Lee informed a rules official of the mistake on the second tee.
It was a strange Saturday for Australia’s Minjee Lee, who began the day with an unforced error after accidentally leaving an extra club, used as a training aid, in her golf bag. Lee informed a rules official of the mistake on the second tee at The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican and was given a two-stroke penalty, which resulted in a double bogey on the first hole.
Because Lee discovered the club prior to hitting a shot on the second hole, she was assessed a penalty only for the first hole for exceeding the 14-club limit, a breach of Rule 4.1(b)1. The training aid was not used during the round.
Four birdies and an eagle later, Lee put herself back in contention until posting another double bogey on the par-4 17th and a bogey on the 18th. The two-time major winner carded a 1-under 69 in Round 3 and currently sits six back of leader Charley Hull, who paces the field at 12 under.
Lee carded rounds of 66-69-69 to hold a share of 11th.
Kim has 12 career LPGA wins and is coming off a third-place finish.
Sei Young Kim followed up her opening-round 10-under 62 with a 2-under 70 on Friday and leads the 2024 Buick LPGA Shanghai through 36 holes as the tournament heads on to Moving Day.
Kim made three birdies and a bogey around Qizhong Garden Golf Club on Friday and will take a one-stroke advantage over Mao Saigo and Lucy Li into the weekend. The 31-year-old has 12 career LPGA wins and is coming off a third-place finish at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.
Minjee Lee is alone in fourth at 10 under, two shots back, while Nasa Hataoka and Celine Boutier are part of a large group at 8 under, T-6.
“I think my game has just been improving little by little throughout the whole year,” Lee said. “I played one week in my sponsor’s event couple weeks ago and I just had a good result there, so just trying to ride the momentum. I also enjoy playing this golf course as well.”
Third-round TV coverage begins at 11 p.m. ET Friday on Golf Channel.
“It’s kind of crazy. I’m aiming 30, 40 yards right of the pin.”
They needed to play catch-up at Dundonald Links on Thursday. In fact, the organizers just about required a couple of snookers to get the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open back on track after Thursday’s meteorological muddle, when heavy rains soaked the course.
We’re getting there, though. As for Minjee Lee and Megan Khang? Well, it’s a case of catch us if you can. Lee, the 28-year-old Australian, pinched the first-round lead on Thursday in the near darkness. On Friday, she was home and dry at a more civilized hour.
A three-under 69, which included a finishing flourish of two birdies at 17 and 18, cemented her position at the top of the order.
She was joined at the summit later in the evening by Khang, who picked up a birdie on her closing hole en route to a four-under 68.
Lee, whose brother Min Woo won the men’s Scottish Open back in 2021, has dropped only one shot in 36 holes. In the robust conditions this week, that’s a fine effort.
Last year, Lee began her Dundonald campaign with a potentially ruinous 80 but then reeled off three rounds in the 60s during the kind of mighty salvage operation that raised the Mary Rose. The two-time major winner is now 22-under for her last five rounds in this neck of the woods.
More of the same will do over the weekend. “Obviously, I would love to win,” said Lee, who was pipped to the Scottish title by a shot when it was played at Gullane in 2018.
“I’m just going to do what I can control. I can’t control what other people are doing. I’ll just try my very best. If that happens to be a win, then great.”
Khang packed six birdies into her round as the American Solheim Cup player fortified her position on the leaderboard.
With the wind whipping over the links, Khang certainly enjoyed the challenge. “It’s not often I’m hitting a 7-iron to a 116-yard pin,” she said of this very different style of golf.
“It’s kind of crazy. I’m aiming 30, 40 yards right of the pin and to be able to pull off a shot, it’s a huge confidence boost. You just laugh, like wow, I can’t believe that actually worked sometimes. And so just having a mindset, all right, let’s really trust it and have some fun. Sometimes it can work out and sometimes it doesn’t. I’m trying to tell myself that if I can at least do everything I can to hit the shot I picture, I really can’t be too upset.”
