Min Woo and Minjee Lee are looking forward to enjoying some family time both on and off the course when they tee it up at this week's ISPS HANDA Australian Open.
The siblings are in Melbourne as both the men's and women's events take place over the same courses at Victoria and Kingston Heath Golf Clubs for equal prize money of 1.7 million Australian dollars.
The Australian All Abilities Championship is also taking place to start the 2023 G4D season, with 300 players in all competing for three trophies on the famed Melbourne Sandbelt.
The Lees, who are both aiming to win their national open for the first time, are delighted to be back on home soil after both playing a truly global schedule in 2022.
"Playing with Min Woo and being able to see him is really special to me." said Minjee.
"I actually haven’t played that much golf with Min Woo, to be fair, so just seeing him play and seeing him go about his business, I think it’s really cool just to experience that with him. He’s grown up a lot since the last time I played with him. It’s been good.
"Just being back in Australia I think is really cool. I haven’t played in a couple of years back home, so I think it’s going to be a great turnout and I’m looking forward to seeing all the fans come out and maybe a lot of little kids. I think it will be really fun.
"I think the Australian Open, your national championship is always really high on the list. For me, I always want to do well. The previous Aussie Opens that I have played, I think I haven’t quite shown that as much, so hopefully I can settle the nerves and just enjoy it and just play well for me and play well for the Australian crowd."
Min Woo added: "Just to see the fam I think is a special thing," he said. "We don’t get to see each other that much, so just to put the band together, it’s pretty cool. We don’t get to do that that often, so it is very cool.
"Then we can spend Christmas together, so I think with the schedule and all that, it works really well. It brings everyone together, which is awesome, and what we want and what we need.
"Especially in Australia, playing in front of the home crowd. It was special last week and I‘m sure this week will be even better."
Min Woo enjoyed an excellent finish to the 2022 DP World Tour season, with back-to-back top three finishes in Spain followed by a top ten at the Nedbank Golf Challenge and a tie for 12th at the DP World Tour Championship.
Those successes were, however, trumped by his sister, who won her second Major Championship at the U.S. Women's Open.
A tie for fourth at last week's Fortinet Australian PGA Championship saw Min Woo continue his fine form into the new season and the 24-year-old would love to see both himself and his sister lifting a trophy on Sunday.
"I’m in hot form, so hopefully I can pip her this week, but it would be nice to both be holding the trophy, which would be really cool," he said.
"I think our mindset going in is just to enjoy and have fun. The Australian crowd hasn’t had a tournament here in a while and I think we want to put on a show and let them enjoy it.
"We’re obviously really happy with the way everything’s gone this year, but this is obviously a really big event in the schedule and we want to do well in our home event.
"We’re looking forward to it. We may be tired, but I think we’re looking forward to how the week goes."
