Minjee Lee is determined to be the first Australian to get to No.1 on the women’s golf rankings

A new year comes with a significant goal for Australian star Minjee Lee who wants to make history.

Minjee Lee is driven to be world No.1 (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Majors are her priorities but Australian star Minjee Lee says making history and becoming her country’s first world No.1 “means everything to me” as she prepares to make her 2023 debut.

Lee, who won her second major at the US Open in 2022, is currently ranked No.3, having risen as high as No.2 and said “it hurts” having come so close to achieving an Aussie first.

Rankings for women were only introduced in 2006 and no Australian has ever got to No.1, including the legendary Karrie Webb despite her dominance in the early 2000s.

Teeing it up at the LPGA event in Thailand this week to get her season underway, Lee said she had plenty of goals for the year, but being officially recognised as the best player in the world was on top.

“To me, probably means everything at the moment. You know, I’ve been close a couple times, and because I wanted it so much it hurts to not be able to be in that position,” she said.

Minjee Lee with her US Open trophy. Picture by Michael Klein

“So, you know, obviously I don‘t know what it entails because I haven’t been there before, but I think if I keep going through my processes in my golf game and just stick to what I know and what I’m good at, then I know that playing good golf, that’s like the result of it.

“So I‘m going to try not to put too much pressure on myself.”

Lee struggled to produce her best towards the back of 2022, finishing fifth at the Australian open, her final event in a long year.

After a longer than normal break, and now refreshed, she declared avoiding burnout was going to be a big part of her planning this year.

But those ranking thoughts are always there too.

“I think towards the end of last year I kind of tapered off a little bit, so I think I still have quite a lot in me. I have goals that I want to meet and a lot of things that I want to do yet,” Lee said.

“I think most of my goals revolve around the majors now, and they‘re probably right up the top of my priority list.

Minjee Lee played with her brother Min Woo Lee at the Australian Open (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

“But I think also one of my big goals is not to be too tired by the end of the year. I want to pace myself throughout the year and be happy. I think if I‘m happy, I’m happy on the golf course as well.

“So, yeah, obviously golf-wise, majors are a big goal, and world No. 1 is at the back of my head.”

Originally published as Minjee Lee is determined to be the first Australian to get to No.1 on the women’s golf rankings