As we near the quarter-final stage of our search for Australia’s Greatest Golfer, Crampton and Lee pit their impressive records against each other having accounted for Katherine Kirk and Brett Ogle respectively in Round 1.

An Australian Open champion at just 21 years of age when he birdied the final two holes of the 1956 championship at Royal Sydney, Crampton soon took his game to the United States where he made his name as Australia’s first million-dollar golfer.

A winner of 14 PGA TOUR events and a 20-time victor on the Champions Tour – including seven wins in 1986 alone – Crampton’s greatest American season came in 1973 when he won four times and was runner-up in five additional tournaments, his prize money for the year of $US274,266 pushing him past the million-dollar mark, joining Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Billy Casper and Lee Trevino as the first players to achieve the feat.

When it came to the majors, Crampton was regularly in contention yet was thwarted time and again by the most prolific major champion of them all, Jack Nicklaus.

Top five at both the US Open and US PGA Championship in 1963, Crampton was runner-up in four majors between 1972 and 1975, Nicklaus his conqueror on all four occasions.

Like Crampton, Minjee Lee is yet to win a major championship but time is most definitely on her side.

Winner of the 2010 Western Australia Amateur at just 14 years of age, Lee created a slice of history when she claimed the 2012 US Junior Girls championship, adding the Australian Women’s Amateur in both 2013 and 2014.

When she won the Oates Vic Open in February 2014 Lee rose to No.1 in the world amateur rankings, joining the professional ranks after leading Australia to victory at the Espirito Santo Trophy in September that year.

She became a LPGA Tour winner nine days before her 19th birthday when she claimed the 2015 Kingsmill Championship and has added four more victories since, the most recent the Hugel-Air Premia LA Open in April 2019.

Ranked as high as No.2 in the world, Lee has finished inside the top 10 at major championships three times to date, her best result a tie for third at the 2017 ANA Inspiration.

Bruce Crampton
Career wins: 45
PGA TOUR wins: 14
Champions Tour wins: 20
Australasian Tour wins: 6
Australian Open: Won (1956)

Minjee Lee
Career wins: 7
LPGA Tour wins: 5
ALPG Tour wins: 2
Women’s Australian Open: T3 (2017)
Australian Ladies Masters: 2nd (2014)