The 20-year-old West Australian was able to fend off a Sunday charging World No.2 Ariya Jutanugarn to win the Blue Bay LPGA on China’s Hainan Island by one stroke. Her 13 under total was one shot clear of American Jessica Korda. Jutanugarn was a further stroke back in third place.

Ranked No.17 heading into the Hainan Island event, Lee is expected to jump five or six places in the ranking. With another good performance next week she could jump into the top-10 of the ranking before the end of the year.

“Obviously because I won, I'm very happy right now,” Lee said. “But yeah, going into the final round, I knew that it was going to be a good fight today. So yeah, if we kept trading scores, yeah, it was a good fight out there, and I fought to the end.”

Lee held both the 18- and 36-hole leads, which she extended to six-strokes heading into the weekend.

In the third round, But Korda stormed back into contention coming from seven-strokes back to catch Lee, who carded a 73, giving the two a share of the 54-hole lead.

Minjee Lee gets her hands on some silverware for the third time. PHOTO: Kevin Lee/Getty Images.

Lee could not have asked for a better start to her final round, as she made a birdie to move one stroke clear of playing partners Korda and Jutanugarn. At the par-3 7th hole, Korda bogied and a hole later, Lee snared her second birdie of the day and in the space of 15 minutes her lead had extended to strokes.

FINAL LEADERBOARD

The last charge came from Jutanugarn, who birdied the 11th and 14th holes to get within a sniff of perhaps her sixth victory of 2016.

At the par-3 17th hole, each player in the final group had a birdie putt to take advantage of. Lee unfortunately three-putted for bogey, Korda missed her putt while Jutanugarn converted to move to 12 under and in a share of the lead with Lee.

Let's get this party started ... Lee gets drenched with water after putting out. PHOTO: Kevin Lee.

The par-5 18th hole, which could be easily reached in two shots by the big-hitting Thai player, proved Jutanugarn’s undoing as she drove her tee shot into water beside the fairway and took a bogey.

It didn’t matter anyway as Lee offset her bogey on 17 with a birdie at the par-5 18th hole to claim the win and push her earnings for 2016 to more than US$1.1 million.

Lee’s mother and grandmother were beside the green to celebrate with her.

"My Nan, she's my biggest supporter," Lee said. "I love having her around. She normally comes around for the Asia Swing, so yeah, it's nice to have won in front of her. She was here, so that's really nice.”