Meanwhile, England’s Charley Hull is right in the thick of it heading into the weekend after following up her opening 70 with a 68 to lurk just two shots off the pace on six-under.
Starting on the 10th, Hull enjoyed a lively little burst around the turn and birdied the 17th and eagled the 18th after her approach trundled to within 15 feet of the pin. Two more birdies at the first and third bolstered her assault.
Hull warmed up for this week’s domestic showpiece down the road at Turnberry. She even declared that The Open and some of the big women’s events should head back to the storied Ailsa links.
Of course, with Donald Trump’s name on the entry gates, there’s more chance of The Open being staged on the outer rings of Saturn.
Hull’s Turnberry tune-up has certainly stood her in good stead, though.
With the AIG Women’s Open coming up next week at the Old Course, Hull is getting into the links swing again.
“I love links golf but I find it hard to play in,” said Hull, who is looking to capture a third LPGA Tour title. “I feel like my game is more built for America.
“But over the last few weeks, my coach and I have been working on doing more three-quarter swings so I can do a low-ball flight for the (Women’s) Open. It is actually paying off.”
Lydia Ko, the newly crowned Olympic champion, harnessed the conditions to fine effect as she joined Hull and American, Lauren Coughlin, on the six-under mark after a 69.
“I can’t remember the last time I’ve had to hit a 3-wood on a par 3,” smiled Ko of the club she had to clatter into the wind on the fourth.
“I hit a 5-iron yesterday and today I hit a 3-wood and it landed just pin-high. The number goes out of the window in the wind.”
It wasn’t a good day for the home hopefuls. Only three were in the field and they’re all out now. Gemma Dryburgh, who was desperate for a good week to boost her Solheim Cup ambitions, missed the cut on seven-over after a 75.
Her fellow Aberdonian, Laura Beveridge, also departed on 13-over after a turbulent 83 while Glasgow’s Kylie Henry joined the casualty list on 11-over although she at least shaved 11 shots off her first-round 83 with a spirited 72 in round two. There’s always a bit of pride to play for.
Saso is the 13th woman to win the event more than once in 79 years of competition.
LANCASTER, Pa. – At the end of Yuka Saso’s winner’s press conference, a USGA official handed her a whoopie pie. The chocolate cake-like sandwiches, filled with a fluffy cream center, originated in Lancaster County, and legend has it that when Amish children found the desserts in their lunch pails, they’d yell “Whoopie!”
Saso shifted her seat around so that cameras couldn’t catch her taking a bite behind the Harton S. Semple trophy. It was the only shy moment of the day for the woman who stormed to the finish line at demanding Lancaster Country Club to claim her second U.S. Women’s Open title in three years.
When Saso won her first in a playoff at The Olympic Club at age 19, she represented her mother’s native Philippines, giving that country its first major championship. On Sunday in Lancaster, she represented Japan, giving her father’s native homeland its first U.S. Women’s Open champion.
“It’s just a wonderful feeling that I was able to give back to my parents in the same way,” said Saso, who got emotional during the trophy presentation when talking about her family.
Yuka Saso poses for a photograph with the Harton S. Semple trophy in front of the scoreboard after winning the 2024 U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club. (Photo: Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
The 79th edition of this championship will long be remembered as a week of surprises. It started with 29-year-old Lexi Thompson’s stunning retirement announcement. Two days later, Nelly Korda made a 10 on her third hole of the championship, putting three balls into the water on the par-3 12th, and it suddenly felt like the championship got punched in the gut.
The player who’d dominated the entire season, winning six of her last seven starts, wasn’t even around for the weekend. But the bleeding didn’t stop with Korda. The list of stars who exited early was a who’s who of favorites, including Rose Zhang, Brooke Henderson and Lydia Ko.
One silver lining: The mass exodus gave room for a surprise veteran – Wichanee Meechai – to step up to the mic and win over hearts with the rarest kind of honesty. The way 31-year-old Meechai talked about what pressure does to her body was a masterclass in letting people into an athlete’s mind. The fact that she told a few ghost stories along the way was icing on the whoopie pie.
