Ausssie golfers proudly headed by defending champ Min Woo Lee dominate the leaderboard heading to the weekend rounds of the Texas Childrens Houston Open.
Former US Open champ and American Gary Woodland leads the way after another impressive outing at the host Memorial Park Golf Course in America’s fourth largest city.
Woodland posted a seven-under 63, ending his round with three consecutive birdies to be three shots clear of the duo of Dane Nicolai Højgaard (62) and American Jackson Suber (63) sharing second at 10-under.
Lee grabbed an eagle and five biridies in his 63 to be sharing fourth place at nine under with fellow Aussie Jason Day who added a 63 to his opening 68.
FOUR DOWN UNDER SHINE BRIGHTLY @TCHouOpen
As defending @Minwoo27Lee leads the way in the Lone Star state & seeking what would be a remarkable 1⃣1⃣th victory for an #Aussie born golfer in the #Texas event
Read: https://t.co/1cYNXKhVg9
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— Fatiha (@TOURMISS) March 28, 2026
Two other Down Under stars in Masters champ and also former Houston Open winner Adam Scott signing for a 66 along with Karl Villips posting a 65 for the duo to share eighth place at seven-under.
Of course, Lee has fond memories of this Houston efforts at year ago, holding off Scottie Scheffler and Woodland by a shot to break through for his first PGA Tour title at the Houston Open.
“Today was really good,“said Lee. “I cleaned it up a little bit more and it was solid. Didn’t really do too much wrong, and yeah, a lot of good things. Maybe a couple things to still clean up, but it was cleaned up from yesterday so good step forward“.
As mentioned, Lee capped his round with an eagle ‘3’ at his 16th hole and the eighth on the scorecard.
“Yeah, 16 was a great hole. I hit a nice drive down there and had a 7-iron in, which was great. Holed like a 35-footer down the hill left to right, which is nice,“ he said smiling proudly.
“Always a bonus to hole long putts. And then yeah, on our 17th hole, 8th hole, it was a great putt, too. It just went around the back corner. I thought it would go into the side door but just crept over and missed.
“Yes, it was a great round. Yeah, hopefully I get more eagle chances on the weekend.
“This is how I would wish to be playing. As well, I have a lot of people supporting me and I want to play good
again. Yeah, there’s a bit of pressure, but there’s also a bit of support, which is great“.
Day superbly kick-started his bogey-free round of 63 with a hat-trick of birdies and later also sounding his delight as he seeks a 14th PGA Tour title and a third in Texas having captured the Bryon Nelson Championship twice, including his last PGA Tour success in the 2023 event.
“Just a nice steady round of golf. Hit it really good into the greens. Felt like I gave myself good opportunities on the greens,“ said the Queenslander.
“I did putt well. I holed a lot of bombs early on, which kind of I could get things moving.“
Looking at the history of the Houston Open there has been a ramarkable 10 Australian to have savoured success in the event dating back to 1972 when Bruce Devlin won and followed a year later by fellow Aussie Bruce Crampton.
Others include – Bruce Crampton (1976), David Graham (1983), Stuart Appleby (1999), Robert Allenby (2ooo), Stuart Appleby (2oo6), Adam Scott (2007), Matt Jones (2014) and Lee (2025).
TC Houston Open Leaderboard
1 – Gary Woodland (USA) -13
T2 – Jackson Suber (USA), Nicolai Højgaard (DEN) -10
T4 – Jason Day (AUS), Min Woo Lee (AUS) -9
T6 – Samuel Stevens (USA), Michael Thorbjornsen (USA) -8
T8 – Adam Scott (AUS), Karl Vilips (AUS), Dou Zecheng -7
