Min Woo Lee holds Scottie Scheffler to win the Houston Open from PGA Tour

What looked like a pleasant and reasonably simple Sunday afternoon for one of the lighter young stars of the PGA Tour had turns and twists, but Min Woo Lee could hold the best player in the world to win the Houston Open.

It is Lee’s first PGA Tour victory, with 20 under par, a shot ahead of Scottie Scheffler and Gary Woodland.

“Scottie is a wonderful golfer and he keeps her busy,” said Lee about NBC. “This was my first time that I was in front and tried to keep a lead and I’m glad I did it. I am very exhausted. It was a lot of mental limit and I am so proud of the way I dealt with myself.”

Lee started the day with a lead of four shots on his closest competitor, and Scheffler in a back of group 5. It would make a lot of effort that Lee losing such a lead, and he kept the field in chess, extended a Bogey-Less strip to 41 holes and a three-shot lead when he stepped into the tea box on No. 16.

Then the difficulties happened. Lee blew his driver right into the water – only the second water polo of the day on the hole. He decided on his third shot and put it in the Fairway, but in front of him Scheffler had the par 5 bird ownership to get a blow back. Lee had 41 feet for par, but missed, dropped a stroke and suddenly clung a lead of a bar.

“To be honest, I played incredibly to this bogey, but it’s difficult. It’s really difficult,” said Lee.

Woodland, one of two men who had fired a course record of 62 on Sunday, reached 19 under par, and Scheffler had two chances of birdie a hole and forced a playoff. But he left a 20-foot bird cover in 17th place, and his second shot at No. 18 missed the green.

Lee only needed par to end a round of 67, and turned it away from 53 feet to 8 inches from the green and hit his chest when he watched as his ball rolled up.

Lee had no longer won since the Australian PGA championship from November 2023. The brother of the LPGA stars Minjee, Min Woo, has built up a huge social media when he rose from her home country to the PGA tour and builds an impressive list of achievements on the way that includes an appearance of the President in 2024 and the representation of Australia at the Olympic Games.

Known for its impressive ball speed – he provided a TGL record at a speed of 192 miles per hour on the simulator – but the cook did not always check his ideal cuisine in Houston this week. With the rain softly tightened of the Memorial Park Golf Course, a public facility, in which 60,000 laps per year and during the Florida swing were dramatically less rough than tour professionals, it was set up for Lee. It was the lowest score in the 77-year history of the Houston Open.

During his last round, Lee faced an external problem in the form of partner Alejandro Tosti. The latter became angry when Lee, who hit his tee in 8th place under a bush with thick electric wires on his way, fought to keep step. Lee finally managed to make the Par-5-hole par (after his Caddy Lee desire easily criticized the bush by saying: “I just don’t think that’s the shot”), but the group took more than 30 minutes to complete the hole.

Tosti, who spoke to a rules during the delay, then drew the attention of the NBC Roving broadcaster Jim “Bones” Mackay, whereby Mackay commented on the show via Tosti, which slowly slowed down his own pace.

Sami Valimaki also shot a 62 to become fourth with 17 under. Rory McIlroy, Wyndham Clark, Taylor Pendrith and Tosti became five at the age of 15.

(Photo: Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images)