Minjee Lee battles serious heat in Texas to sit second at Women’s PGA Championship

A record purse in excess of $3m is on offer for the player who can survive not only a tough layout but intense heat in Texas at the PGA Championship.

Water was just as important as birdies for Minjee Lee, who pushed through 35C on the opening day of the Women’s PGA Championship outside Dallas to finish second on the leaderboard as the Australian star chases down a record purse and a third major championship.

A massive $3.7m is on offer to the winner at Fields Ranch East and despite being a local now, having made Dallas her US base, Lee said the trying conditions, with more heat forecast, would take a toll.

Lee bogeyed her opening hole and two of her final three holes to give up the outright lead, having peeled off seven birdies, and another bogey, in between to card an opening round three-under 69, which left her one shot adrift of Thailand’s Jeeno Thitkul.

“I just kept telling my caddie, can you give me another water, can you give me another water?” Lee said after her round.

“I don’t think we could have enough out there. It’s really hot.

Minjee Lee and her caddie Mikey Paterson tired to stay cool in Texas. Picture: AP Photo/LM Otero

“It’s the same for everyone. I mean, if it’s tough for me it’s going be tough for pretty much the whole field. Just try and use my umbrella to shade the sun and the more wind we have.

“You can’t get ahead of yourself, especially in this kind of weather. I think it’s more just the heat that’s draining your focus, so it’s going to be a big factor.”

Lee was one of the few in the field to have played the course before it was set up for the PGA Championship and said it had been made tougher, as a major should, thankful she had help finding some of her errant tee shots.

“Obviously, it’s different. The rough is much thicker,” she said.

“If you hit it just off the fairways you can ... I mean, I’m thankful for the volunteers because I couldn’t find my ball some of the times.

“Pretty much you can only see maybe a third of the ball, just the top, so when I came to practise it was a little bit more dormant, so the rough hadn’t quite come in yet. I think that’s the big difference.

“The greens are a little bit quicker and it’s just in tournament ... it’s set up for tournament play now and before it was just the members could still play and we could play, so it was not the same at all.”

Originally published as Minjee Lee battles serious heat in Texas to sit second at Women’s PGA Championship