Macao champion Lee tees up shot at the big time

Min Woo Lee's American dream is on the brink of coming to fruition.

After cutting his teeth on the DP World Tour, the hotly tipped Australian has risen to 45th in world rankings. Lee has a pair of wins on the DP World Tour and is coming off a 30-under-par performance to win the SJM Macao Open on the Asian Tour last week.

And while he hasn't secured his 2024 PGA Tour card just yet, Lee is in an excellent position to do so. The 25-year-old plans to play regularly in the US for the first time next year and already has made plans to relocate to Las Vegas, where he will stay with PGA Tour buddy Kurt Kitayama until finding a place of his own.

Lee would rank around 120th in this season's FedEx Cup standings based on his non-member points. This week's ZOZO Championship will be his final start on the PGA Tour this year, but he has a few DP World Tour starts remaining and is almost a lock to earn his PGA Tour card via his Race to Dubai ranking, which is currently No 3.

"It will be amazing," Lee said on Tuesday of the prospect of playing on the PGA Tour. "I enjoyed this year, played when I could on the PGA Tour and loved every second of it. Played really well this year, so hopefully I can keep going until next year. It's going to be fun, I guess, living and staying around America a bit more. That's always been a dream of mine since I was a little kid, so I'm really excited for that."

After narrowly missed out on the Presidents Cup last year, 2023 has proven to be very rewarding for Lee on the golf course.

Along with last week's win, he has performed well in marquee events — tied-fifth at the US Open, tied-sixth at The Players, tied-ninth at the Travelers and tied-18th at the PGA Championship.

The affable Lee also has embraced social media, currently boasting more than 333,000 followers on Instagram and 42,000 on X, formerly known as Twitter. The steady rise in Lee's game — and global popularity — also caught the attention of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

They invited Lee to join a TGL roster for the team-based, tech-infused league founded by the two superstars that will launch next year.

"Look at the roster, it's crazy. It seems like everyone and then there's me," Lee joked. "I'm trying to do my best and compete with these guys. These guys, obviously major champions and best in the world. I guess (I can show) a bit of my fun personality and hopefully I can play some good golf there, too."

Lee said he received a dose of reality during his early outings on the PGA Tour, specifically pointing to a two-round score of 157 at last year's Arnold Palmer Invitational that left him ahead of only three players in the field at Bay Hill. He missed five of his next eight cuts on the PGA Tour.

A tie for 21st at the 2022 Open Championship signaled a turnaround for Lee, who returned to play regularly in Europe. He posted eight consecutive finishes of T13 or better before returning to the US.

There was a T26 before another missed cut at Bay Hill. Lee didn't let another trio of missed cuts shortly after the T6 at The Players set him back again. He rebounded with the T18 at the PGA and hasn't missed the weekend in his past 11 worldwide starts.

Lee believes those results indicate more big things to come in 2024. There's the move to Vegas, the TGL, perhaps some elevated events — and hopefully a spot on Mike Weir's International Team at the Presidents Cup.

"I wanted to be on that team last year, but I just missed out I feel like, so that was a bit of a kick in the gut," he said. "Ever since then I've kind of played well. I've always wanted to be on that team. I just love match play and there's not much of it out here, so I would love to be on that team."

REUTERS