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KPMG Women's PGA 2025: Minjee Lee wins third career major championship

KPMG Women's PGA 2025: Minjee Lee wins third career major championship

USA Today6 hours ago

A champion was crowned in Frisco on Sunday as LPGA pros competed in the final round 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship, the third major in 2025 for the women.
Minjee Lee and Jeeno Thitikul were in the final pairing but it didn't shape up to be a Sunday duel as Lee was over par but able to fend off all challengers at a golf course that the No. 1 player in the world called "almost impossible" at times.
Golfweek provided updates, scores and highlights from the 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship:
KPMG Women's PGA 2025 live leaderboard
Here's a look at the top of the final 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship leaderboard.
Minjee Lee wins 2025 KPMG Women's PGA for third career major
Lee was 2 over in her final round but she was able to fend off all challengers during Sunday's final round. Auston Kim and Chanettee Wannasean each posted 4-under 68s but were only able to get to 1 under.
Lee did card three birdies but also posted five bogeys, but it was enough during a windy week in Frisco, Texas. She is the third Aussie to win three LPGA majors.
The putt that gave Minjee another major 🔥🏆 pic.twitter.com/sH5TBYc0GX
Lee is the first Australian to win the KPMG Women's PGA Championship since Hannah Green in 2019. She's the third Australian to win three or more major championships, joining Karrie Webb and Jan Stephenson. Lee is now the 31st player in LPGA history to win three or more major championships.
Minjee Lee earns $1.8 million for KPMG victory
Earlier in the week tournament officials announced a purse increase to $12 million, matching the U.S. Women's Open for the highest prize fund on tour. For perspective, just four years ago the KPMG purse was $4.5 million. Lee earned $1.8 million for her victory.
At the 2022 U.S. Women's Open, she earned the biggest paycheck in women's golf history to date when she earned $1.8 million. (Later that same season, the winner of CME Group Tour Championship in November earned $2 million.)
-Beth Ann Nichols
Minjee Lee posts back-to-back birdies down the stretch
Lee is still 1 over overall in her final round but she has made consecutive birdies on Nos. 13 and 14 to get to 5 under and take a four-shot lead down the stretch in Frisco. Auston Kim has posted a final-round 68 and is the clubhouse leader at 1 under. Lee won the 2022 U.S. Women's Open and the 2021 Amundi Evian Championship. A KPMG victory would be her third major title and 11th LPGA win.
Maja Stark breaks putter in frustration
Three weeks after Maja Stark hoisted a trophy on a major championship Sunday, she broke her putter at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship. As the wind and heat made for an unrelenting cauldron of pressure, Stark's frustrations boiled over late in the final round.
-Beth Ann Nichols
Early bogeys not derailing Minjee Lee
Minjee Lee has bogeyed three of the first six holes but still leads the KPMG by two. The two-time major winner began the day four strokes ahead of Jeeno Thitikul. In the past 15 years, eight players have held an advantage of four strokes or more entering the final round of an LPGA major and all but one went on to win. Jeongeun Lee6 was the lone exception after leading the 2021 Evian by five.
-Beth Ann Nichols
Minjee Lee now the lone golfer under par at the KPMG
After Jeeno Thitikul bogeyed two of her first three holes, Minjee Lee became the lone golfer in Frisco in red numbers. Lee is 1 over herself after three holes but at 5 under, she holds a five-shot lead.
Leaders are on the course
Just after 9 a.m. ET, Lee and Thitikul took to the course to start their final round. Lee parred the par-5 opening hole while Thitikul bogeyed it, opening a five-shot lead for Lee.
What will the weather be like Sunday at the KPMG Women's PGA?
Players have dealt with brutal heat and strong winds to go along with painfully long rounds during this week's KPMG. Unfortunately, it's going to be another scorcher on Sunday.
High temperatures will reach the mid-90s, with heat index creeping close to 100. Steady winds will be blowing at 15 mph from the south and could gust up to 30-40 mph at times.
How much money does the winner get at the 2025 KPMG Women's PGA?
The total purse for this year's KPMG Women's PGA is a record-breaking $12 million, with $1.8 million going to the winner.
How to watch the final round of the KPMG Women's PGA

