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There is a clock ticking for Alison Lee that only she can hear. In April of last year, she gave birth to her first child, a son named Levi, and before going on maternity leave, she believed she was playing some of the best golf of her career. She came close to making the U.S. Olympic team in Paris and qualified for the 2024 U.S. Solheim Cup and played while feeling very sick in her pregnancy.
She also had yet to win on the LPGA Tour in a decade after creating huge expectations as a former World Amateur No. 1 and star at UCLA.
Now, the 31-year-old Lee is back on the LPGA Tour, while having a desire to have more kids, and if another child comes along, she’s not sure if she’ll continue as a playing pro. But to get that one professional win—well, it would be the culmination of her sporting dreams.
So, the clock ticks, and the balance of Lee’s life becomes all the more obvious when she has a chance for that breakthrough win. That it could happen in a major, ust miles from her hometown, at the city’s most storied course, Riviera Country Club, would probably clear up a lot of questions in her head.
With a three-under-par 68 in the second round on Friday, Lee climbed to the top of the leaderboard of the 81st U.S. Women’s Open and is tied at four under with Ruoning Yin. Both golfers arguably played in tougher afternoon conditions when the breeze picked up, and Riviera is showing its teeth. They were two of only nine players to have a score in the 60s.
In her post-round press conference, many of the questions were about how Lee is managing tour life now with Levi, who was with Lee’s partner, Trey Kidd, when she came up the steps up to the clubhouse. Alison then took over and carried him into the scoring room.
Some of the queries became Lee talking about her future.
“If I were to have another baby, I think it would be 10 times more difficult to try and come back and play,” she said. “So I’ve really told myself, like, ‘Hey, this next year, 2026-2027, I’m just going to do everything I can to play the best golf I can and say that I have no regrets.
“So that’s kind of like a comforting feeling, but also putting a little bit of pressure on myself. But I feel like I’m in a good head space now because I’ve truly accepted that.”
The U.S. Women’s Open is only Lee’s fifth start of the LPGA season because she delayed her return until April’s JM Eagle LA Championship, where she did well out of the gate with a T-13. Even more impressive was her showing in the Mizuho Americas Open, where she had a T-3 in major-like conditions.
“The last couple months I feel like I’ve been playing really solid,” Lee said. “I feel like my game’s in a really good spot, and I feel like on courses like this, you can really take advantage of that because not everyone’s making a ton of birdies out there. You just have to play really smart and be really patient.”
After having the baby last year, Lee made a return in September and missed the cut in two of the three events she played. But in the weather-troubled Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, she moved into the lead during the second round, only to have the LPGA cancel the tournament. The results reverted back to the first round, with money, but not points awarded.
“I was devastated. I was, like, this could have been my week, you know,” she said.
There have been numerous painful close calls, and it seems like the better Lee played, the more heartbroken she was when a victory didn’t come. Among her four career runner-up finishes, three came consecutively in 2023.
“Yeah, it’s been tough,” Lee said. “I feel like I’ve definitely underachieved what I could have done out here on tour. It’s definitely been really frustrating. I’m at a point now where I’ve truly accepted it, but like I said, that’s part of why I want to come back and play.”
Lee had to dig deep in her desire to come back. Early on in motherhood, she admitted feeling exhausted and overwhelmed, and going through periods of tears. She leaned on some friends in golf, including Juli Inkster, who is the last mother to win a major.
“You know Juli,” Lee recalled with a smile. “She’s, like, ‘You got it. You’re good at this. You can do it.’ It’s just cool to see how nonchalant she is about it because that just shows you how good she is. Hopefully I can follow in their footsteps.”
Like any working mom, Lee has had to balance her home and outside duties. She and Trey live in Las Vegas, and Lee said her routine has been to get up at 6; work out with her trainer for an hour; go home to take care of Levi until his nap time; go the course to hit balls and maybe sneak in a few holes over four or five hours; and then return home before Levi’s bedtime. Then, of course, there are clothes to clean and bottles to wash.
“I clean the house a million times,” she said, “and it still looks like a tornado went through. I think I just have to accept my house is a mess and I can’t ever have people over.”
The rebuilding of her golf game took time, and Lee said she got panicked when her ball speed was way down in the month before her season debut in L.A.
She’s obviously feeling strong now. Her ball striking was superb in the second round, and she ranked No. 1 in the field in strokes gained/tee-to-green, picking up nearly 3½ shots. She gained another 2.68 shots on everybody in putting, which ranked eighth.
Lee grew up 30 miles from Riviera in Valencia and went to the same high school as the PGA Tour’s Max Homa. Between her friends and family connections there, and her ties with UCLA, it would figure she’d have a large following on Saturday afternoon when she tees off.
After her Friday round, Lee was interviewed by on-course reporter Kay Cockerill, who also is a UCLA alum. The two briefly worked together early in the season when Lee tried her hands at doing some broadcasting work in the booth. With as comfortable as Lee seems in talking to the media, she would seem to have a bright future in front of a camera.
Cockerill asked her if she dared to dream about winning the U.S. Open, and Lee didn’t hesitate. “Yeah, of course,” she said. “I’m still seeking my first tour win, and to do it in my backyard would be cool.”
Actually, cool would only begin to describe it.
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Main Image: Sean M. Haffey
