US Open champ Minjee Lee has her sights set on career grand slam

Minjee Lee won’t be doing an Ash Barty and walking away at the peak of her powers with big golfing goals still to achieve.

Minjee Lee is on the path to being one of Australia’s biggest sports stars. Picture: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images/AFP

Minjee Lee concedes she might wake up one day and “not want to play, and be like Ash Barty”, content to walk away with multiple major championships under her belt.

But the newly crowned US Open champion says that won‘t be anytime soon because she still has “a lot of things” to accomplish in golf beyond her two major victories.

And armed with the Tiger Woods-like confidence to ”contend in every event I play”, plus a mental game strengthened and emboldened by her four-shot win at Pine Needles, the world No.3 is eyeing off a career grand slam of major championship wins.

With three more to come in 2022, the next being the PGA Championship later in June, and at the peak of her powers, ticking that box could come sooner rather than later.

“I definitely want to win the other three majors. Hopefully, I can make it happen soon,” Lee said on Wednesday morning from her Dallas home, still revelling in her historic victory after netting $2.5m, the biggest single payday in women’s golf.

“I’m not sure in terms of how long I want to play. Maybe one day I will wake up and not want to play and be like Ash Barty. But I don’t see myself retiring anytime soon. I still have a lot of things I want to accomplish and things I want to do in golf.”

Minjee Lee has her sights set on more majors. Picture: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Having won two majors in less than 12 months, after her breakthrough at the Evian Championship in France last August, Lee is just one trophy behind Barty and has elevated her name in the conversation of national sporting stars.

But she’s not yet willing to put herself in the same company as Barty, who shocked the world when she retired, aged just 25, after winning the Australian Open,

“I’m not sure if I can quite compare to Ash yet, but it’s pretty cool,” she said.

“If I can just put golf, and golf for women, back in the conversation in Australia I feel like I am doing a good job.”

The magnitude of Lee’s victory, and the winning margin, can’t be understated.

The US Open is traditionally the toughest major to win, and at one stage during the final round Lee had a six-shot lead and was nine shots in front of players in third.

Even standing on the 18th tee, she had a five-shot lead and was able to soak in the good vibes before knowing, as her second shot sailed perfectly to its landing spot on the final green, victory assured, what she had accomplished.

Minjee Lee with the US Open trophy. Picture: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images/AFP

“The 18th hole, I probably wasn’t the most nervous. I was nervous, but just in terms of the whole round, I knew I had four shots or a five-shot buffer going into that final hole,” she reflected.

“I was lucky I could embrace more of the moment walking down that 18th hole. I only had a 58 degree (wedge) into the last hole, so I knew it wasn’t going to go too crooked. You can’t put it into words, when you see it all happen, you just soak it in.”

It was the sort of field-destroying win that ensures Lee can enter any event from now knowing not only that she could win, but she should win.

“I feel like, in terms of the mental things, I took my experience from my past wins and the situations that have been similar over the past eight, nine years on tour,” she said,

“I feel like there has been a lot of high pressure situations I have done well in. I kind of thought about that over the last week and tried to put myself in a good headspace and I think it’s really helped me, definitely, going in to the last round.

“I think it’s all coming together. It all has been paying off this year.

“In terms of confidence, I am quite confident I can compete on the biggest stage. I feel like right now I can contend in every tournament I play in.

“I’m in a very confident space right now.”

Originally published as US Open champ Minjee Lee has her sights set on career grand slam