Tag: Minjee Lee

Here’s what Minjee Lee must do at this week’s AIG Women’s British Open to become World No. 1 for the first time

No Australian has been No. 1 since the rankings began in 2006.

Minjee Lee has dominated the majors of late, winning two of the last six with two additional top-5s. Coming into the second round of the AIG Women’s Open, the Aussie was a combined 58 under par since the 2021 Amundi Evian, 22 strokes better than the next player, Georgia Hall.

On Friday at Muirfield, Lee added a 1-under 70 to move to 4 under and take a share of the mid-day clubhouse lead with France’s Celine Boutier.

Currently No. 2 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, Lee has a chance to move to No. 1 for the first time with a victory at Muirfield, with Jin Young Ko likely missing the cut at 5 over. Lee also could rise to No. 1 with a solo-second finish, should Ko finish 54th or worse and No. 3 Nelly Korda finish solo-third or worse.

No Aussie has been No. 1 since the rankings debuted in February 2006. South Korea’s Ko has been ranked No. 1 for 27 consecutive weeks dating to Jan. 31, 2022. She’s been No. 1 a total of 133 weeks in her career.

The laid-back Lee seems to take it all in stride.

“I definitely know where I am on the leaderboard playing,” said Lee. “I try not to think too much about the other stuff. I’m still the same person. I’m still going to, I hit a little white golf ball around a field. That’s always been my mindset, and whatever comes with it I’m going to embrace it and be the best person that I can be.”

Lee, 26, hit 14 greens in regulation Friday and took 32 putts. She carded 15 pars on the day.

An eight-time winner on the LPGA, Lee leads the tour in scoring (69.17), money ($3,426,980) and CME points. A two-time winner this season, she has three additional top-3 finishes.

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See how Jin Young Ko, Minjee Lee, Nelly Korda–the top three women in the world all grouped together–fared on historic day at Muirfield at AIG Women’s British Open

The top three players in the world spent the day making history at the 2022 AIG Women’s British Open.

The top three players in the world spent the day making history together at Muirfield as the first women’s professional event ever held at the iconic links course got underway. World No. 1 Jin Young Ko, No. 2 Minjee Lee and No. 3 Nelly Korda teed off in the afternoon local time at the 2022 AIG Women’s British Open, the final major of the year.

Two-time major winner Minjee Lee put up the best score in the group, a 3-under 68 that included a back-nine 32 and a chip-in on the 14th. Lee sits in a share of fifth, three shots back of leader Hinako Shibuno.

“I made really quite a few good up-and-downs on the back nine,” said the Aussie, “and to be 3 under the back nine, I think is quite good considering like 14 and 15, they play really tough.”

Lee hasn’t finished outside the top 11 in her last four appearances in the British Open. She took 27 putts on the day.

Korda’s 1-under 70 included two birdies and an eagle on the par-5 fifth. She’s six back of Shibuno and five back of big sister Jessica. The Olympic gold medalist hit seven fairways and 14 greens.

“I mean, I was hitting it good,” said Korda. “I was getting some unfortunate breaks in the bunkers. I was actually hitting it really decent out of those lies. I just couldn’t make the par putts after, which obviously that’s probably even more frustrating than probably having like a 20-footer for par and missing that.”

2022 AIG Women's Open
Nelly Korda tees off on the 13th hole during Day One of the AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield on August 04, 2022 in Gullane, Scotland. (Photo by Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images)

Jin Young Ko last missed a cut in a major at the 2018 British Open. She’ll have her work cut out on Friday to keep that streak alive. Ko sits in a share of 106th after an opening 76 that included only one birdie. Ko last competed in the British Open in 2019 and has two top-three finishes in the event. She hit only four fairways on the day and nine greens.

“We’re not familiar with having to see her work this hard on a golf course,” said former British Open champion and on-course commentator Karen Stupples.

The top 65 and ties advance to the weekend.

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Here are 10 players to watch at historic Muirfield, where the AIG Women’s British Open will be contested for the first time

Who’s going to capture the final women’s major of the year?

Whoever wins this week’s AIG Women’s British Open will forever hold a special place in women’s golf history. Three years ago, Muirfield, host of 16 men’s British Opens, invited its first female members in the club’s 275-year history.

