Min Woo Lee could have hardly asked for a bigger confidence boost ahead of The Masters as the Australian secured his first PGA Tour title at the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
A stunning third round put Min Woo Lee in the driving seat at Memorial Park. With 18 holes to play, the 26-year-old gave himself a four shot lead, with Scottie Scheffler a further shot back.
He did not make it easy at times. Lee needed to take a drop on the second par five of the day, while he found water on the third. And that allowed the likes of Scheffler and Gary Woodland to close the gap and put some real pressure on.
Ultimately however, Lee was able to make the par on the last that he needed to get across the line and secure his first win on the PGA Tour.
Concern expressed about Min Woo Lee ahead of The Masters
It is a result which will give the youngster a lot of belief heading into the first major of the year. However, it would appear that not everyone is suddenly expecting big things from Lee at The Masters.
Speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Ryan Lavner admitted that he would be reluctant to back Lee at Augusta National given how much more forgiving Memorial Park is, particularly off the tee.
“I think I love Memorial Park. If I were a PGA Tour golfer I think this is the perfect golf course I would need, where there is virtually no penalty off the tee. The fairways are incredibly generous and then you have huge, wide, undulating greens. There is really not much penalty for mishits off the tee,” he said.
“You can blow it anywhere, and Min Woo Lee for the most part did blow it everywhere. 42 percent driving accuracy. But basically the two spots you could get yourself into trouble were the two spots Min Woo Lee put it in. On eight he almost went out of bounds, found the bush and ended up having to take an unplayable. Then blew it miles right on 16 and escaped with a good bogey. That’s why it is hard to know how much stock to put into this victory. Obviously this guy is immensely talented. If you look at his stats, this was an outlier in his approach play, maybe he has found something in his game, he talked about the hard work he has been putting it. You would love to see Min Woo Lee all of a sudden become a consistent contender on the PGA Tour. He brings in the youth, pushing out the olds that love and appreciate the PGA Tour. So I think we are all rooting for Min Woo Lee but also don’t subscribe to the theory that this sort of driving will translate to many courses on the PGA Tour.
“I know the fairways at Augusta National are generous as well but there is still trouble, there is still angles and that is something that had he driven this anywhere else I think he could have potentially got himself into much more trouble.”
How Min Woo Lee has performed at The Masters during his career
Lavner was not the only person to express some doubts about Lee’s suitability at Augusta. Speaking on Sky Sports (broadcast on 30/3), PGA professional Trey Niven suggested that a similar approach next month may not leave Lee in the best position.
“He was great. I am always looking at a player and thinking how is this player when something goes against the grain. We see a few errant tee shots. If there is a golf course he can do that on it is probably here. The only question I have for him is if he gets to a tight golf course, for example Augusta, can he still do what he does and can he still put himself in position to get it close and keep hitting greens because we know that driver can get a bit errant,” he said.
“But he stuck in that, had a great caddie on the bag, which definitely helped him coming down the stretch, 18th hole, even finding a yardage and putting a people in their place. I think it was a very classy finish from Min Woo Lee there.”
It should probably come as little surprise that Lee has a mixed record from the early stages of his career at The Masters. Unfortunately, he missed the cut in 2023.
However, he has finished inside the top 25 on both of his other two visits to Augusta National. So it should certainly not come as a complete shock if Lee is able to shine in a couple of weeks now that he has got that first win stateside under his belt.
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