Minjee Lee takes out the Women's PGA Championship and collects $2.8 million
Minjee Lee is a major champion for a third time after taking out the Women's PGA in Texas and collecting the equal biggest payday in history to reassert herself as a force and move into rarefied air in Australian sport.
Starting the final round at Fields Ranch East just outside Dallas, where the Australian star has made her US base, Lee toughed out the scorching and windy conditions, riding out some significant early bumps on a rollercoaster final day.
As temperatures hit 35C, Lee led by as many as five shots, and as few as two after three front nine bogeys, before a steely performance across her final six holes secured an emphatic three-shot win, despite a two-over par closing round of 74, to finish on four-under and collect the $2.8m winner's cheque.
Such was the brutal nature of the four days in Texas, Lee was one of only three players in the entire field to finish under par.
Lee, 29, became just the fourth Australian golfer to win three or more majors, joining Karrie Webb (seven), Peter Thomson (5) and Jan Stephenson (3) in an elite category. She added the PGA to the US Open she won in 2022, and the Evian Championship in 2021 and now has three legs of the women's major grand slam among 13 worldwide wins in an elite career.
Webb was on hand in Texas to see Lee's win and the new PGA champion said her Aussie mentor was 'always supporting me regardless of where I am in the world'.
Pretty insane that Min Woo Lee is the second best golfer in his family.
His sister Minjee has a FIVE shot lead at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. pic.twitter.com/HB2tmwBoPN
— Fore Play (@ForePlayPod) June 22, 2025
The win also ended a 19-month winless drought for the former world No.2, the longest of her decorated career, a run which moved her to make significant changes going in to 2025.
Lee changed her club supplier and also moved to a broomstick putter to address the issues which also cost her victory in last year's US Open, the win in Texas helping bury those Demons having lost a three-shot lead in the final round.
But it wasn't without drama.
Lee surrendered the monster lead she had at Fields Ranch, this time on the front nine, with three bogeys in her opening six holes.
This time the chasers didn't come as hard though, and Lee, who came from three shots behind herself in the third round to take control, navigated her shaky star to recover with a birdie on her ninth hole.
With the wind whipping the flat, treeless, baked layout, Lee was managing her mental state as much as he game.
She was still in control of the leaderboard, and despite another bogey to start the back nine, with her lead reduced to two shots, she got that shot back with a birdie on 14 and another on 15 to lead by four shots, giving her herself a significant cushion going in to the final stretch of tough holes.
A nervous bogey on the 16th after missing the fairway dropped her lead to three shots with two to play, but both her nearest challengers were already in the clubhouse.
But having vowed to use the experience she gained in her two previous major wins, Lee stuck her tee shot on the par 3 17th to the middle of the green, walked off with par and down the tough 18th hole with a three shot lead.
Lee laced her drive down the final hole, nailed her seven-iron approach before two putts delivered one last par and another trophy.
The win will also send Lee back up the rankings, having slipped outside the world's top 20 for the first time since 2015 amid her winless run.
FINAL LEADERBOARD
4-under Minjee Lee
1- under Auston Kim, Chanettee Wannasaen
7 - Karrie Webb
5 - Peter Thomson
3 - Minjee Lee, Jan Stephenson
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