Rory McIlroy and Min Woo Lee are among the high-profile players in the field for this week’s Australian Open.
Indeed, McIlroy will play with Lee in the opening two rounds of the tournament, alongside the latter’s fellow Australian Adam Scott.
Scott and Lee help form a strong home contingent at Royal Melbourne, along with the likes of LIV Golf duo Cam Smith and Marc Leishman.
But many eyes are on five-time major champion McIlroy, who tasted Australian Open success at Royal Sydney in 2013.
Min Woo Lee praises ‘amazing’ and ‘underrated’ Rory McIlroy in Australia
Praise for the Northern Irishman has already arrived before the tournament even gets underway, with Lee saying in his opening press conference: “He is one of the best golfers of the last decade.
“I think he is very underrated. He performs every week, week in and week out. Even though he would like to win a few times more, it is still a great effort to put himself in that situation and that’s something all of us golfers want to do.
“That longevity is amazing. The same with Scottie [Scheffler], of course. But that is something that we want to do, play golf for a long time and well.
“It’s great for golf and great for golf in Australia. There are not going to be many times when he does come over and play so it’s great to see a top golfer come over and show us how it’s done.
“He is a really good guy, and it will be amazing to see how he plays this golf course. You can’t really overpower it or else it will bite you in the butt, so you have to just be in control of the ball but also hit it in really good positions.”
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It’s certainly high praise for McIlroy, who enters the tournament after recently winning the Race to Dubai title on the DP World Tour.
Meanwhile, Lee had a strong showing at the Australian PGA Championship, finishing T5 at Royal Queensland.
While McIlroy will be thrilled to receive such high praise from a fellow professional, he may be feeling some slight concern ahead of his first round.
Who do you think will win the Australian Open?
As ever, McIlroy was among the bigger hitters this season, ranking second on the PGA Tour for driving distance.
But control was an issue for the Northern Irishman, who ranked all the way down in 177th place for driving accuracy.
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