CLIFTON, N.J. — Upper Montclair Country Club boasts a list of champions that includes some of the best golfers in the history of the game.
So it should not have been a surprise Sunday afternoon, when the final group arrived at the 10th hole with two of the best young players on the LPGA locked in a battle for the Cognizant Founders Cup. And they weren’t just playing for one of the most prestigious titles of the season. Both were looking for a long-awaited win.
Minjee Lee got her breakthrough. Lexi Thompson will have to keep searching for hers.
After a shaky start to the round, Lee birdied three of her final seven holes to post a gutsy, 2-under 70 for her first win in nearly 10 months. The 25-year-old Australian finished the week at 19-under 269, two shots ahead of Thompson who finished with a 3-under 69.
“I wasn’t really that nervous, but obviously I wasn’t really striking it as well as I wanted to,” Lee said. “I still drove it and putted it really well, so I’m going to take the positives. … Even though I didn’t hit it that well today, I’m still really, really happy.”
It was Lee’s first win since July when she she broke through for her first career major at the Evian Championship in France. And it’s not a surprise, because she has been on the verge of another victory seemingly ever since. Lee didn’t finish worse than a tie for 25th in her previous 11 events before arriving in Jersey. And she gave herself plenty of chances to win during that stretch, with five top-five finishes.
Sunday, it finally happened. But it took a lot more effort than it seemed it would earlier in the week.
Lee, who surged to a three-shot 36-hole lead after a 9-under 63 on Friday to get to 14-under, setting a surprisingly torrid place at a course that has seen wins from legends including Nancy Lopez, Lorena Ochoa, Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino. The winning score was 14-under for the week the last time the LPGA played here in 2009.
But Lee’s lead was down to one shot to start Sunday’s final round, which was delayed an hour by fog. And Lee did not get off to a good start. She missed a two-foot birdie putt at the fourth hole and nearly had a disastrous eighth hole after getting a terrible lie above a green-side bunker. She made bogey but admitted she was lucky to limit the damage to that and still be leading by one as she made the turn to the back nine.
Lexi Thompson reacts after sinking a putt on the 18th green during the final round of the 2022 Cognizant Founders Cup at Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, New Jersey. (Photo: Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
Thompson was looking for her first win in nearly three years, and it would have continued her good vibes in the Garden State: her last win came down the Parkway in 2019 at the ShopRite LPGA Classic. And early in the final nine holes, it looked as if it might be Thompson’s day after she hit a brilliant approach at No. 10 and made a tricky downhill put to pull even with Lee at 16-under.
Both players took advantage of the reachable par-5 12th hole, hitting the green in two and making easy birdies to tie to remain tied for the lead at 17-under. It was Lee’s first birdie of the day and she finished the hole 6-under for the week, with two birdies and two eagles.
As Lee was settling down, Thompson was struggling with her driver for the entire back nine, missing the fairway left on the 11th and 13th holes and pushing her drive into a bunker right on the par-5 14th. And that mistake changed the tournament. Thompson had to settle for making a tricky five-footer for par, while Lee, who split the fairway with her drive and nearly reached the green in two, made an easy birdie to pull ahead for good.
“I think that’s kind of what turned the tables a little bit,” Lee said. “Just because I was tied with Lexi at that point, and then I got to 18-under, and I knew the last four holes would be tough to make birdies on, so I just kind of figured that if I made birdie on 14 it would give me a pretty good chance to be leading or tie lead going into 18.”
Thompson had a chance to put pressure on Lee with mid-range putts on the par-3 17th and short par-4 18th, but couldn’t get them to drop. And Lee, who lipped out a birdie putt that would have sealed the win on the 17th, drained her short birdie putt on 18 to secure the two-shot win.
The 27-year-old Thompson has won 11 LPGA titles, including a major. But the search for her 12th win continues. Thompson insisted that she wasn’t focused on ending the drought heading into the final round. And she was determined to view her performance this week as a positive.
“I think as athletes we just want to see our hard work pay off,” Thompson said. “And when I’m home, I’m doing two workouts a day. I’m putting in five to six hours out on the golf course, and just to see it pay off means the world to me, and I’m going to continue to work my butt off and hopefully see the results.
“It feels good to have my game going in that direction. I know I have two weeks off and then the U.S. Women’s Open, so I’m really looking forward to that.”
The second major of the season is June 2-5 at Pine Needles in North Carolina. And both Lee and Thompson will be among the favorites. But Lee will a little extra momentum after wining for the seventh time on the LPGA Tour and taking home $450,000 for the victory — the largest prize in women’s golf outside of a major or season-ending event.
