Mi Hyang Lee overcame a five shot deficit to capture her first-career Epson Tour victory at the inaugural Epson Classic. Lee entered the final day trailing Allison Hanna but fired a final-round 4-under par 68 that included eight birdies and four bogeys.
Lee began the day by rolling in a 40-foot birdie putt at the first to get momentum on her side.
She then followed up the birdie at the first with two consecutive birdies on the par-4 fourth and par-5 fifth. The birdie train didn’t stop there as Lee went on to recorded back-to-back birdies on the par-4 sixth and par-4 seventh.
After a routine par at the par-3 eighth, Lee recorded her sixth birdie of the day at the par-4 ninth and after shooting a front-nine 6-under par 30, she headed to the back-nine tied for the lead with Hanna and came to the quick realization she was in contention to notch her first Epson Tour victory.
“I just wanted to have a good finish but when I shot 6-under par 30 I thought I could make a run on the back-nine,” said Lee. “Coming down the stretch I just wanted to stay calm but I was really nervous, I never felt that before.”
Lee began to falter on the back-nine with back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 11 and 12 but quickly recovered with a birdie at the par-3 14th.
The up-and-down back-nine continued for Lee with a bogey on the par-4 15th followed-by a birdie at the par-5 16th.
Lee headed to the 17th with what seemed to be a comfortable lead until a bogey at the par-3 dwindled her lead down to one-stroke.
Lee hit her first shot on the par-3 18th hole to within 25-feet but ran the slippery putt by and left herself with a testy 4-foot putt coming back for par. With only a one-stroke lead over Olivia Jordan-Higgins, Lee rolled in her putt with confidence to earn her first Epson Tour victory.
“My heart was beating so fast, I could hear it in my head just pounding of the walls in my body,” said Lee.” I just felt really good when it went in the hole.”
Lee’s one-stroke victory over Jordan-Higgins made her only the second Epson Tour rookie to win this season along with Julia Boland who won the Four Winds Invitational.