The club was actually removed from the R&A’s rota of British Open host venues after a 2016 membership vote failed to reach the two-thirds majority needed to change the rule to admit women.

The membership voted again in 2017 and pushed it through. Needless to say, the final major of 2022 carries great significance.

Jennifer Kupcho, winner of the first female event ever hosted at Augusta National, won the final Chevron Championship at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course to kick off major season. Minjee Lee’s dominant performance at the U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles followed.

Then, In Gee Chun nabbed her third different major at the KPMG Women’s PGA, and two weeks ago, the Amundi Evian saw Brooke Henderson snap a six-year drought between her first and second major titles.

Here’s a look at 10 players to keep an eye on at Muirfield:

Heartbreak for Lexi Thompson as In Gee Chun claims KPMG Women’s PGA Championship

Lexi Thompson closes with a 73 but In Gee Chun survives after going 75-75 over the weekend.

BETHESDA, Md. – In the shadow of the nation’s capital, the LPGA’s most tortured American star suffered heartbreak once more at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Eight years after Lexi Thompson won her first major, she fell just short of her second.

The golf world held its collective breath for a woman who has experienced more heartbreak inside the ropes than anyone in recent memory. Thompson hadn’t won in 50 starts on the LPGA, and her penchant for short missed putts – the kind of jab that looks like a kid next to a hot stove – haunted her down the stretch.

In Gee Chun opened with a course-record 64 at the KPMG Women’s PGA to storm out to a five-shot lead after the first round. By early Saturday, she was seven clear of the field.

But that near perfect play began to unravel late Saturday and Chun slept on – only – a three-stroke lead in pursuit of her third different major title. Chun became an LPGA member after winning the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open and then recorded the lowest 72-hole score in major championship history at the 2016 Amundi Evian Championship.

KPMG: Leaderboard | Photos

Shades of a runaway victory similar to Rory McIlroy’s at the 2011 U.S. Open covered Congressional until Sunday. Suddenly there was an anything-can-happen vibe with major champions Thompson, Hannah Green and Sei Young Kim within striking distance along with super rookies Hye-Jin Choi and Atthaya Thitikul.

Thompson struck fast, birdieing the first hole to cut the lead to two strokes and it wasn’t long before the American was in command as Chun came unraveled with a front-nine 40.

Thompson led by two with nine holes to play.

2022 KPMG Women's PGA Championship
Lexi Thompson plays her shot from the fifth tee during the final round of the 2022 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland. (Photo: Scott Taetsch-USA TODAY Sports)

But the ghosts of short misses that have haunted her in pressure-packed moments came to visit on the back nine. A two-foot par putt on the 14th hole that never had a chance was the most egregious.

With Minjee Lee breathing down her back and the lead cut to one, Thompson poured in a statement birdie putt from just off the green on the 15th to push her lead to two with three to play.

A tournament that looked like the ending had been written at the halfway point suddenly had an endless supply of dramatic turns.

After a short miss for par on the 17th, Lee stuffed her approach on the 18th to post the clubhouse lead at 4 under.

Then Thompson made a mess of the par-5 16th, dropping four strokes with a series of miscues around the green to make bogey and fall into a tie with Chun at 5 under.

On the 18th, Thompson gave herself a birdie chance to tie Chun at 5 under, stuffing her approach to about 10 feet but Thompson didn’t hit a firm putt, leaving it short and right. She posted a final-round 73 to finish at 4 under.

Moments later, Chun had a four-footer for par for the championship and she made it to win her third different women’s major.

Chun shot 75-75 on the weekend yet pulled out the victory to break her 0-for-75 winless streak worldwide.

Thompson tied Lee for solo second, one shot back.

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U.S. Women’s Open: Minjee Lee cruises to second major title, earns $1.8 million prize

No one could mount a charge to challenge the elegant and unflappable Minjee Lee.

SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. — After three days of some of the lowest scoring in U.S. Women’s Open history, a fight broke out at Pine Needles.

Challenging hole locations, an uptick in wind and the biggest purse in women’s golf history finally brought things to a boil.

Only the battle wasn’t at the top, as no one could mount a charge to challenge the elegant and unflappable Minjee Lee, who entered the final round with a three-stroke lead and finished at 13 under, four ahead of American Mina Harigae to claim her second major title. The 26-year-old Lee became the first Australian to win the U.S. Women’s Open since Karrie Webb triumphed at Pine Needles 21 years ago.

