Minjee Lee is one of the top players on the LPGA and has been for some time. The 29-year-old West Australian has 11 LPGA titles in her trophy cabinet, including three major championships – the most recent coming last week at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in Frisco, Texas. Lee signed with Callaway in 2024, and Golf Digest US equipment editor E. Michael Johnson caught up with her to discuss her gear, the putter change that lifted her game to another level, why the No.27 will soon adorn her golf ball and the reason the 8-iron is her favourite club in the bag.
CLICK HERE TO SEE MINJEE LEE’S CLUBS FOR HER KPMG WOMEN’S PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
Golf Digest: The change to the Odyssey Ai One Square 2 Square #7 Broomstick putter has paid off. What prompted the change and how big of an adjustment was it for you?
Minjee Lee: [My coach] Ritchie [Smith] mentioned it to me, and I started mucking around with it. I’ve changed a few times over the years, tried left-hand low and some other things. It wasn’t a big adjustment at all. This was just a way to take the hands out of it, get more comfortable with my right hand, and just rock the shoulders. Now that I can sit down and think about it, it’s a pretty simple way of putting. I was just overthinking things too much.
GD: You play the Callaway Chrome Tour X ball. What does that ball do for you?
ML: It took me a little while to actually get used to the cover of the ball because I think it’s a touch firmer than the Srixon ball I had used for a long time. Now that I’ve had some time with it, I love the spin. I just feel like I can control the spin within a few meters and that’s so important on the LPGA Tour where we have a number of wedges into greens. It’s also fantastic in the wind. A big thing for me is in crosswinds because I know that I can control the ball really well. If I want to cut the ball into a right-to-left wind, it’s going to hold there. The shot I hit is the result I’m going to get. There are no surprises.
GD: And only No. 1s for the play number, correct?
ML: Yes, but soon it will be a different number.
GD: Do tell.
ML: It’s going to be 27, and the reason for that is it’s my birth date and my brother’s birth date. We both have the same day, although different months.
GD: On the driver, you have the standard Elyte model. What playing characteristic led you to that one versus one of the other models?
ML: When I first saw it, I just knew that it was going to work better for me. It wasn’t as much of a fade-biased shape, and I liked that. The little Chevron on the crown helps me line the ball up, too. I just find it easy to look at. I think you need to really feel comfortable in your setup, and when you’re putting it down in your hands, to hit a good shot.
GD: So many golfers, both tour players and everyday players alike, they’ll put a club down and it’ll either be, “Man, I really like the look of that” or they’ll kind of be like, “Yeah, that’s not going to work.” It sounds like you kind of fall into that category.
Photo: Darren Carroll/PGA of America
ML: Absolutely. For all of my clubs, they visually have to suit my eye, otherwise I don’t feel comfortable. The number one thing for me is just feeling like I can hit it well and just liking the shape of the actual club.
GD: When you won your two previous majors, you had the Srixon hybrid in the bag, but now you have the Callaway Elyte 7-wood. What does the 7-wood give you that maybe a hybrid doesn’t?
ML: It goes longer and higher in the air, so I know it’s going to stop into par 5s or when laying up, I know that I’m going to get the length, but it’s not going to roll into the rough. I just find that I have a bit more control and I can hit a draw, and I can hit a cut, so I can make it go shorter to mimic the hybrid distance, or I can hit it a little more with a draw and it will go a bit closer to the 3-wood length. I have a lot of different options and a lot of different ways I can hit it. In the rough, it goes through so easily and comes out really well, so I just feel like it’s a club that can do so many things. It was a no brainer to have it in my bag.
GD: I saw and interview where you mentioned that your favourite club is the 8-iron. What makes it so?
ML: I don’t necessarily have a moment I was like, “Oh my God, this is my favourite club” but it’s a club that when I look in my bag, I just want to pull it out and hit it, practice with it. I always found that it was a comfortable club for me, and I could always hit it well. Put a gun to my head that I need to stick a shot and the 8-iron from 125 metres is it every time.
GD: If I were to go through your staff bag, what would be the most unusual item I would find?
ML: Not sure how unusual this is, but I have a bag of worn golf gloves that I always keep. I prefer broken-in gloves because I just don’t really use new gloves. They’re just too tacky. I keep probably five or six in there.
