SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. — As she descended the hill toward the 18th green amid the lengthening shadows, Minjee Lee knew she could safely five-putt and still win the U.S. Women’s Open. Moments later, as she stood over her third, she suddenly realized she might need them.
“I was nervous all day,” Lee said afterward. “That was the nervous-est I’ve been.”
No matter. Even with that bogey on 18, Lee won in a four-shot romp Sunday, not her first major but her first Women’s Open, and the newest member of an exclusive club that so far includes only legends. Lee, at 26, is at the beginning of her career, unlike Annika Sorenstam and Karrie Webb and Cristie Kerr when they won at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club. Her runaway this week certainly suggests she can follow in their footsteps.
“I’m sure this is not the last time she’s in contention in majors and is the one hoisting a trophy, as well,” Lydia Ko said.
Lee came into the week hot off a win, rolled through the first three rounds to set the Women’s Open 54-hole scoring record, started Sunday with a three-stroke lead over Mina Harigae – who was at Duke for a hot minute in the fall of 2008 before turning pro – and opened with a pair of birdies to remove whatever drama might still have been left.
Her round was hardly perfect, with several close encounters with the wiregrass, but even par was more than enough to remain in total control on a day when the wind whistled through the pines and the greens baked in the sun and the rest of the field went backward in a hurry.
Only two players finished the day under par, and even Lee wasn’t one of them. Harigae never really threatened and Ko might have, if she’d converted any of her several birdie tries on the front nine, and Hyejin Choi made a run, but no one ever got too close to Lee for comfort.
With her runaway victory, Lee, already a major winner – the Amundi Evian Championship last summer, coming back from seven strokes behind in the fourth round to win in a playoff – gained entree into two even more exclusive and historic groups.
By winning not only the Women’s Open but the Women’s Open at Pine Needles, Lee is inducted into what might as well be its own miniature Hall of Fame.
For whatever reason, whether it’s the atmosphere or just plain luck, this tournament here has had a knack for identifying some of the biggest names at the peak of their careers, delivering the kind of champions whose names resonate throughout history.
“People ask why Pine Needles? Why four times?” USGA executive director Mike Whan said Sunday. “Because it creates great champions.”
That’s not as easy as it sounds. Pinehurst followed up Payne Stewart’s unforgettable U.S. Open win with the eminently forgettable Michael Campbell and Martin Kaymer (but struck golf gold with Michelle Wie in the second half of the dual Opens in 2014), but Pine Needles’ first three Women’s Opens delivered three memorable winners in an 11-year span.
Sorenstam, of course, is the gold standard. Back this week for a sentimental reunion as Senior Open champion, repeating as Open champion in 1996 cemented her position atop the game, her second of 10 majors in a 12-year span. Sorenstam already had a bond with Pine Needles, thanks to her relationship as an amateur with the late Pine Needles doyenne Peggy Kirk Bell, but it was unbreakable after that.
Webb came next in 2001, also repeating as Open champion and the first and last to do it since Sorenstam, one of her seven majors in seven years. She had already qualified for membership in the World Golf Hall of Fame before she even teed off at Pine Needles that summer, and reclaiming the trophy was an emphatic tour de force for the greatest golfer, of any gender, Australia has yet produced.
By 2007, Cristie Kerr had established herself as the top American on an increasingly international LPGA Tour, and her win at Pine Needles – her first major in 40 tries – represented long-awaited validation of her success. And unlike Sorenstam and Webb, both runaway winners, she had to outfight and outlast Lorena Ochoa, the world No. 1, over the final five holes to do it.
Kerr was low amateur at Pine Needles in 1996, fourth in 2001 and champion in 2007. “Some things are meant to happen,” she said afterward.
So much has changed in the intervening 15 years – Webb got a check for $510,000 and Kerr six years later for $560,000, while the top three finishers all earned more than that Sunday and the winner’s share was $1.8 million – but things are still happening that seem meant to happen.
Lee in particular, perhaps more than any other in the field beyond Sorenstam, was quietly already connected to the history of this event here. Webb mentored her as part of a program to nurture young Australian golf talent; Lee was the first Australian to hold the 54-hole lead at the Women’s Open since Webb, here. Her caddie, Jason Gilroyed, was on Kerr’s bag in 2007.
Lee got reinforcement along the way, with good-luck texts from Webb on Friday and Saturday. They, and only they and two others, have a lot more to discuss now.
“How cool, just to be one of those names,” Lee said. “It’s pretty special.”
