How the team around rising star Min Woo Lee is helping the Perth tour pro adjust to life on the PGA Tour and the bright lights of Las Vegas.
Earlier this year, Min Woo Lee was summoned to the headquarters of apparel giant Lululemon in Vancouver, Canada. The world No.34 – who in January became just the second golf pro to sign with the brand – thought it was a simple meet and greet with executives he’d be working with in the future.
Yet within an hour, Lee found himself on a treadmill within a sweat chamber. It was then Lee realised a company like that doesn’t just become the biggest activewear brand in the world without doing its homework. Lululemon had previously offered several golf items within its range, but with former women’s world No.1 Lydia Ko, and now PGA Tour rising star Lee, as ambassadors, Lululemon is preparing to lean more heavily into golf.
“I was wearing testing material, the fabrics I would wear on a golf course, and I hopped on a treadmill,” Lee tells Australian Golf Digest. “In this chamber, they were able to alter the wind, humidity and heat. I also hit some balls into a simulator and gave them feedback. It was a cool experience. When you are a part of a company as big as Lululemon, it’s awesome to have a team so professional. They’ll probably base [a new line] off me and I’d say it might come out pretty soon.”
Lululemon was quite literally letting him cook, as Lee’s popular social-media catchphrase goes. The dedicated testing session at their headquarters was just one of several hallmarks that indicate Lee’s rapid rise through the ranks.
Last year, he was one of golf’s breakout stars, winning the Australian PGA Championship on the DP World Tour, as well as the Macao Open on the Asian Tour. He successfully transitioned from the European circuit to membership on the PGA Tour, where he bagged a maiden top-five result at the majors – a T-5 at the US Open. That was among four top-10 results from 14 events in 2023, as well as a T-6 at the elite Players Championship last March, when he played in the final group with Scottie Scheffler and even held the lead after 57 holes at TPC Sawgrass. Lee also posted top-10s at the Travelers Championship and Zozo Championship in Japan.
Although his results in 2024 haven’t quite lived up to his whirlwind previous season, they have been solid. At the time of writing, Lee owned four top-25s from nine starts including at the Masters. The highlight of his 2024 PGA Tour campaign through early May was a tie for second at the event in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, in February. Lee finished tied for second, three shots behind the winner, Austin Eckroat, at the Cognizant Classic (formerly the Honda Classic) at PGA National. It was Lee’s career-best PGA Tour result, and it came with an Instagram DM from NBA icon Steph Curry.
“He congratulated me on finishing second,” Lee said, who last year admitted he had direct-messaged the Golden State Warriors legend repeatedly until he finally responded. “He said he put [the Cognizant Classic] on TV after one of his games and was watching it intently. He’s obviously a huge golf fan and loves playing.”
Lee’s mutual adulation with Curry [below] paid dividends in the form of selection on a team the NBA star has invested in within the PGA Tour’s TGL – a tech-infused simulator golf league set to debut in early 2025. Lee was added to a team called The Bay Golf Club. Lee will join reigning US Open champion Wyndham Clark, Swedish sensation Ludvig Åberg and Shane Lowry as part of the California-based side, whose ownership group includes four-time NBA champions Curry, a scratch golfer who has had a crack at playing on the Korn Ferry Tour, as well as Klay Thompson and former teammate Andre Iguodala.
“I watched Steph’s documentary (“Steph Curry: Underrated”) recently and I congratulated him over DMs,” Lee says. “It’s very cool to be on a team he’s part of and a few other Golden State guys. They’re my favourite team in the NBA; I’ve actually watched them for a long time. Steph is a role model for me. He’s funny, does all the right things and he also has a swagger. I try to play like him on the golf course; that’s how I want to showcase myself.”
While the Masters, where he was a respectable T-22 despite suffering a broken finger the week prior, and the PGA Championship are in the books for 2024, Lee has a golden opportunity at the US Open as it returns to the famed Pinehurst No.2 course, where its organiser, the United States Golf Association, is now headquartered. Pinehurst No.2’s past stagings of the US Open include 2014, when Germany’s Martin Kaymer triumphed; 2005, when New Zealand’s Michael Campbell defeated Tiger Woods, and in 1999 when Payne Stewart won his third major.