When the Women’s Open was held here in 2001, World Golf Hall of Famer Peggy Kirk Bell, who won an LPGA major as an amateur and, along with her husband Warren “Bullet” Bell, built Pine Needles into what’s become a cathedral for women’s golf, invited Patty Berg, Louise Suggs and Kathy Whitworth to give a clinic.

The entire purse that week was $1.2 million, and Webb earned $212,500 for her efforts. Whitworth wrote in her memoir – The Gift of Golf – that it was money the legendary foursome couldn’t comprehend.

“We were amazed at the lifestyle these girls have on tour today,” Bell wrote. “They have babysitters, free meals and courtesy cars!”

What would Mrs. Bell have said then, of Lee’s $1.8 million payday, the largest in women’s golf history to date? (The winner of CME Group Tour Championship in November will earn $2 million.) Coming into this week, no one on the LPGA had crossed the $1 million mark so far this season.

The only real drama of the day centered on second place, as this marked the first time in women’s golf history that two women would earn seven-figure checks. As the back nine unfolded Sunday over the revamped Donald Ross design, three players—Lydia Ko, Hyejin Choi and Harigae—battled over a $1,080,000 paycheck.

Harigae, who only two years ago felt the walls closing in as she fought to keep her tour card and pay the bills, finished solo second. Her previous biggest payday on tour was $268,657.

Consider that while the LPGA took a hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic, Harigae won $2,300 for winning a mini-tour event on the Cactus Tour by 16 shots with a closing 61.

Choi was solo third at 7 under. World No. 1 Jin Young Ko shot a 71 on Sunday to claim solo fourth. Lydia Ko bogeyed her last two holes to shoot 72 and finish solo fifth. World No. 2 Nelly Korda, competing in her first event since early February after being sidelined with a blood clod that required surgery, finished with a 73 to tie for eighth.

Born in Perth, Australia, Lee was introduced to the game by her parents. Her mother, Clara, was a teaching professional near their home and her father was a fine player in his own right. Her younger brother Min Woo, 23, will compete in his first U.S. Open later this month at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. A two-time winner on the DP World Tour, Min Woo tied for 14th in his Masters debut in April, where Minjee caddied for him in the Par 3 Contest.

Minjee and Min Woo are the only brother-sister pair to win USGA titles, with Minjee winning the 2012 U.S. Girls’ Junior and Min Woo claiming the 2016 U.S. Junior Amateur.

Lee now has eight LPGA titles worldwide, including the 2021 Amundi Evian Championship, where she came from an LPGA record-tying seven strokes back to win in a playoff.

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Minjee Lee jumps out to three-stroke lead at U.S. Women’s Open over rising American Mina Harigae

She’s the first Aussie to lead this championship through 54 holes since Karrie Webb in 2001 – at Pine Needles.

SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. — When Travis Kreiter arrived on the 13th tee at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club with fiancé Mina Harigae, he figured it was time for a pep talk.

Hey, this is the U.S. Open. You never know what’s going to happen.

Harigae held a one-stroke lead when she walked off the ninth green on Saturday at the 77th U.S. Women’s Open. By the time she got to that 13th tee, however, she trailed Minjee Lee by four.

“In the past, the round could’ve gotten away from us after 12,” said Kreiter, who has caddied for Harigae for over four years now.

Instead, Harigae enters the final round three back of Lee, a world-class ball-striker and major champion who won the most recent stroke-play event on the LPGA, the Cognizant Founders Cup held last month.

Beating Lee remains a tall order for anyone in the field, though Harigae is the only one within shouting distance. Bronte Law posted a third-round 68 to get to 7 under, but she’s six back of Lee, who at 13-under 200 sits poised to break the all-time scoring record of 16 under, set by Juli Inkster at Old Waverly Golf Club in 1999. A seemingly unflappable Lee carded a 67 on a near-perfect day amidst the Carolina pines.

Mina Harigae confers with her caddie at the 14th hole during the first round at the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open Presented by ProMedica at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C. on Thursday, June 2, 2022. (Jeff Haynes/USGA)

When asked if she could remember another time when she was in this kind of position, Lee said, “No, it’s the U.S. Open.”

