Min Woo Lee is ready to put on a show at Royal Queensland this week as he eyes a successful defence of his BMW Australian PGA Championship title.
The Perth sensation plays in the headline group alongside Major winners Cam Smith and Jason Day for the first two days of the tournament he won in unforgettable fashion in 2023.
Lee believes he’s playing well enough to contend again, and says he welcomes the pressure that comes with the defending champion tag.
“You can either put the pressure on you, or you can smell the flowers and enjoy what you did last year,” he said. “I don’t mind when there’s a bit of pressure on me. I do tend to play better just because I don’t want to stuff up and I don’t want to get too lazy.
“I’m going to go out there and hopefully give a show to the crowds.”
For many fans, the enduring memory from the 2023 event was Lee donning a chef’s hat thrown to him on the penultimate hole of the championship – the par-three ‘Party Hole’ – and whipping the crowd into a fervour.
Lee’s ‘Let Him Cook’ catchphrase has caught on around the world in the ensuing months, with the man himself looking back fondly on the viral moment.
Min Woo Lee enjoyed the support of a rapturous crowd on his way to the title in 2023
“It was amazing,” he said. “That was the first week the chef hats started coming out and I’ve seen it all pretty much all year round (on the PGA Tour) nearly at every tournament. It’s a very cool movement.”
“I guess it was bold [to wear the hat], but I wouldn’t have done it if I only had a one-shot lead. I had a few shots lead, so I guess I was pretty comfortable and pretty confident.”
Lee is hoping that more of the same support at Royal Queensland will help propel him towards another thrilling title charge.
“The crowd here is amazing and I know there’s a lot of kids that come out, especially on the weekends,” he added. “There’s a lot of kids that look up to me and that’s one of the things that drives me to play good golf.”
Including Lee, there are 13 WA golfers set to compete at Royal Queensland, including established overseas tour stars Jason Scrivener and Curtis Luck. View the first round draw here.
Photos: Australian Golf Media/Getty Images
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