For a second week in succession, Australian golfers have dominated the leading two tour’s with 22-year old Min Woo Lee becoming the youngest winner of the abrdn Scottish Open.

Lee, born and raised in Perth, Western Australia, very calmly rolled-in a 10-foot birdie putt at the first extra hole to claim the whopping Euro 1.23m first prize cheque in the rain-affected event held on the Renaissance course to the east of Edinburgh.

Lee’s victory comes just a week after Victorian Lucas Herbert captured the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open and with Herbert sealing a second European Tour victory some six hours ahead of Sydneysider Cameron Davis winning for a first time on the PGA Tour, and also with a play-off success at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.

Lee also will make his majors debut having secured top spot with three places on offer in Scotland for those not exempt into Thursday’s started rescheduled 149th Open Championship at Royal St. George’s.

Win Moo Lee becomes the younges t winner of the Scottish Open.

Lee headed into the final round of just a 41st European Tour event trailing three shots from the but burst up the leaderboard thanks to a blistering six birdies in succession from his third hole in an eventual seven-under par 64.

Heavy rain had halted the last day’s play with Lee enjoying a fourway share of second place at 17-under par and with three holes to play and with Belgian Thomas Detry leading at 18-under par with five holes to play.

Play resumed after a 90-minute delay for Lee to birdie the par-5 16th for a third day running to end at 18-under par and then wait on the practice range as first Detry (67) to finish on 18-under before England’s Matthew Fitzpatrick (67) also finished on 18-under par.

Lee won the toss to tee-off first in the play-off and smashed his drive the furtherest before then walking-up to his ball, and he had done all week, take one look at his target and land his second shot to the left side of the pin.  Then as both Fitzpatrick and Detry missed their birdie putts, Lee rolled in his for a second Tour victory after a break-through win at the 2019 co-sanctioned ISPS Handa Vic Open.

Lee shook hands with both his two rivals and then became emotional, wiping back tears of joy as the enormity of his win began to sink in.

“It feels amazing to win. It was a long day. Someone said it was six hours and 20 minutes, and it did feel that,” he said.

“We had the rain delay and all that. So you know, it was a bit emotional holing that last putt.

“I flushed the ball all weekend and flushed it all today. I just needed to kind of stay in the moment. I hit a lot of shots on command today and yesterday, and you know, I just chilled out next to the fireplace while I was waiting. You knew they made par on the 18th hole of regulation, and then went out there and did my thing.

“It was nice. I mean, I just felt good. I did feel nervous, but more confident if anything”.

Among those Lee singled out for special praise was his family and Royal Fremantle-based coach, Richie Smith

“I owe so much to my family. I did it for my whole team. We knew the time was coming,” he said.

“I’ve been playing really well. Like I said, I just needed to get rid of some of the dings in my game. It was trending a lot leading up to this, and I mean, I owe it to my family. I owe it to my coach Ritchie Smith back home, and I’ve been with him a long time now

“So, just my friends and family. I’ve got such good support back home and on social media. I can’t wait to talk to them”.

And there was also the ‘comfort’ with Lee contesting the final round in the company of fellow Aussie Wade Ormsby, who sensationally aced the uphill par-3 12th hole to earn 104 bottles of Scotch whisky.

“It helped a lot playing the final round with Wade as I know him really well. We’re pretty good friends out here. He’s put me under his wing a little bit and helped me out. He’s just an awesome bloke.,” said Lee

“Yeah, it was really nice to play with him. It might have been a different story if I played with Jon Rahm or any of the other guys up there. They are all high-ranked. It was nice to be with someone I’m comfortable with and I’ve played with.

“I think it was nice to have Wade in the group as it calmed me down yesterday playing with Xander (Schauffele) and Rob (MaIntryre). They are awesome guys, too. I was nervous the whole day but I played really well and ended up beating them by a shot and a couple. I had a lot of confidence coming into today”.

And what about making his Majors championship debut and now joining 10 other Aussies teeing-up Thursday at Royal St. George’s, and where in 1993 the great Gene Sarazen handed Greg Norman the famed Claret Jug.

“If you told me which major I would want to win, I don’t really care,” he said smiling.

“I’d win any of them. But I’d probably say the Masters. But The Open, after playing in Europe and getting to know all the European guys, and they all say The Open. So it’s a special place in my heart and hopefully I can play really good next week. But yeah, I’m just excited for next week. It’s going to be awesome.

“It’s awesome that there is so many Aussies competing this coming week.  I will get to see old friends and get to see friends. I know some of my friends are out there right now and they have shown it on social media, so I’m excited to go see them”.

MIN WOO LEE – WITH HIS SCOTTISH OPEN WIN

• His  second European Tour win in his 41st appearance
• A first Rolex Series victory and the first Rolex Series victory by an Australian
• The fifth Australian winner of this event, the first since Wayne Riley in 1995
• Is his first European Tour victory since the 2020 ISPS Handa Vic Open
• His sister Minjee Lee was runner-up at the Ladies Scottish Open in 2018, held at Gullane
• His previous best finish at this event was T30 in 2020, his debut appearance at the Scottish
Open
• His previous best finish in a Rolex Series event was T67 at the 2021 Abu Dhabi HSBC
Championship
• Moved to seventh on the Race to Dubai Rankings in partnership with Rolex on
1,523.3 points, from 123rd
• Could move to a new career-high 59th on the Official World Golf Ranking, from 240th. His
previous-best ranking was 129th in February 2020
• It is the 137th victory on the European Tour by an Australian