Royal St George's Reward for Triumphant Lee

Sandwich, Kent, England: Fresh from the biggest win of his career, Australian Min Woo Lee is raring to make his Open Championship debut at Royal St George’s this week.

Lee held his nerve to collect his first Rolex Series title with a brilliant play-off victory over Thomas Detry and Matt Fitzpatrick at the 2021 abrdn Scottish Open.

With that success, 22-year-old Lee secured one of the three places on offer at the 149th Open that tees-off here on Thursday.

“It was an awesome day, I was pretty proud of how I played,” reflected Lee, who tied for third place in the 2017 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC) at New Zealand’s Royal Wellington Golf Club.

Lee will be among 11 Australians in the Open Championship starting line-up. He said: “I’m happy for all those guys and happy for myself and getting the win. Go Australia!

“I know some of my friends are out there (at Royal St George’s) right now and they have shown it on social media, so I’m excited to go see them. I’m confident as ever, and I just want to go out there and play some golf. The ball’s listening to what I do, so hopefully it will be doing that next week.”

After ending 2020 missing the cut in his last two European Tour events, he missed the cut in his first four starts of this year.

Defying the odds at The Renaissance Club last week, Lee fired rounds of 68, 69, 65 and 64 to find himself in a play-off. On the first extra hole, Lee made a birdie putt to claim his second European Tour title following his success at the 2020 ISPS Handa Vic Open.

The younger brother of LPGA star Minjee Lee, Min Woo won the US Junior Amateur in 2016.

Lee, who placed joint 16th in the 2018 AAC at Singapore’s Sentosa Golf Club, turned professional at the start of 2019. He played a number of events on the European Tour and had early success, finishing fourth in the Saudi International and equal fifth in the ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth.