Min Woo Lee talks PGA defence, Jason Day and 2024 year
Min Woo Lee – image Australian Golf Media
As rain poured, defending champion Min Woo Lee cut short his practice for this week’s BMW Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland and faced the media ahead of his return to the scene of his magnificent victory twelve months ago.
Fresh from a midfield finish at last week’s DP World Tour Championship, Lee reflected on his rushed trip from Dubai and his anticipation of the week ahead.
“A quick 14-hour flight down, slept for half of it and then slept a little bit this morning, so I’ll probably be pretty tired tonight,” said the 26 year old rising star of Australian golf. “Looking forward to this week and yeah, hopefully have a good two weeks down in Australia.”
Lee has completed a year which has seen him drop back in world ranking but consolidate his place on the PGA Tour and today reflected on the year and how he has measured it thus far.
“Yeah, again, a win would’ve been amazing, but I’ve had a very consistent year, which is I think where I would have wanted to be.
“When I first turned pro there were a lot of fiery finishes, but also a lot of missed cuts when I first turned pro. So the last couple of years I’ve played a lot of weekends but not got myself too much, not as much as I wanted to into contention.
“So again, I think we’re just trying to find my feet to play better golf and it’s heading into that direction, so hopefully it can translate soon. But the game’s getting close and I think my team and I are pretty proud of where it’s going. Just need to put four good rounds together and hopefully I’ll be there.”
Lee spent much of the year in the USA and was full of praise for the assistance and mentoring provided by Jason Day who he looks up to as a role model of sorts and expressed delight Day is back playing in Australia for the first time for several years.
“Jason’s been a very good friend and a good role model over the last few months since Olympics and President’s Cup. I’ve learned a lot from him and I owe a lot. He’s been a, again great friend, a great role model, but just things that you would kind of learn down the road.”
When quizzed on the sort of help Day has provided Lee added;
“What I tell to kids and my friends is kind of like what he’s been telling me. You don’t really listen to many people because I guess I’ve been successful, I can play golf, but he’s obviously been at another level,
“No.1 player in the world and he’s a major winner, so he’s already been there. So it’s kind of those things that he tells me about. Nothing crazy, but just someone that kind of puts me in my place a little bit, that type of stuff.
“Him and obviously Adam Scott have been amazing in Australian golf and yeah, I look up to them a lot. I mean, I hung out with Adam a couple times last week and it’s cool to just text him and call him and yeah, it’s a pretty cool moment. I still feel like I’m a little kid and I look up to him still.”
“Jason’s telling me what he’s done over the last, how many years he’s played and a lot of wisdom I guess. And he’s kind of a kid too. People don’t really know behind the scenes, but we are pretty… I mean, I would say I’m younger in mental age, but he’s pretty young too, so we like to have fun and enjoy our time and the times that we’ve had have been amazing and yeah, he’s great in that part in the sense that I want to learn golf and try to get my game to another level, he’s there for me.
“And then also when we’re out having dinners, we can talk about anything. So yeah, he’s been a very good friend to me and it’s great to have him in Australia. It’s been a while and yeah, hopefully we get to play together and show off.
“I’m sure he is very excited to play here. His game’s at a level where he wanted to be after injury, and it’s very cool to see and good to see.
“Pretty proud of the way he’s gone about it and hopefully he plays well and I play better, but we are going to have fun. I really love and appreciate that he is down in Australia playing.”
Lee asked how he reflected on last year’s victory and what a win at this point of the season would mean to him.
“Last year was amazing. Obviously towards the end of the year, I mean I guess you would like a win at the beginning of the year, but at the end of the year you can kind of reflect and feel like you’ve done a really, really good job and having one win for a year is good.
“I had two last year, but I haven’t won this year and hopefully one of the next two weeks is nice to me. But it’s going to be very cool to go back-to-back. I haven’t done that before and just being in a tournament that you are coming back to defend is a special feeling and especially being here on the grounds now, it’s cool.
“I think just a lot of confidence for the next few tournaments. I feel like my game’s very close to being in contention. Again, I haven’t really just converted when I needed to, but one aspect of the game I needed to get better at was my approach play and the last few months have kind of proven that the work that my team has done has got there, but because I’m hitting it better.
“Converting doesn’t seem as often because I used to miss a lot of greens and then make a lot of up and downs, but now I’m hitting greens. Obviously you can’t hole every putt that you hit greens on.
“But yeah, hopefully I can hit it closer and hole some putts, but just to not get too down on myself, especially when that happens because it felt like that the last couple of tournaments. Hopefully, I can keep a good attitude. It’s kind of where I want my game to be. So hopefully the putts fall in.”
Lee is currently ranked as Australia’s third highest-ranked player behind Adam Scott and Jason Day in terms of official world ranking but of course, Cameron Smith’s absence from world ranking events means that Lee is unofficially ranked number four in Australian golf at present.
But many think that the young man from Perth is destined for great things in the game and he might well add further strength to that argument this week.
