Introduced by the AJGA in 1978, the Rolex Junior Player of the Year award recognizes one boy and one girl who had the most outstanding year in junior golf events at the national level. Past recipients have gone on to become some of the most esteemed players on the PGA and LPGA Tours, including Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Charles Howell III, Hunter Mahan, Brian Harman, Jordan Spieth, Vicky Hurst, Inbee Park, Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel.
In her final junior golf season, Lee, 18, won all three starts of 2013, competed for the victorious squads at the Wyndham Cup (West Team) and PING Junior Solheim Cup (United States), and earned the No. 1 spot in the Polo Golf Rankings. The six-time, first-team Rolex Junior All-American totaled nine career AJGA victories, four coming at Invitationals: 2013 Rolex Tournament of Champions, 2013 Rolex Girls Junior Championship, 2012 The PING Invitational and 2012 ANNIKA Invitational.
Her accomplishments during the 2013 season will be heralded Nov. 24 during the Rolex Junior All-America Awards Banquet at PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. The awards ceremony, dubbed “The Greatest Night in Junior Golf,” will also trumpet the achievements of the rest of golf’s next generation by means of the Rolex Junior All-America Teams, HP Scholastic Junior All-America Teams and Jerry Cole Sportsmanship Award.
About Alison Lee’s 2013 Season
Lee, 18, added her name to an accomplished list of AJGA alumni as she closed her junior career with a bang. Since her AJGA debut in 2007, she accrued nine victories, four at AJGA Invitationals, six runner-up finishes and six years as a first-team Rolex Junior All-American.
After her second-round appearance at the Polo Golf Junior Classic in November 2012, Lee opened the year with a victory at the Rolex Girls Junior Championship in June. The following week, she won the ClubCorp Mission Hills Desert Junior for the second time and she tied the AJGA girls record for lowest 18-hole round when she fired a first-round 9-under-par 63.
In July, Lee was victorious at the AJGA’s flagship event, the Rolex Tournament of Champions, becoming the first girl since 1992-93 Rolex Junior Player of the Year Kellee Booth to win both the Rolex Girls Junior Championship and Rolex Tournament of Champions in the same year.
Lee was integral to the success of match play squads in 2013. In January, she helped the four-man squad from the West capture the Winn Junior Cup Challenge. She was a member of the victorious West Team in July, making her third appearance at the Wyndham Cup. For her final AJGA event, Lee helped the U.S. squad win its third-straight PING Junior Solheim Cup.
She is currently a freshman at UCLA and recently notched her first collegiate victory at the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational.
