ALISON LEE

In 2013, she enrolled at UCLA, where she promptly became a big star on the college circuit. In fact, she won the ANNIKA award for top female college golfer in 2013. She won the 2014 PAC-12 Freshman and Player of the Year award, and set the record for lowest scoring average for a season in UCLA history. Lee also played on the 2014 Curtis Cup team, where she achieved a 3-1-1 record.

In her Sophomore year, she continued to be one of the top ranked college players in the country, earning PAC-12 Golfer of the Month for both September and November.

In December, she entered the LPGA Qualifying School. She wound up tying with Minjee Lee for first place, earning her tour card for 2015. She turned pro and dropped out of school to pursue her dream career on the LPGA.

Lee had a great rookie season, finishing 23rd on the money list with over $600,000 earned. She contended in her very first event, the Coates Championship, winding up tied for 13th. A few events later, she again was in the mix, notching her first top ten, a 4th, at the Kia Classic.

But Lee's best chance for a win came at the Kingsmill Championship in May. She was leading in the third round when she made some silly mistakes that probably cost her the title. Minjee Lee came roaring from behind to take the title, with Alison finishing 3rd.

Lee wasn't done; she managed three top tens in a row starting at the Cambia in Portland and ending at the Evian, where her tie for 6th was her first top ten in a Major. In the end, she produced 6 top tens in 2015 and finished 5th in the Rookie of the Year race. Given how many great players were in that race (three of them won tournaments; the other player ahead of her, Ha Na Jang, had four runner-up finishes), Alison did herself proud with that result.

Alison also managed to qualify for the Solheim Cup in just one year, which is a very hard thing to do, given that everyone else on the team had two years to amass points. But she was also involved in the most controversial moment of the 2015 event. Paired with Brittany Lincicome, and playing against Suzann Pettersen and Charley Hull, Alison picked up a putt she thought the other team was conceding. But they had not conceded, and Lee cost her team the point and thereby the match. Many thought Pettersen was petty for not giving the short putt after the mistake happened, but Lee was also questioned for her action and her explanation that she had in fact heard a concession (no one else did). It was unfortunate, but it did cause the Americans to rally and beat the Europeans in the end.

Lee also got a chance to play in the Hanwha Classic on the KLPGA tour, where she finished tied for 22nd.

Lee had a terrible start to the 2016 season, but this might have been in part because she was simultaneously studying at UCLA. In any event, after a couple of top twenties, she went into a tailspin, at one point missing five straight cuts. Starting in July, however, she began to rebound, notching a tie for 6th at the Marathon Classic, and another top ten at the Canadian Women's Open.

The highlight of Lee's season came in Korea at the KEB Hana Bank Championship. She was in or near the lead all week. In the final round, Spain's Carlotta Ciaganda put pressure on her, and Lee struggled. But she bounced back and climbed to a one shot lead with only the par 5 18th hole to play. Alas, she decided to go for the pin and put her approach into the water. She bogied to fall into a playoff with Ciganda, which she eventually lost.

Lee's season wound up slightly worse than 2015: 5 top tens, $470,783 earned, 38th on the money list. She still had full status on tour for 2017.

Lee's results took a giant step down in 2017. In fact, she did not have so much as a single top ten all year, and wound up just 86th on the year-ending money list. She fell to category 11 status for the 2018 season.

Lee continued to struggle in 2018. She made only 4 cuts in 16 tries and earned just $12,000 all year. Her best finish was a tie for 42nd. She was thus forced to return to Qualifying School, where she earned category 14 status for 2019.

Alison was not able to improve her status in 2019. She had an 11th near the beginning of the year and a 12th near the end, but not many other good results in between. She made a little over $114,000 and finished 105th on the money list. She was not able to improve her status at Q-Series, and so fell to category 15 status for 2020.

In 2020, the whole world was rocked by the Covid-19 pandemic. The LPGA and KLPGA tours canceled and postponed many tournaments. Alison ended up playing eight LPGA events during the year, missing four cuts. Her best finish was a tie for 29th at the British Women's Open. She made just $53,000 in 2020, but fortunately for her, the LPGA decided to allow all players to keep their cards until the end of 2021 because of the pandemic.

Lee had a decent 2021: she finished 73rd on the money list with about $316,000 earned. This qualified her for a full card for 2022. She had one top ten, a 9th at the BMW Championship, her final event of the year. She had three additional top twenties.

Alison returned to her top form in 2022. She had her career best scoring average and money list total. She finished 43rd on the money list to easily maintain her tour card. She had four top tens for the year, including a tie for 8th at the Chevron Championship and a tie for 9th at the Canadian Women's Open.

Alison started her 2023 season decently, notching top tens in a few events and a tie for 11th at the British Women's Open. But in October she caught fire, playing some of the best golf of her career for the rest of the year. She contended at the BMW Championship, finishing solo second behind Minjee Lee. She then went to Saudi Arabia and won an LET event, a three round affair where she shot back to back 61s (!) en route to a 29 under total.

She returned to the States and got into contention again at the ANNIKA event. Despite a third round 62 on the par 70 layout, however, she only finished tied for 2nd. Then she went to the final event of the year, the CME Group Tour Championship, and put herself into the final group on Sunday, where she wound up tied for second behind winner Amy Yang. Four events, four straight top two finishes. She still somehow didn't get her first career LPGA win, but if she keeps playing like this it's only a matter of time.

She finished the season with her all-time highest money total, $1.411 million, which was 19th on the money list, also her career best. Her scoring average of 70.47 was also her best ever.