[Photo: Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia]
A bulked up Min Woo Lee feels a slight swing change and approximately seven kilograms of added muscle are a combination that could see him challenge for another Australian PGA Championship title at Royal Queensland, as he looks to turn around a lacklustre second half of the golf season.
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After earning a breakthrough PGA Tour win at the Houston Open in March on the eve of the Masters – where his maiden victory included staring down world No.1 Scottie Scheffler – the Perth product registered just one top 20 result from then until September.
But recently the 27-year-old began working with coach Ritchie Smith on his hip movement through impact, and it improved his ball-striking enough to finish T-11 at the DP World Tour’s flagship BMW PGA at Wentworth. He then came close to victory at the French Open, where he was T-5, and posted a T-10 at the PGA Tour’s co-sanctioned Baycurrent Classic in Japan.
Stretching the sleeves of his lululemon golf shirt in a Monday press conference ahead of the BMW Australian PGA, an event he won in 2023, Lee was proud of a strength training regimen that has added about seven or eight kilograms of muscle to his upper and lower body.
“Just being stronger, I’ve gained a lot of kilos,” he said Monday at Royal Queensland. “I’m feeling good. The shirt has become a little tight, not just the top, but the bottom [shorts]. I did the bulk pretty good, but now I probably got to cut,” he added with a laugh.
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The three-time DP World Tour winner, known for ball speeds with the driver that exceed 190 miles an hour, explained the swing change.
“So pretty much how I hit it long is, I use my ground forces really well, snap my head back and get speed off that,” he said. “But when I go into the approach [iron play], I don’t really want to do that. I want to be as accurate as I can; you see the best players in the world stack over their left side through impact, and my swing through impact, my left hip was going backwards and back-right, so then my hands were getting too far forward, and I was getting a lot of shaft lean. So now I’m trying to stack over onto my left side and get better with that, so then I can shallow the club properly.”
The swing changes were what triggered the need for extra muscle.
“I played very average in the [PGA Tour] Signature events this year. My coach and I had to do something with my swing. So it was, it was a rebuilding phase, I guess, [and Europe and Japan events were] a little bit of a trial run to see how I handle [the swing changes] when I’m out there with a little bit, a bit of pressure. And it ended up being, you know, one of the best approach play and accuracy [stretches] of the year. I play good now and then, but I want to get consistent, and especially for those Signature events where the rough is thick. So, yeah, [Europe and Japan I saw] good form coming into Australia. It’s great to come back to a place like Royal Queensland where you’ve won before.”
Lee is one of the headline acts at this week’s Australian PGA, which is co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour, as well as next week’s Australian Open at Royal Melbourne. Lee currently sits 46th on the Official World Golf Rankings and needs to remain inside the top 50 by December 31 to be invited to the 2026 Masters – the first window of invitations by Augusta National. He could also win the Australian Open, which added an automatic place in the 2026 Masters to three exisiting spots into the 2026 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
Lee said he had one eye on his world ranking thinking about Augusta.
“Yeah, it’s definitely in the back of your head,” he said. “You’re thinking about it, but I mean, that’s not really going to do you too well if you think about it too much. You know it’s there. I mean, you’re always looking at the rankings and trying to see if you made it or not, but yeah, just got to do a good job of what’s in front of you.”
