The 2012 US Girls’ Junior champion won the 2014 Vic Open as a 17-year-old amateur and a week before her 19th birthday won her first event on the LPGA Tour.

Yet her major record for the first six years of her career didn’t match up with her talent.

In her first 36 starts in major championships Lee had just two top-five finishes. A tie for 25th at the Chevron Championship was her best result in the first three majors of 2021.

The disparity was stark.

It had many questioning the ability of a generational talent to deliver when it mattered most.

And then along came Evian.

The West Australian lowered her expectations, brought with her the “really chill” mindset that she adopted playing with Yuka Saso at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational the week prior and let destiny take its course.

It wasn’t easy. Ten shots off the lead through 36 holes, it took a record seven-shot comeback in the final round and stunning shot into the first playoff hole to get it done. Yet it marked the coming together of hard work, talent and the freedom of mind to bring it all together.

Before Evian, Lee had fallen to 15th in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. Her major breakthrough saw her jump to seventh and in the 12 months since she has won twice – including a dominant second major win at the US Women’s Open – and finished top-five nine times, three of which were majors.

Now the No.2-ranked player in the world, she has genuine claim to being the best female golfer on the planet yet attributes it all to the mountain of work done with coach Ritchie Smith and a shot of confidence that has sent her trajectory toward Hall of Fame status.

“There was quite a lot of pressure put on me to win a major after so many years on tour,” the 26-year-old conceded.

“It was just a great confidence boost for me after that win.

“I feel like I’ve been working on all aspects of my game for my entire life to bring me to that position.

“I feel like everything is kind of coming together really well. I really worked hard for all of this, so I’m going to keep working hard and hopefully keeps paying off.”

Adding to the momentum of Lee’s drive to become the first Australian to successfully defend a major title since Karrie Webb’s 2000-2001 US Women’s Open wins is Cameron Smith’s Open Championship triumph at St Andrews.

Lee was watching on from France as Smith shot 30 on the back nine of the Old Course to claim the Claret Jug and move to No.2 in the world, giving Australian golf the very real prospect of having the No.1-ranked man and woman in world golf.

“I mean, pretty damn cool that Cam won the British Open,” Lee said, whose image was projected onto the iconic Champs-Elysees in the lead-up to her Evian defence.

“I was watching the coverage from France, so that was really cool to see. I know that he’s done heaps of hard work.

“All the rewards come with the hard work you put into the game. Golf is really an honest game in that aspect. It’s really cool to see where Aussie golf is at the moment.”

It is just the third time in Australian golf history that we have had male and female major winners in the same year but the strength of Australian golf is evident at every level this week.

Top-10 on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit, Daniel Gale will make his PGA TOUR debut at this week’s 3M Open in Minnesota while Queenslander Matthew Cheung has qualified to make his first start on the Korn Ferry Tour in Missouri.

A winner last week in Germany, Richard Green will lead the Aussie charge at the Senior Open bolstered by the inclusion of three-time SParms PGA Legends Tour winner Glenn Joyner and Jake McLeod makes his return to the DP World Tour at the Cazoo Classic.

Round 1 tee times AEST

The Amundi Evian Championship
Evian Resort Golf Club
Evian-les-Bains, France
4.15pm*             Lydia Ko (NZ), Jin Young Ko, Anna Nordqvist
4.27pm*             Minjee Lee, In Gee Chun, Jennifer Kupcho
4.51pm Stephanie Kyriacou, Frida Kinhult, Yealimi Noh
8.27pm Su Oh, Brittany Altomare, Amy Yang
8.51pm*             Hannah Green, Ayaka Furue, Hyo Joo Kim
9.51pm Sarah Kemp, Lauren Coughlin, Esther Henseleit

Defending champion: Minjee Lee
Past Aussie winners: Rachel Hetherington (2001), Wendy Doolan (2004), Karrie Webb (2006), Minjee Lee (2021)
Top Aussie prediction: Minjee Lee
TV times: Live 7pm-10pm, 11.30pm-2.30am Thursday, Friday on Fox Sports 503; Live 7.30pm-11pm Saturday on Fox Sports 505; 11pm-12.55am Saturday on Fox Sports 503; Live 7.30pm-1am Sunday on Fox Sports 503.

