully, she understood the controversy the brand new occasion had attracted.
“I do not actually know an excessive amount of about that, clearly it has been a bit bit controversial,” Lee stated.
“I assume it is simply perspective on the place you might be in your life proper now,” she added.
Function mannequin
Triumph in Southern Pines marked the second main of the Australian’s profession, including to her triumph on the Evian Championship final yr, and her eighth win on the LPGA Tour.
However regardless of the accolades, Lee is focusing on a legacy past prize cash and trophies — inspiring the subsequent era of younger golfers.
“Hopefully they will watch me on TV and I generally is a nice function mannequin for all the women and boys all world wide to observe your goals,” Lee stated. “You are able to do it. Anyone can do it.
“So long as you keep on with your plan and keep on with what you like then I feel you are all the time going to be doing the suitable factor.”
Her rise to change into the No. 3 golfer on the planet has been aided by the encouragement of her household, none extra so than youthful brother Min Woo Lee, a golf professional himself on the PGA Tour.
“They have been with me each step of the way in which and I’ve solely all the time received encouragement from them,” she stated.
“If I wished to follow, I may go follow. If I did not then I did not need to. They’ve simply all the time been an excellent assist and nonetheless are and it is simply been a extremely nice journey to this point.”