Lee put the pedal down with birdies on Nos. 9, 10, 11, and 12, all from 13 feet or less. She’s the first Aussie to lead this championship through 54 holes since Karrie Webb in 2001 – at Pine Needles.

Lee, the No. 4-ranked player in the world, didn’t think to ask Webb for advice ahead of this championship but said she has enjoyed seeing her mentor’s picture up all over the place here. Webb did send her a text message yesterday that said, “Keep it going, let’s go Aussie.”

Lee has a bit of history on her side, too, as the man by her side this week, Jason Gilroyed, caddied for Cristie Kerr when she won at Pine Needles in 2007.

A seven-time winner on the LPGA, Lee looks to move closer to World No. 1. Harigae, meanwhile, is a thirty-something who hasn’t yet won on the LPGA let alone a major. It was just a few years ago that she was running out of money fast, fighting to keep her tour card.

Last year at the AIG Women’s British Open at Carnoustie, Harigae held a share of the lead going into the weekend at Carnoustie. She shot 76 on Saturday to fall out of contention, ultimately finishing tied for 13th.

But her strong play earned her a captain’s pick at last year’s Solheim Cup, and Kreiter said the experience at Inverness on a pressure-packed stage played a significant role in handling her nerves this week. Even the 5-and-4 singles loss to Celine Boutier, he said, was a good learning experience.

After bogeys on Nos. 11 and 12, Harigae stuffed her tee shot on the par-3 16th to two feet to give herself a better chance on Sunday.

Harigae has been pleased with how she has handled herself emotionally this week, saying she’s a different player than she was in her 20s.

How did she get there?

“Just a lot of self-awareness, a lot of butt-kicking from my caddie,” she said with a smile. “A lot of good hard talks. But I just realized if I wanted to get to the next level, I really had to get a hold of myself emotionally.”

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Australia’s Minjee Lee co-leads U.S. Women’s Open at site where mentor, Karrie Webb, once won

Webb won her second consecutive U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles in 2001.

SOUTHERN PINES, N.C.  — The first time Minjee Lee came to the U.S. Women’s Open, she was a guest of LPGA and World Golf Hall of Famer Karrie Webb. But the young Aussie wasn’t just a fan outside the ropes. Lee actually stayed the week at Webb’s rental house, as a perk for winning the Karrie Webb Scholarship. That was nine years ago at Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton, New York.

The next year, Lee qualified for her first U.S. Women’s Open at Pinehurst No. 2, just down the road from this week’s venue in Southern Pines, where Lee happens to pace the field at 9-under 133 along with American Mina Harigae.

Webb happened to win her second consecutive U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles in 2001. Lee didn’t get a chance to pick her brain about the place but has enjoyed seeing Webb’s picture around.

Karrie Webb (L) and Minjee Lee of Australia walk to the 4th green during round one of the International Crown on July 24, 2014, in Owings Mills, Maryland. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)

Lee, 26, won her first major title last summer at the Amundi Evian Championship and has seven career LPGA victories overall. She liked getting an up-close look at Webb’s strict routine that summer. A young Lee was already quite disciplined and felt like Webb’s example let her know she was on the track.

“We ate with her every day,” said Lee. “It was just very chill. She’s super cool, you know, when she’s not on the golf course. And she knows that.”

It was after a young Webb watched her hero, Greg Norman, compete in the 1986 Queensland Open that she came home and told her parents that she wanted to play professionally. She even stayed at Norman’s Florida estate as a bonus for being the overall girls champion in his junior golf foundation.

Webb never forgot the experience, and in 2008 brought the first winner of the Karrie Webb Scholarship to the U.S. Women’s Open at Interlachen. In 2019, Webb was on hand at Hazeltine National when another one of her scholarship winners, Hannah Green, won the KPMG Women’s PGA championship.

Green was a two-time scholarship recipient, attending her first professional golf tournament at the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She enjoyed it so much that in 2017, she went on her own to stay with Webb at the Women’s Open at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, while competing on the Epson Tour.

Lee won the Cognizant Founders Cup three weeks ago. She’s especially pleased with her putting at Pine Needles, having worked in recent weeks on her speed. Through two rounds, she ranks fifth in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting.

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Minjee Lee prevails in back-nine battle with Lexi Thompson at LPGA Cognizant Founders Cup

Minjee Lee got her breakthrough. Lexi Thompson will have to continue searching for hers.

