CME Group Tour Championship: Minjee Lee wants to take next step

Welcome to Australia’s next great athlete – Minjee Lee.

If not for a couple of shots here and there, Lee would be right with Ariya Jutanugarn for top prize money – as well as top honors – on the LPGA Tour.

As it is, the 22-year-old has a chance to put the cap on her season with a victory this weekend at the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburón Golf Club at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples. Besides the $500,000 winner’s check for the tournament champ, there’s also a $1 million bonus for the winner of the Race to the CME Globe.

“It’s been a pretty solid year,” Lee said. “Everything is a little bit better this year, so it’s my best year yet.”

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In individual categories, she’s No. 2 in birdies, greens in regulation, rounds in the 60s and sub-par holes, and No. 3 in scoring average and rounds under par.

Besides a win this season at the LPGA Volvik Championship, Lee has three runner-up and two third-place finishes among her 10 top-five finishes.

At the Volvik Championship, she held off veteran Stacey Lewis and others to win by a stroke in an event she finished second the year before. In the same group with Lee on the final day, Lewis birdied three of her first six holes but couldn’t make up any ground.

"It's hard to get close when somebody does that," Lewis said then. "She played great all day and played solid. When she needed to make a par putt, she did, and didn't make any mistakes."

While she looks at the negatives as well as positives from those close misses, Lee is hoping those experiences will set herself up well for the future.

“I’ve been pretty close a lot of times this year,” she said. “I’ve been in contention quite a lot but I haven’t really been able to win multiple times.

“I mean, if I look back, it could’ve been a bit of nerves and bit of lack of judgment. So I think there’s still the maturing part of my play. So probably just mature a little bit more and be a little more comfortable in that situation.”

Australia has proven quality is better than quantity when it comes to talented athletes.

Despite being ranked in the 50s in population with a little less than 25 million – or about 3 million more than Florida – Australians have helped their country rank among the best.

In the Summer Olympics since 2000, Australia has placed fourth, fourth, sixth, eighth and 10th.

Top sports have included swimming, field hockey, cycling, rowing, equestrian and sailing.

And now they can claim golf. In the 2016 Olympics, Lee tied for seventh.

“I’m not sure about all the sports but I think by nature, it’s a big sporting nation,” Lee said. “That’s what we grow up with. They’re very passionate and there’s a lot of drive in that sense.”

A Korean-Australian who lives in the western city of Perth, Lee started golf at 10 when her mother got her interested. By 14, she became the youngest-ever winner of the Western Australia State Amateur Championship.

Lee became a professional in 2015 and has made between $800,000 and $1.8 million each season.

“I’m just a little more settled in,” she said.

After playing nine holes Tuesday morning, Lee said the course is in great condition, with the greens being “wonderful.”

She added, “It suits my eye.”

If that translates into a victory, Lee’s season will go from great to unforgettable.

Then she’ll be the golfer to chase.