Min Woo Lee leads Australian charge at The Players Championship despite cramping incident

Cam Smith was playing at a local public course in Jacksonville as Min Woo Lee made his charge towards a Master spot at the fifth major.

Min Woo Lee holds his calf after cramping. Picture: C. Tilton/Getty Images/AFP

Rising Australian star Min Woo Lee’s debut at The Players Championship was nothing short of eventful and included him topping the leaderboard before enduring a bizarre cramping event.

Lee rode the ups and downs to card an opening round four-under 68 at TPC Sawgrass in Florida as the “fifth major” got under way without banned defending champion Cameron Smith, who wasn’t sighted in the galleries despite cheekily suggesting he might turn up anyway. given he lives 10 minutes from the course.

Instead Smith paid his green fees to tee it up with his mates at a nearby public course called The Yards in Jacksonville, having told Golf Digest that while it “stings a bit” to not be there, he knew what he was sacrificing when he made his move to LIV Golf.

“It stings a bit, but with my decision to come over to LIV, that was one of the things I had to give up, and I’m at ease with it,” he said.

“I’d love to be playing there, but there are a lot of other great tournaments and venues and countries that I’m looking forward to this year.”

Nah, i’m not an athlete 😭 #PickleJuicehttps://t.co/VT308T7mvq

— Min Woo Lee (@Minwoo27Lee) March 9, 2023

Making up for Smith’s absence, Lee reeled off seven birdies and was leading the $35m tournament on day one before dropping two shots in his final two holes on Thursday.

That followed the incident on the 15th tee where he winced in pain after hitting his drive and needed on-course treatment for what was called an “over stretch”.

“It was a weird one because I had never experienced that before. It was kind of a funny story,” Lee said after his round.

“I thought I had … at the beginning of the week I thought I had an allergic reaction to the electrolytes I was having, and if you don‘t have electrolytes you get cramps and then I got a cramp.

Min Woo Lee reacts after playing his tee shot on the 15th hole. Picture: by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Lee holds his calf on the 15th fairway. Picture: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images/AFP

“Yeah, it put the puzzle pieces together, and that’s what happened.

“I just swung my driver, and at the end of it I kind of overextended my calf and wasn’t the best of timing, but I’m happy to get it done, and I didn‘t actually hit it that bad with the cramp.

“The physio said it was just an overstretch, so it might have been tightness in the calf and I overstretched it. That’s what he thinks. There’s no discolouration or anything which I’m thankful for because it didn’t feel the greatest.”

Lee’s fast start, which left him four shots behind leader Chad Ramey, helped his cause to get back to the Masters. Ranked 50 in the world, the 24-year-old needs to stay there, or improve, to get back to Augusta where he finished in a tie for 14th last year, his first time at the Masters.

Today was the first round of the Players and the defending champ, Cameron Smith, spent the morning exactly 1.1 miles away from TPC Sawgrass at a public course called The Yards, where he played with buddies. Paid his greens fee and everything! What a bizarre time in the golf world

— Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier) March 10, 2023

And after battling illness through the start of the year, Cameron Davis was the next best Aussie at three-under, while Jason Day continued his return to form to shoot a two-under 70, which included going into the water on the 16th hole.

Adam Scott started with an even par round but fellow Aussie Lucas Herbert had a day to forget, carding a 10-over par 82, despite making birdie on the famous par three 17th, after a horror triple bogey on the 18th to sit dead last in the elite field.