The most interesting triumph for Australia’s highest-paid sportswoman was accompanied by one thing uncommon. For the normally non-public, emotionless Minjee Lee – after profitable her third main on the Ladies’s PGA Championship close to her second dwelling in Dallas, Texas – tears have been a glimpse into her latest ache.
A 19-month winless run. A collapse ultimately yr’s US Open. An adoption of the broomstick putter, a really public image that every thing was not proper. However these experiences have been consigned to the previous after sinking a par putt on 18 in Frisco. “It’s very completely different, as a result of I really feel like I had lots of doubt the previous few years,” she stated. “I believe this one simply means slightly bit extra to me.”
The West Australian received by three strokes to earn $2.8m and grow to be solely the third Australian golfer to say three completely different main championships, after Karrie Webb and Jan Stephenson. Even Greg Norman solely discovered main success at a single event, the Open Championship, in his two victories.
Lee’s coach Ritchie Smith stated it may be troublesome to grasp simply how a lot Lee has achieved. “It’s a golden period for girls’s golf, and he or she’s nonetheless an amazing,” he stated. “It’s exhausting for me to say, as a result of I’m her coach and I’m biased. I don’t suppose she’s only a nice of golf, I believe she’s an amazing of Australian sport.”
The likes of Ash Barty, Sam Kerr, Lauren Jackson, Ellyse Perry and Stephanie Gilmore have been recognised as Australia’s most profitable feminine sportspeople prior to now decade, all as normal bearers in globally aggressive sports activities. However whereas Lee had risen to grow to be the second-ranked golfer on the earth by 2019, her profile – at the very least in Australia – was not on the similar degree as her friends. Exterior the lads’s majors, golf doesn’t have the identical cut-through or broad enchantment as different codes, and when it does attain a broader Australian consciousness, it’s normally because of the achievements of PGA stars equivalent to Adam Scott or 2022 Open Championship winner Cameron Smith. Lee’s softly-spoken method and reserved manner can be lower than a pure match with publicity.
Her profile has even been challenged by her youthful brother Min Woo, now Australia’s top-ranked males’s golfer. He has emerged as a reliable star on the lads’s PGA Tour over the previous two years, with a brash social media standing enhanced by a stream of movie star colabs.
However over 11 years on the LPGA tour, Minjee’s winnings nonetheless dwarf the prize cash received by her brother, and are approaching US$20m. Even when the youthful Lee passes that determine, he nearly definitely won’t finish his profession with something close to the checklist of her accomplishments. Minjee Lee is barely the fifth lively participant to have received three majors alongside Lydia Ko, Yani Tseng, In Gee Chun and Anna Nordqvist, and solely Ko is youthful.
The Australian is aware of she ought to have had one other too, after she led by three photographs within the last spherical of final yr’s US Open earlier than she “blew up” – as she described afterwards – to complete ninth. Throughout Lee’s a few years as an expert, Smith has noticed how she handles defeat much less with disappointment and extra with embarrassment, and the US Open end result was about as dangerous because it may get. On the game’s highest stage, there was Lee, totally uncovered.
“To capitulate the way in which that she did final yr, it had a extremely destructive impact on her,” Smith stated. “So to reinvest into really being in a weak place like that, it takes a very long time, and that is what folks don’t perceive. She’s risked being weak in entrance of an entire heap of individuals, and I couldn’t be prouder of her to be trustworthy, as a result of that’s a scary proposition.”
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Lee was requested by the host within the trophy ceremony whether or not she now needs she had adopted the longer putter “slightly bit earlier”. She laughed and stated “no”. It was an acknowledgement of the significance of her latest adversity.
Quite than simply biomechanics, Smith stated Lee has undergone psychological change. “She’s been so guarded and stoic for her complete profession,” he stated. “And now, if in case you have a take a look at her, her interview on the finish of the spherical, there have been precise feelings, she shed a tear – which might be the primary time she’s ever executed that.”
Smith believes the method means Lee can now be happier within the sport. “All of her ‘being’ revolved round being a extremely nice golfer, however if you emotionally disengage slightly bit, then unexpectedly you may be the person who you wish to be. And I don’t know in the event you discover, however she smiles much more now.”
Lee admits the criticism affected her. “The extra I heard, just like the media and different folks saying issues about my placing, I believe it received to me increasingly over time.” But that troublesome interval is now over. A serious winner once more, Lee stated this week’s triumph – highlighted by a champagne bathe on the 18th inexperienced delivered by these acquainted with her struggles – was “my most deserved”.