By the time Sunday rolled around, only five players were under par and two-time major winner Minjee Lee was the undisputed favorite. Lee shared the lead at the start of the day with the winless Meechai and Andrea Lee, an American who’d won at every level but never the really big titles.
A couple of major champions who hadn’t done much lately, Saso and 2019 AIG Women’s Open champion Hinako Shibuno, rounded out the top five.
As the afternoon got underway in front some of the biggest galleries players will see this decade, Lee jumped out to an early advantage but struggles off the tee kept her from pulling away. Instead, the leaderboard felt like a free-for-all as every player who started the day in the red struggled with the pressure.
By the time American Ally Ewing posted a closing 66 to finish at even par for the tournament, it felt for a moment like she could pull off a come-from-behind finish for the ages.
But then Saso, who four-putted for double on the sixth hole, found another gear when she drained a rare birdie on Nelly’s nemesis 12th hole and kept going, pouring in more birdies on 13, 15 and 16. The 3-wood she hit from the tee on the drivable par-4 16th to 16 feet sent a powerful statement as she now led the field by three.
A clutch up-and-down on the 18th, where she’d struggled with a similar shot the day prior, sealed the three-shot victory for Saso, who made a staggering 422 feet of putts for the week.
Three years ago, Saso, who modeled her swing after her favorite player, Rory McIlroy. matched Inbee Park as the youngest champion in U.S. Women’s Open history in 2021 at 19 years, 11 months and 17 days. On Sunday, she became the youngest to win multiple titles at 22 years, 11 months and 13 days.
“We thought it was the perfect golf course for her,” said Saso’s veteran caddie Dylan Vallequette. “She hits it long; she hits it high.”
Saso’s $2.4 million payday is the largest first-place prize ever given at a women’s major. Shibuno’s closing 72 gave Japan an historic 1-2 finish. The Smiling Cinderella earned $1.3 million for her efforts and was asked how she planned to spend her money.
“I will ask Yuka to buy me something,” she joked.
For Andrea Lee, this was a massive building block as the former Stanford star found herself playing in the final group of a major for the first time.
“I was extremely nervous,” said Lee, who took a share of third with Ewing, “but I feel like I learned a lot about how to control my emotions out here.”
For Meechai, the week held a slew of firsts. Her share of sixth is her first top 10 in a major. She leaves Lancaster with an untold number of new fans and, hopefully, a world of confidence.
“I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing right now and just believe in myself that I can do it,” she said, “that I can win the tournament. I think that’s the key for me now.”
Minjee Lee, the most grizzled veteran of the bunch in terms of success, posted the highest final round among the contenders, a 78. She dropped all the way to down to a share of ninth.
“Obviously, I’m going to acknowledge my disappointment and then come back stronger,” she said, “take the positives out of the week, you know.”
The classy Minjee, the 2022 USWO champion, stood in the back of the flash area with Saso’s father during the winner’s press conference. Shibuno stuck around, too, for her friend.
Asterisk Talley, the brace-faced, fearless 15-year-old who was in the top five after two rounds, shared low amateur honors with 2023 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Megan Schofill and USC’s Catherine Park. All three finished in a share of 44th.
For Saso, this victory likely means a return to the Olympics in Paris under a new flag as she vaults up the Rolex Rankings. It certainly means a return to the spotlight, where her name will be mentioned on a short list of players who pose a threat to Korda’s towering command.
In the meantime, Saso was off to find some dinner before she gets back to that whoopie pie. Can’t have too much sugar on an empty stomach, she explained.
After all, she was already on a natural high.
Golfers with at least two U.S. Women’s Open titles
Lee got off to a strong start at the Blue Bay LPGA event in China after posting a course record-tying 7-under 65.
