Alison Lee is no stranger to winning golf tournaments. A former No. 1-ranked amateur, Lee has collected two Ladies European Tour victories in her career and played on two victorious U.S. Solheim Cup teams. But she has yet to capture an LPGA Tour victory. And she certainly hasn’t done so months after giving birth.
But that’s exactly the scenario Lee finds herself in this weekend at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. Just over four months after the birth of her first child, the 30-year-old is tied for the lead in her third tournament back.
(UPDATE: After heavy rain storms deluged the host course Saturday night, the LPGA Tour made the “difficult decision” to cancel the remainder of the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, ending Lee’s chances at victory. The tournament will be reduced to an 18-hole unofficial event.)
New mom Alison Lee charges into tie for LPGA lead
When Lee welcomed her son Levi Todd Kidd into the world on April 25 and announced the news days later, the 2025 LPGA season was an afterthought. Lee confirmed as much in her pre-tournament press conference on Thursday.
“Right after I gave birth, if you told me I was going to play in four, five months I probably would’ve said probably not,” Lee said. “I’m really happy that I was able to make it out here and play.”
But determined not to get “a little bit behind” in her game by taking too much time off, Lee resumed her pro golf career far sooner than she expected.
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Lee first returned to action at the LET’s Aramco Houston Championship earlier this month, where she made the cut and finished T53. Her first LPGA start since becoming a mom came at last week’s Kroger Queen City Championship, where she missed the cut.
Even with all she’s gone through, Lee admitted she wasn’t happy with her results so far ahead of this week’s event.
“I feel like I’m a bit disappointed where I am coming into these two weeks,” Lee revealed. “Obviously don’t want to expect too much and give myself grace because I have taken some time off and my body has gone through a lot. At the same time I want to come out here and play well.”
In the opening round at Pinnacle Country Club, she did better than “play well.” Lee fired a seven-under 64 to tie for the lead before play was suspended due to dangerous weather.
“It feels so good,” Lee said after the opening round. “I mean, coming into these three weeks I feel like I did as much as I could to prep, and the last two weeks did feel a bit disappointing because I felt like my game was in a really good place. Obviously you just never know until you tee it up… Felt like I adjusted really well. Happy with my round.”
She added: “I know we have two days left, but it’s such a good start for me and it’s a good feeling to see my hard work pay off and see it’s all been worth it.”
As for what she’s improved upon to turn around her results on the course this week, Lee mentioned becoming better adjusted to both being back on Tour and being a mom, with an assist from baby Levi.
“Just trying to get adjusted to everything and life out here. Thankfully, too, my son is sleeping like eight hours at night in a row, so that helps me a lot just in terms of recovery and rest.”
Lee reveals she didn’t hit driver until two months ago
If you thought it was incredible that Lee took only four months to return to pro golf after the arrival of her son, then you’ll probably find this next fact dumbfounding.
It turns out Lee had far less time to get her game into shape, as she revealed in her Thursday press conference.
As her body recovered from an emergency C-section, Lee wasn’t allowed to start hitting drivers until two months after Levi’s birth. In other words, just two months before she teed it up in a pro event.
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“So I had to have an emergency C-section. They give you about six weeks to try and heal and you have to be really careful with that. But, gosh, I was itching to get back,” Lee revealed Thursday. “Right when the six weeks was up I started chipping, putting, hitting iron shots. Not really hitting driver until probably two months after, like eight or nine weeks. I felt really lucky and like I was able to recover pretty quickly. And I did work really hard.”
She also shared that a strong desire to be with her newborn baby made her comeback preparation even more difficult.
“Like I did my best to try and work out as much as I could, go on a ton of walks when I couldn’t work out when I was still in pain. I did practice a lot,” Lee said. “There were a lot of days where I would be hitting range balls and just crying, like the whole time I’m on the range. You have so many different emotions. You have mom guilt, you question yourself when you have a bad day of practice. What am I doing here? I could be spending time with my son.”
She continued: “And then there are moments where I want to do this so bad. The hardest thing to do is leaving the house. I mean, you’re so tired, sleep deprived, and you see a cute little baby there. The last thing I want to do is leave and go do something hard.”
Despite all of that, Lee is leading this week’s event, a development that seems to have left her satisfied, for now.
“I felt like it was quite a challenge over the last few months. To be able to sit here and play, even though I didn’t play the way I wanted to the last couple weeks, I feel like I’ve come a long way.”
