BO MEE LEE

Lee also won her first career Major when she captured the KB Star Tour Grand Finale, the final Major of the 2010 season.

Despite her success in Korea, she decided she wanted to play in Japan in 2011. She got through their Qualifying School fairly easily, and wanted to follow Sun Ju Ahn as the Rookie of the Year on that tour.

Things worked out somewhat differently than she had planned. Originally, she wanted to focus on the JLPGA, and had early success: at the year's first event, she finished tied for third. But the earthquake in March caused the cancellation of several events, including one in which she was tied for the lead when the disaster struck.

So she wound up playing a lot of tournaments on the KLPGA instead. She had a good year, although she was not able to win a tournament. She did wind up with the lowest scoring average of the season. She also managed five top tens, including a runner up and a third place finish, and finished 20th on the KLPGA money list. Meanwhile, she also finished 40th on the JLPGA money list, and stated she wanted to focus on that tour going forward, making 2012 her 'true rookie season' in Japan.

Lee did focus on the JLPGA in 2012, and her results were very impressive. She won her first Japanese tour event early in the year, beating none other than two-time Player of the Year Sun Ju Ahn in a playoff to do it. But she really kicked it into gear at the end of the year. She finished second at the LPGA's Japanese event, the Mizuno Classic, thanks to a second round 64. LPGA Player of the Year Stacy Lewis made up seven strokes on Lee in the final round to beat her, but Lee still finished second, her best finish in an LPGA event by far. Shortly after that, she won her second JLPGA event, then wrapped up the year by triumphing at the Ricoh Cup, the year's final Major. Bo Mee's three wins helped give her around 108 million yen in earnings. She finished second on the tour money list, behind only longtime Korean star Mi Jeong Jeon. It was her first truly great season on that tour.

Lee also managed an 8th place finish at the Hite Cup, the KLPGA's third Major, and a tie for 6th at the RACV Australian Ladies Master in early February. She played at the Korea-Japan Team Competition in December, teaming with Ha Neul Kim for a win in the team portion before losing in singles.

Bo Mee had another strong season in Japan in 2013. She finished 7th on the money list with two wins, including a Major victory at the JLPGA Championship Konica Minolta Cup in September. She also finished 7th at the Hite Cup when she returned to the KLPGA to play in that Major.

Bo Mee had an even better 2014 season, finishing third on the JLPGA money list with nearly 120 million yen earned. She had three wins during the year, 17 top tens and 24 top twenties. At one point she notched six straight top five finishes, including two wins in that stretch. Bo Mee also finished tied for 13th at the Mizuno Classic, her lone LPGA event of the year. Bo Mee was one of three Koreans to finish in the top four on the money list in 2014 (Sun Ju Ahn was #1, Jiyai Shin #4).

At the end of the year, Bo Mee played in the Korea-Japan Team Championship. Korea won easily, and Lee contributed two wins in the process (one single win, one win teamed with Sun Ju Ahn).

In 2015, Bo Mee Lee had not only the best season ever achieved by a non-Japanese player on the JLPGA tour, but possibly the best even including Japanese players. Simply put, it was a record smashing year from beginning to end.

Lee started the year with a tie for 5th, and soon went on a run of four straight runner-up finishes without a win. Finally she broke through with her first win of the year at the Hoken No Maduchi Ladies in mid-May. Then the floodgates opened. For much of the rest of the year, Lee found herself in contention almost every week. Lee got her second win a few weeks later, then grabbed back to back wins shortly after that. Her fifth win came at the Stanley Ladies in October. By that point, she was threatening the all time record for most money earned in a season.

She didn't let up: to cap off her year, she won two of the final three events for seven total victories in 2015. She also had seven runner-up finishes, three thirds, and a mind-blowing 23 total top tens. Not only did she become the first woman to ever break the 200 million yen mark, she shattered it, accumulating 230 million yen for the year. That not only was the most money a woman had ever made in a year in Japan, it also broke the all time record for the Japanese MEN'S tour as well!

Naturally, Bo Mee also won all the top prizes in Japan, including Player of the Year and Scoring Average. And she became a bit of a sensation in Japan, with hardly a week going by all year without Bo Mee on the cover of some Japanese golf magazine or other. She has become so popular over there that she regularly appears in non-sports shows such as game shows or travel shows. It helps that she speaks fluent Japanese.

The only knock on Bo Mee's season was that she did not win one of the four Japanese tour Majors. In Gee Chun won two of them as a guest, with Jiyai Shin and Theresa Lu winning the other two.

