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

Two years ago, Min Woo Lee arrived as the first real Genz Talent of Pro Golf.

It was the week of the Players Championship 2023 and Lee was one of the last participants in a Topsy-Turwy field at TPC Sawgrass. The long -haired Aussie was only 24 years old and played on a conditional status of the DP World Tour, but with the eyes of the golf world Lee had the best week of his life. He played his way to the last combination on Sunday afternoon and showed the flair of a showman for the dramatic and iron skills of a metalworker.

He faded hard on Sunday and shot a final round 76 to end in Solo 6th, but he arrived at the 17th hole of the amphitheater to a roaring ovation. He looked big eyes to the thousands of fans who sang his name. Lee was a nightly sensation and even he was a bit surprised.

“Just there you just have to stop and look at the crowd,” Lee said afterwards. “You are here for a reason. Those were probably most people I’ve ever seen on one hole at the age of 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 heavily charging Scottie Scheffler, open in the dying moments of the Texas Children’s Houston. Minutes earlier he had made his only really nervy swing of the week, dumped his tee -ball on the 16th in the water and cut his lead to one. Now, with one more gap left, Lee held up for the sweet life. He had pumped his approach for a long time, sent his ball to the back of the Green and set up a nervy uphill, on-the-grain two putt in the biggest moment of his life.

Two strokes of this position and Lee was a PGA Tour winner for the first time. Three and he was on his way to a three-way play-off with the World No. 1 and the undisputed crowd favorite of the tournament, Gary Woodland. The crowd could wait.

Lee had waited a long time for this opportunity. He pulled out his putter and made the shot. On the NBC broadcast, the on-course analyst Bones Mackay noticed a relevant trend.

“He is a great putter, but many boys have left this uphill, in-the-grain puts five or six feet short,” said Mackay.

The bet was set. Lee withdrew his putter and watched the ball rolled up the collar of the green and the slope to the hole. When his ball came to rest, he was at a distance from the flag stick.

What came after was one of the great peculiarities of Golf. Lee unleashed a furious fist pump – with a considerable margin the most suggestive celebration of his PGA Tour – Life – for what came down on a lag putt. The tournament was still going, but Lee’s victory celebration was already underway. His caddy removed the flag from the flag stick. While he was over the 5-inch putt to close it, Lee pretended to have Airpoint.

None of it finally mattered. Min Woo Lee was a PGA Tour champion.

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

The victory offered a decisive moment to a career that has so far more defined by the presence of Instagram than his success on the course. (Lee has hardly been a slow in the last department, delivers four top 10s and rises to become the 22nd player in the world; It is just that he has been a force in the first, to grow his Instagram Legion to more than 700,000.)

Lee’s celebration spoke to the kind of promise that he presents to golf marketers and dealmakers, but his performance in the moment spoke with something bigger. Two years of promise-round a physics-desking swing, violent ball speed and all-world ball striker-hag manifested itself in a victory against a handful of the best players in the world. The questions about Lee’s assets to close a tournament head That ability if it mattered the most was answered.

“I felt no doubt about the majority,” said Lee. “For some reason I just wanted to be as mentally strong this week as I can. Now I know that is what is needed, it’s a grinding.”

Lee leaves Houston with a renewed headroom and a renewed stock. He will wake up on Monday with his master of his masters who have risen considerably with the tournament only 10 days away, and his world that is further on the revival. He will not be able to win all over the world with the all-over-the-yard driving approach that has his victory in Houston, but the question that Lee is confronted has never been a matter of it can.

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

The point is not that Min Woo Lee is on his way to fame. The point is that fame is already there.

Now his wave seems to catch up.