Paige Spiranac urged fans to keep a close eye on Min Woo Lee earlier this year – with the Aussie now co-leading The Players Championship.
Lee put together a superb round of 66 on Friday to move 11 under par for the tournament, sharing the lead with American star Akshay Bhatia. The 26-year-old now has a great chance to win his maiden PGA Tour title and golf’s so-called fifth major at TPC Sawgrass.
One person who saw Lee’s success coming is Spiranac. While speaking to Mirror U.S. Sports before Super Bowl LIX last month, the golf influencer – who boasts four million followers on Instagram – was asked to a PGA Tour player to keep a look out for this year.
“There are so many in the talent pool,” she replied. “It’s so incredibly impressive. Min Woo is one of my favorite golfers that you should look out for.”
And just six weeks later, Lee is co-leading The Players. The three-time DP World Tour winner has become one of the most popular figures in golf thanks to his growing audience on social media, picking up 664,000 followers on Instagram and 333,000 on TikTok.
Yet he’s still a long way from winning The Players, with only half of the tournament played. American golfer J.J. Spaun is third on the leaderboard on 10 under par, while major winners Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa are both well set on nine under par. Alex Smalley, who’s yet to claim his first title on the PGA Tour, is also on nine under par.
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“I think I hit more fairways in six holes today than I did in 18 yesterday,” McIlroy said. “Got it in play much better and then from there was able to give myself some opportunities and obviously make some birdies early. Couldn’t quite continue that on to the back nine, but it was much better off the tee.”
Morikawa added: “I can’t say I drove it great and hit the ball amazing, but I really just took advantage of when I did hit good shots. I putted really nicely. Also I didn’t try fighting it too much. I knew it wasn’t quite exactly how I was hitting it, and you just make due.”
Scottie Scheffler, who won The Players in both 2023 and 2024, remains in contention on five under par after a slower start to this year’s event. It’s also worth keeping an eye on the likes of Tommy Fleetwood (seven under par), Billy Horschel (six under par), Rickie Fowler, Patrick Cantlay, and Robert MacIntyre (all five under par).
“Even though I made a lot of birdies, I’ll take today’s round of golf because the way I felt out there – the way mentally I played – I committed to a lot more golf shots that I did yesterday,” continued Horschel. “I made nine birdies yesterday. Yeah, it’s not bad. But I put four bogeys in there which were just really uncommitted shots.”
- Source: NEWHD MEDIA
