HOLE-IN-ONE! 6-YEAR-OLD KIWI GIRL STUNS US GOLF COMP
Move over Lydia! Tiny golfer stuns US competition with hole-in-one.
She realised what she had done and she was so excited. Mario Lee, father
An Auckland girl has scored a stunning hole-in-one at a prestigious American tournament. Yuri Lee, who turned 7 last week, has just returned home from the IMG Junior World Championships where the Orakei girl impressed crowds with the rare shot.
Yuri was competing in the 6-andunder division of the tournament in San Diego a few days before her birthday. The odds of making such a shot for a professional are 2500 to one. For the average golfer, it’s 12,500 to one.
“She realised what she had done and she was so excited, she just kept shouting ‘yeah!’,” proud dad Mario Lee said.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime shot. My father plays a lot of golf and he has never got one so for her to get one at 6 is just amazing.” Mario Lee said his daughter had been playing golf for only a year after getting a membership to the Ellerslie Golf Club for her sixth birthday.
“She had tried all sorts of sports but didn’t really enjoy anything until she picked up a golf club,” Lee said.
“We put a club in her hands one day and she loved it.”
Earlier this year, Yuri qualified for the IMG Tour through the Auckland round of the US Kids Golf Tour.
Lee said Yuri was a hit on the course.
“It was quite surprising really,” he said. “It’s unusual for a 6-year-old, she has a very calm character.”
The St Michael’s Primary School pupil plays golf every weekend and three times during the week.
“She is the one who wants to be out there, she just loves it,” Lee said.
The hole in one wasn’t the only achievement for the young golfer.
She was second in her age group at the FCG International and third in her age group at the IMG World Championships.
She was also the youngest player in the under-8 division of the IJGA Tournament in Las Vegas this month. She came sixth.
Lydia Ko hit her first ace at the Rio Olympics in August, aged 19. The youngest female golfer to score a hole-in-one, is American Soona Lee Tolley, who hit hers in 2007 aged 5 years 103 days.