Lucy Li's golf ability has been making people sit up and take notice since she was at a young age.
As a child prodigy, records fell thick and fast for the American, and she has continued her impressive career trajectory since turning professional in 2017.
Here are 20 things you may not be familiar about her.
Lucy Li Facts
1. Lucy Li was born on 1 October 2002 in Stanford, California.
2. She took up the game at the age of four or five and eventually began living with her aunt for four months of the year to be close to the Jim McLean Golf School in Florida.
3. In her early years, Li also took diving lessons, while she also enjoyed gymnastics and music before golf took priority.
4. In 2013, at the age of 10 years, eight months and 16 days, Li beat the record of Michelle Wie-West as the youngest match-play qualifier in US Women's Amateur Public Links history.
5. Two months later, she broke the record as the youngest to qualify for the US Women’s Amateur.
6. Li played in the first-ever Masters Drive, Chip, and Putt Championship in 2014, winning the Girls 10-11 category.
7. Li made even more headlines in 2014 when, aged 11, she became the youngest player to qualify for the US Women’s Open – although Beverley Klass remains the youngest to compete in the Major, having done so nine years before qualifying was introduced.
8. At the start of the tournament, she was aged 11 years, 8 months, and 19 days. She hit two rounds of 78 to miss the cut by seven shots.
9. In August 2016, she won the Junior PGA Championship and followed that up as a member of the winning Junior Ryder Cup later that year. She helped the team to victory again at the match in 2018.
10. She was the only amateur to make the cut the 2017 ANA Inspiration to give her low amateur honors.
11. She also helped the US claim victory in the 2017 and 2019 editions of the Junior Solheim Cup.
12. Li was the youngest player in the field at the 2018 US Women’s Open and finished T55.
13. She won the mixed team silver medal alongside future PGA Tour pro Akshay Bhatia at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics.
14. She was part of the 2018 US Curtis Cup team that won the match by the largest margin in its history – 17-3.
15. An appearance in a 2019 Apple Watch advertisement caused controversy when Li was investigated by the USGA to determine whether it had violated her amateur status. She was given a warning but no further action was taken.
16. Li turned professional later that year at the age of 17 and played on the Symetra Tour (now the Epson Tour) between 2020 and 2022.
17. Her first Major appearance as a professional came at the 2021 US Women’s Open, where she finished T16 – her best Major performance so far.
18. She collected her first two professional titles in 2022 on the Epson Tour’s Carolina Golf Classic and Twin Bridges Championship.
19. Li’s first LPGA Tour appearances came later that year, initially on sponsor exemptions. She finished third on the Epson Tour money list to earn LPGA membership for 2023, and then regained her status for the 2024 season via LPGA Q-Series.
20. In a 2023 interview with Golf Digest, she revealed that an ambition of hers is to represent the US at the Solheim Cup.