Past champion Minjee Lee got off to a strong start at the Blue Bay LPGA event in China after posting a smooth 7-under 65, which ties the course record. The Aussie holds a one-stroke advantage over American Sarah Schmelzel and Chinese players Miranda Wang and Ruixin Liu. This marks the first edition of the Blue Bay event since 2018.
“I just took advantage of the really calm conditions this morning,” said Lee, “and I think with the a little bit the rain it actually stopped it even more, the wind.”
While Lee won twice in 2023, this marks the first time she has led or co-led after the first round since the 2022 Chevron Championship. Earlier this season, it was announced that Lee had joined her brother Min Woo on the Callaway staff. Previously a Srixon player, one of the best ball-strikers on the LPGA had some work to do to get things in order. This is her second start this season. She opened with a T-29 last week in Singapore.
“I actually touched on everything this offseason,” said Lee, “especially changing my equipment to Callaway. Everything has been a little bit of a process getting used to, but I think it’s going to take me a couple events just to knock the rust off and break those clubs in.”
Lee also holds the 36-hole and 72-hole scoring records at Blue Bay.
Schmelzel led after the first round of last week’s HSBC Women’s World Championship and ultimately tied for eighth.
Lydia Ko of New Zealand plays her shot on the 9th hole during the first round of the Blue Bay LPGA at Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Course on March 07, 2024 in Hainan Island, Hainan. (Photo by Zhizhao Wu/Getty Images)
Lydia Ko, who needs one more point to enter the LPGA Hall of Fame and a win would get her there, opened with a 68 at Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Course.
“There are some greens with some pin positions that like is actually really hard to stay on the same tier,” said Ko. “I think how the rules officials are going to set up the golf course and where they put the pins are going to dictate the scores a lot.”
World No. 1 Lilia Vu withdrew from the final round in Singapore on Sunday with an illness. She rested on Monday and shot 72 in the opening round.
“I feel like there was a big crowd out here,” said Vu. “I was playing with Ruoning (Yin), so obviously it’s her crowd. There was a lot of little kids out there following her, so it was really cool to see the turnout here.”
Lee is now the third player from Australia to reach double-digits LPGA victories.
Minjee Lee recorded her 10th career victory at the BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea in a playoff over Alison Lee. It was a rematch of the 2012 U.S. Girls’ Junior final, which Minjee happened to win as well.
“I was like, this kind of feels familiar,” said the 27-year-old Aussie.
Minjee became the fifth player this season to win multiple titles when she drained a 6-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole. The American Alison Lee, a former top-ranked amateur, is still waiting on her maiden LPGA victory. Minjee won Cincinnati’s Kroger Queen City Championship in September.
“Out of all the places, Korea was always at the top of my list because my parents are Korean and I have a heritage to Korea,” said Minjee. “This one is special, and especially having all of my family and extended family and friends coming out to cheer for me today, it was really cool to see them on the sidelines when I was walking down. It was great that I was able to win today.”
Minjee earned $330,000 for her victory, giving her $1,552,475 for the season. It’s her second victory in her last three starts. She is now the third player from Australia to reach double digits in tour victories, joining Jan Stephenson (16) and Karrie Webb (41).
A two-time major winner who has now won in each of her last three LPGA seasons, Minjee closed with a 4-under 68 at Seowon Hills at Seowon Valley Country Club to finish at 16 under while Alison, a former UCLA standout, birdied her last two holes in regulation to shoot 67.
“I feel like I’m hitting it so well and I had so many putts this week lip out,” said Alison, “and I can’t stop thinking about all those small mistakes that I potentially made.”
Lydia Ko, playing on a sponsor invite, closed with a third consecutive 69 to finish third, two strokes back. The season has been largely a struggle for Ko, who hadn’t previously cracked the top 10 since February in Thailand.
“I feel like I’ve been moving in the right direction and felt like I was moving in the right direction, but the results weren’t really a good reflection of that,” said Ko, who won the BMW last year. “So at least this week is a confirmation to say, hey, it’s not dead yet.”
American Angel Yin, who won her first LPGA title last week in Shanghai, closed with a 67 to finish fourth.
