Thanks to his strong play at the Cognizant Classic, golf fans will have a treat watching Min Woo Lee tee off at this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The 25-year-old finished joint second with Erik van Rooyen at the PGA National, three strokes behind winner Austin Eckrot.
Eckrot became the fourth player to win his first PGA Tour title this season, and Lee hopes to accomplish that soon.
Still, Lee’s second-place finish at the Cognizant Classic marks his best finish on the PGA Tour. His previous best finish was a tie for fifth at last year’s U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club.
Perhaps the free-swinging Australian can make a breakthrough next week with a win at Orlando’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge, site of the PGA Tour’s fourth signature event of the season.
The signature event features a limited field and some of the top players on the PGA Tour. AON Next 10 and AON Swing 5, his two rankings that calculate in-form players based on recently earned FedEx Cup points, have also received invitations to these higher fields.
Lee earned 245 FedEx Cup points at the Cognizant Classic and jumped into Bay Hill via AON Swing 5. Justin Lower, Stefan Jaeger, CT Pan and Sami Valimaki will join Lee at Bay Hill via AON Swing 5.
“I think [I needed to finish] I was third place alone,” Lee said after finishing second.
“I’ve known that for a long time, but [Sunday] That’s the night I wanted to play. Yes, that’s amazing. I was thinking about it going on forever. Of course I was thinking about winning, but yeah, today was a really proud moment. ”
Lee started the day in tears, but finished quickly with a birdie on the par-4 ninth and an eagle on the par-5 10th. Climb up the leaderboard Up to 13 under.
Then, with a birdie on the par-4 12th, the Australian suddenly had a chance to do something special.
After that, Lee gradually eased off, finishing the round with six straight pars and ultimately settling for a tournament score of 14 under.
“It’s not really a winning score,” Lee argued.
“I think a lot of times I think too far ahead, so especially after the rain postponement, it was kind of a one-shot moment. Yeah, I’m really proud of how I handled myself this week. Obviously. has a bad swing [five] It hurt when I hit the double bogey on the par 3. I got off to a good start there, so that encouraged me. ”
After a 3 hour and 30 minute delay on Sunday evening, Lee got off to a great start, similar to his start on Monday morning.
He got birdies on the 3rd and 4th holes and kept his momentum going until he reached the par 3 5th hole.
However, he hit his tee shot into the water at the green guard, resulting in a double bogey and five strokes.
That ultimately proved costly. If Lee had found a putting surface there and made par, he might have reached the 72nd hole (par 5) with a one-stroke difference instead of a three-stroke difference.
Still, he did what he had to do to qualify for Bay Hill.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through.Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.