CLIFTON, N.J. — Upper Montclair Country Club boasts a list of champions that includes some of the best women and men to ever play the game.

So it should not have been a surprise Sunday afternoon when the final group arrived at the 10th hole with two of the best players on the LPGA locked in a battle for the Cognizant Founders Cup.

Minjee Lee got her breakthrough. Lexi Thompson will have to continue searching for hers.

Lee won for the first time in nearly 10 months, shooting a gutsy 2-under-par 70 to finish at 19-under par, edging Thompson by two shots after her 3-under 69. It wasn’t an easy day for Lee. But it was enough.

“I wasn’t really that nervous, but obviously I wasn’t really striking it as well as I wanted to. I still drove it and putted it really well, so I’m going to take the positives. … Even though I didn’t hit it that well today, i’m still really, really happy.”

It was Lee’s first win since July, when she broke through for her first career major at the Evian Championship in France. But she has been on the verge seemingly ever since. She missed the cut in the Scottish Open last August — her first event after the big win — but in the next 11 events before arriving in Jersey she didn’t finish worse than a tie for 25th and gave herself plenty of chances to win with five top-five finishes.

Sunday, it finally happened. But it took a lot more effort than it looked like it might earlier in the week.

Lee, who surged to a three-shot 36-hole lead after a 9-under 63 on Friday. But the lead was down to one shot to start Sunday’s final round, which was delayed an hour by fog. And Lee did not get off to a good start. She missed a two-foot birdie putt at the fourth hole and was 1-over after a bad lie above a green-side bunker at No. 8 led to her first bogey of the day.

Thompson was looking for her first win in nearly three years, and looking to continue her success in the Garden State: that last win came down the Parkway at the 2019 ShopRite LPGA Classic. And it looked like it might be her day after she hit a brilliant approach at No. 10, and made the tricky downhill birdie putt, to pull even with Lee at 16-under. They both took advantage of the reachable par-5 12th hole, hitting the green in two and making easy birdies to tie for the lead at 17-under.

But Thompson struggled with her driver the entire back nine, missing the fairway left on the 11th and 13th holes and pushing her drive into a bunker right on the par-5 14th. Thompson had to settle for making a tricky five-footer for par, while Lee, who split the fairway with her drive and nearly reached the green in two, made an easy birdie to pull ahead for good.

Thompson had a chance to put pressure on Lee with mid-range putts on the par-3 17th and short par-4 18th, but couldn’t get them to drop. And Lee, who lipped out a birdie putt that would have sealed the win on the 17th, drained her short birdie putt on 18 to secure the two-shot win.

The 27-year-old Thompson has won 11 LPGA titles, including a major. But the drought continues.

Lee, 25, won for the seventh time on the LPGA Tour and takes home $450,000 for the victory — the largest prize in women’s golf outside of the majors and season-ending events.

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Minjee Lee stays atop the Cognizant Founders Cup leaderboard, but Solheim Cupper Madelene Sagstrom is just one shot back

It all comes down to a three-horse race on Sunday in New Jersey.

After a blazing 63 on Friday, the leader in Clifton, New Jersey, slowed down a bit Saturday. Minjee Lee, who entered the week with three straight top 20s, was able to stay atop the Cognizant Founders Cup leaderboard despite losing some ground to her chasers.

Lee started her day with a par before trading a birdie for a bogey on Nos. 2 and 3 at Upper Montclair Country Club. She bounced back with a circle on 5 and made the turn with a 1-under 35.

After making a bogey on 11, Lee canned an eagle on the par-5 12th to regain the lead. Another birdie on 13 and five closing pars totaled a third-round 3-under 69.

Lee’s last win on tour came at The Amundi Evian Championship, her first major win and sixth LPGA victory overall.

The 18-hole leader, Madelene Sagstrom, followed her up and down 2-under 70 on Friday with a bogey-free 5-under 67 to inch toward the lead. She’s just one back.

The Swede played her first four holes Saturday at 3 under then parred her way out to turn with a 3-under 33. Birdies on Nos. 12 and 14 would be the only color on her back-nine card, as she completed her day mistake free.

