Leading by two at the start of the final round, Lee (71) saw a five-stroke lead evaporate under a back-nine charge by England’s Charley Hull (69), Lee having to hole a clutch par putt from five feet at the 72nd hole to extend the tournament to a playoff.

Hull very nearly holed an improbable birdie putt from beside the grandstands at the back of the green at the first playoff hole at Kenwood Country Club, Lee two-putting for a matching par to book a second additional trip down 18.

Lee and Hull both found the left rough with their tee shots and after Hull played her approach to just outside 10 feet to the right of the hole, Lee went to work.

Given the firmness of the fairway and the putting surface, the 27-year-old played a pitching wedge from 145 metres that skipped up, rolled out and came to rest just two feet from the hole.

“I had like 145 metres to the pin, but you have to land it like 25 yards short of the green because I was also coming out of the rough,” Lee explained in her winner’s press conference.

“You can’t really predict how far it’s going to run so it was just a guesstimate.

“I just was like, Oh, it’s probably going to run this much, so I just need to put it on a good line and it’ll probably just roll up there.

“It was just really trusting that it was going to come out the way I thought it was going to come out and that it was going to roll all the way to the pin.”

Chasing a ninth LPGA Tour title, Lee extended her advantage with birdies at the second, seventh and eighth holes on Sunday.

Her two at the par-3 eighth put her four strokes clear, a lead that would balloon to five with just eight holes to play.

A double-bogey at the par-5 12th gave Hull a sliver of hope, hope that she converted into a share of the lead with three straight birdies from the 14th hole.

Lee was unable to find the final birdie she needed to separate herself again but stayed in the fight long enough to earn a fifth career playoff appearance.

“After that putt (at the 72nd hole) I just told myself, Let’s go and win this one,” said Lee, who lost a playoff to Jin Young Ko at the Cognizant Founders Cup earlier in the season and is now 2-3 in playoffs in her career.

“Obviously at Founders with Jin Young, that playoff didn’t go my way so this one I really wanted to make it go my way.”

Queenslander Anthony Quayle narrowly missed out on the playoff needed to decide the winner at the Shinhan Donghae Open in Korea.

Tri-sanctioned by the Japan Golf Tour, Asian Tour and Korean PGA Tour, Quayle was one back at the start of the final round but was never able to bridge the gap.

A wayward second shot that forced Quayle (69) to take a drop led to a bogey at the par-5 13th yet the 29-year-old continued to push.

A superb approach from the rough at the par-4 15th went unrewarded, a closing birdie at the par-5 18th bringing Quayle up into a tie for third and two shots out of the playoff won by Guntaek Koh (68).

Kiwi Ryan Fox and Min Woo Lee both finished inside the top 10 at the Horizon Irish Open on the DP World Tour, Richard Green fired a Sunday 65 to finish tied for eighth at the Ascension Charity Classic on the Champions Tour and Amy Walsh and Kelsey Bennett logged top-10s at the LET Access Series Rose Ladies Open in England.

Results

LPGA Tour
Kroger Queen City Championship
Kenwood Country Club (Kendale Cse), Cincinnati, Ohio
1             Minjee Lee                         67-69-65-71—272            $US300,000
T36        Gabriela Ruffels                69-69-74-72—284            $11,262
T41        Stephanie Kyriacou          71-72-73-69—285            $8,681
T41        Lydia Ko (NZ)                     68-73-72-72—285            $8,681
T55        Sarah Kemp                       72-71-73-71—287            $5,571
MC         Grace Kim                           71-75—146
MC         Karis Davidson                   77-71—148
MC         Su Oh                                  76-75—151

DP World Tour
Horizon Irish Open
The K Club, Straffan, Co. Kildare, Ireland
1             Vincent Norrman              68-71-70-65—274            €951,046.98
T3           Ryan Fox (NZ)                    71-69-66-70—276            €266,293.15
T7           Min Woo Lee                    71-67-69-70—277            €129,566.17
T12        Daniel Hillier (NZ)             68-71-70-69—278            €88,531.29
T54        Jason Scrivener                 69-68-76-71—284            €17,902.06
MC         Adam Scott                        73-70—143

Japan Golf Tour/Asian Tour/Korean PGA
Shinhan Donghae Open
Sky72 Country Club (Ocean Cse), Incheon, South Korea
1             Guntaek Koh       69-66-66-68—269            $US188,666.67
Won in sudden death playoff
T3           Anthony Quayle 65-70-67-69—271            $53,234.57
T19        Travis Smyth       70-69-67-69—275            $11,502.47
T25        Zach Murray       70-68-68-70—276            $9,307.41
T50        Brad Kennedy     70-68-70-72—280            $4,225.93
T50        Junseok Lee        67-72-72-69—280            $4,225.93
T72        Scott Hend          69-68-74-73—284            $2,022.22
81           Brendan Jones   71-70-74-75—290            $1,244.44
WD        Won Joon Lee    67-70—137                        $1,140.74
MC         Todd Sinnott       71-71—142
MC         Kevin Yuan          69-77—146

Ladies European Tour
Big Green Egg Open
Hilversumsche Golf Club, Netherlands
1             Trichat Cheenglab            69-68-67—204   €45,000
T11        Kirsten Rudgeley               68-70-71—209   €6,150
T50        Wenyung Keh (NZ)           77-67-73—217   €1,332
MC         Hanee Song (NZ)              74-74—148
MC         Momoka Kobori                80-70—150

Challenge Tour
Challenge de España
Club de Golf Playa Serena , Almería, Spain
1             Martin Couvra (a)             67-70-66-65—268            ——-
MC         Blake Windred                   70-73—143

PGA TOUR Canada
Fortinet Cup Championship
Country Hills Golf Club, Calgary, Alberta
1             Hayden Springer               66-62-67-67—262
59           Jason Hong                         66-69-73-77—285

Epson Tour
Black Desert Resort Championship
Soldier Hollow Golf Club (Silver Cse), Salt Lake City, Utah
1             Nataliya Guseva                66-67-65—198   $US56,250
13           Robyn Choi                        66-67-70—203   $6,551
T23        Cassie Porter                     69-71-66—206   $3,951
T33        Hira Naveed                       73-69-66—208   $2,754
T38        Amelia Garvey (NZ)          71-69-69—209   $2,184

Champions Tour
Ascension Charity Classic
Norwood Hills Country Club, St Louis, Missouri
1             Steve Flesch        66-66-62—194   $US300,000
T8           Richard Green    68-69-65—202   $60,000
T23        Mark Hensby      70-72-65—207   $19,600
T33        Rod Pampling     71-67-71—209   $12,086
T45        Stuart Appleby   70-69-72—211   $7,400
T65        John Senden       75-71-71—217   $2,140
T65        David McKenzie 74-69-74—217   $2,140

Legends Tour
WCM Legends Open de France
Golf de Saint-Cloud, France
1             Adilson Da Silva                65-65-68—198
T15        Michael Long                     72-69-70—211
T22        Jason Norris                       74-68-72—214
T29        Peter Fowler                      74-71-72—217
T29        Michael Campbell            72-74-71—217

LET Access Series
Rose Ladies Open
The Melbourne Club At Brocket Hall, England
1             Chiara Tamburlini              71-68-65—204   €11,200
T5           Amy Walsh                         70-73-67—210   €2,572.50
T7           Kelsey Bennett                  72-70-70—212   €2,205
T28        Kristalle Blum                    73-73-72—218   €921.67