JOHN BUSH: We would like to welcome Min Woo Lee into the interview room, our 2025 champion of the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
Min Woo, your first PGA TOUR victory and what a way to do it, six-shot lead at one point, and then talk us through that 18th hole and just being off the green and getting that done for the victory.
MIN WOO LEE: It was a very mental grinding day but I’m super proud to win. Yeah, it was just a very tough week. I mean, I had a lot of eyes on me obviously. I had a four-shot lead going down — the last round and yeah, I mean, I was obviously very tired, which helped go to sleep but I woke up and I couldn’t go back to sleep. It was one of those where I think just everything aligned this week. I’m so proud to be the winner of the trophy.
JOHN BUSH: You move up to 16th in the FedExCup standings. Just talk a little bit about how much this changes things going forward for you now.
MIN WOO LEE: Yeah, that’s awesome. I mean, I’ve been playing a lot of good golf. To get closer to the final Top 30, that will be — that’s one of the goals that I had in mind. Winning a tournament was one of those goals and I’m happy to check that off. It was tough. I mean, props to the guys that win week in, week out. I mean, it is very hard even though a four-shot lead is not safe, it is tough. Again, just so proud. Yeah, let’s keep doing it.
JOHN BUSH: Let’s go to questions.
Q. Min Woo, now that you’ve done it, what did you learn about what it takes to win on the PGA TOUR?
MIN WOO LEE: They always say the six inches between your ears, I think that was a big part of this week. I always felt like I had the assets to win, it was just can you do it mentally. Obviously a couple slip ups, especially on 16, the drive. Played very wonderful golf all week
and really, really solid.I only won by one, so it’s tough. Keep doing what I’m doing. And yeah, it’s a lot of mental. These guys that win, they’re mentally strong.
Q. Hard statistic to research, but usually you don’t win a golf tournament not hitting as many fairways as you did. Is this the way you normally play or is this a very aberrant tournament? Obviously it’s not the textbook approach.
MIN WOO LEE: I think obviously we know the rough isn’t that thick this week, but it was nearly — there’s a few holes out there where you’ve got to kind of keep it in play. I think I did a pretty good job for the majority of it to hit it on the right side, on the correct side. Yeah, I guess it’s not textbook, but it’s one of those golf courses where you can, and that’s why I did play. If it was a short and quirky golf course, I probably wouldn’t have played. I
didn’t know that I was going to play a couple events after the Masters, so it was one of those to add in. At the time when I got told I was playing, I wasn’t very happy and very — but I’m very glad that my team put me in this event. Yeah, it’s awesome.
Q. Were you aware, Min Woo, on the back nine of the pushes you were getting from
other players?
MIN WOO LEE: The —
Q. Did you look at the leaderboard?
MIN WOO LEE: Yeah, yeah. Obviously Scottie’s right in front of me. It was a bit of a backup so we were waiting every hole. Scottie is Scottie. He made, I don’t know, four birdies in a row, I think three or four birdies in a row. I think I didn’t really not care, but I didn’t — I just focused on myself for a lot of it until probably 16 when I hit it in the water. I kind of wanted to know where I was. I was two shots in front, then I made bogey, he made birdie, then I was only one shot. Obviously he’s a great golfer, and I was just looking forward to if he made birdie on the next couple holes. I know it’s a two tough holes. No. 17 you can play aggressive, but I had a 7-iron in there and that’s not necessarily an easy par, but I hit it in the right spot on both 17 and 18 and yeah, got the job done. But yes, I did. That’s why Sundays are so tough, you know people are creeping and you
know people are attacking.
Q. During the trophy ceremony you mentioned your sister, how she’s a multiple time winner on the LPGA. On social media she posted a story about “Hey, bring it home, brutha.” Have you talked to her yet, and maybe at the next family reunion can you
maybe finally bring up some bragging rights that you got your first one?
MIN WOO LEE: Yeah, I just FaceTimed her on the cart trip here. I called my family, and my mom was crying as usual, dad was very happy. I think he’s playing golf right now, but he was very happy. My sister was the first one to pick up. I talked to her yesterday about having dinner
tomorrow. She’s in Vegas and I live there and she’s playing an LPGA tournament there, so it will be very cool to see her. I haven’t seen her in a little bit, so it’s very cool to have a sister that’s really good at golf, and she’s going to win soon, too.
