‘I have always liked the attention’: Min Woo Lee on fame, fashion and the Australian Open
Min Woo Lee opens up about balancing tradition with social media fame as he reflects on his high-profile friendships and making his mark in style.
Australian golfer Min Woo Lee is sitting in the ultra-private MacKenzie Room at Royal Melbourne’s historic clubhouse.
Lining the walls are black-and-white photographs of club champions in crisp suits, framed blazer pocket badges, and a trophy cabinet at its entrance.
Above the fireplace is a painting of Dr Alister MacKenzie, the British architect who designed the famed West Course in 1926: bow tie neatly set, tartan kilt draped, and knee-high socks pulled to precision.
The weight of tradition hangs in the air but it’s Lee, the Perth-born 27-year-old, who is the face of golf’s social media-fuelled next generation.
Lee is a TikTok star and gaming enthusiast with nearly a million Instagram followers, and counts Justin Bieber and NBA champion Steph Curry among his friends.
With a relaxed swagger, Lee – in a powder blue polo shirt, white cap, fresh off the course – leans back in his chair and reflects on his very modern rise to fame.
“I have always liked the attention. It was easy for me,” Lee tells this masthead, in his only in-depth interview while in Melbourne for the Australian Open.
“I have to be serious in some sense. I think people like me for how genuine I try to be. When I have to be serious, I’ll be serious.”
Known to his fans as “The Chef” and “Dr Chipinski” among other monikers, Lee was raised in Perth but calls Las Vegas home: not that he’s ever really home.
So why Vegas? “I have a friend who played on a tour with me and brought me over.
“And I loved it – I decided to live there with him for about eight months then built my own house. It’s a great place to practice, just lots of fun.
“I’m there I’d say three months of the year, not in a row. Just weeks off. If I had a week off in the US, I’d go [home] to Vegas and hang out. I’d love to be there more … but I can’t.”
‘I LIKE TO BE SHARP’
Apart from his prowess on the course, Lee is also known for his personal style: a preppy Lululemon polo shirt, form-fitting when he’s playing, teamed with the golf-wear staples of a cap and Oakley sunglasses, sometimes in neon-yellow.
Off the course, Lee likes “to wear a baggier fit, a bit oversized. On the course, it’s a lot different – I’m quite opposite.
“I like to be sharp and tight-fitting. When I go out, I like to be relaxed and have casual vibes.
“It’s a key to playing some good golf – you want to be sharp, for sure. We are on camera, on TV, we need to look good too.”
There’s no stylist. Instead, his girlfriend, Gracie – a designer – weighs in. “My girlfriend tells me if it’s right or wrong,” Lee notes. “She’s been part of the fashion world, she helps me out.”
When asked if golf might introduce its own equivalent of the NBA’s pre-game “tunnel fits” – a term used to describe the outfits players wear on their arrival at a stadium – Lee gives it some thought. “There are a lot of golfers in a tournament, so I don’t know if there’s going to be 140 ‘golfer fits’?
“I mean, we do play TGL, which is indoor golf, so we do have the tunnel fits in that,” he says, in reference to the high-tech golf league founded by Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and Mike McCarley.
“There is no ‘tunnel’. Maybe ‘outside fit’? People just come out of the car and go into the locker room.”
‘CALM AND COLLECTED’
Speaking of the NBA, Lee takes inspo from his famous friendships, including with Golden State Warriors point-guard Curry – the four-time NBA champion.
“It is a very ‘pinch me’ moment … I still think I’m a young kid in Perth, growing up playing golf.
“It is very cool to have friends who are famous in other sports.
“Watching the way they handle themselves – it’s cool to see how they do it, just how calm and collected they are.
“I can see [it in] myself I guess when I am on the golf course … you learn a lot from it.”
Golf certainly runs in the family: Lee’s sister is Minjee Lee, 29, who has won three major championships and was recently awarded the Greg Norman Medal – Australian golf’s highest individual honour – for a fourth time (Min delivered an acceptance speech on her behalf).
Lee credits Minjee as an influence on him personally and for playing a huge role in raising the profile of women’s golf. “My sister is a big part of that, especially in Australia. She has been one of the best in the world.
“She’s very opposite of me [in her approach to social media]. I would sacrifice a bit of that to be as good as what she is. She is a major champion, she’s a great golfer.”
As a child, Min looked up to golf mega star Tiger Woods (“I grew up wanting to be like him”), and now plays alongside another of his idols: Australian Adam Scott.
Today at Royal Melbourne, Lee counted Scott and Irish star Rory McIlroy as his playing partners in the opening round of the Australian Open.
In March, there was that breakthrough PGA Tour win in Houston, and last week, he finished fifth at the Australian PGA in Brisbane (speaking at a press conference at Royal Melbourne on Wednesday, Lee noted: “I think the results have been getting a little bit better and my approach play was something that I needed to get better at and it’s showing signs”).
Later, when this masthead asks Lee to elaborate, he’s in reflective mode: “I think I have a good balance between enjoying [playing], and not getting burnt out.
“There are a lot of times when you can go the other way, which is not enjoying the little moments in life. It is tough but it is also a very, very fun thing to do.
“I try to be as genuine as I can … that’s the demeanour I try to have.”
His have‑fun mantra in a sport built on etiquette and patience has made him popular on TikTok (a platform he says he “had to embrace”) with tongue‑in‑cheek culinary videos riffing on his “let him cook” catchphrase posted alongside comedy skits. It’s helped make Lee – and golf – more relevant to younger audiences.
“A lot of [golfers] are starting to learn that it is a big part of life and it is important,” Lee says, of social media.
“I think for the next generation, it’s going to be more important. A lot of [golfers] are starting to do it already.
“I grew up in an age were it was a perfect time to do social media.”
And with that, Lee clocks his mates in the clubhouse and signals to his manager: “Hey Brent, get the boys!” They’re off to have fun.
The Crown Australian Open is being played at Royal Melbourne until Sunday. For more information, click here.
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Originally published as ‘I have always liked the attention’: Min Woo Lee on fame, fashion and the Australian Open
