Cooking with gas – Min Woo whips up a 64 to upstage Scott and Smith at Royal Queensland

Min Woo Lee cooked up a 64, Adam Scott’s 66 was like an evening of fine dining … but Cam Smith fell flatter than a stale bottle of plonk on day one at the Australian PGA Championship.

Min Woo Lee’s group entered the party hole at the crack of 8am. It was windy and drizzling. Felt like an early-opener pub when the only attendees are the tragic golden oldies sipping their morning middies. Just a round of ponies, you know, to get things moving in the right direction. A couple of heart-starters.

 Lee was bright and perky. Best time of the day and so forth. His caddy’s cap had GOOD written on it. He needed a different one, saying GREAT, by the time the 25-year-old Lee had upstaged Adam Scott, if only just, and Cam Smith, by a proverbial mile, to scribble his signature on a seven-under-par 64 in the opening round of the Australian PGA Championship.

His shafts whipped like a fly-fisherman’s rod as he slung the ball around Royal Queensland to the approval of a gang of supporters who watched his every shot in T-shirts saying, “Let That Young Man Cook!”

He laughed. Gave ’em a thumbs up. Nodded his approval. When Lee launches a drive into the stratosphere, these are the words he likes to hear from the far side of the ropes.

The encouragement to keep cooking, baby, keep whipping up a round as delicious as this one, a round of eight morning-glory birdies that pleased the palate like a perfectly procured plate of bacon and eggs. He trailed only Spain’s Joel Moscatel Nacshon by a stroke before spending the evening at American rapper Post Malone’s Brisbane concert.

Let the young man cook. He was in masterchef mode when he entered the party hole. Hello? Are you guys open yet? It’s a stadium par-three that will go off like the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on the weekend but it was a lonely old scene when Lee, having commenced his round at 6.10am, whacked a wedge to the dance floor 125m metres away.

There’s only one thing I’d tinker with at the party hole. They’re underestimating the value of silence by playing the music non-stop. They should turn it off when a player is about to hit.

It’d be the cue for everyone to shut up because a professional golfer is about to strike an important ball but more to the point, sporting silence is powerful. Deep. Impactful. Cacophonic noise punctuated by moments of complete silence would add to the tension and dramatic effect. Either that or play the music from Jaws.

Min Woo Lee and Cameron Smith shake hands after the opening round. Picture: Getty Images.

Lee could only pony up for a par on the party hole that hadn’t started yet. There was basically no one there.

“I’m sure tomorrow afternoon it will be pumping,” he said. “I know when it’s to its full potential, it’ll be crazy. Today wasn’t too bad. You think you’re pumped up so much … but then all of us nearly left our putts short because really, you’re not pumped up at all. Tomorrow will be better.”

Extra satisfaction from toppling the headline acts of Scott (66) and Smith (73)? “If I say yes now I know when I get to that age there’s going to be 18-year-olds beating me,” he said.

“Golf is a great sport in that it doesn’t matter what age you are, you can play good and finish on top. I guess there’s a little bit of satisfaction but there are still three more rounds to go. I’ve got to keep my head down and keep doing what I have to do.

“I’ve beaten them before and I feel like I’m good enough to win tournaments and play good anywhere now. As long as I do right by myself, I feel satisfaction.”

Lee reckons 20-under will win. He’s on his way, cooking with gas. He had more autograph hunters and selfie seekers than Scott and Smith combined. He’s a darling of social media with an army of young supporters. Cheeky kids were asking him, can I have your ball? Can I have your sunnies? Can you sign my shirt? Got a spare glove?

The most notable barracker had a T-shirt saying Woozy’s Cooking School. The picture was Woozy in a chef’s hat.

Woozy wants big weekend crowds. World No.47 Woozy wants prestigious Australian trophies like the Kirkwood Cup. Woozy wants the real party hole. Woozy wants to go head-to-head with the likes of Scott on championship Sunday.

“I was actually pretty nervous right before the round, which I haven’t felt in a while,” he said. “That’s good for me. I’d rather not get too comfortable.

“It’s pretty cool that supporters go to the length of getting those shirts. We all love playing in front of a crowd. It was good to hit every shot the way I wanted to and prove to myself that I could do it with that pressure. I think I did everything pretty solid.”

Scott tabled a delicious five-under-par 66. A round of fine-­dining. Smith tabled a two-over 73 that made him want to puke.

Scott is such a meticulous operator. On the 14th green, he had a single blade of grass on his putter. Sullying it. Defiling it. He removed it as delicately as he might pick up a butterfly and set it free. The trespassing grass must have left a smudge because he licked a finger and tried to wipe it away. Failed. Grimaced and did it again. Everything was just so as the great Scott made an early move to where he wanted to be. Contention.

He said his 6am tee time was perfect after waking at 3am all week because of jet lag.

“There aren’t too many sports where you have to perform at a high level at 6am, but the jet lag helps,” he said after hinting he would again skip the Olympics.

“It has never really been a high priority for me and I haven’t really thought about it much. It’s not ­really one of my goals going into next year. I feel like I have other things that I set out, at the start of my career, to accomplish, and I think I should focus on those.

“My time is … not drawing to a close now but as each year slips by, it’s going to get harder. So I have a big focus on that from April through July next year. The major season is where I want to commit my time and energy.”

Nachshon failed last week to get his DP World Tour card by one solitary bludger of a shot. Asked to name his inspiration, he replied, “Seve!” Of course. Asked the secret to his round, he said, “Nothing! We just play.” Easy game!

Smith was in Lee’s group, relegated to the second fiffle, falling flatter than a stale bottle of plonk. “It was frustrating. Upsetting,” he said before his next great challenge. To make the cut.

“A lot of stuff to work on to feel comfortable. It was getting to the point out there where it was just really hard to commit to a shot. I felt like I was over the ball not knowing what I was going to do. Which is a pretty bad place to be on a golf course when you’re trying to beat these guys.”