Min Woo Lee during day one of the Olympics. | Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Rising PGA Tour star Min Woo Lee arrived in Paris full of confidence, but a few “garbage” swings did the Aussie in.
Min Woo Lee did not hold back when discussing his start to the Paris Olympics, describing it as “garbage.”
He opened with a 5-over 76 and is tied for last with Camilo Villegas.
“It’s just unfortunate for a player. You always want to play your best, but sometimes the results don’t show that, especially on a course like this, where it’s pretty tough and penalizing,” Lee said.
“I felt like I was in all the penalties today. I didn’t drive it anywhere nearly as well as I normally do. Normally, I’m stripping it lately. I’m hitting it pretty well off the tee, but lots of water and lots of balls are missing. I had to just kind of battle through that, and yeah, it’s quite tough when you’re in thick hay most of the day.”
Lee lost a golf ball on the first hole after his second shot found the water in front of the green, leading to a double-bogey six. He went on to lose three more golf balls and make another double-bogey on the par-4 15th.
“It’s nearly embarrassing. You work so hard. I striped it yesterday. You’d thought I could shoot 10-under yesterday,” Lee added.
“It’s just a sport where that happens. It’s not like I was nervous or anything to produce those swings, but just not comfortable when I was out there.”
Perhaps the power of the Olympics got the best of Lee, which made him lose his focus.
“I never really feel it on the first hole, but emotionally, I felt it on the first hole when I got announced. I think that just shows how much it means to me,” Lee said.
“I nearly had a tear in my eye, which is not normal. It was quite cool to get announced like that. I was pretty impressed with the crowd out here early on. I think it was really good. But yeah, it’s not like I was nervous. I just had a tear in my eye because I made the team, and I’m representing Australia, which is weird, I guess. I didn’t know I was going to react like that. But it was pretty cool. I think that just shows how much it means to me, and yeah, I felt pretty embarrassed out there just playing average golf, but hopefully, I can turn it around over the next few days.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
