Min Woo Lee increased his lead to three shots at the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship as he seeks his third DP World Tour title and a second professional victory on home soil.
The 25-year-old started the day one stroke ahead of former World Number One Adam Scott, but carded a five under par 66 at Royal Queensland to separate himself from the chasing pack on 17 under.
Lee won his maiden DP World Tour title at the ISPS HANDA Vic Open in the state of Victoria in 2020, following that up with his first Rolex Series victory at the Scottish Open in 2021. He is bidding for a second title in the space of four worldwide starts after winning the SJM Macao Open on the Asian Tour in October.
The Australian is three strokes ahead of Rikuya Hoshino of Japan, who carded a bogey-free 64 to surge up the leaderboard. After making the turn one under par, he required just 29 strokes on the inward nine as he fired six birdies and three pars to reach 14 under.
Curtis Luck sits in third place on 13 under and two-time Australian PGA Champion Scott is fourth on 11 under. DP World Tour members Lucas Herbert of Australia and Scotsman Connor Syme share fifth on ten under.
Player Quotes
Min Woo Lee: “I expected myself to play pretty well. I’ve been hitting the ball so well all year and the results have been there. I just feel like it was just a couple of moments that I stuffed up, like on eight today, I pulled an iron where I can look back and just hit a seven-iron and draw it off the right side and not be in the trees on the left. Stuff like that, I think everything’s been pretty up to par with how I think I’m going and how I have been going. Yeah, that’s pretty much it. It’s just those little moments.
“Tomorrow’s just another day and hopefully I can keep going. I can just control what I can do and if someone goes out there and shoots low, hopefully I’ve finished the day happy with the way I played.
“At the end of last week, the season technically ended but the year hasn’t ended and I wanted a win on the DP World Tour, so it was in the back of my mind and I wanted to win. It would be amazing. Any win’s awesome. I have the potential to win but I’ve only had three wins, so it’s not like it comes off. Any time you win it’s an amazing feeling.”
Rikuya Hoshino: “My iron shots were the best, I hit them very close and I had a lot of chances. It’s my first time in Australia, so I’m enjoying it. The atmosphere on the 17th hole is great, it’s the most exciting I’ve ever been a part of.
“I want to win on the DP World Tour, I expect a big result. I might be nervous, but I’ll try to sleep well.”
Curtis Luck: “I hit it close a lot out there. I had a lot of putts seem to go over the edge and it was kind of similar yesterday. I feel like I played very, very well today. 5-under does not seem that crazy, but I’m happy with it nonetheless.”
Adam Scott: “Well, it wasn’t really my day. I couldn’t really get it going and unfortunately I missed a putt on 12 and then bogeyed 14 and 16 and had a rough run coming in there. So the momentum really changed and Min had a couple of birdies and we went from being quite close to I’m a long way back now. So, I’ve got a lot of work to do tomorrow but maybe all the putts will go tomorrow.”
