Golf has had very few highly competitive sibling rivalries during the past 50 years. But after Australian Minjee Lee won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship on June 22 on the windswept Fields Ranch East Course at PGA Frisco in Texas, a new chapter was written in professional golf’s friendly brother-sister rivalry.
To refresh your historical perspective, the Lee sister-brother rivalry gained traction when Minjee won the U.S. Girls Junior Championship in 2012. Then her younger brother, Min Woo Lee, won the same USGA title in 2016. The family affair grew when both represented their native Australia in the men’s and women’s Olympic golf competition. Then Min Woo earned his first PGA TOUR title in April when he ruled the Houston Open.
Fast forward to the longest days of the year in 2025 (June 21–22) when Minjee painted a masterpiece amid trying conditions at Fields Ranch East to secure a three-shot victory in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship for her third major championship and 11th LPGA Tour victory. That now puts the ball back in Min Woo’s court.
“I’m older, so I should have more professional wins than him,” beamed Minjee after rounds of 69, 72, 69 and 74 left her three strokes superior to American Auston Kim and Thailand’s Chanettee Wannasaen in the 71st KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
“I don’t know that it’s really a rivalry since we play on separate tours,” said Minjee Lee, 29, who collected $1.8 million for her KPMG Women’s PGA victory while joining Jan Stephenson and Karrie Webb as the only Australian women to win three-plus majors. “We are very supportive of each other in everything we do and wherever we play.”
While Minjee Lee was birdieing the 14th and 15th holes in the final round at Fields Ranch East to take control of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, 27-year-old Min Woo was finishing up at The Travelers Championship on the PGA TOUR in Connecticut (he finished 63rd) and said he predicted months prior that his older sister was ready to win again on the LPGA Tour.
“It doesn’t surprise me that her first win this year is a major,” said Min Woo, who showed his love for his sister by inviting her to caddie for him in the Par-3 Tournament at the 2022 Masters. “Her game is built for the majors. She’s very solid and her mental side is one of the best I’ve ever seen. Mix that in with good putting and a good short game and, yeah, she’s going to win.”
The Lees are only the third brother-sister tandem in golf history to win professional golf events, joining Cathy and Billy Kratzert, and Jackie and Jim Gallagher Jr. Their love for golf was hatched by their mother Clara, who was born in Korea and moved to Australia in 1992 and enrolled her children in youth golf activities. Minjee now lives in Irving, Texas, and her mother was in attendance at PGA Frisco to see her daughter earn her third major victory, all since 2021.
“It was great to have so much support this week, beginning with my mom,” said Lee, after surviving an 18th-green champagne shower to celebrate her triumph from fellow Australian Hannah Green, the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Champion, and others.
Minjee, who represented Australia in the 2016 Rio Olympics (T7), 2020 Tokyo Olympics (T29) and 2024 Paris Olympics (T22), began building her major portfolio by winning the Evian Championship in 2021 and the U.S. Women’s Open in 2022. Now she stands on the brink of completing the career grand slam (the LPGA requires winning four of its five majors to complete the career slam).
“That (the career grand slam) is my ultimate goal,” Lee said. “I really want to be in the Hall of Fame; that’s why I started golf and wanted to be on the LPGA Tour. Win a bunch of tournaments and try to get into it. Seeing Lydia (Ko) do it, I’d really like to get there, but we’ll see how it goes.”
Lee’s journey to victory in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship followed a challenging road. Fields Ranch East was beyond challenging amid energy-sapping heat, gusty winds and difficult hole locations that delivered the highest daily scoring average on the LPGA Tour in 2025. Lee, Kim and Wannasaen were the only players to finish under par for the 72-hole championship, while Lee registered a three-shot victory despite three front-nine bogeys in four holes and a closing round of 74.
“Of my three majors, this was the hardest be cause of the conditions,” said Lee, who advanced from seventh to sixth on the LPGA Tour Career Money List with $17,356,213. “I’m mentally fried. The heat and wind made it hard to maintain your focus, but I just tried to remain patient. If I made a bogey, I tried to come right back with a birdie to balance it out.”
Lee made a difficult decision during the off-season to put a broomstick putter and new wedges into play after she finished 137th on the LPGA Tour in strokes gained/putting last season. The change did not bear fruit until the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in June, delivering her first victory since 2023 and her fourth top-10 of 2025.
“I knew I had to do something to improve my putting,” said Lee, whose bogey-free 69 in the third round seized the lead from Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul and set the table for her third major win. “That 69 (in Round 3) was my best putting round of the year, especially under the hot, windy conditions. That kind of put me in the driver’s seat and then I just stayed patient.” —Roger Graves
