Lee needed extra holes, but the Australian claimed another title via playoff at the BMW Ladies Championship.
The Ladies BMW Championship needed extra holes to decide a winner, but Minjee Lee came out on top to earn her 10th LPGA victory.
It was also her second playoff win this season as Lee held off Charley Hull to win a playoff and take home the Kroger Queen City Championship crown in September.
While double-digit wins are impressive, the 27-year-old now has eyes on a different goal.
POV: @minjeegolf wins the 2023 BMW Ladies Championship! pic.twitter.com/0FCTn0BfdQ
— LPGA (@LPGA) October 22, 2023
“I still haven’t been able to reach world No. 1 yet. So that is the goal for me, and that is where I want to reach,” Lee said after her round. “I think I’ve got to put in a little bit more work to get there. Golf, you never know what’s going to happen. So I’m going to try and do it in the years that I can, so hopefully I can do it in the next few.”
Coming into Sunday’s round, Lee was atop the leaderboard with Ashleigh Buhai at Seowon Hills in Korea. She wouldn’t sink her first birdies until the sixth and seventh holes before dropping a shot on nine.
The leaderboard was crowded at the top, with the lead changing multiple times throughout the final round of play. However, after that ninth-hole bogey, Lee turned up the dial and wasn’t going to let this tournament slip away.
Alison Lee carded a 67 to set the pace at 16-under. Minjee Lee added birdies on holes 10, 13 and 15 to sign for a final round 68 and tie Alison. It only took one playoff hole though for the Australian to hoist the trophy.
Minjee Lee is no stranger to playoffs in the Republic of Korea. She fell to Carlota Ciganda at the 2016 LPGA KEB Hana Bank Championship. But she wasn’t about to let it happen again.
“As a golfer, we have a lot more losses than wins,” Lee said. “So I feel like over the course of my career, I’ve had a lot of experiences that have helped me to overcome these situations, and obviously, I’m a little more acclimated now than I used to be to these situations, too.”
LPGA Tour winner @PGATOUR winner
— LPGA (@LPGA) October 22, 2023
Fresh off of their respective wins in Asia, @minjeegolf and @collin_morikawa shared a flight home! ✈️ pic.twitter.com/0Nl70Bpn7j
This victory gives Lee her second in three starts.
She ranks No. 7 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, so her goal is right there.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