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Dollar firms as markets brace for Iran response to U.S. attacks

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The finest triumph for Australia's highest-paid sportswoman was accompanied by something unusual. For the usually private, impassive Minjee Lee – after winning her third major at the Women's PGA Championship near her second home in Dallas, Texas – tears were a glimpse into her recent pain. Related: Australia's Minjee Lee wins historic third major at Women's PGA Championship Advertisement A 19-month winless run. A collapse at last year's US Open. An adoption of the broomstick putter, a very public symbol that everything was not right. But those experiences were consigned to the past after sinking a par putt on 18 in Frisco. 'It's very different, because I feel like I had a lot of doubt the past few years,' she said. 'I think this one just means a little bit more to me.' The West Australian won by three strokes to earn $2.8m and become only the third Australian golfer to claim three different major championships, after Karrie Webb and Jan Stephenson. Even Greg Norman only found major success at a single tournament, the Open Championship, in his two victories. Lee's coach Ritchie Smith said it can be difficult to comprehend just how much Lee has achieved. 'It's a golden era for women's golf, and she's still a great,' he said. 'It's hard for me to say, because I'm her coach and I'm biased. I don't think she's just a great of golf, I think she's a great of Australian sport.' The likes of Ash Barty, Sam Kerr, Lauren Jackson, Ellyse Perry and Stephanie Gilmore have been recognised as Australia's most successful female sportspeople in the past decade, all as standard bearers in globally competitive sports. But while Lee had risen to become the second-ranked golfer in the world by 2019, her profile – at least in Australia – was not at the same level as her peers. Outside the men's majors, golf does not have the same cut-through or broad appeal as other codes, and when it does reach a broader Australian consciousness, it is usually thanks to the achievements of PGA stars such as Adam Scott or 2022 Open Championship winner Cameron Smith. Lee's softly-spoken manner and reserved demeanour is also less than a natural fit with publicity. Advertisement Her profile has even been challenged by her younger brother Min Woo, now Australia's top-ranked men's golfer. He has emerged as a legitimate star on the men's PGA Tour over the past two years, with a brash social media status enhanced by a stream of celebrity colabs. But over 11 years on the LPGA tour, Minjee's winnings still dwarf the prize money won by her brother, and are approaching US$20m. Even if the younger Lee passes that figure, he almost certainly will not end his career with anything near the list of her accomplishments. Minjee Lee is only the fifth active player to have won three majors alongside Lydia Ko, Yani Tseng, In Gee Chun and Anna Nordqvist, and only Ko is younger. The Australian knows she should have had another too, after she led by three shots in the final round of last year's US Open before she 'blew up' – as she described afterwards – to finish ninth. Across Lee's many years as a professional, Smith has observed how she handles defeat less with disappointment and more with embarrassment, and the US Open result was about as bad as it could get. On the sport's highest stage, there was Lee, fully exposed. 'To capitulate the way that she did last year, it had a really negative effect on her,' Smith said. 'So to reinvest into actually being in a vulnerable position like that, it takes a long time, and this is what people don't understand. 'She's risked being vulnerable in front of a whole heap of people, and I couldn't be prouder of her to be honest, because that's a scary proposition.' Advertisement Lee was asked by the host in the trophy ceremony whether she now wishes she had adopted the longer putter 'a little bit earlier'. She laughed and said 'no'. It was an acknowledgement of the importance of her recent adversity. Rather than just biomechanics, Smith said Lee has undergone psychological change. 'She's been so guarded and stoic for her whole career,' he said. 'And now, if you have a look at her, her interview at the end of the round, there were actual emotions, she shed a tear – which is probably the first time she's ever done that.' Smith believes the process means Lee can now be happier in the sport. 'All of her 'being' revolved around being a really great golfer, but when you emotionally disengage a little bit, then all of a sudden you can be the person that you want to be. And I don't know if you notice, but she smiles a lot more now.' Lee admits the criticism affected her. 'The more I heard, like the media and other people saying things about my putting, I think it got to me more and more over time.' Yet that difficult period is now over. A major winner again, Lee said this week's triumph – highlighted by a champagne shower on the 18th green delivered by those familiar with her struggles – was 'my most deserved'.

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