EVANS, Ga. – Mackenzie Lee did what she always does when she hits a good shot.
“Automatic tee pickup,” said the SMU junior, who then watched as her tee ball on Champions Retreat’s sixth hole landed on the green and disappeared into the hole, about 135 yards away. Originally, she thought it had rolled down a slope or something, but another caddie quickly broke the exciting news.
“I’m like, no way,” said Lee, who opened the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in 4-under 68 on Wednesday. “I literally just had one last week, like you’re lying to me.”
Lee now has seven career holes-in-one, four of those coming in tournaments, including last week’s Clemson Invitational. Lee started her second round last Saturday on the 160-yard, par-3 seventh hole at Lake Keowee’s Reserve Course. With her first swing of the day, Lee jarred it.
“I was telling myself I need another warm-up because it was shotgun and we were on No. 7, like all the way out there, like a 20-minute drive in the golf carts,” Lee said. “I was like, OK, let’s just try to get this on the green because [the pin is] in the front and there’s water in front of that. Yeah, it went in, and I was like, that was insane.
“But this one, you can’t really see the hole, and I was like I don’t know if it’s in, we shall see. Like no one saw it, but yeah, it was in.”
Lee’s ace, the second in tournament history (Bohyun Park, 2023, Champions Retreat’s eighth hole), was part of a strong close for the ANWA first-timer. After playing her first 10 holes in 2 over, Lee birdied Nos. 2, 3, 5, 7 and 9 as part of her second-nine, 5-under 31.
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