Min Woo Lee tapping in to former winners Adam Scott and Jason Day at The Players Championship

Min Woo Lee came from the clouds to nearly win last year’s Players Championship and returns to the unofficial fifth major as a legitimate winning chance.

Min Woo Lee practising at The Players Championship in Florida. Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images/AFP

Min Woo Lee has gone from a starry-eyed hopeful looking up to heroes Adam Scott and Jason Day to out-driving them in regular practice rounds during which he mines the two major champions, and former world No.1s for every bit of advice as the 25-year-old plots to join them at golf’s summit.

This week, Lee, now Australia’s second-highest-ranked golfer at 32 in the world, returns to the scene of his 2023 breakthrough at The Players Championship, where, in his tournament debut, he played in the final group alongside world No.1 Scottie Scheffler in the final round, got the crowd hyped as he briefly challenged for the lead before ultimately finishing in a tie for sixth to cement himself as a star on the rise.

Lee played with Scott and Day, both former winners of the tournament labelled the “fifth major”, at TPC Sawgrass in Florida on Tuesday and among the “regular chat” paid attention to their club selections off the tee in particular as they worked their way around the layout where Scott won in 2004 and Day led from start to finish in 2016.

In Lee’s first year as a full-time US PGA Tour member, comfort with players he watched on YouTube for so long has helped him feel like he’s now one of their peers, a confidence booster when you are taking on the world’s best with $37m up for grabs.

“Which is awesome, being friends with them, I can text them, ask them if they want to play and they usually say yes. It is awesome,” Lee said from Florida.

“I feel like I’ve talked about them and watched a lot of YouTube videos over the last five or 10 years when I really did look up to them and they played amazing golf.

“It’s really cool to have them as a friend.

“You can ask questions and they have been very forthcoming, more about what from last year I needed to work on, being comfortable playing the course … what they hit off the tee, stuff like that.”

Min Woo Lee after taking a selfie with Adam Scott and Jason Day in Florida. Picture: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Lee goes in with significant expectations after his bold showing last March that exposed him to a new audience who have embraced his “Let’s Cook” motto and capacity to stir them into a frenzy and thrive while it’s happening.

He had Australian crowds in a lather during the home summer, and while Lee conceded things could get “a little silly”, he didn’t want to curb his behaviour too much even when the stakes got higher.

“There’s a little balance to it. You can get a little bit silly,” he said.

“But I thought I did well in Australia, there was a lot of crowd with me, a lot of chefs and ‘let him cook’. I play well in front of a crowd, especially when they are supporting me. It’s a big tournament but I play my best when I am playing with the crowd.”

The crowd egged him on at last year’s tournament, and Lee planned to go back and watch his final round before teeing off in a group with Joel Dahmen and Christiaan Bezuidenhout.

5th Major. @THEPLAYERS LET HIM COOK 👨‍🍳🔥 pic.twitter.com/L6QvRvKSou

— Min Woo Lee (@Minwoo27Lee) March 13, 2024

Lee said he’d take lessons from last year but also confidence returning to a course he knows he’s played well at, despite its difficulties, having found his best stuff of late also after an “impatient” start to his first year as a full-time PGA Tour player.

“It’s not easy playing with the top guys,” he said.

“I got a little impatient after the first three tournaments then had a good result at the Cognizant Classic and came second. I felt like I was better than the results I created.

“But I still remember what happened last year and times when I needed to learn from it. It was a good learning curve, playing in the final group on a Sunday, it was kind of my first time.

“A lot of good stuff has happened since then and I’m excited about this week.”

There are five Australians in the 156-man field, with Lee, Scott and Day joined by Cam Davis and Aaron Baddeley.

Originally published as Min Woo Lee tapping in to former winners Adam Scott and Jason Day at The Players Championship