South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai came into the final round tied with Minjee at 12 under but dropped to a share of 13th after a final-round 74. Buhai did win $10,000 in unofficial money from the tournament for setting a BMW scoring record of 10-under 62 in the first round.
Lee is looking for her second win in three starts.
After Saturday’s third round, Ashleigh Buhai and Minjee Lee are tied for the 54-hole lead at 12 under at the LPGA’s BMW Ladies Championship at Seowon Hills at Seowon Valley Country Club in Korea.
Buhai, who shot rounds of 62-73 over the first two days, signed for a bogey-free 3-under 69 on Saturday. The 20th-ranked player in the Rolex Rankings, who has missed the cut in four of her last five starts, is looking for her second win of the year (ShopRite LPGA Classic).
Lee mixed three birdies with two bogeys in round three, good enough for a 1-under effort. The Aussie, who is seventh in the world, won the Kroger Queen City Championship last month.
Lydia Ko and Alison Lee are tied for third at 11 under, one back. Lauren Coughlin and Céline Boutier are two back at 10 under. Atthaya Thitikul and Jiyai Shin sit T-7, three back. And rounding the top 10 are Hannah Green and Angel Yin at T-9, four back.
Crazy winds were the story of the second round in Korea.
Scoring conditions were completely different Friday at Seowon Hills at Seowon Valley Country Club.
Ashleigh Buhai, the first-round leader, was 11 shots worse in the second round than on her opening day. She only shot 1 over.
Swirling winds were the story of the second round at the LPGA’s BMW Ladies Championship in Korea, but it’s Minjee Lee who fired a 3-under 69 to move into the lead heading to the weekend. After a day where there were more 66s than scores over par, the script flipped Friday.
“It was really hard conditions out there,” Lee said. “A lot of wind swirling around the valley. So sometimes we had really strong gusts, and I had to back off. But overall I had a really good finish.”
Lee sits at 11 under, two shots in front of American Alison Lee, who shot even-par 72 after an opening 9-under performance. Buhai is also T-2 at 9 under.
“It was definitely really frustrating,” Alison said of her even-par round, “but tried to stay patient. I definitely feel like I missed a few really good birdie opportunities out there. Like I feel like I could have played so much better than even.”
Lydia Ko, the event’s defending champion, sits T-4 at 8 under.
LPGA begins its four-week Asian swing in China for the first time since 2019.
The LPGA returns to China this week for the first time since 2019 for the third edition of the Buick LPGA Shanghai. Danielle Kang, winner of the event in 2018 and 2019, returns to Qizhong Garden Golf Club to try for a Shanghai trifecta.
The event had been canceled the past three seasons due to ongoing COVID-19-related restrictions.
The field in Shanghai consists of 62 LPGA players, 15 players from the China Golf Association and four sponsor invites competing for a $2.1 million purse in the 72-hole, no-cut event. Four players inside the top 10 of the Rolex Rankings are in the field.
Some on the LPGA have raised concerns in the past about the tour continuing to compete in China. Amy Olson told Golfweek two years ago that she didn’t feel it was safe there for players. Olson said too many have turned a blind eye to the mass imprisonment and persecution of the Uyghurs by the Chinese government in the Xinjiang province. What’s more, Olson continued, Chinese officials weren’t transparent with what was happening in their hospitals and within their borders during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As an organization that stands up for women’s rights and has fought day in and day out for those rights,’’ said Olson, who is currently on maternity leave, “what China has done flies directly in the face of everything we stand for.”
Like Olson, Angela Stanford has made a personal commitment not to compete in China or Saudi Arabia due to human rights concerns.
Shanghai is the first of four events on the LPGA’s Asia swing, with the tour heading to South Korea next for the BMW Ladies Championship, followed by a return to Malaysia for the Maybank Championship and a final stop in Japan for the Toto Japan Classic.
Lee has now won six of the last eight tournaments in which she held the 54-hole lead.
