Soomin

Lee

Lee entered the week on a run of great form. His last three KPGA starts all went for top-10 finishes including a win at the Hyundai Insurance KJ Choi Invitational. His strong play has never translated to the PGA TOUR with nothing better than T70 in four starts but this will also be his first PGA TOUR appearance since 2016. Lee’s round today included 12-of-14 fairways hit but just 11 greens landed in regulation. He got up-and-down six times to swallow just one bogey on the day. This is the first time he’s ever positioned himself inside the top 10 of a TOUR event so gamers should watch closely tomorrow to see if there are any signs of nerves.

The Korean cracked the field this week through his order of merit on the KPGA circuit. Most impressive is his recent streak of T7-WIN-T9 over the last three weeks. The 26-year-old is playing inspired golf and he’s been doing so in the region, so jet lag won’t be an issue here. How will his game stack up against some of the best in the world? Well, he’s played in four previous PGA TOUR events with finishes of T79, MC, 77, and T70. From a strokes-gained perspective, he has lost strokes to the field in 12-of-14 rounds played against PGA TOUR competition. The recent form is intriguing but this is still a big step up in the level of competition he’s facing. Gamers might consider him as a high-risk value option for DFS formats.

The Korean needed this lap and this week. He is ranked 915 in the world rankings and had not made a top 25 since he was T14 in April’s China Open. In fact since then he was 4-for-21 with a best of T29. Little wonder he was 177th in the Race to Dubai. But he changed that with a blistering circuit of the Arnie design. On the front nine he not only birdied the first, fourth and ninth he also made an eagle-2 at the second. On the way home he ticked 12, 13, 15 and 17. He also made bogeys at 7 and 10. He ended the week five swings back of winner Tom Lewis.

Like most in the field this week, Lee took care of all his scoring needs early, circling a birdie at the par-5 fourth and then added a three-hole birdie train starting at the par-5 sixth. He squared just one bogey coming in, a six at the par-5 16th hole. Lee’s steady round was all set up by accuracy off the tee, splitting 12 (of 14) fairways on the day. The 22-year-old Korean is making his PGA TOUR debut this week, but showing no signs of feeling any added pressure.

Since that breakthrough victory, the 22-year-old Korean has missed cuts in the China and Irish Opens and finished down the field in both the Mauritius Open (T59) and the BMW PGA Championship (T67) at Wentworth. He did though return home to finish runner-up in the OneAsia Tour’s Maekyung Open a fortnight after his Shenzhen success. Inconsistency is to be expected in one so young but gamers may just want to see a few more upward signs before investing again.

The Korean youngster enjoyed a hot spell earlier this year when the European Tour visited Asia, finishing T2 in the Maybank Championship Malaysia and then making the breakthrough win with victory at the Shenzhen International in China. A solo second in May’s Maekyung Open in his homeland elevated Lee to 68th in the OWGR but he’s since slipped to 107th after a poor run over his last 10 starts. During that dip, the 22-year-old has missed five cuts and not finished higher than T49 although at least that came in last week’s Omega European Masters in Switzerland. Poor putting stats are a big reason for the downturn in form as he readies for his debut at the KLM.

Since making his breakthrough back in April, when claiming the Shenzhen International, the Korean golfer, who turns 23 this week, has been thrust on a dizzying worldwide schedule. From that win until the last week of July he missed just two weeks of action and after taking a month off (which his diminishing returns suggest was a good idea), this will be his seventh week of consecutive competitive action, mostly in Europe, but with a swift return to Korea included. In 15 starts since that win he has just one finish better than T28, when T10 at the KLM Open. He has very limited experience of playing in Britain: T67 at Wentworth, missed cuts at The Open and last week’s Dunhill Links. This week’s course will, however, be more like the modern golf designs he necessarily grew up playing.

The Korean youngster made waves on the European Tour earlier this season when winning the Shenzhen International in China but had struggled until finding a spark at The Dutch. Not only was it a first top 10 since China, it was his first finish better than T49 in 11 starts. The key to his improvement came on the greens where he ranked seventh in Putting Average. His blade had been cold over the previous few months and was really holding him back. This will be Lee’s first start in the Italian Open but he’s a quick learner so could be worth an investment.

It’s been a breakout year for the South Korean who celebrated his 23rd birthday last week, but in truth it has all gone rather quiet since he claimed victory in the Shenzhen International in April. In 16 starts on the European Tour since then he had made just 8 cuts and only one of them top 25, when T10 in the KLM Open. He also limped to T77 last week in the CIMB Classic, closing the week with an uninspiring round of 83. This week marks his first appearance in the tournament, but if you are seeking any positives they come in the shape of that victory in April – also, of course, in China – as was his T3 in last year’s Hong Kong Open.

The 23-year-old Korean knocked on the Asian Tour door in 2015 with two second placed finishes and he stepped it up with a T3 at the end of that year in the Hong Kong Open and then T2 in the Maybank Championship Malaysia, both of the latter being co-sanctioned with the European Tour. If he had served notice that he had talent he delivered in the Shenzhen International shooting openings laps of 66-65 and then consolidating at the weekend with 70-71 which earned him the maiden win. A couple of weeks later he added another Asian Tour second but thereafter, having committed to the European Tour, it all became a bit stretched. Indeed his next 21 starts included just four finishes better than T49 and just one inside the top 25 (T10 KLM Open). He closed the 2016 season out with four starts in the CIMB Classic and European Tour’s Final Series, failing to break 70 once and only playing all 16 rounds because there was never a cut (best finish T56).