Min Woo Lee is back at the site of his PGA Tour breakthrough: the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
The 27-year-old Australian has yet to miss a cut this season, highlighted by a T2 finish at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am won by Collin Morikawa. As the defending champion, Lee hopes the Pebble performance last month is a sign he could pick up his second win this week.
“Yeah, Pebble was a very nice week, felt like I put four good rounds together,” Lee said Tuesday. “That’s all you have to do, you’ve got to put yourself in contention. I feel like I’ve been doing that, just getting a lot familiar with my game, putting well and doing everything pretty solid. You’ve got to do that to win and put yourself in that spot. Yeah, it’s not rocket science, you’ve got to play very good.”
Lee had two rounds of 65 at Pebble Beach, one of the more famous courses on the PGA Tour. The Houston Open is played at a much different kind of track, Memorial Park Golf Course, one of two municipal courses played on the circuit.
Lee prevailed last year by bombing his drives, something he’s known for, and having little trouble on his approach shots even if he missed the fairway. He also reflected on how locked-in he was mentally.
“Something about last time I was here, I was very head down and just focused on the process and hitting the next shot,” Lee said, “which I think that’s why it was very, I guess, exhausting because I didn’t — normally I would look around, look at the crowd, but not last year. I was very head down and just kind of did my thing.
“Maybe I should do it every week, I don’t know.”
Lee said he had to hone in on his approach play after performing poorly in the tour’s signature events in 2025. After ranking near the bottom of the tour in strokes gained on approach last year, he’s gaining strokes for the season, ranking above-average at 77th.
“Yeah, you always look back at the week and think, ‘That 3-footer that I missed could have made a big difference towards the end of the year,’ or stuff like that,” Lee said. “I mean, yes, that’s something that you get feedback from, but you’ve just got to move on and do the best you can. …
“I thought that I was good enough to be out here and play, but the Signature Events beat me up last year. I needed to get a lot better and a lot more stable. A lot stronger, too. Yeah, it was just a good period of time after the fall we really had to do something about my game. Yeah, it’s starting to pay off now, which is great.”
