Min Woo Lee, like many Australians, spent Sunday watching The Amundi Evian Championship to see if his sister Minjee could secure a second consecutive major championship. Grace Kim joined the ranks of major winners as well.
Supporting his sister is not new for Lee. In previous years, such opportunities were rare due to his participation in the Genesis Scottish Open and other tournaments leading up to The Open.
Lee observed Kim’s victory before practicing at Royal Portrush on Sunday with fellow West Australians Ryan Peake and Curtis Luck. They opted out of Scotland after a busy year in which Lee claimed his first PGA TOUR win.
“I just played a lot of golf and I think talking to a few people, some people take it off and we were just trying to do something different this year,” Lee told Australian media regarding skipping the Scottish Open while in Northern Ireland.
“Obviously it’s very weather dependent here in either Scotland or Ireland, so we wanted to be fresh coming into this week and I had a great week leading up to this tournament, played a lot of courses and also went to a couple of events.”
Lee took time off for Wimbledon and Formula 1 before heading to Ireland with his team, including amateur Zach Capelli. Capelli is helping ease occasional homesickness as they are regular playing partners back home.
“I think just having him is great. I want to go back home, but when I’m at home, he’s with me, not 24/7, but really close to that,” said Lee about Capelli.
“So it’s good to have a piece of home come over here on the other side of the world and just be there. When I’m with him, I laugh way more than usual and that’s just something that I’ve not had over the last couple months, especially playing tough golf.”
Lee’s caddie Bo Martin will be an asset this week at Portrush where Martin was part of Shane Lowry’s 2019 Open triumph.
With practice disrupted by lightning on Monday, arriving early coupled with Martin’s experience positions Lee well for Thursday’s first round alongside Tyrrell Hatton and Russel Henley.
“Obviously we’ve only played once or twice here, so just getting familiar with the course, but he knows every in and out really,” said Lee about Martin.
“He says don’t go here; don’t go there. And it’s just having that trust and having the freedom I guess. I think it is just nice to have that sense of knowing where; I guess you can say we’re one or two days ahead of other people.”
Lee believes he holds another advantage due to Royal Portrush’s demanding layout favoring fewer drivers from tees.
“I think it’s pretty demanding off the tee. You need to think your way around so not too many drivers,” he noted about Royal Portrush hosting The Open for its third time this week.
“I played the back nine and probably only hit one or two drivers; so lots of irons off tees which is quite nice. I like that; my 2-iron might be a weapon this week.”
All four rounds of The 153rd Open Championship will air live on Fox Sports and Kayo starting Thursday at 3:30 pm AEST.