Madelene Sagstrom of Sweden lines up their shot on the 1st green during the third round of the Cognizant Founders Cup at Upper Montclair Country Club on May 14, 2022 in Clifton, New Jersey. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

Sagstrom entered the week in great form, as she grabbed a T-9 in her last start and a T-3 a week before that.

The Solheim Cupper’s last win came at the 2020 Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio.

Two shots behind Sagstrom is Lexi Thompson, who so far this week has fired rounds of 67, 66, and 69. On Saturday, she signed for four birdies and a bogey, which came at the par-5 9th. She’s three back of Lee entering the final round.

Angel Yin (11 under) is fourth while Paula Reto, Megan Khang, and Ally Ewing (9 under) are tied for fifth.

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Minjee Lee takes command with 63 on Friday at LPGA’s Cognizant Founders Cup

Minjee Lee matched her season low score Friday at Upper Montclair Country Club in New Jersey.

CLIFTON, N.J. — On Thursday afternoon, Minjee Lee started the Cognizant Founders Cup in a way that most lost golfers would try to forget: with a double bogey on her first hole, the par-4 10th.

Less than 24 hours later, midway through her second round, Lee returned to the 10th tee at Upper Montclair Country Club. After making 12 birdies in the 26 holes since, it would have been easy for her to pretend the gaffe never happened.

But the 25-year-old Australian took a different approach.

“I was like, ‘I’m not making the same mistake twice,’” Lee said. “So I made a better decision from off the tee. … And [then] I hit it close. So it was nice to make a birdie.”

Lee made birdies at 10 and 11 and an eagle at 12, propelling the fifth-ranked player in the world to the top of the leaderboard with a 9-under 63. Lee, the fifth-ranked player in the world, is 14 under through 36 holes, three clear of the field but with some big names lurking near the top.

World No. 9 Lexi Thompson fired a 6-under 66 and is tied for second with Ally Ewing, who also shot a 66, and Madelene Sagstrom, who went 2 under on Friday after shooting a 63 on Thursday. All three are at 11 under.

Megan Khang is tied for sixth, six shots back at 8 under after shooting even par to follow up her Thursday 64. And Anna Davis, the 16-year-old who won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur last month, shot a 2-under 70 to get to 4 under to make the cut in a second straight LPGA event, the first two of her career. She’s tied for 32nd, one shot behind World No. 1 Jin Young Ko, who shot a 2-under 70 and is 5 under for the tournament.

Meanwhile, Ireland’s Leona Maguire shot a 4-over 76 to finish 1 over and miss the cut by two. Marina Alex, who grew up in nearby Wayne and picked up her second LPGA victory earlier this month, shot an even-par 72 to finish at two over par and also miss the cut.

As for Lee, she started her second round Friday morning at 5 under and quickly jumped to the top of the field with four birdies in her first six holes. And after playing the first three holes of the back nine in 4 under, she also birdied 14 and 15 to reach 10 under with three holes to play.

She had a real chance to shoot 59. But Lee said that wasn’t on her mind before she made bogey on 16.

“I didn’t know,” Lee said. “Now that you say it, maybe I could have, but not today.”

Thompson, who played alongside Lee in the same group, didn’t think she’d be seeing anyone challenging to break 60 earlier this week. And she certainly didn’t see double digits under par leading the tournament after two rounds.

“No, not when it was blowing 25 miles per hour and they were playing it super long,” Thompson said. “I definitely didn’t see it. They moved quite a few tees up, and, I mean, we’ve had perfect conditions, very little wind, and the course is in amazing shape, so you know if you’re just rolling your putts you know it’s not going to bounce. They’re rolling so pure.”

Lee agreed with Thompson. After the practice rounds she believed the winning score would be around 10 under for the week so she was pretty surprised to be four shots better than that after 36 holes.

The 63 marked Lee’s best score of the season — and marked the second time she’s done it in as many events — but she knows that conditions can change quickly over the weekend, and if that happens, a birdie-fest could turn into a much tougher challenge very quickly as Lee looks for her first win of the year and 10th on the LPGA.

“I’m just going to go in with the same mindset, just go shot by shot,” Lee said. ”The course hasn’t been playing too firm yet so I’m not sure how the conditions will change. Just depending. I’ll just be pretty aggressive. … and just do my best.”

Her plan to get ready for playing in the final group Sunday?

“I think I’m going to go get a bubble tea,” Lee said. “Yeah.”

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