ATLANTA — Min Woo Lee made the first round of his first trip to the Tour Championship a memorable one, playing bogey-free golf Thursday on a rain-softened course at East Lake for an 8-under-par 62 that matched the 28-year-old Australian’s career low on the PGA Tour and put him atop the leaderboard.
A pair of runner-up finishes this year, at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Scottish Open, made Lee a lock to be among the top 30 players who get a shot at the FedEx Cup, the $10 million prize and a five-year exemption on the PGA Tour, though he said he felt “very average two weeks the last two weeks” in the first two postseason events.
“It was probably the saddest I’ve been on the golf course, which is not good,” Lee said after tying for 55th out of 70 in the St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis on Aug. 16 and sharing 47th place in a 50-man field at the BMW Championship that wrapped up Sunday at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis.
“We’re really lucky to be out here and play some good golf to get into the playoffs. It just felt so hard.”
There was no such feeling in the opening round of the final event of the FedEx Cup season. Lee rarely was under stress to make par, made four of his eight birdies from outside 10 feet and wound up with a two-shot lead over Chris Gotterup, Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa.