While the best crowd reactions at the Presidents Cup this week are likely to be saved for Mike Weir and the three Canadians playing for the Internationals, one of the most popular players in the field is surely going to be Min Woo Lee.
Min Woo Lee is one of two rookies on Mike Weir’s team for the Presidents Cup after an encouraging year on the PGA Tour in which he made it to the first week of the FedEx Cup play-offs despite not being involved in the majority of the signature events.
Lee’s reward was a captain’s pick for Royal Montreal. And it will be interesting to see how the 26-year-old fares as the Internationals look for only their second win in the competition’s history.
Of course, it is extremely difficult to know how players will get on on that stage. Tiger Woods has a poor record in the Ryder Cup while Adam Scott has lost 25 matches in his Presidents Cup career. But perhaps the signs are positive for Scott’s countryman ahead of Royal Montreal.
Min Woo Lee backed to impress at the Presidents Cup
Speaking on The Smylie Show about the course, Smylie Kaufman suggested that he can see someone like Lee potentially thriving due to one particular strength within his game.
“I started going through the International side, and I’m thinking to myself, okay, I see some advantages to having a guy like Min Woo Lee out here. Just going through some stats with Min Woo Lee earlier that I was just blown away by, his driver off the tee stats, he’s sixth this year, so that’s something that was a little surprising to me,” he said.
“He’s 315 yards off the tee at fifth, ball speed 187, club head speed at 124, and I see that as a tremendous advantage in spots on this golf course where there’s certain bunkers at 320 that I think a lot of guys aren’t even thinking about covering, like the 18th hole for example is one that if you recall Tiger Woods tried to hit it over that water against Mike Weir, hits it in the water.
“This year I would say that depending on the wind direction, if there’s help I think the majority of the guys will be able to carry it. But if there’s any hurt, I think there’s only one or two guys that are going to be able to carry that left side and Min Woo would be one guy.”
Australian will surely be sent out on day one
Lee is surely going to be one of those sent out in the first session of the week, with Weir opting for fourballs to be played on Thursday. The Internationals have generally fared much better in that format.
Of course, with five matches out on the course over each of the first two days, only two players on each team will be sitting out each session. It would certainly be a shock if Weir decided that Lee was one of those to rest on day one.
His performance could perhaps influence how much he plays over the rest of the week, as the Internationals are likely to need to capitalise on anyone who rises to the occasion.
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