Having played in the US Women’s Open at Pinehurst No.2 aged just 15, Andrea Lee realised a dream of having her father, James, caddie for her, as a promising career began to take off with a tie for 69th.
Lee turned professional in 2019 and later used other caddies, including Rory Henderson, as she found her way into the higher echelons of the game following an amateur career that included winning that year’s Mark H. McCormack medal after finishing the season as the world’s top-ranked amateur.
Lee also had early success on the professional circuit, including a T7 at the 2020 AIG Women’s Open. However, it is since she has turned to Drew Ernst as her regular caddie that her career has really begun to flourish.
With Ernst alongside her, the former Stanford University student achieved T15s at both the 2022 US Women’s Open and Amundi Evian Championship later that year before claiming her first LPGA Tour win in the Portland Classic in September.
The partnership continued to reap rewards in 2023, with a T20 at the US Women's Open at Pebble Beach coming before a T9 in the Freed Group Women's Scottish Open. She followed that up with a strong first two rounds in the AIG Women's Open at Walton Heath, where Lee headed back to the clubhouse in second.
Ernst is an accomplished player too, and competed in Division I golf at Coastal Carolina before embarking on a career as a caddie alongside her sister, Austin.
Sadly for the three-time LPGA Tour winner, though, a neck injury left her facing a spell away from the game, so Drew turned elsewhere for work, eventually teaming up with Lee for what, to date, has been a successful working relationship.
Austin once said of her older brother: “He is very calming. He knows how I am, where and when I want to talk, and when I don’t want to talk.”
