A little over a year ago, Minjee Lee stood on the 18th green at Fields Ranch East and did something only two other Australians in history had managed: she won a third different major, edging past Greg Norman on the country’s all-time list in the process. It was supposed to be the springboard into the one chapter of her career still missing a signature. Instead, twelve months on, she arrives at the final major of the year with a very different story to tell.

Since winning her third major last year, Lee has made only five cuts in ten events, and posted just six top-10s heading into this week’s AIG Women’s Open, the LPGA’s last major of the season. The former Amateur World No. 1 hasn’t given much to hope for.

Is that a sign something is going wrong? Though it has been reported that she practiced at Hesketh Golf Club ahead of the Open, her recent struggles may point to something else going on.

For instance, last week, Lee played the Women’s Scottish Open, opening with a surprising 85 in which she hit only three fairways, better than just one golfer in the field. Round two was worse: she was 10 over through 13 holes, having found only one fairway, before withdrawing due to an unknown illness, as reported by the LPGA.

What’s less clear is why. The Tour cited injury, Golfweek reported illness, and neither Lee nor her camp has addressed whether either is ongoing. There’s been no word of a swing change or a coaching shift behind the SG: Approach slide, which leaves the form dip and the health scare as two separate, unexplained threads heading into Porthcawl.

Facing another missed cut, Lee withdrew to preserve herself for this week’s major, a strategy she’s used before. She did the same at the JM Eagle LA Championship, pulling out just before R2, a decision neither she nor the Tour has ever explained. Two weeks earlier, she’d missed the cut at the Amundi Evian Championship.

So, would the major be kinder to her? Her record there says maybe not. A third at Royal Troon in 2020 gave way to top-5s the next two years, then a T13 last season broke that run. Five cuts in ten starts this year points the same way.

“I think you have to have a temperament where you can kind of be like a goldfish; if you have a bad hole, you’ve got to be able to kind of acknowledge it, forget it, and then tee it up on the next hole and try and better that score,” Lee said at a KPMG Women’s PGA Championship press conference when asked about her strategy going into majors.

According to LPGA Tour statistics, Lee’s round-one scoring average sits at 73.80, 145th on Tour, pointing to where the damage starts. Approach play is the biggest culprit, ranking 114th in Strokes Gained: Approach, dragging down her 75th-place finish in Strokes Gained: Total. Her short game has held up better, 39th in Strokes Gained: Around the Green and 34th in Strokes Gained: Putting, but not by enough to offset the rest.

Her approach play and overall consistency demand immediate correction if she hopes to contend this week.

Minjee Lee is on a hunt to complete her Grand Slam

“To be fair, I don’t really think about it too much, but whenever like British or Chevron come around it’s like the hot topic. That’s the only times I really think about it,” Minjee Lee said at a press conference at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

With a win at either The Chevron Championship or the AIG Women’s Open, Lee would become just the eighth woman to complete her career Grand Slam. Lee has already won The Evian Championship, the U.S. Women’s Open and the Women’s PGA Championship. In Gee Chun, oddly enough, needs the same two major wins to complete her own Grand Slam.

However, she is cautious.

“It would be awesome to be able to win the British,” Lee said, “but I think there is no point in me putting extra pressure on myself just to get it done.”

Lee, who is halfway through the required Hall of Fame points (27), told The Straits Times:

“Seeing Lyds [Lydia Ko] get into the Hall of Fame motivates me more to compete. That is my ultimate goal, it’s a hard one, but your goals and dreams are meant to be big, right?”

No doubt, Lee is still as competitive as she always was. But competitiveness alone hasn’t erased the missed cuts or unexplained withdrawals, and it won’t complete the Grand Slam leg still missing from her résumé. The AIG Women’s Open is her last major of the year to turn that around, with In Gee Chun chasing the same two titles right behind her. Whichever way it breaks at Royal Porthcawl, this week decides whether 2026 gets remembered as a blip or a stall.