It was a weekend of rallies at the 2023 LPGA Kroger Queen City Championship, which also produced a new world No. 1.
Minjee Lee was six shots back of the lead after 36 holes but through 10 holes Sunday during the final round, she held a five-shot lead. Ballgame, right?
As ESPN college football analyst Lee Corso likes to say: Not so fast, my friends, because that’s just when Charley Hull turned on the jets and put on a rally of her own at Kenwood Country Club in Cincinnati.
Hull birdied the par-3 11th and then overcame a bogey on the next hole to make three straight birdies on Nos. 14, 15 and 16 to forge a tie atop the leaderboard at 16 under.
Lee and Hull were still tied on the 18th tee box and they each proceeded to hit driver into the same fairway bunker, their balls ending up with 10 feet of each.
From there, Hull blasted out and got her ball to the front fringe, giving herself a 54-foot birdie putt to win. She missed just left and then watched as Lee, whose third shot was a chip to about eight feet, need to make her putt for par, which she did for a final-round 71. Hull then made her one-footer for a par of her own for a final-round 69 and the two headed back to the 18th tee box for a playoff, the ninth of the LPGA season.
Lee’s second shot on the first playoff hole found the green, but Hull’s took a huge bounce and came to rest near the grandstands behind the green. Her putt from off the green rolled and rolled and rolled and nearly went in, coming to a rest one rotation short of the cup.
Lee then pulled her 20-footer for birdie left and it was back to the 18th tee box for a second playoff hole. That’s where Lee landed her second shot short of the green but it bounded on and rolled to about three feet.
“You have to land it like 25 yards short of the green because I was also coming out of the rough,” she said after he round. “So I just hit pitching wedge and hit it three quarter and it was really… you can’t really predict how far it’s going to run so it was just a guesstimate.”
She then poured in the birdie putt to get the win.
Lee secured her first victory of the season and the ninth in her LPGA career. She now has seven top-20 finishes in her last nine outings. More impressively, Lee has now won six of the last eight tournaments in which she led after three rounds.
“I guess I just have a lot of grit,” she said when asked about her ability to close. “Coming down the stretch I never give up, and I like to think that I’m always putting pressure on my opponents and not giving it up too easily. So I think I just have great fight in me and really great resilience.”
The LPGA breaks for the Solheim Cup in two weeks. There are two events back-to-back after that, but the Aussie says she has other plans.
“I’m actually looking forward to a couple weeks off and some down time,” she said. “Going to go back to Perth during Arkansas and Dallas, so hopefully I can enjoy this one back home with my friends and family.”
Hull fell just short of her third LPGA win.
New No. 1 in Rolex Rankings
Ruoning Yin plays her shot from the fifth tee during the final round of the 2023 Kroger Queen City Championship at Kenwood Country Club in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo: Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
Ruoning Yin, who finished solo third at 14 under, couldn’t quite catch the leaders but by virtue of a top-4 finish, will ascend to the No. 1 spot when the Rolex Rankings are updated on Monday.
She will unseat Lilia Vu, who climbed to No. 1 a month ago after winning the 2023 AIG Women’s Open. Yin, No. 2 in the rankings heading into the week, was outside the top 400 this time a year ago.
Defending champ earns solo fourth
Ally Ewing tees off on first hole during the final round of the 2023 Kroger Queen City Championship in at Kenwood Country Club. (Photo: Albert Cesare/The Enquirer)
Ally Ewing, who won the inaugural Kroger Queen City Championship in 2022, shot a 66 and finished solo fourth.
Mel Reid also shot a final-round 66 to earn a tie for fifth, posting her best finish of the season and first top-10. She came into the Kroger having missed the cut in four of her last five outings.
Another Sunday 66 was recorded by Brooke Henderson, who was celebrating her 26th birthday. She tied for 23rd.
Rose Zhang tapped in for par for a 72 on Sunday, a day after posting a 73. She finished tied for 31st.
A total of 80 golfers made the cut and played the weekend.
