Alison Lee has always been a grinder. She started 11 years ago, has been a part of the Solheim Cup twice, and is known for carving out a career by sheer persistence despite challenges like injury or mental health. But this season, the challenge she’s facing isn’t something one could ever be prepared for. It is the ultimate challenge of motherhood — balancing a cute little newborn in your arms with a golf bag on your back. And with all this comes the added burden of ‘mom guilt.’
The 30-year-old admitted that the hardest part of being a new mom isn’t the sleepless nights or the post-delivery recovery, but it’s being away from your child. “I mean, you’re so tired, sleep-deprived, and you see a cute little baby there,” said Lee, who is all set to participate in the NW Arkansas Championship. “The last thing I want to do is leave and go do something hard.” This is a tug-of-war between a career she so ardently loves and a tenderness she has quite recently discovered.
Lee gave birth to her son, Levi Todd Kidd, on April 25, after more than 24 hours of labor that ended in an emergency C-section. Now, even though this was something she and her partner, Trey Kidd, weren’t expecting, Lee pushed herself through recovery and was on course in just two months. But the comeback hasn’t been easy. Last week, she missed the cut at the Kroger Queen Championship with a T53. Such results further reinforce the feeling of a new mother to be at home with her son. “You have so many different emotions. You have mom guilt, you question yourself when you have a bad day of practice. What am I doing here? I could be spending time with my son.”
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It’s a brutally honest picture of a woman athlete trying to rebuild her career while adjusting to the never-ending demands of motherhood. This is something similar to what Jessica Korda said last year during a podcast on her son Greyson’s birth: “Golf life feels a lot easier than mom life.” And yet, Lee’s push to return quickly wasn’t because she was impatient; it was more of pragmatism. Now that she is a mother, she is swirling around the idea of ending her career soon. She does not want to fall behind, knowing her seasons are numbered. “Even thinking about the future, I don’t think about myself anymore, my personal goals. I feel like I’m totally changed now,” she had said after giving birth.
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It all started last fall, when Lee was keeping one of the biggest secrets of her career. She was nearly eight weeks pregnant during the 2024 Solheim Cup, and no one knew about it except Captain Stacy Lewis and her best friend, Megan Khang. With an unabating morning sickness, somehow she pushed through, taking Team USA to victory. It was only in March, when she posted photos of her pregnancy on Instagram, did the rest of the world found out.
Since then, Lee has leaned heavily on the tour’s small but growing circle of moms. Michelle Wie West, who welcomed her second son almost a year ago, was one of Lee’s biggest sources of support. Both players live in Las Vegas, making it easier for them to connect and for West to pass down her son’s clothes to Levi. “She’s been a huge help…All the clothes that Levi is wearing now are all of Michelle’s hand-me-downs. She’s been awesome, even when I was pregnant too, asking her questions, asking her how she felt,” Lee said earlier this year.
Alongside that network is her boyfriend, Trey, who is a former college golfer but now has a career in finance. The couple named Levi in part after Trey’s late brother Todd. These are signs of how Lee has anchored herself around her family. Golf still matters, but not in the all-consuming way it once did. “Golf used to be so, so, so important to me. But now, I feel so laser-focused on this little guy.”
Lee is still planning to play competitively. She will probably come back next month to Hawaii for the LOTTE Championship and then to a fuller schedule after Levi’s first birthday. But the two-time European Tour winner isn’t the only one who has decided to prioritize family above career.
Motherhood on the LPGA
Motherhood has increasingly become part of the LPGA’s evolving story. Players like Ally Ewing and Amy Olson have openly embraced their lives beyond the stretches of the fairways. Ewing, who retired last November while still ranked inside the top 20, shared that timing was everything in her decision. At 32 and managing Type I diabetes, she and her husband, Charlie, knew starting a family sooner rather than later made sense. Announcing her pregnancy in February, Ewing made it clear that the physical and personal realities of the sport shaped her exit, but also that family always comes first.
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Olson’s path carried a similar sense of purpose. She played the 2023 US Women’s Open at seven months pregnant before retiring the following year. She described the moment as the beautiful convergence of her two lifelong dreams – competing professionally and becoming a mother. Olson is now raising her daughter, Carly, and has been a vocal advocate for pregnancy and motherhood. “Women accomplish this all the time. I want to highlight the experiences of other women who manage their jobs while pregnant, even if they don’t receive media attention. I wish for pregnancy and motherhood to be celebrated.”
For all these players, motherhood isn’t the end of their story; it’s simply the next chapter.