No history, no problem.
Min Woo Lee took on East Lake Golf Club on Thursday with the expertise of a seasoned veteran — only thing is the 28-year-old Aussie was playing his first competitive round at the course.
The lack of familiarity never showed itself during the opening round for Lee, who tied a career low with a bogey-free, 8-under 62 to take the clubhouse lead into the second round.
And he did it all after changing driving shafts earlier this week.
“Even my team was very hesitant about it,” Lee told reporters about the bag switch, “but the results were really good when I did practice with it, and it was nice to hit shots that I saw out there, and it was really good.”
The results were 11 out of 14 fairways hit, including 16 out of 18 greens.
“That was probably the biggest part of the good scoring,” Lee said. “Didn’t miss it in wrong spots, missed them in the right spots, and holed some putts.”
Lee, who was playing by himself after J.J. Spaun withdrew in the middle of the round with a right shoulder injury, is one of six players making their debut at the Tour Championship this week. The other players include Americans Ryan Gerard and Alex Smalley, Tour rookies Alex Fitzpatrick and Kristoffer Reitan and 2026 Open champ Ryan Fox.
“It was a little strange at first, just like looking for a playing partner and you’re just there by yourself,” said Lee, who wished Spaun a quick recovery. “It was more just maintaining speeds and not rushing because I would just catch the group in front and wait. So I had to just slow down a little bit. It worked out.”
Lee admitted to getting comfortable around East Lake by studying the course on YouTube, and confirmed when asked if it was common practice before playing somewhere for the first time.
“I think it’s pretty straightforward,” he explained. “There’s a couple holes where you might hit something shorter, and we did actually not attack some holes and try to rein it back and hit 4-iron instead of a 3-wood. You would only still have a wedge or 9-iron, but it’s still -- when you’re hitting it great, it’s still fine to be that short and get rid of the rough, which is a big part of this course, and it’s not fun hitting out of there.”
Something about Oceanic players is fitting the course’s conditions this week. Like Lee, Fox is near the top of the leaderboard after carding a 4-under 66 and showing no signs of discomfort at East Lake after opening bogey-bogey to start the day. An eagle hole out on the par-4 third hole helped turn the day around for the 2026 Open champ.
“The reason I was laughing was because I’d finally hit a good shot, and the good shot was perfect,” Fox said of the 135-yard shot, the longest hole out of his career. “Yeah, golf’s a strange game like that sometimes.
Gerard also did an impeccable job navigating around the course, carding four birdies over his final seven holes on way to posting a 5-under 65. He sits T-3 with Akshay Bhatia in the clubhouse.
“The course is gettable, but you have to be kind of on the right side of the hole,” Gerard told reporters after his round. “There’s one side of every hole besides 15 that you can kind of hit it over there and be okay with. The greens have a lot of these subtleties to them.”
‘Didn’t learn a lot in college’
On the opposite side of the experience spectrum, Tour veteran and Australian native Adam Scott also got in to the clubhouse with a 66. The 46-year old Scott is making his 11th Tour Championship — and is the oldest player in the field, ahead of Justin Rose by just 14 days.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t think it was harder. I watch so many of the players on Tour, and the standard is so deep,” Scott said, expressing admiration for the field this week. “There are so many players with the potential to win any week. The learning curve is a lot quicker. I think they learn in college now.
“I think I came out, I didn’t know a lot — I didn’t learn a lot in college,” he added with a laugh, “in the classroom or on the golf course.”
Scott, who confirmed he will play the DP World Tour event at Wentworth Club next month before the Presidents Cup at Medinah, described what he called serving an “apprenticeship as a Tour pro when he started.
“It was at least five years before you really knew how to play. You’ve just seen over the last 10 to 15 years, from Jordan Spieth onwards, guys coming out of college so prepared,” he continued. “I’d say it’s much harder, and I probably took for granted those years where I was kind of cruising through out here. I feel like the moment I relax, I just plummet down rankings and leaderboards and everything. There’s no letting up out here.”
Motivation on the rise
Another veteran in contention is Viktor Hovland, who won the 2023 Tour Championship in a runaway over Xander Schauffle. Hovland got in with a 6-under 64 that was highlighted by a bogey-free front nine and a clutch birdie putt at No. 18 to finish off the round.
“I’m always a guy that likes to think long term and processes and all that stuff,” Hovland explained. “That’s how I find motivation to keep working and see trends over time to see that I’m improving. But this week, you just have to perform and get the best out of yourself for one week, and I feel like when I can put myself in that mindset, I tend to get a lot out of my game.”
Scottie Scheffler and Matt Fitzpatrick, the final pairing of the first round, have five holes left in the opening round.
Lee said he was enjoying playing from scratch at the Tour Championship, a playoff format that allows him to challenge Scheffler and Fitzpatrick and do what Tommy Fleetwood did last year — breakthrough and win the FedExCup at East Lake.
“This week was a brand-new week, and we obviously play from scratch and everyone plays from the same score,” said Lee, who admitted to feeling sad over the last two weeks and considered himself lucky for getting into the playoffs. “Being out there, I thought why not give it a good crack and have a good attitude. That was probably a thing that I had to work on over the last two weeks.”
