JEONGEUN LEE6

When Jeong Eun Lee was young, her father was involved in a car accident that left him paralyzed. As an amateur golfer, it was challenging for her family to travel to tournaments, as hotels that could accommodate a wheelchair always cost more, and she was not making any money at golf.

When she was 13, she became disenchanted with the game and stopped playing for several years. Three years later, she started playing again, thinking she might get good enough to get a job as a golf pro at a country club. But working with a new coach, she quickly corrected a few swing flaws and suddenly unlocked her awesome potential. In almost no time, she became one of the best female golfers in the country, and she revised her career plans to aim for a career on a pro tour.

Lee turned pro and joined the KLPGA in 2016. Because there had been five other women on tour with her exact name, she became known as Jeong Eun Lee 6. She embraced the number as her lucky charm, gaining the nicknames Hot 6 and Lucky 6. Later, when she was sponsored by golf clothing manufacturer Pearly Gates, she wore golf clothing branded with 'Lucky 6', although I'm not sure if they named it after her, or she took that as a nickname from the clothes.

Lee started her rookie season well and continued to play well all year. Most pundits had predicted that So Young Lee would become the Rookie of the Year that season, but Lucky 6 surprised them all by capturing that title. Lee finished 24th on the money list, with about 257 million won earned. She didn't win, but did have seven top tens. All in all an excellent rookie season.

But in 2017, Lee improved her standing by leaps and bounds, and by the end of the year, she was the top player on tour. With her long driving and great putting (punctuated by her unique way of reading putts while crouching perpendicular to the line), she became both a deadly competitor and a popular star.

Lee won the third event she played that year, the Lotte Rent-a-Car Women's Open, and she kept putting up a great finishes after that: 7 of her next 9 starts were top tens. It took until July until she came up with her next win at the Moon Young Queen Park Championship. A month later, she had win number three, then grabbed a 4th season victory at the Pak Se Ri Invitational.

In 2017, she was a dominant player, and six indeed was her lucky number. She shot the lowest score in tour history, a 60. She won 6 year-ending awards: money list, Player of the Year, Scoring Average, Most wins, Most Popular (as chosen by the fans) and Best Golfer (as chosen by the press).

She became just the fourth player in tour history to break a billion won in a season, amassing 1.15 billion, more than 300 million won ahead of the #2 golfer. Her scoring average of 69.80 was one of the lowest in tour history. She had a mind blowing *twenty* top tens, which included four runner-up finishes and 13 total top fives.

Lee also played her first LPGA events, and was great there, too. The highlight came at the US Women's Open, where she worked her way into contention before finishing tied for fifth. Lee also played on the Kowa Queens KLPGA squad. She won one team match and lost one, while easily winning her singles match against Hannah Green. She also played at the ING Champions, where she won one team match, lost one, and lost a close match to Hyo Joo Kim in the singles.

Lee came into the 2018 season with a lot to prove. She played often outside of Korea, notching great results almost every time. She played four LPGA Majors (skipping only the British). She missed the cut at the KPMG, but that was her only LPGA finish of the year outside the top 20. She managed a T17th at the US Women's Open, a tie for 16th at the ANA Inspiration, and a tie for 6th at the Evian. She also added another tie for 16th at the Lotte Championship in Hawaii and a tie for 14th at the KEB Hana Bank.

Lee also made her debut on the JLPGA at the Salonpas Cup, one of their Majors. Lee grabbed and held the lead for several days. On the final day, however, she started well, but struggled coming in, making bogies on three of the final four holes to finish third to Jiyai Shin. It took her a while to get over the loss.

Meanwhile, she was also playing on the KLPGA, but fell behind Hye Jin Choi, Ji Hyun Oh and Hana Jang. By June she still had not won on that tour all year. Although in the summer she managed several second and third place finishes, she did not claim a win until the Hanwha Classic in late August. She would win again two months later at the KB Star Championship, meaning her two wins of 2018 were both Majors. In all, she had 8 top tens on the year, but all of them were top threes: the two wins, four seconds and two thirds.

Lee claimed the money list title for the second straight year despite playing 6 - 8 fewer events than most of her rivals. Her money total just missed breaking a billion won: she made about 957 million. In addition, she won the scoring average title. Her average of 69.87 is one of only four in KLPGA history to break 70; and, she is the only player to do it twice. The other two to have done it were Sung Hyun Park and Jiyai Shin, both former world #1s. She's in great company! Lee was also chosen as the best player on tour by the Golf Writers of Korea.

In the Fall, Lee went to America to play in the Q-Series. After 8 rounds, she finished first to decisively claim an LPGA card. It took her about a month to decide to accept, but she did and will be a rookie on the LPGA in 2019.

Lee played at the OrangeLife Champions Trophy team event, representing the KLPGA. She teamed with Cecilia Cho to square a match against Mi Hyang Lee and Jenny Shin, and won a match against Chella Choi and Mi Hyang Lee when teamed with A Lim Kim. Her singles match was a classic. She went against In Gee Chun, and they were all square until the final hole, when Lee pitched in from off the green to win. She jumped for joy, but the LPGA still won the Trophy 13-11.

Lee6 quickly lived up to her potential in her rookie year of 2019. She started her career with four straight top 16 finishes, then made a tie for 6th at her first Major, the ANA Inspiration. Just a month later, she got into a playoff at the Mediheal but lost to Sei Young Kim.

