Minjee Lee wins record third Greg Norman Medal

Murray Wenzel
Nov 21, 2023, updated Nov 21, 2023

Minjee Lee has become the first three-time winner of the Greg Norman Medal. Photo: Getty

The relentless Minjee Lee has won a record third Greg Norman Medal, separating herself from a crowded field that included her younger brother.

The 27-year-old won twice on the LPGA Tour, with the world No.5 crowned the country’s most successful golfer of 2023 at a ceremony in Brisbane on Tuesday night.

The 10-time LPGA Tour winner arguably had a more successful 2022, winning the US Open and finishing second on the LPGA Tour’s money list.

But judges couldn’t ignore Cameron Smith’s brilliant 2022 season, highlighted by a remarkable British Open triumph.

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The same panel – Rodger Davis, Karrie Webb, Julia Boland, Peter O’Malley and Ian Baker-Finch – this year went the other way to honour the Perth talent for the third time in the award’s nine-year history.

Minjee’s brother Min Woo finished fifth at the US Open, sixth at the Players Championship and won the Macau Open to secure full PGA Tour status.

But his big sister won a ninth LPGA title in September before hitting double figures in South Korea barely a month later.

That win came the same week as Min Woo’s own breakthrough to earn the siblings a slice of golfing history.

After an early-season layoff she strung together eight top-20 finishes in a row before winning twice and finishing tied 13 and tied eighth in her last four events.

The two-time Greg Norman Medallist Smith still had claims for a third of his own.

He won twice on the LIV Tour, had two top-10 finishes in majors and won a third Australian PGA Championship days after he accepted the Medal acknowledging his emphatic 2022 run.

Jason Day, winner of the first two Medals in 2015-16, surged back into the conversation with his first PGA Tour victory in almost five years in May’s Byron Nelson to knock on the door of the world’s top 20.

World No.28 and 2019 Medal winner Hannah Green won her third LPGA Tour title while Grace Kim won a three-way playoff at the Lotte Championship in just her third start as a full Tour member.

“Minjee continues to represent Australian golf in the best way possible,” PGA of Australia chief executive Gavin Kirkman said.

“To now have 10 wins on the LPGA Tour, including two major championships, at such a young age establishes Minjee as one of our greatest golfers of all time.

“And yet, I am sure there is much more to come.

“Given the success our golfers have enjoyed throughout the world this past year, I commend the judges on what must have been a very difficult decision to pick between such worthy candidates.”