Minjee Lee earns million-dollar pay day

Australian golf ace Minjee Lee has bagged a $1.5 million bonus for winning the AON Risk Reward Challenge as the LPGA Tour's most strategically attacking player.

MINJEE LEE of Australia.
MINJEE LEE of Australia. Picture: Jeff Gross/Getty Images

Minjee Lee has added further lustre to her stellar season with a $US1 million bonus for being statistically and strategically the most attacking player on the LPGA Tour.

Australia's reigning US Open champion secured the monster cheque for $A1.49m after winning the season-long AON Risk Reward Challenge.

Lee led the tour for "strategy and decision-making" for much of the year and ultimately edged out Thailand's world No.1 Atthaya Thitikul for the award.

The tour nominates certain holes for every event on the calendar, with players taking their best two scores from each and Lee averaged almost a birdie per designated hole to take the honours.

The 26-year-old is the second Australian in two years to claim the prize after fellow Perth major winner Hannah Green was the 2021 AON Risk Reward Challenge recipient.

The accolade is merely the latest in a golden year for Lee.

In addition to landing her second career major at Pine Needles in June, Lee captured the Annika Major Award for also finishing joint runner-up at the US PGA Championship and fourth at the Women's British Open.

With $US3,759,835 ($A5.61m) in earnings, even without her latest bonus, Lee enters this week's season-ending Tour Championship in Florida well clear on the LPGA Tour's money list for 2022.

And she also remains right in contention for player-of-the-year honours.

Lee can bag that award if she finishes in the top 10 above New Zealander Lydia Ko on Sunday and either Thitikul or American Brooke Henderson don't win the event.