Physical Address
Suite 5, 181 High Street,
Willoughby North NSW 2068
LIV Golfers targeting exemptions | 01:02
Min Woo Lee concedes his injured knee is “just hanging in there” for his Australian Open tilt but won’t need further treatment before he joins the ”big dogs” in January as part of the Tiger Woods-led arena golf series set to shake up the sport.
Lee, who rose to a career-high ranking of 31 in 2024, was asked to join one of the six teams for the TGL, joining the likes of Woods, Rory McIlroy and fellow Aussie Adam Scott who will play matches against each other in a purpose-built stadium on Monday nights in 2025 as part of the made-for-TV event.
Given a tour of the venue in Florida, still being completed, major winner Justin Thomas said he was “blown away” when confronted by screens the size of buildings and moving greens.
‘SNUCK UP ON US’: Inside rise of next Smith who ambushed big guns… and the world is next
AUSTRALIAN OPEN ULTIMATE GUIDE: When the big guns tee off and who the favourites are
The size of the new endeavour, seen as a move to rival the emergence of LIV Golf, with matches to be shown on ESPN, was not lost on Lee, who was happy to add it to his 2025 schedule knowing the work he’ll have to do in order to keep his PGA Tour card after rating his rookie year “around the B area”.
“It’s very cool, you see all the players going there and the screens and it’s a stadium … it’s going to be exciting,” he said.
“It’s a bit of fun. It’s on the Monday of the week, I’ll have to travel, but it’s art of an investment. You could not do it, but I wanted to.
“A lot of big dogs are playing, it’s going to be cool.”
Lee hurt his knee “in bed” and could only play nine holes at Kingston Heath on Wednesday having struggled to bend over to pick up his ball at Royal Queensland last week.
But he tried to downplay just how bad it was and said he’d have no excuses in his quest to win the Australian Open after falling short in the defence of his Australian PGA Championship crown.
“It’s just one of those things … it’s hanging in there,” he said of his knee.
“I played nine holes and felt pretty good for most of it. It’s like a day-by-day thing. It’s just scary, I haven’t had many injuries. I didn’t do anything too bad to it but psychologically, you don’t want to push it.
“It’s a very mini injury. It’s been a long year and I just want to make sure I’m good for the tournament.”
Lee will get some extra rest, with an afternoon tee time for the opening round, paired alongside defending champ Joaquin Niemann, who came over the top of him at last year’s event in Sydney.
