The Meal Was Served

Under hot pursuit, Lee cooks up his first PGA Tour win

Three-stroke leads deep into the final round have been evaporating with regular frequency on the PGA Tour. Collin Morikawa was beaten by Russell Henley at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Rory McIlroy lost his comfortable advantage at The Players prior to defeating J.J. Spaun in a playoff. Justin Thomas opened the door at the Valspar Championship, allowing Viktor Hovland to walk through.

Working margins turned into hard work in three successive tournaments.

In the conclusion of the Texas Children’s Houston Open, it looked as if it might turn out to be a month of insufficient Sundays for men atop the leaderboard when shadows lengthen and pressures heighten.

This time, Min Woo Lee was the golfer in the hot seat at Houston’s Memorial Park. Lee, 26, of Australia, led by four strokes after 54 holes, briefly increased his lead to five early in the final round and still led by three through 15 holes.

Giving late chase on the appealing municipal course created by John Bredemus and renovated by Tom Doak were a familiar face, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, and what would have been the feel-good story of the year, Gary Woodland, who underwent major brain surgery 18 months ago. Rory McIlroy further enlivened things with a run of eight consecutive 3s to put a big dent in the eight-shot deficit he faced when teeing off on Sunday, before cooling off and tying for fifth place.

Lee—and his pursuers—made it interesting. He came to the 72^nd hole needing a par 4 to win by one, and he got down in two from the back fringe of the final hole to do so. Lee finished at 20-under 260, edging Scheffler and Woodland by a single stroke. In the end, a cakewalk had turned into a hard-earned maiden PGA Tour victory.

The winner is full of energy, clubhead speed and promise. Lee doesn’t yet have nearly the worldwide record of, say, Tommy Fleetwood, who has seven DP World Tour wins and is still hunting for victory No. 1 on the PGA Tour at age 34, but he was due to deepen his résumé. Lee has three European Tour wins, including the Scottish Open and Australian PGA Championship. He has endured a couple of difficult weekends at The Players—a rough final round in 2023 and a lousy third round this year, both while in the last pairing—but despite two wild swings Sunday he showed admirable grit in closing the deal.

Specifically, Lee flared two drives far to the right on par 5s. He escaped with a par after taking an unplayable lie on the eighth hole. On No. 16, he found the water off the tee. Lee salvaged a bogey. Pars at the last two holes were enough.

If you’ve paid even scant attention to top-shelf golf in recent years, you know Min Woo isn’t the only winning tour pro in his family. Older sister Minjee has two major titles among her 10 LPGA victories and reached No. 2 in the Rolex Rankings a couple of years ago. She is currently 18^th in the world.

Minjee and Min Woo made history when they were teenagers as the first brother and sister to win the USGA’s junior championships, the U.S. Girls’ and U.S. Junior Amateur. Minjee won in 2012 and Min Woo in 2016. Min Woo’s victory in Houston makes the Lees just the third pair of siblings to win on the PGA and LPGA tours.

Min Woo and Minjee join Bill Kratzert and Cathy Gerring and Jim Gallagher Jr. and Jackie Gallagher-Smith with the rare brother-sister distinction. Two other sets of siblings came close: Hall of Famer Raymond Floyd’s sister, Marlene, had several third-place LPGA finishes; Lexi Thompson’s brother, Nicholas, was a runner-up on the PGA Tour.

The Lees’ mother, Clara, taught golf at driving range in a Perth suburb after the family moved there from South Korea. Her children, who were born in Australia, spent a lot of time there, with Minjee being the child who took golf more seriously early on.

Minjee is reserved and just goes about her business. Min Woo has built a large social media following (nearly 700,000 Instagram followers) by being more of an open book. “Let him cook,” a phrase originating in the gaming world, has helped raise Min Woo’s profile. Scheffler and Woodland had their supporters in Houston, but so did Lee.

Houston has been kind to international players such as Lee, who is the 18^th golfer from outside the United States to lift the trophy. He is the 10^th Australian to win in Houston, the first since Matt Jones in 2014.

The Masters looms on the horizon. Lee will be playing for the fourth time; he tied for 14^th in his 2022 debut and tied for 22^nd last year. Length and young nerves go a long way at Augusta National. Scheffler is still without a win in 2025 but appears to be rounding into form as he attempts to win his third green jacket in four years. McIlroy will show up with two 2025 victories and the usual load of great expectations, with the Masters being the missing piece in his Career Grand Slam puzzle. There is much to anticipate.