Min Woo Lee may have won himself an army of fans around the world with his laid back approach and his swagger on the golf course but on the latest episode of Life on Tour presented by Buffalo Trace he revealed how hard work and constantly learning are the keys to his success.
The Australian was just 21 when he claimed his maiden DP World Tour win and he has since gone on to add two more – including a Rolex Series title – a PGA TOUR win and become a Presidents Cup player.
He has done it all while having an open and engaging relationship with golf fans: establishing a strong presence on social media, adopting nicknames like Dr Chipinski and The Chef and even donning a chef’s hat after his victory on home soil at the Australian PGA Championship.
He discusses all these things and more in a conversation with George Harper Jnr that took place at last month's Genesis Scottish Open, an event he also won in 2021, and while he clearly still enjoys having fun on and off the course, the 28-year-old shows the seriousness and maturity of a man ready to take his career to the next level.
His mother was a professional in South Korea and after moving to Perth, she and his father welcomed Min Woo and older sister Minjee into the world.
It is impossible to discuss Min Woo without discussing Minjee who is, after all, a three-time Major winner and one of the finest players in the women’s game.
Perth in Western Australia is a major city which is home to over two million people but it is also widely considered to be one of the most isolated on earth, with the nearest comparable city of Adelaide over 1,000 miles away.
And Lee believes that is one the reasons it produces some of Australia and the world’s best athletes.
“I think a big part of why maybe Perth golfers do well is because we're so far away, we're isolated, and we have to learn to be by ourselves and travel from such a young age,” he said.
“So yeah, we didn't get the best of the best, and I think that's why we make it out here. Obviously hard work and stuff but just learning to realise that, yeah, it's not perfect, perfect.”
While Min Woo was the first of the siblings to take up golf, he has no problem admitting that Minjee was the first to show real promise.
“She just rose real quick,” he said. “Just from, I don't know, 36 handicap to 18 handicap in a couple of months. She was really good.”
For Min Woo, while the potential was there, the desire to play golf was not as strong as he admits: “I was always good at it, but I didn't love it. I was very talented but my work ethic wasn't that good."
Then an opportunity to play in the Jack Newton International Junior Classic in Sydney changed everything.
A self-confessed people person, the opportunity to mingle with people from different cultures and countries caused Lee to fall in love with golf.
"It was a big junior tournament," he said. "I guess worldwide because all the countries would come over and that's kind of why I started to love golf: meeting new people and meeting different cultures and different countries. I just loved it."
It was then another junior event, this time in the United States, that saw him come to have a range session with 15-time Major winner Tiger Woods.
“Tiger was unbelievable,” he said. “I was holding this big bucket of balls for ten minutes just looking at him like, ‘That's the guy’.
“So he definitely has an aura. I couldn't imagine what he was like when he was in his prime-prime, 2000s, like how much swag. So many people watching him. It was really cool to see him in the flesh.
“I got to play a practice round with him at the U.S. Open a few years back and that was really cool. That was one of the cooler moments of my life.”
Happy to learn from the best, Lee has also played practice rounds with former World Number One and 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott as he looks to now get his hands on one of golf’s four biggest prizes.
With the recent conclusion of Major season at The Open, Lee will have to wait until at least next year to have another attempt but he is confident that he is gaining experience from every event.
“I'm still learning,” he said. “You definitely put a little bit more pressure on yourself. You don't try to, but you make it a big deal. You work hard for this point, so we're learning.
“I've had a couple of good results in Majors, but a couple of poor ones.
“You’ve got to get off to a good start. That's probably the biggest part. Majors are tough and if you're already kind of on the back foot, they're courses that you want to just hit to the right spots.
“You don't want to chase on Major tournaments, so that definitely helps. We all try to start well, but sometimes we can't and that's something in the mental area where I'm trying to get better at, is if you don't start well, how can you bounce back from it?”
The 2026 season started brilliantly for Lee, with a top five and a top 15 on home soil before he finished second at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am for his best finish in a PGA TOUR Signature Event.
Another top ten at the Arnold Plamer Invitational presented by Mastercard and a top three at the Texas Children’s Houston Open had him flying but he would not record another top ten before his arrival in Scotland.
It is worth noting that he had three top 20s in that time, including at the US PGA Championship, but such are Lee’s standards now, he felt he was slipping.
Lee put that down to a perhaps subconscious feeling of complacency and lack of “ownership” of his game, two issues he looked to have solved with a runner-up finish at The Renaissance Club, as he looks to rediscover his “swagger".
“Started the year off really well, which is great,” he said. “And I guess that's a little bit good and bad. It's great that you got the points and stuff and the security but it's also, for me, I think I've just mentally slowed down a little bit because I've got that security.
“So I think it's that fine balance. I just need to regroup myself and get back to discipline, hard work that I did at the beginning of the year.
“Went through a little bit of a swing change, so I wanted to really get the process going, and then got the results and slowly tapered down.
“Lately, I haven't taken ownership of my golf game and as in like, I rely on my caddie a bit too much.
“A lot of people say, on social media, ‘it's your choice’. But when you have someone out there, your caddie out there 24/7 with you, you trust them a lot. And sometimes you trust them too much because you're out there with him, he's with you, and I tend to ask a lot of questions.
“And to be honest, he should be like, ‘hey, mate, you know how to play golf. Just step up and hit the shot. You know how far this goes, how far that goes’.
“So yeah, just stuff like that. I just need to have that swagger back and then play my own game.
“Usually, when I play well, I'm walking fast and my caddie should let me do my thing, and I haven't been able to click back into that. So, just something that I've learnt over the past few months. It hasn't been the best moments on the golf course.
“Every day, I feel like, ‘Oh, I could've done this, I could've done that’. But yeah, sometimes you’ve just got to take accountability and ownership. Just take responsibility and it's okay.”
That theme of trying to get better and also being grateful for where you already are is one which runs through the near hour-long chat with Lee.
A man who enjoys and invites the limelight but does not want to let it distract from his main goals – being the best and happiest golfer he can be.
"I got to play with Rory (McIlroy) and Adam (Scott) the first two days last year at Royal Melbourne. That was sick, just a very cool experience," he said.
"The crowds were the most I've ever had. And these guys have these crowds every week. But it was special for me, one of the younger guys playing with these guys that have been out on tour for a while now.
"I'm really happy with where I'm at. We're here and we're trying to get to here.
"I think sometimes you’ve got to smell the roses and look around. Sometimes it can get away from you, I'd say, and you just play golf just because that's the process.
"But most weeks, you just look around and say, 'This is cool. I've got a lot of support here, and friends and family’.
"I think golf is not everything. It's a big part of our lives, obviously, but yeah, it's really cool to just do what we do and have a surreal moment like that, having hundreds and thousands of people watching you. It's very cool."
