Two LPGA tour wins for Minjee Lee have outpointed Cam Smith’s two victories on the LIV tour and two-top 10 main finishes this yr in voting for the Greg Norman Medal.
Lee, who completed the yr as Australia’s highest-ranked golfer at No.5 on the earth following a profitable surge in the direction of the tip of her season, received the best award within the Australian sport in Brisbane on Tuesday evening.
The 27-year-old two-time main champion grew to become the primary three-time winner of the medal.
Lee solely performed 20 instances in 2023 and after an unusually gradual begin results-wise, she dropped out of the world high 10 for the primary time in additional than two years.
Nonetheless, the tide started to show halfway via the yr and she or he returned to the winner’s record in September on the Kroger Queen Metropolis Championship.
Lee backed that up 4 weeks later with one other win on the BMW Girls Championship.
In 20 occasions this yr, Lee received twice, completed within the high 10 one other 5 instances and the highest 20 one other seven instances. She completed outdoors the highest 20 simply 4 instances.
Lee additionally took her earnings previous $20 million to be behind solely seven-time main champion Karrie Webb for highest-earning Australians.
Lee’s third Greg Norman Medal got here regardless of one other good yr from Smith.
He received twice on the LIV tour, in London and New Jersey, and pocketed greater than $21 million.
Smith, who mentioned he had had a “fairly respectable yr” when requested on Tuesday about his hopes to win the Greg Norman Medal, additionally completed fourth on the US Open and in a tie for ninth on the US PGA Championship.
The Queenslander additionally tied for thirty third in his British Open title defence.
“I believe I’ve performed some fairly respectable golf this yr, a few wins, a few actually strong finishes within the majors,” he mentioned when requested of his medal hopes.
“However I suppose we’ll wait and see how that performs out.”
Lee’s youthful brother Min Woo, who broke via for a win on the Macau Open and secured his US PGA Tour paying card for subsequent yr in a blistering season, mentioned he was simply glad “one of many Lees” had received the medal.