Yealimi Noh’s journey to the top of the leaderboard at the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open is no overnight success. Tied for the lead as the championship unfolds at Erin Hills, Noh is reminding the golf world of the promise she showed long before turning pro. Her name may be new to some casual fans tuning in this week, but to those who followed her dominant amateur career, this moment feels like destiny. Here's a look back at the incredible junior and amateur run that laid the foundation for her professional rise.

Before earning a spot on the 2021 Solheim Cup team and hoisting her first LPGA Tour trophy at the 2025 Founders Cup, Yealimi Noh was already known as one of the most decorated junior golfers of her generation, putting together a sensational run in 2018 that included three prestigious amateur wins in consecutive weeks.

The Concord, California native was a standout from a young age, qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Amateur at 15 and finishing in the Final 64. But it was her breakout summer in 2018 that firmly established her reputation. That year, Noh won the Girls Junior PGA Championship, the U.S. Girls’ Junior, and the Canadian Women’s Amateur, becoming the first player ever to sweep all three in the same year. She also added a win at the California Junior Championship earlier that month, winning four high-level amateur events in five weeks.

She capped off her 2018 season by reaching the Final 32 at the U.S. Women’s Amateur and making two LPGA Tour starts, making the cut at the Canadian Women’s Open and the HanaBank Championship. Her poise against seasoned pros as a teenager previewed the transition that would soon follow.