Min Woo Lee and Jason Day make fast starts at American Express
Min Woo Lee – file photo courtesy of Golf Australia
Min Woo Lee has started the 2026 playing season in the best possible fashion with an opening round of 62 to share the lead at the American Express Championship in La Quinta, California.
Lee, whose last tournament was when finishing 14th at the Australian Open in early December, was bogey-free in producing nines of 31 and 31 to share the lead with American Pierceson Coody in an event played over three different courses before returning to the Pete Dye Stadium Course for the final round on Sunday.
“Yeah, there was a little bit of anxiousness starting out,” said Lee, referring to starting the year. “The first round of the year, a bit of a swing, not change, but something that we’ve been working on in the off-season.
“I changed my grip only like a week and a half ago, so it was a very, it’s good that you see results straight away. But that was pretty much the anxiousness that I had. I didn’t know how it would go on the greens, and it turned out well.
“So you didn’t really know how it was going to go. But, yeah, started off really nice. Yeah, kept it going. It was a great day to make some birdies. Probably the stillest day I’ve ever played golf in. So the numbers were exactly, you know, what you wanted, and you just execute ’em. But it was a really fun day.”
When asked how a possible suggestion of date changes and rescheduling on the PGA Tour might impact this event in the future, Lee responded;
“I love this tournament. It’s a great place to start the year. Great courses and lots of fun, and make some birdies. So it is nice to have in the schedule, because the Signature Events are very hard and major like, so it is nice to be able to hit it in the rough and actually hit it on the green. So I would love it to be in the schedule, and I would love it to, yeah, just be there next year and years coming.”
Earlier in the week, Lee played a practice round with Jason Day in a recorded piece for Day’s YouTube channel, and despite a solid debut in the event when 21st in 2024, Lee has clearly benefited from the advice Day gave him on Monday.
Day, too, was brilliant on day one, finishing strongly for a round of 63 on the Stadium Course to be in a share of 3rd place and just one off the lead with, amongst others, Scottie Scheffler.
Day finished 3rd in this event last year behind the winner Sepp Straka.
