Min Woo Lee keeps Scottie Scheffler out to win Houston Open of PGA Tour
What seemed like a pleasant and reasonably easy Sunday afternoon for one of the brightest young stars of the PGA Tour had twists and turns, but Min Woo Lee was able to hold the high -level player in the world to win the Houston Open.
It is the first PGA Tour victory in Lee, which ends up at 20-under-par, a shot in front of Scottie Scheffler and Gary Woodland.
“Scottie is a wonderful golf and keeps you on tiptoe,” Lee said to NBC. “This was the first time I was in front and I tried to keep an advantage and I am happy to have done it. I am very exhausted. It was a lot of mental grinding and I am so proud of the way I managed.”
Lee began the day with an advantage of four shots on his nearest competitor, with Scheffler in a five -blow group. There would have been many problems for Lee to lose such an advantage, and he was keeping the field at bay, extending a strip without bogey to 41 holes and bringing an advantage of three shots when he put himself at the Tee Box at n. 16.
This is when the problem happened. Lee sautéed his driver on the right, in the water – Only the second water sphere of the day in the hole. He chose his third blow to Tee and put him in the fairway, but in front of him Scheffler had killed Par 5 to get a stroke back. Lee had 41 feet by the same but was missing, leaving a blow and suddenly tightening an advantage of a little.
“To be honest, I played incredibly up to that Bogey but it’s difficult. It’s really difficult,” said Lee.
Woodland, one of the two men who fired a record field of 62 Sundays, reached 19-under-Par, and Scheffler had two birdie possibilities a hole and potentially forcing a playoff. But he left a Putt for 20 feet birds on n. 17, and its second pitch the n. 18 lost green.
Lee only needed equal to finish a round of 67 and put it from the green from 53 feet to 8 inches, beating the chest while looking at his ball roll up.
Lee had not won from November 2023 Australian PGA Championship. The brother of the LPGA Minjee’s star, Min Woo built a huge sequel to social media while Salento from their native Australia at the PGA Tour, building an impressive list of results along the road that includes an appearance of the Cup of Presidents of 2024 and which represents Australia at the Olympics.
Known for its impressive speed of the ball – he established a TGL record with a speed of 192 mph on the simulator – but not always checking the ball, the chef found his ideal cuisine this week in Houston. With the golf course of the Memorial Park that softens the rain, a public structure that sees 60,000 shots per year and dramatically less rough than the tour professionals faced during the oscillation of Florida, was established for Lee. It was the lowest score in the 77 -year -old Houston Open story.
Lee faced an external problem during his final round, in the form of a game partner Alejandro Tosti. The latter got angry when Lee, who hit his shot in Tee on n. 8 Under a bush with thick electric wires also on his path, he struggled to keep up. In the end Lee managed to make the par-5 on the par-5 hole (after his caddy slightly criticized Lee’s desire to play out of the bush saying: “I don’t think the shot is ever”), but it took the group more than 30 minutes to complete the hole.
Tosti, who spoke with an official of the rules during the delay, then attracted the attention of the broadcaster “Bones” by NBC “Bones”, with Mackay who commented on the transmission on Tosti that significantly slows down his own rhythm.
Sami Valimaki also shot a 62 to end up at 17-undering, as a fourth soloist. Rory Mcilroy, Wyndham Clark, Tosti and Taylor Pendrith drew for the fifth at 15 below.
(Photo: Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images)
