NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
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It’s a fine line between being a promising young PGA Tour player and a PGA Tour winner. Min Woo Lee finally crossed that line at the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
The 26-year-old Australian set the scoring record at Memorial Park and finished one shot ahead of world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and 2019 U.S. Open champ Gary Woodland, with Rory McIlroy and Wyndham Clark close behind at T5.
The biggest difference for the 2025 version of Lee and his rookie self in 2024 has been the putter. Using his Odyssey O-Works #1 Wide putter, Lee ranked second in the Houston field in strokes gained putting, nearly nine shots better than the field average. In the third-round 63 that gave him the 54-hole lead, he made 10 putts in a row.
That putting improvement was not an aberration, as Lee ranks fourth on the season in strokes gained putting – a far cry better than the 118th he ranked as a rookie when he was just below PGA Tour average.
One of the more unique aspects of Lee’s mixed Callaway bag are his irons, having benched the Apex MB model he used in 2024. Min Woo showed up for his first event of 2025 at Pebble Beach sporting a mysterious set of Callaway prototype muscleback-blade forged irons made just for him that only have the brand’s “V” logo on the back and the words “Apex Forged” stamped onto the hosels. The prototypes display a thin top line, slight offset, high toe and unique tri-sole design.
Lee still has the Apex prototype 6-iron through 10-iron (PW) in his bag and has used them to great effect, ranking 15th in the Houston field in strokes gained approach, which helped make up for his atypical erratic driving. On the season, Lee ranks 118th in approach compared to 139th as a rookie.
“Yeah, I mean, the irons have been amazing,” Lee said. “I think obviously you’ve got to hit it close, and holing putts helps.”
Lee also tweaked his Callaway Elyte Triple Diamond driver, decreasing the loft to 8.5 degrees to lessen the spin. While he didn’t hit a lot of fairways, he ranked fifth in driving distance (317 yards per measured drive).
“I actually changed driver heads last week in Vegas, I just wanted to see the ball launch a little bit lower,” he said. “I have so much speed, so they say I need a little bit of spin. I want to eventually see the ball spin a little less. … It’s just a work in progress. The really good ones are amazing and I just need to work on a couple of the bad ones. I’m slowly finding my feet in my craft and hopefully we can go from there.”
Rory McIlroy also took some loft off his driver before shooting 64 in the final round in Houston, where he improved each day on a course he’d never played before in his final tuneup before the Masters.
“I felt like it was getting a little bit spinny, especially if I wanted to hit cuts off the tee, so I took a little bit of loft off it,” McIlroy said of his TaylorMade Qi10 driver, which was already delofted to 8.25 degrees. “Yeah, definitely went through the wind better today and felt a little more comfortable.”
Of greater concern was something McIlroy told Golf Channel about his elbow “bothering” him as he prepares for the Masters.
“My right elbow has been bothering me a little bit so I’ll maybe just get some treatment on that and make sure that is OK going into Augusta,” McIlroy said.
“I’ve got my coach, Michael Bannon, coming in (Monday), we’ll do some work and make sure everything is in good shape for a week’s time. … Still don’t think my game is 100 percent under the control I would want, but it’s nice to have a week to work on some things.”
Scott Michaux