Q. On the back nine, especially on 16, did you feel doubt?
MIN WOO LEE: You know, I didn’t feel doubt for most of it just because for some reason this week I just wanted to be as mentally strong as I can. That’s — now I know that’s what it takes, it is a grind. Not doubt, I think maybe just a little — a little different tee box kind of, you know, shifted my
target. It’s a pretty similar shot that I was trying to hit on 16 and 8 and I managed to hit that right shot. The last couple days I kind of hit it left, so I wanted to just hit a little fade. It was pretty much the exact same feeling, got in front of it, club face open, toe ball right and it’s like 50 yards right, which is unacceptable. That’s something that I’ll work on with my coach. But that’s good, I mean, I don’t really hit that shot very often, but now it’s a tendency on that shot. So this was exactly the same downwind and trying to cut it a little bit.
Q. What did you learn also about your capacity for composure in situations like that?
MIN WOO LEE: You know, that’s — that was probably the one time in the round that I was facing a little trouble and again, so proud of the way I handled myself the last two holes. They’re not a snack, they’re not easy. If the tees were up on 17, it’s a much kind of easier
hole to make par. You know, I think yeah, I don’t know, “proud” is the word throughout this press conference I
think. That’s the one thing that I needed to do to get over the hump, yeah.
Q. So the shot into the water of course pretty much coincided with the fourth consecutive birdie by Scottie. Were you aware of that? I mean, could you discuss what happened on the shot into the water?
MIN WOO LEE: Yeah. I mean, I just said it. Didn’t I just say it? I don’t know. I pushed the drive in the water. I had a 9-iron in. It wasn’t the easiest because there was a little bit of mud on the ball. I hit it to 30 feet. Yeah, I saw the leaderboard between 17 and 18 — sorry, 16 and 17 and I saw Scottie, he obviously made birdie in front of me. I thought hit a good shot and two-putt, and you can make two good pars. I saw him make
par on 17, and 18’s a very tough hole so I thought two pars will do it. But I was freaking out inside if you wanted to know, it looked like I was cool, but I didn’t want him to make birdie.
Q. Did you guys speak afterwards at all?
MIN WOO LEE: No. I mean, I’m sure he’s doing something.
Q. Have to ask this: So you and your sister, match play, pick a course, how does it go?
MIN WOO LEE: My sister and I, I think if we play from the same tees I’ll smoke her because I hit it very far, but if she played from her tees and I played from mine, it would be pretty close. I think she’s got the long putter in now so she can putt and she’s doing really good over the
last couple months putting. Over the long run I think she might beat me. She’s a robot. She probably would have hit 19 fairways out of 18 fairways today because she’s a robot. She’s very straightforward and she’s very — she controls the ball so well. Over time she’ll probably win, but if there was a little short sprint I might win.
Q. It’s an extraordinary story obviously, the only brother-sister U.S. Am winner, Junior winners, incredible. But you do have her in Houston, she only tied for 46th at the Women’s Open here at Champions Golf Club, so if you didn’t know that, you can remind her of that.
MIN WOO LEE: Yeah, okay, so I’m better.
Q. In Houston.
MIN WOO LEE: Yeah, in Houston. I should just live here and stay here. She lives in Dallas, that’s kind of close. So I can say that Texas, winner of Texas and my sister.
Q. Can I ask in Korean?
MIN WOO LEE: No, I’m not that good at Korean. I’ll embarrass myself.
Q. Your driver is amazing and your driver launch angle is a little bit different than other players. Why is that and what are the advantage of doing so?
MIN WOO LEE: I would say I’m one of the better drivers of the golf ball. I actually changed driver head last week in Vegas, I just wanted to see the ball launch a little bit lower. 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, but it was — yeah, I mean, 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.
Q. Min Woo, the third shot on 18, a very municipal golf style choice to putt off the green, but I’m wondering what options were you considering and why did you settle on that one?
MIN WOO LEE: Yeah, so 17 and 18, 17 was really into the grain. Sorry, you didn’t ask about 17 but it’s kind of similar. No. 17 off the green, it was a little into the grain so easily could chip it, but just a little into the grain so I thought putting was a bit more reliable. On 18 I would have chipped that probably nine out of 10 times if I had a match or if I just was at home playing. It was a really good lie but it was very hard to judge the pace because if I hit it anywhere left of the hole, there was a hill that went down and I could eventually have a 10-footer if I didn’t hit it hard enough. Just the reliable choice. I think anyone can vouch for me there, especially what the situation was. You know, managed to hit one of the better putts I hit all day, all week. The greens, you know, I needed to hit the ball really hard to get it to the hole. I think a lot of people were like that. It was one of those where I had to hit it hard or else it would just go down the hill. I was very happy to see it go very close.
JOHN BUSH: Min Woo, congratulations once again.
MIN WOO LEE: Thank you very much.