One of the most impressive stats of the 2025 LPGA Tour season, was the dramatic turnaround with the putter for Minjee Lee. Lee went from ranking No. 157 on the Tour in strokes gained putting, all the way up to No. 2. That allowed her to return to being one of the top players in the world.
Minjee Lee really needs no introduction to fans of the LPGA Tour. She’s one of the great players of her generation, winning 11 total LPGA Tour events with three major championships. In an era with increased production from Australia, she is the most successful player post-Karrie Webb and is emerging as a major inspiration to up and coming players.
Lee’s 2024 though was pretty tough for her standards. She had just four top-10 finishes and no wins, finishing No. 54 in the CME Standings, by far the lowest finish of her career and the first time since 2017 that she didn’t finish in the top 10. It was just the second full-length season of her career without a win, dating all the way back to 2015.
Lee did what all the greats do though, and made adjustments. The most noticeable one was switching from a standard putter, to a long, broom style putter. The results really speak for themselves, whether it was mechanics or it was just a mentality flip, she went from one of the worst putters on Tour to one of the best overnight.
In 2025, Lee won just one tournament, but it was a big one, showing off her incredible mental strength and experience in difficult conditions at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. She nearly won her fourth major a few weeks later at the Evian Championship. In total, Lee missed just one cut and had eight top-10 finishes with six top-five results. Lee finished No. 3 in the CME Standings and in Player of the Year.
The crazy thing is, there is a clear path to improvement. Lee’s traditional strength is on approach, a stat she was top two on Tour in every year from 2021-2024. In 2025, she was No. 58 in that category. If Lee can get back to her elite skills on approach, and combine it with her now elite putting, she should be on path to win her first LPGA Tour Player of the Year Award.
