Aussie Shines Brilliantly Comfortably Relegating Scheffler To Houston Open Shade

6 months ago by Comments Off on Aussie Shines Brilliantly Comfortably Relegating Scheffler To Houston Open Shade

Aussie Min Woo Lee is now just one round shy of a maiden PGA Tour victory, posting a sensational third round 63 and in the process comfortably relegating World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler into the shade at the Texas Children’s Houston Open.

Lee, 26, took to the host Memorial Park course grabbing seven one-putt birdies in a sizzling bogey-free effort to move four clear of the field at 17-under in America’s fourth largest city.

Highlight of Lee’s round was undoubtedly his tee shot at the par-3 ninth hole that spun back to stop on the edge of the cup.

Argentina’s Alejandro Tosti signed for a 65 to be second at 13-under with Kiwi Ryan Fox matching Tosti’s 65 to be tied third at 12-under with Scheffler (69) and his fellow American Ryan Gerard (68).

Scheffler, who had put himself in contention with a second round 62 but under a ‘preferred lie’ rule, had no answer playing in the ‘Moving Day’ company of Lee, a three-time winner on the DP World Tour while he’s a winner as well on the Asian Tour.

Indeed, Scheffler’s effort was a sour mix of just three birdies but two also two bogeys.

Lee, and impressing at last fortnight’s Players Championship, also is ranked 54 places lower than Scheffler on the World Rankings.

Lee had been among some 50 players who had their second round halted mid-afternoon Friday due to approaching bad weather and having played just six holes to be seven-under in total.

He returned bright and early on Saturday morning to post a 64 to be officially sharing second place at 10-under and one adrift of Scheffler.

Lee was asked his thoughts heading into the third round, given he was grouped with Scheffler.

“I think just to stay in it, stay present, and you kind of get ahead of yourself when you end up being so high on the leaderboard. For me, I think just to stick to the process and hit one shot at a time”, said Lee.

“Very cliche, but you nearly got to do it”.

And that’s exactly what Lee did and in the process making a mockery of his current World No. 55 ranking and showing both Scheffler and Canadian Taylor Pendrith how it’s done, picking-up birdies at the third and sixth holes ahead of a hat-trick of birdies from the eighth hole.

Lee then went to 16-under with a birdie at the 12th hole and to 17-under in holing a seven footer at the par-4 14th before ending with four closing pars and an impressive, yet very well-earned four shot leading cushion heading to the final round.

“I just got told that I had one eight-putts (sic) in a row or something like that and 10 putts in 10 holes”, said Lee after his day’s play.

“Yeah, I guess it was a little autopilot early on. Very solid day again. The last couple days were really good. Today was a really long day, I need to get back into bed.

“But maybe that’s what I have to do, I might have to do two warmups, two physio sessions and maybe I can shoot 7 under all the time. No, it was great fun and very solid overall”.

Sleep well Min Woo, you’ve earned it.



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