Min Woo Lee was fun. In his first PGA Tour win, he became a threat

Two years ago, Min Woo Lee arrived as pro golf’s first true Gen Z talent.

It was the week of the 2023 Players Championship, and Lee was one of the last entrants into a topsy-turvy field at TPC Sawgrass. The long-haired Aussie was just 24 years old and playing on conditional status from the DP World Tour, but with the eyes of the golf world watching, Lee had the best week of his life. He played his way into the final pairing on Sunday afternoon, displaying a showman’s flair for the dramatic and the iron skills of a metalworker.

He faded hard on Sunday, shooting a final-round 76 to finish in solo 6th, but he arrived at the amphitheater 17th hole to a roaring ovation. He looked wide-eyed at the thousands of fans chanting his name. Lee was an overnight sensation, and even he was a little surprised.

“For a second there you just have to stop and look at the crowd,” Lee said after. “You’re here for a reason. That was probably the most people I’ve ever seen on one hole, on 17, so it was pretty cool.”

On Sunday afternoon in Houston, Min Woo Lee heard a similar ovation, but this time, he was not interested in affection.

Why? Lee led a group of the best golfers in the world, including a hard-charging Scottie Scheffler, in the dying moments of the Texas Children’s Houston Open. Minutes earlier, he’d made his only truly nervy swing of the week, dumping his tee ball on the 16th in the water and cutting his lead to one. Now, with one hole left, Lee was holding on for dear life. He’d pumped his approach long, sending his ball to the back edge of the green and setting up a nervy uphill, into-the-grain two-putt in the biggest moment of his life.

Two strokes from this position, and Lee was a PGA Tour winner for the first time. Three and he was headed to a three-way playoff with the World No. 1 and the tournament’s unquestioned crowd favorite, Gary Woodland. The crowds could wait.

Lee had waited a long time for this chance. He pulled out his putter and sized up the shot. On NBC’s telecast, the on-course analyst Bones Mackay noted a concerning trend.

“He’s a great putter, but many guys been leaving these uphill, into-the-grain putts five or six feet short,” Mackay said.

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The stakes were set. Lee drew back his putter and watched as the ball rolled up the collar of the green and down the slope toward the hole. When his ball came to rest, it sat tap-in distance from the flagstick.

What came next was one of golf’s great peculiarities. Lee unleashed a furious fist pump — by a significant margin the most evocative celebration of his PGA Tour life — for what amounted to a lag putt. The tournament was still going, but Lee’s victory celebration was already underway. His caddie removed the flag from the flagstick. As he stood over the 5-inch putt to close it out, Lee pretended to AimPoint.

None of it mattered in the end. Min Woo Lee was a PGA Tour champion.

“They always say the six inches between your ears, I think that was a big part of this week,” Lee said later with a smile. “I always felt like I had the assets to win, it was just, can you do it mentally?”

The victory provided a defining moment to a career that has, to this point, been defined more by its Instagram presence than its on-course success. (Lee has hardly been a slouch in the latter department, delivering four top-10s and rising to become the 22nd-ranked player in the world; it’s merely that he’s been a force in the former, growing his Instagram legion to more than 700,000.)

Lee’s celebration spoke to the kind of promise he presents to golf’s marketers and dealmakers, but his performance in the moment spoke to something bigger. Two years of promise — around a physics-defying swing, violent ball speed and all-world ball-striking ability — had manifested in a win against a handful of the best players in the world. The questions around Lee’s ability to close out a tournament, to capitalize on that ability when it mattered most, had been answered.

“I didn’t feel doubt for most of it,” Lee said. “For some reason, this week I just wanted to be as mentally strong as I can. Now I know that’s what it takes, it is a grind.”

Lee departs Houston with a renewed headspace and a renewed stock. He will awake on Monday with his Masters odds having raised considerably with the tournament just 10 days away, and his world ranking further on the upswing. He will not be able to win around the world with the all-over-the-yard driving approach that keyed his victory in Houston, but the question facing Lee has never been a matter of can.

We have seen stranger things than a young player enjoying a hot streak after learning to win on the PGA Tour. We have seen stranger things than a player with Lee’s talent and charisma sparkling at Augusta National.

The point isn’t that Min Woo Lee is headed for fame. The point is that fame is already here.

Now his golf seems to be catching up.