Min Woo Lee gets his first full PGA Tour season underway at The American Express, and he agrees with Jon Rahm’s once controversial view from the 2022 tournament.
Min Woo Lee admits he agrees with Jon Rahm that The American Express is a “putting contest” ahead of his first start as a full PGA Tour member this week.
Lee, 25, secured enough non-member FedEx Cup points last season to qualify for a full PGA Tour card in 2024.
The talented Australian, who has adopted the nickname ‘The Chef’, then went on to capture his third DP World Tour title at the end of 2023 when winning the Australian PGA.
Lee is now turning his attentions to a full debut season on the PGA Tour, and it all gets underway for him at The American Express in California.
The tournament is staged over 72 holes but across three different courses – La Quinta CC, PGA West Stadium and PGA West Nicklaus.
Jon Rahm controversially labelled the tournament in 2022 as a “piece of s* set-up f*ing putting contest week”..
Rahm said:
“I mean, the video’s pretty self-explanatory. We’re the PGA Tour, we’re the best golfers on the planet and we’re playing a golf course where missing the fairway means absolutely nothing. There were times where missing the fairway by an inch was worse than missing the fairway by 20 yards. That to me is a mistake. I don’t know what else to say. I also understand we’re in the desert, you can’t overseed the entire golf course and things like that can’t happen, but yeah, we played a lot of golf with zero rough.”
Rahm of course is not in town this week as he made a shock move to join LIV Golf at the end of 2023, and he is currently suspended.
Speaking ahead of his first event of the 2024 PGA Tour season, Lee admitted he was excited to get going but did agree with Rahm’s assessment of this tournament in that it will be decided on the greens.
He just did not fire any expletives.
Lee said;
“I’m really excited. This week’s going to be fun. I know it’s, there’s a lot of birdies and the scoring’s really low, so it’s, I guess it’s a nice easer, in a way, but you still got to play really well, and hit your drives well and wedge it close. So, like Jon Rahm said, it’s a putting contest and, yeah, if you get on the green, hopefully you hole some putts.”