At the end of the year, Bo Mee was the captain for the KLPGA team at the Kowa Queens, a four tour team event. Her JLPGA friends got out to a huge lead, but Bo Mee helped stage an enormous comeback by the Koreans on Sunday. Alas, they came up just short; although they won all but one of the singles matches on the day, that still was not enough to beat the JLPGA.

2016 was another incredible year for Bo Mee Lee. Although she did not do quite as well as she had in 2015, she still dominated the JLPGA, winning all the major awards: Player of the Year, scoring average, and money list. She earned over 175 million yen, leading second place Jiyai Shin by over 25 million yen. Her scoring average of 70.09 was nearly .4 strokes better than Shin.

Lee won five times in 2016, and at one point had a stretch of eleven straight events with top five finishes. She notched five second place finishes, three thirds, 19 top fives (!) and 21 top tens.

She also played four LPGA events, her best finish a tie for 10th at the ANA Inspiration (this was also her best Major finish to date).

After several years of dominance, Bo Mee had an off year in 2017. She only made 46 million yen, good for just 23rd on the JLPGA money list. It took her until half way through the season before she won her first event, the CAT Ladies. It would be her only win of the year. She had only 7 top tens all year, a major drop off from her usual performance. She also played once on the LPGA, but managed just a tie for 66th at the ANA Inspiration. She played one event in Korea, the High Won Resort, and finished third.

Lee really struggled in 2018, finishing just 83rd on the JLPGA money list with just over 8 million yen earned. Amazingly, she did not have a single top ten all year, her best finish being a tie for 11th. She finished tied for 51st at the Honda Thailand, her only LPGA event of the year, and missed the cut at the one event she played in Korea.

Bo Mee played much better in 2019. She finished 21st on the JLPGA money list with a little more than 52 million yen earned. She didn't win, but did have a runner up finish, a third, and seven total top tens. She also played one event in Korea, the ADT-CAPS, and finished 20th there.

Her biggest moment of the year came off the course: late in the year she got married! Her husband was a well known actor named Hwan Lee, who was even better known as the younger brother of one of Korea's most popular actresses, Tae Hee Kim. They tied the knot on December 28th. Among the Sisters who attended the wedding or the bridal shower were Jiyai Shin, So Yeon Ryu, Inbee Park and Ha Neul Kim. There were also numerous Japanese golf stars such as Ai Miyazato and Momoko Ueda there.

Needless to say, this was a huge story in Japan and Korea: Bo Mee was already one of the most popular golfers in those countries; add on the fame of her husband and his sister and the result was something to see. They would go on to honeymoon in Barcelona.

In 2020, the world was hit with the Covid19 pandemic. All sports leagues, including the LPGA and JLPGA, were massively affected by it; many events were canceled or shifted around the schedule, and fans were forbidden from attending. Bo Mee missed most of 2020 in Japan, only playing the final few events. She did manage a tie for third in one of the events, and made all the cuts. She played some of the early season events in 2021, but missed the cut in most of them.

Instead, she focused in 2020 for most of the year on the KLPGA. She made only one top ten finish, a 9th place, and earned 43 million won, 88th on the money list

Bo Mee also played for the LPGA team at the annual KLPGA/LPGA team event, the OrangeLife Champions Trophy. Bo Mee only played in the singles, against KLPGA star Hyun Kyung Park. Bo Mee hung tight all day but Park eked out the 1up win. The KLPGA won the match 10.5 - 7.5.

Bo Mee returned to Japan full time in 2021, but by and large she struggled. For instance, she missed the cut in all but one of her first seven events that year. She improved slightly after that, but her best result was only a t-14th. She finished 82nd on the money list for 2020-21, with nearly 17 million won earned.

Bo Mee played a limited schedule in Japan in 2022. She played 14 total events, making the cut 6 times, with one top ten, a 9th. She earned a little over 6 million yen, 100th on the money list. She also played four times on the KLPGA, making one cut, where she finished 14th.

But Bo Mee did have one big highlight in 2022. She and So Yeon Ryu played as a team at a new event in Indonesia called the Simone Asia Pacific Cup. This event had both a team portion and an individual portion. She and So Yeon won the team event.

Bo Mee finally decided to retire at the end of the 2023 season. She played two events on the KLPGA, making one cut. She made a final goodbye to her fans in both Korea and Japan. At the Japanese event, the players wore pink t-shirts celebrating the retirement of one of the most popular players in tour history. Although no longer playing, she still is getting new sponsorship deals and continuing to stay part of the game, both behind and in front of the camera. She participated in a made-for-TV team event with top young stars and fellow veterans. It's likely she will continue to do things like this for years to come.