Kiwi girl Yuri Lee, 7, stuns with hole-in-one

An Auckland girl has scored a stunning hole in-one at a prestigious American tournament.

Yuri Lee, who turned 7 last week, has just returned home from the IMG Junior World Championships where the talented Orakei girl impressed the crowds with the rare shot.

Yuri was competing in the six-and-under division of the tournament in San Diego before her birthday - the odds for even a tour professional golfer are 2500 to one. For the average golfer it's 12,500 to one.

"She realised what she had done and she was so excited, she just kept shouting yeah!," proud dad Mario Lee said.

Yuri Lee and her impressive swing at the IMG Junior World Golf Tournament in San Diego. Photo / supplied.

"It's once in a lifetime shot - my father plays a lot of golf and he has never got one so for her to get one at 6 is just amazing."

Mum Ulliana and Mario Lee said their daughter had been playing golf for only a year after getting a membership to the Ellerslie Golf Club for her sixth birthday.

"She had tried all sorts of sports but didn't really enjoy anything until she picked up a golf club," Lee said.

"We put a club in her hands one day and she loved it."

Earlier this year Yuri qualified for the IMG Tour through the Auckland round of the US Kids Golf Tour.

New Zealand 'Hole in One' golfer Yuri Lee with her certificate from the IMG World Golf Tornament. Photo / supplied.

Lee said Yuri was a hit on the course with a lot of talk about the New Zealand girl.

"It was quite surprising really," he said.

"It's unusual for a 6-year-old, she has a very calm character."

The St Michael's Primary School pupil plays golf every weekend and three times during the week.

"She is the one who want to be out there, she just loves it," Lee said.

The hole in one wasn't the only achievement for the young golfer.

She was second in her age group at the FCG International and third in her age group at the IMG World Championships.

She was also the youngest player in the under eight division of the IJGA Tournament in Las Vegas this month. She came sixth.

Lee beat fellow New Zealand golfer Lydia Ko to hole in one status by more than a decade.
Ko hit her first ace at the Rio Olympics in August, aged 19.

The youngest female golfer to ever score a hole-in-one, according to the Guinness Book of Records, is American Soona Lee-Tolley, aged 5 years 103 days, who hit hers in July 2007.