A few weeks after that, she played brilliantly at the US Women's Open in Charleston, South Carolina. After contending much of the week, she seized control of the tournament on the back nine on Sunday, and even two late bogies didn't prevent her from grabbing the win. It was her first LPGA victory, and it came at the biggest event of the season.

Athough Lee6 did not win again in 2019, she did manage ten total top tens, including three runner up finishes and a 4th. She obliterated her competition in the Rookie of the Year race, winning the award with five tournaments to go. At the end of the season, she gave a nearly flawless acceptance speech in English, a language she could barely speak just a year earlier. Her $2 million total put her third on the money list, and she finished 3rd in Player of the Year as well. She also had a brilliant 69.74 scoring average, 6th in the league in 2019. Lee rose as high as #3 in the world during the season.

Lee also played in the OrangeLife Champions Trophy, the LPGA/KLPGA team tournament, but now she was on the LPGA team. She teamed with MJ Hur to lose to A Lim Kim and Min Ji Park 4 & 3, teamed with Jenny Shin to beat Da Yeon Lee and Hye Jin Choi 1 up, and won her singles match against KLPGA Rookie of the Year Ayean Cho 5 & 4.

In 2020, the whole world was rocked by the Covid-19 pandemic. The LPGA and KLPGA tours canceled and postponed many tournaments. Jeongeun started her year in Australia, but once the pandemic hit, she stayed in Korea until late November, when she returned to play three LPGA events.

On the KLPGA, she played 14 events in total. Although she wasn't able to get a win, she had a few decent weeks, including a runner-up to Hae Ran Ryu at the Samdasoo Masters in July (despite shooting four rounds in the sixties) and another runner-up at the next event as well. In all, she had those 2 seconds place finishes, one third, and five total top tens. She made 340 million won, which placed her 12th on the KLPGA money list.

Lee6 returned to the LPGA to attempt to qualify for the CME and to defend her title at the US Women's Open; that event had been delayed until mid-December due to Covid. She didn't play well enough to get into the CME field, but she finished her season well with a tie for 6th at the Open. It was the best title defense at that event since Karrie Webb won it back-to-back in 2000-2001. Lee6 made $220,000 in five events, which was 57th on the money list.

Jeongeun also played for the LPGA team at the annual LPGA-KLPGA team event, the OrangeLife Champions. She teamed with Jiyai Shin to lose 1up to Hae Ran Ryu and A Lim Kim. The second round was canceled due to weather. In singles, Hee Jeong Lim beat Hot Six 2 & 1. The KLPGA beat the LPGA, 10.5 to 7.5.

Lee6 went through swing changes in 2021, which sometimes made her inconsistent. But she had a few big highlights, and overall her season was very good. She contended at the US Women's Open, but a bad final round saw her fall to t-12th. At the next Major, the Amundi Evian, she bounced back. After a strong 66 in the first round, she shot a blistering 61 in round 2, tying the all-time record for lowest round in a Major, set at this very event by Hyo Joo Kim in 2014. After a third round 68, she had a five round lead and looked ready to claim her second Major. Alas, she again had a bad final round, and within 8 holes on Sunday had fallen into a tie with Aussie Minjee Lee. Lee actually charged into the lead on the back nine, but Hot Six rallied, and gaver herself an eagle try on the last hole to win. She missed that, though, and lost the event in a playoff when she hit her second shot into the water on the 18th minutes later. It was a crushing disappointment for her, but she still had a record-shattering week and came away with a runner up result.

She didn't get a win in 2021, but Lee6 still had 8 top tens, earning $1.08 million. She finished 13th on the money list.

Six continued working on her swing throughout 2022. As a result, she had widely varying results; sometimes she was brilliant, and sometimes it seemed like she couldn't hit two shots in a row straight. Her season started well; she finished tied for 9th in her second event, then contended at her third, the HSBC Women's World Championship. She started the third round with six birdies in her first seven holes, and by the end of the day she had a one-shot lead over two other strong Korean stars: Jin Young Ko and In Gee Chun. On Sunday, she had at least a share of the lead until the final hole, where she hit a terrible drive and never recovered. Meanwhile, Jin Young Ko hit a perfect drive, a better approach, and made birdie to grab the win away from Lee. Six wound up with a double, falling to a tie for 4th, but she was sooo close to finally getting her second career LPGA win.

And so it went the rest of the year. She missed the cut badly at the Chevron and the Evian; the Evian was particularly painful. In '21, she had a five-shot lead going into the final round but lost. In '22, she shot a second round 79, *18* shots worse than she had in that round the previous year. On the other hand, she had a few decent weeks, including a tie for 4th at the CME, the year's final event, just a few weeks after she had finished near the bottom of the leaderboard in Korea.

She also played twice on the KLPGA, with her best result a 6th at the SK Networks Classic in October.

Her world ranking plunged to 38, the worst it had been since she joined the LPGA. But she remains optimistic that her swing changes will soon get her back to the top. She earned a shade over $700,000 for the year, 42nd on the money list, with five top tens.

Alas, 2023 was another difficult year for Lee6. Her world ranking plunged to 85, and she made just $327,000 for the year, 75th on the money list. She didn't have her only top ten until the second to last event of the year, the BMW Ladies Championship, where she finished tied for 5th. But as before, she has continued to work on her swing and feels that better days are coming. Her status dropped to category 3, but she remains that high thanks to her 2019 Major win.

Six also played in Saudi Arabia at an LET event in February but missed the cut, and at two KLPGA events, making one cut but not contending.