Senior Open
Gleneagles, Auchterarder, Perthshire, Scotland
4.30pm Glenn Joyner, James Crampton, Jose Manuel Carriles
5pm      John Senden, Jean-François Remesy, Michael McCoy
5.50pm Richard Green, Scott Parel, Phillip Price
6.30pm Steven Alker (NZ), Bernhard Langer, Jeev Milkha Singh
9.30pm Stuart Appleby, Yoshinobu Tsukada, Dicky Pride
9.40pm Robert Allenby, Chris Williams, Peter Wilson
10pm    Peter O’Malley, Barry Lane, Niclas Fasth
11.10pm             Michael Campbell (NZ), Paul McGinley, Ian Woosnam
11.50pm             Peter Fowler, Ken Duke, Greg Owen
12.10am             John Wade, Andrew Welsford, Alan McLean

Defending champion: Stephen Dodd
Past Aussie winners: Ian Stanley (2001)
Top Aussie prediction: Richard Green
TV times: Live 9pm-11.30pm Thursday, Friday on Fox Sports 505; Live 1.30am Saturday on Fox Sports +; Live 10pm Saturday on Fox Sports +; Live 10pm-3am Sunday on Fox Sports 505.

PGA TOUR
3M Open
TPC Twin Cities, Blaine, Minnesota
10.56pm             Greg Chalmers, Peter Malnati, David Lingmerth
11.40pm             Mark Hensby, Kelly Kraft, Doc Redman
11.51pm             Daniel Gale, Brett Drewitt, Andrew Novak
3.33am Jason Day, Tony Finau, Davis Riley
3.55am Cam Davis, JT Poston, Adam Long
4.17am*             Aaron Baddeley, Jonas Blixt, Camilo Villegas
4.28am*             Cameron Percy, Scott Brown, Sean O’Hair
4.39am*             Danny Lee, Paul Goydos, Joseph Bramlett

Defending champion: Cameron Champ
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Cam Davis
TV times: Live 4am-8am Friday, Saturday; Live 3.30am-8am Sunday, Monday on Fox Sports 503.

DP World Tour
Cazoo Classic
Hillside Golf Club, Southport, England
6pm*    Rod Pampling, Matthew Baldwin, Craig Howie
6.30pm*             Scott Hend, Jonathan Caldwell, Daan Huizing
11pm    Josh Geary (NZ), Bryce Easton, Tyler Koivisto
11pm*  Daniel Hillier (NZ), Jonathan Thomson, Jesper Kennegard
11.30pm*           Jake McLeod, Matt Ford, Pedro Oriol
12am*  Jarryd Felton, Henric Sturehed, Garrick Porteous
12.20am*           Blake Windred, Dimitrios Papadatos, Robin Petersson

Defending champion: Calum Hill
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Jarryd Felton
TV times: Live 12.30am-5.30am Friday, Saturday; Live 12.30am-5am Sunday; Live 3am-6am Monday on Fox Sports 505.

Korn Ferry Tour
Price Cutter Charity Championship
Highland Springs Country Club, Springfield, Missouri
9.55pm*             Harrison Endycott, Rafael Campos, Kevin Roy
10.17pm*           Curtis Luck, Trevor Werbylo, Kyle Reifers
11.12pm*           Ryan Ruffels, Taylor Dickson, Chase Parker
11.23pm             Nick Voke (NZ), Clay Feagler, Luis Gagne
12.07am             Matthew Cheung, Brock Derrick, Griffen Locke
4.14am*             Rhein Gibson, Brent Grant, Roberto Díaz

Defending champion: Dylan Wu (2020)
Past Aussie winners: Anthony Painter (1998), Cameron Percy (2014)
Top Aussie prediction: Curtis Luck

PGA TOUR Canada
Osprey Valley Open
TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley (Heathlands Cse), Caledon, Ontario
3.40am*             Will Barnett, Jordan Hahn, Taylor Sundbom
3.50am*             Cameron John, Jake Scott, Sam Triplett

Defending champion: Paul Barjon (2019)
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Cameron John

LET Access Series
Santander Golf Tour Malaga
Golf Torrequebrada, Spain
Australians in the field: Kristalle Blum

Defending champion: Agathe Laisné (2020)
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Kristalle Blum