Australia’s Min Woo Lee opened up with a commendable three-under 69 on the British Open on Thursday and at one level headed the leaderboard earlier than slipping again with a bogey at St Andrews’ well-known Highway Gap.
The a hundred and fiftieth staging of the Open on the house of golf is simply Lee’s second begin on the match. He was one of many final males in final 12 months after profitable the Scottish Open and one of many first to depart it when he missed the reduce by two pictures.
The 23-year-old from Perth was delighted together with his displaying after spending a part of the night time earlier than watching Tiger Woods win the 2000 Open at St Andrews and wakened at 4am when the laptop computer kicked into life with the sounds of Woods holing a putt.
Lee’s spherical began badly, too, and he got here to grief together with his tee shot on the third, which landed within the first reduce on the correct of the green and kicked beneath the fronds of a bunch of gorse bushes. After a lot dialogue together with his caddie he opted to try to stab it out, hit down on it and went additional into bother within the bush. A drop and the inevitable double-bogey six adopted.
To his credit score Lee made birdie on the subsequent after hitting his method shot shut and two extra on the eighth and ninth noticed him flip at one-under par regardless of that early calamity.
“My caddie was a bit hesitant on the shot and thought it was fairly thick however I assumed it needs to be OK however after I hit it I stated, ‘Welcome to the British Open’,” Lee stated.
Min Woo Lee tees off on the second gap at St Andrews throughout the first spherical of the British Open on Thursday.Credit score:Getty
“It was restoration, the one factor I haven’t been good at is bouncing again from dangerous pictures however an incredible nine-iron on the subsequent gap and I made birdie there and the spherical form of kicked off from there. It wasn’t nerves or something, only a dangerous drive to make a double.”
One other birdie was to comply with on the twelfth, the place he left a protracted eagle putt shut sufficient, and went one higher together with his try on the par-five 14th to maneuver to the highest of the leaderboard at four-under.
