SEON-HWA LEE

The Facts

Capsule Bio

Seon-Hwa Lee is a young phenomenon that had a lot of success on the KLPGA tour, and thus came over in 2004 to try the American circuit. Lee created something of a sensation in Korea when she turned pro at the tender age of 14 years and 2 months. She showed it was a good decision when she won her first pro event shortly after her 15th birthday, the 2001 McSquare Championship, thus becoming the youngest player ever to win on the KLPGA tour. She also won the 2003 HiMart Championship in Korea, and made 7 tops tens in total that year. That was good enough to allow her to finish third on the KLPGA money list, ahead of players like Mi Na Lee, Il Mi Chung and Shi Hyun Ahn.

This qualified her to be on the 2003 Pinx Cup team, the annual Korea vs. Japan team competition. And she did not disappoint. On a team that featured such superstars as Se Ri Pak, Grace Park, Mi Hyun Kim and Hee-Won Han, Lee was one of the few players who won both her matches, even more surprising when you consider she was the youngest player on the team. She was very likely the MVP, although veteran Woo-Soon Ko beat her out for the official honor.

Having just turned 18, Lee came over to play on the Futures Tour, and has immediately had success. In her first three starts, she managed two seconds and a 7th, and quickly rose to second on the money list (and was first for a time). She looked good to win her exempt card for the LPGA tour in 2005, but faded towards the end of the season. She then failed to get status at 2004 Q-School.

This proved but a minor setback for Lee. In 2005, she played brilliantly on the Futures Tour, making all 18 cuts, grabbing 13 top tens, 7 top threes, and her first win at the Albany FUTURES Pro Golf Classic in Albany, N.Y. She ended up finishing atop the Futures Tour money list, earning an exempt LPGA tour card for 2006.

After that, she played a few events on the KLPGA tour. Despite only competing in 5 of 11 events, she finished third on the KLPGA money list for the year.

In 2006, Seon Hwa Lee shocked everyone with the brilliance of her rookie season on the LPGA. She almost made a top ten in her first event; in her second, she nearly won, losing in a playoff to Meena Lee. The next event, she again finished second, this time to Annika Sorenstam. She notched a third second at the Takefuji Classic a few months later. By this time, she was blowing away the other more highly touted rookies in her class for the Rookie of the Year title. And when she wasn't contending, she was still collecting top twenties.

At the ShopRite Classic in June, she again found herself facing Annika for the victory. This time it was Lee who came out on top, playing a virtually flawless final round (a 63) to leave the field in the dust. It was just her 12th LPGA tournament.

Seon Hwa went on to easily win the LPGA's Rookie of the Year award, becoming the fifth Korean in the past nine years to do so. She also went the entire season without missing a cut. Her future looks very bright indeed.

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