Lee is hoping to join his sister, two-time major winner Minjee Lee, as a US Open champion. Coincidentally, both Min Woo and Minjee are already USGA event winners having each claimed the US Junior and US Girls Junior when they were teenagers. They were the first brother-sister combination to win those events. Two years ago, Lee grabbed another USGA title when she triumphed at the US Women’s Open at Pine Needles, just down the road from Pinehurst. That followed her 2021 Evian Championship in making her a multiple major champion.
“It’d be amazing if I could win; I don’t know if any brother and sister combos have won a major,” Lee says. “Hopefully I can perform and play my best at Pinehurst.”
Lee, 25, never played the North and South Amateur Championship, held annually at Pinehurst. The 2024 US Open (June 13-16) will be Lee’s first time to the Pinehurst area of North Carolina, which resembles the Melbourne Sandbelt for its firm soil, treelined holes, sandy waste areas and complex greens.
“I don’t know much about Pinehurst,” Lee says. “I think it’s pretty strong off the tee, so that’s definitely a positive for me. Approach play is going to be tough because of the turtleback greens I’ve heard the No.2 course has. Ollie Goss played the 2014 US Open there (fellow Perth golfer Goss was invited for finishing runner-up in the previous year’s US Amateur) and my coach Ritchie [Smith] was there [coaching Goss]. So, he has told me what to expect and prepare for, technically. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve heard it should suit my game with having to drive it well and have a creative short game.”
VIVA LAS VEGAS
As Lee navigated a move to the US to be based in Las Vegas, his results took a slight hit. Though they haven’t been terrible; he’s only missed one cut, is ranked 62nd on the FedEx Cup standings and made $US1.3 million from nine events up until early May. He’s also learning several new host courses on tour while transitioning from Europe to the US.
Lee has brought his girlfriend, Gracie Drennan, over to the US. “She’s loving the Vegas life and we’re very excited for the future; we have a new house,” Lee says. He’s also finding his feet in practice having joined The Summit Club, a former host of the PGA Tour’s CJ Cup, where he plays frequently with Collin Morikawa and Kurt Kitayama.
“It’s been pretty hectic this year travelling all over the country and moving houses,” Lee says. “I think there’s a bit more pressure or more of a weight on my shoulders since the beginning of the year. But I try not to think of that on the course. It’s all exciting stuff but it is also tough adjusting.”
Guiding him through it has been Lee’s team, which aside from his girlfriend, starts with caddie Stu Davidson. The Scottish bagman, who hails from Edinburgh and has his beloved Hearts football team on his yardage book, joined Lee in August 2022. One of their first events together was the 2022 BMW PGA at Wentworth, where Lee shot an opening 76 and then 62 in the second round.
“I shot 10-under at Wentworth and I was like, Wow, obviously something went pretty well here,” Lee says. “We’ve still have had our ups and downs on the golf course, which every player and caddie has. But he’s really cool. The good thing I think, for me is, he’s pretty young and he’s across the social-media side of things (Lee has a following totalling almost a million across his platforms and is an avid interactor with his fans).”
Lee’s team also includes renowned West Australian coach Smith, who teaches several top Australian players including Lee’s 10-time LPGA Tour winner sister, Minjee, and her fellow top-10 ranked Perth star, Hannah Green. Green has captured two LPGA victories in 2024 to become Australia’s top-ranked golfer.
“I’ve been with Ritchie for a very long time,” Lee says. “He understands the personal side of pro golf, but also the technical side.”
Then there’s Lee’s manager, Brent Hamilton. Representing the firm WME, Hamilton is a one of golf’s best agents and also represents Minjee. “I’ve been with him since a couple years before I turned pro,” Lee says. “I’ve had a good pathway, which he has had a big say in.”
Lee’s sports medicine and performance manager is Golf Australia’s Luke Mackey, who for several years was head of the Golf Australia house in Orlando, Florida, as well as Marty McInnes, a physiotherapist for Golf WA and Golf Australia.
“I’ve got a great team around me; the best thing is, we all communicate with each other, and they make it easier for me to perform,” Lee says.
In other words, they let him cook.
Photographs by: Joe Pugliese; (team Lee) min woo lee/instagram; (portrait) dom furore; rob liggins; getty images: tracy wilcox; (tee & ball) Min woo lee/instagram
