Tristan Jones

Australian Minjee Lee survived a nerve-jangling Friday night under The Faldo’s floodlights to add her name to the illustrious roll-call of champions engraved on the Dallah Trophy.

By Kent Gray
Many rate Minjee Lee the best player in the women’s game without a major. The way she bravely clung onto the emotional rollercoaster that unceremoniously shed joy seekers all over The Faldo on Friday night, it seems only a matter of time before that unofficial asterisk is passed on to another unwitting recipient.

The 24-year-old Australian came up clutch late in regulation play and again in overtime to claim the OMEGA Dubai Moonlight Classic at a club getting awfully good at unearthing major champions-in-waiting.

With a curling, uphill birdie putt centre-cupped from 20-feet, Lee edged French Solheim Cupper Celine Boutier at the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to tag a second LET win onto her five LPGA Tour titles and already exalted international reputation.

She mightn’t own any of women’s golf’s five bigs, yet, but Lee will now see her name on the Dallah Trophy alongside legendary Annika Sörenstam, Lexi Thompson and Shanshan Feng, major champions all. For a further confidence injection, she need only have surveyed the men’s honours board in the clubhouse foyer for more proof of Emirates Golf Club’s enviable status for anointing superstars ahead of time.

Indeed, after learning from a final round pairing with eventual champion Sophia Popov en-route a major championship best third place at September’s British Open, it seems there is little other than a little luck stopping Lee from emulating Messrs Willett, Garcia and DeChambeau soon.

The Perth pro has one last chance in this crazy old year and it helps that the rescheduled U.S. Women’s Open at the Champions Golf Club in Houston next month isn’t far from her Texas-base.

But that is for the future. For now, Lee can bask in the afterglow of a nerve-jangling Moonlight Classic where no fewer than five players still had a legitimate shot at glory with two holes to play. The 14th edition of Dubai’s history rich LET stop may have been sans fans due to the coronavirus but there was no lack of drama.

“I couldn’t really see the break too well on the last hole, but I thought it would be about two cups outside the right and luckily I hit it hard enough and it dropped,” Lee said of her playoff clincher to collect the champion’s €36,266 cheque.

“It feels pretty special to be here playing at night-time and the course has been amazing. It’s been a really fun week and just an unreal experience for me.”

Starting the final round two strokes adrift of Swedish pole-sitter Caroline Hedwall, Lee complied a closing round of 67 to match Boutier’s clubhouse target of -10.

Both former amateur world No.1s and both now based in Texas, Lee and Boutier (68) were the only players among the six legitimate contenders starting Friday’s shotgun to break 70. But while the likes of Hedwall struggled early and finished strongly, Lee and Boutier went from cruise mode to late wobblers.

Boutier (pictured below) led by two for much of the final round but opened the door when she pushed a fairway wood well right and into the water on the par-5 16th en-route to a bogey.

Getty Images

A hole behind, Lee inexplicably fatted her approach to the par-4 and left her par putt attempt in the jaws of the cup. But the Aussie rebounded immediately with an up and down birdie from the front left trap on the 16th after deliberately hooking her approach around a floodlight and into the bunker.

Kiwi Lydia Ko’s chances had long since evaporated courtesy of five pesky outward nine bogeys. Englishwoman Meghan MacLaren, second starting the final round, likewise never gave in but as much as she willed her icy cold putter, it wouldn’t listen. MacLaren finished T-6 on -8 but will long rue three missed tiddlers, all from inside two feet.

After three bogeys in an outward 39, Hedwall rallied to get it back to where she had started the day at -9 and had two decent birdie attempts on the 53rd and 54th holes to get into the playoff. She eventually had to settle for a share of third with the impressive German Laura Fuenfstueck and Spaniard Nuria Iturrioz whose title defence lasted till her final hole, the 16th, when an eagle try slid agonisingly by.

Lee had a chance to win on the 54th hole but undercooked her left-to-right downhiller. The putt she faced in the playoff was almost a mirror image and she ensured the grainy Faldo greens wouldn’t be a handbrake a second time.

“This year has been tough but this is a nice way to close it out. I’ve really enjoyed the format and everything about the week. My second time playing night golf was certainly memorable.”

A memorable week in a year not quite finished yet. Roll on the U.S. Women’s Open.