Can you imagine earning $153 per shot for whole a year? Well Royal Fremantle's Minjee Lee lived that reality in 2015 on the LPGA Tour.
A disappointing opening round of 75 at the CME Tour Championship couldn't prevent rookie Minjee Lee from another career top-10. Lee came home with rounds of 66, 67 and 69 to place T7 and finish her fantastic debut season on a high.
Minjee always put up impressive numbers in amateur golf, whether it was with her +8 handicap or her scoring average of 65.72 through 2014.
As a professional Minjee continued to impress, and below we cover some intersecting stats from her year.
1. By far the most important is Minjee's debut win at the Kingsmill Championship in May, the cherry on top of a fantastic year.
2. Minjee's total professional victories. How can we forget about her 2014 triumph as an amateur at the Victorian Open?
7. The number of top 10 finishes Minjee had this year, highlighted by her T9 finish at the British Open which was her highest finish in a major.
11. Minjee's eagle total for the season, the third highest on tour.
12. Minjee's LPGA Tour ranking in her debut season, placing her higher than tour legends Suzann Pettersen (16th), Jessica Korda (23rd) and Karrie Webb (42nd)
13. Lee's current streak of cuts made on the LPGA Tour. Lee last missed the cut at the US Open in early July. From those 13 events she placed in the top 25 eleven times.
29. The total number of events played in her rookie season. That's an insane amount of golf, especially when you consider that she played all four rounds in 24 of these events.
65. Her lowest round from the season, and it delivered her biggest result. An incredible final round of 65 at the Kingsmill somehow included two bogeys — but six birdies and an eagle made the difference as she prevailed by two shots.
104. Total rounds played. That's nearly one round every three days, and this doesn't include practice rounds or pro-ams! Factor in all of her travelling this year and that is a lot of golf and not a lot of time off.
237. Minjee's average distance in meters off the tee, ranking 15th on tour.
70.88 Minjee's scoring average from her debut season, ranking 17th on tour.
71.88% Driving accuracy this season has been one of few weaknesses for Minjee, placing a lowly 71st on tour. On the other hand it shows that this RFGC golfer knows how to scramble and get things done inside 100m!
377. Minjee made more birdies than days on the calendar in 2015, and this placed her 6th in total birdies on tour.
388. Over par holes. This was the killer for Minjee with the 5th highest of bogey+ holes. If she can limit the damage here she is going to be very dangerous.
7,372. Minjee's total number of shots on tour this year. With that many balls on the range and hitting a shot every 30 seconds, it would take you over two and a hals days to get through it!
821,121. Minjee's account balance in US dollars after one season on tour. An impressive amount for a 19-year-old, and there's no doubting it was well deserved.
1,129,853. Convert that amount to Australian dollars and we have a teenage millionaire! Well done Minjee, as they say the first million is always the hardest 🙂