Min Woo Lee – in action today – image Australian Golf Media
Min Woo Lee led the early Australian charge for success at the Australian PGA Championship, the West Australian taking advantage of the relatively calm early conditions to record an opening round of 64 to be one behind the morning lead of Spain’s Joel Moscatel Nachshon at Royal Queensland.
Cloudy overhead conditions and the absence of wind saw Lee make his way to the turn in 34 but it was his closing nine of 5 under 31 which proved the making of the 25-year-old’s impressive start.
Coming off a year that has seen him record a best-ever finish in a major when 5th at the US Open, finish 6th at the elite Players Championship, play his way onto the PGA Tour in 2024 and win the Macao Open on the Asian Tour, Lee has elevated his standing to 45th in the world.
Lee has finished 4th in his previous two attempts at the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland and when asked today how he felt both physically and mentally compared to his previous two appearances in the event he responded;
“I skipped South Africa just because I wanted to be fresh for these two events and I felt like my golf was in a pretty good position. I kind of struggled the first week out trying to get things kind of going, but this year it’s been pretty solid, so I thought I’d start in Dubai and finish off these two. But I feel fine now. A bit of jetlag the last couple of days, but we can’t really do too much about that, flying from Dubai.
“I was actually pretty nervous (today), which I haven’t really felt in a while, just before the round, but that’s usually good for me. I’d rather not get too comfortable. But I felt really good out there and it’s awesome to have such a big crowd, especially at 6 o’clock in the morning. It was solid. I’m happy they came and supported us.
“This is probably the biggest crowd I’ve got all year. Obviously, there’s exceptions at the Masters and Open but a regular event, it’s massive, you know Aussie. There needs to be more sport in Aus and we all love playing in front of the crowd.”
