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Minjee Lee became the ninth consecutive woman to win her first major championship Sunday at the Amundi Evian Championship. You have to go all the way back to the 2019 Evian and Jin Young Ko to find a winner who already had one major trophy at home.
Lee is also the first player to capture the Evian in a playoff since Anna Nordqvist beat Brittany Altomare on the first extra hole in 2017.
It seemed appropriate that Nordqvist was on site in France to see this one. The 34-year-old Swede had her best round of the week on Sunday, closing with a 67 to finish the championship at 3-under par. She is also at an age when it’s easier to reflect on the significance of being a major winner, as well as give some advice on what it takes to break through for the first time, as she did in her maiden win at the 2009 McDonald's LPGA Championship (now the KPMG Women's PGA Championship).
“I decided to leave school (at Arizona State) halfway through my junior year and I was really questioned for that decision,” Nordqvist said. “But I’ve always believed in following my heart. I didn’t have a fully exempt LPGA Tour card at the time. I’d missed being fully exempt by a shot. And that year, we only had 22 events on the schedule, so just to get into the (LPGA Championship) was a huge accomplishment at the time.
“I think I started with 6-under in that tournament on the first day and just kept going. It helped that I’d won in Europe and won at the amateur level. It made me believe that I could compete at every level, even though I probably didn’t have the game to compete on the LPGA Tour week-in and week-out in 2009.
“But to reach my peak performance at a major championship as a pro for my first event was quite special and to be a first-time Rolex winner and get that Rolex (presented to all first-time winners) along with securing my playing rights (on the tour for an extended period) was surreal.
“It was just part of a remarkable journey. Getting a chance to play in college was a dream and then getting the opportunity to play on the LPGA Tour was another dream come true. To win as early as I did and the way in which I did was incredibly special. When I won there, it felt like I had made it.
It was eight years before Nordqvist captured another major, the one in Evian, which she won in a sleet storm. But the wait was worth it.
“I have always believed in myself, even when I wasn’t playing my best golf,” she said. “Sure, there were down times, but having a team around me – my family, my coach, my friends and my sponsors like the people at Rolex who stuck with me – it allowed me to trust the work I was doing, believe in the process, and come back to win another major championship.”
How long it takes Minjee Lee to chalk up major No. 2 is anyone’s guess. But at least she has players like Nordqvist to lean on if the dry spell runs longer than expected.
Steve Eubanks