Min Woo Lee says his motivation to make the cut in his debut Masters was to reward his old man for leaving his post as a cafe owner in Perth for a week and dashing over to the US on Monday.
Soonam Lee poured the last few lattes at Winnies at the Village cafe in south Perth on Sunday before travelling over to Augusta, Georgia the next day to watch his son compete at Augusta National for the first time.
On Friday at Augusta, world No.59 Lee blasted a 306-yard drive up the middle and made par on the 18th to shoot 75. His four-over-par total ensure he made the cut on the number, although he was a distant 12 shots behind 36-hole leader Scottie Scheffler (67).
Lee thought he was cruising with several shots to spare given the Masters had a rule that any competitor within 10 shots of the lead would make the 36-hole cut. Only Augusta National scrapped that rule for the 2020 Masters, which Lee found out in the 18th fairway.
“I literally didn’t know until the last hole they got rid of that,” he told Australian Golf Digest.
“I thought I had a few shots up my sleeve but then my caddie told me they got rid of that two years ago. Then I knew I had to make par to stay at four over. I knew four over was probably going to make it.”
Lee signed his scorecard and came out to hug his Soonam and mother, Clara, as well as sister Minjee, the women’s world No.4 and Major winner on the LPGA Tour.
He said it was emotional to do it in front of his parents.
“Dad retired when I was in high school so he could look after me while Mum was looking after Minjee (in the US) while she was starting on the LPGA Tour,” Lee said.
“Dad loves coffee and he needed something to do for work, so he bought the cafe off a friend. He’s a hard worker, he grinds. He flew over here on Monday to watch me at the Masters.”
Lee said he would take stock on Friday night after a taxing week of practising and playing in the Masters, before preparing a strategy for the final two rounds at Augusta.
“I’ll have a nice meal and learn from what I did today,” he said. “I need to chill out and reset and have a great weekend.”
Lee was joined at four over by fellow Australians, 2013 Masters winner Adam Scott (74), Cam Davis (73) and Marc Leishman (75) while Cam Smith was top Australian at two under (74).
