Min Woo Lee put the disappointment of being benched for most of the Presidents Cup behind him to claim a stirring half with Wyndham Clark in the Sunday singles.
The Perth superstar played alongside Adam Scott in the fourballs on day one of the biennial team tournament, with the Aussie pair unlucky to lose by 1 hole in a high-quality clash against Sahith Theegala and Collin Morikawa.
Lee was then controversially rested by Mike Weir on days two and three, leaving the energetic 26-year-old as little more than an enthusiastic onlooker as the US team moved into a comfortable 11-7 lead heading into the final-day singles.
Despite some strong individual performances from the International team, the USA accelerated away to win 18.5-11.5 overall, winning six and halving three of the 12 singles matches.
Royal Fremantle’s Lee earned one of the half-points as he came from behind to tie his match with Clark in thrilling fashion to give the supporters at Royal Montreal GC a fine demonstration of his inherent talent.
In a nip-and-tuck encounter, Lee found water on the 17th hole to fall one down to the 2023 US Open champion but then fired a sublime short iron shot to gimme distance at the 18th to win the hole and tie the match.
Lee admitted afterward to disappointment at having sat out the second and third days, but kept it in perspective. “I wanted to play every day. But full trust in the team, and yeah, the boys were playing really good,” he said.
“People have said they would have loved me out there, but I would have loved to, too, but I had a good rest and then came out, tried to win my match today.”
This was the 15th iteration of the Presidents Cup. The USA has won 13 times and tied the contest once in 2003. The only victory by the International team was at Royal Melbourne in 1998.
You can view the final scores from the 2024 Presidents Cup here.
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