Minjee Lee is Australia鈥檚 highest-ranked golfer again on the back of her PGA Championship win, jumping to world No.6 as it became clear she鈥檚 unlikely to play a tournament in Australia in 2025.
Negotiations for the next staging of the women鈥檚 Australian Open are ongoing after officials abandoned the dual-gender format that has been played for the past three years, with both tournaments returning to stand-alone events.
World No.2 Rory McIlroy is locked in for a return to the men鈥檚 event being played at Royal Melbourne in December, but the women鈥檚 tournament is set to be played early in 2026, a return to a timeslot more favourable to attract the world鈥檚 best players.
The last stand-alone women鈥檚 Australian Open was co-sanctioned with the LPGA Tour, played in Adelaide in February 2020, and attracted an elite field including world No.1 Nelly Korda, who won the event in 2019.
Lee reached a career-high ranking of No.2 in 2022, and had been a constant in the world鈥檚 top 10 until midway through 2024 as she endured a 19-month winless drought.
The 29-year-old went into the PGA Championship ranked 24, having dropped out of the world鈥檚 top 20 for the first time since 2015.
But her return to the winner鈥檚 circle in Texas delivered the rankings bump, lifting her over great friend Hannah Green, who fell out of the top 10 to No.11 and lost her place as Australia鈥檚 highest-ranked player, male or female.
Jason Day, who finished fourth at the $30m Travellers Championship, is the only Australian male in the world鈥檚 top 30, ranked 28.
In the wake of her win, Lee revealed how hard her coach, Richie Smith, had to work to get her to make the drastic switch to the long putter, a move that put her back on a path towards the No.1 ranking.
鈥淚 think he mentioned it to me like twice and I was like mucking around with it, so I would say it was a good change,鈥 she said.
鈥淚 think just for me, it was taking the hands out of the putter. Just using my hands too much. So I was like manipulating the putter to the break. For me it was just using more of my shoulders to hit the point where I thought it was going to break and not making it break.
鈥淚 feel like I had a lot of doubt the past few years 鈥 I guess with my long game but more with my putting.
鈥淚 think the more I heard media and other people saying things about my putting, I think it got to me more and more over time.
鈥淚 guess I just had a lot of thoughts and just I was overthinking probably about just the conventional way of putting 鈥 and using the broomstick has really been helping me.鈥
Lee now has more majors than Greg Norman, who only won two, but is yet to reach the No.1 ranking the Great White Shark held for a mammoth 331 weeks.
Adam Scott and Day have also been world No.1, but there has never been an Australian female No.1, not even seven-time major champ Karrie Webb, with the women鈥檚 rankings only introduced in 2006.
But Lee declared she had greater ambitions than getting to world No.1.
鈥淚 really wanted to be in the Hall of Fame. That鈥檚 why I started golf. That鈥檚 why I wanted to be on the LPGA Tour, to, you know, win a bunch of tournaments and try to get into it,鈥 she said.
鈥淚 think I would really like to get there. We鈥檒l see how we go after this week.鈥