Long wait for Lee at Australian Open

BY Bruce Young | Australasian PGA Tour | 2007 Australian Open | Round Four | 16 Dec 2007

Won Joon Lee

(Photo: Anthony Powter)

Won Joon Lee faced an intrigued media conference after his final round of 66 at the Australian Open. With his likely contenders for the title still some 90 minutes away from finishing their rounds, Lee was brought into the media centre despite the possibility that he might yet face a playoff for the title.

“It was bittersweet out there in some respects as even though I made a lot of putts late in the round I missed a few early and the one at the last but overall I am very happy,” he said.

“My mum told me overnight that I should switch my putter and she doesn’t even play golf or any sport for that matter. She couldn’t play any sport to save her life but she told me overnight to remain calm and said that she thought my previous putter must be broken.”

“I had a brand new Scotty Cameron at home so decided to use that today. Over the first few holes I was regretting the decision but things began to improve over the closing nine holes and I putted very well with it.”

Lee had a chance at the last after a massive drive at the par five left him just 182 yards to the hole. He set up a 12 foot eagle chance with a 7iron but missed the putt and settled for 66 and a share of the lead with Nick O’Hern.

“I just gave it an extra nudge as I hit the ball and it missed to the right.”

Lee, the Korean born but very much Australian raised 22-year- old, has been professional for just over twelve months and has, to a large extent, struggled in that time.

In his first few events as a professional he played in Japan and made the cut in two of the three events he played but in the main he has had success well below his potential even allowing for the fact that he is a rookie.

His best has been 9th at the SK Telekom Open in Korea but, by making the cut at the Open Championship at Carnoustie, he graduated to the second stage of the USPGA Tour School and then made it to the final.

“I played bad there but gained conditional Nationwide status and now have that tour to play on and will try and play as many as I am able early before the re-rank.”

Lee was an Australian Eisenhower Trophy representative in South Africa before turning professional and in 2006 was also the New Zealand Strokeplay Champion amongst many amateur career highlights.

Top 10
AUS/NZ

Position	Score	Player	R 1	R 2	R 3	R 4	Total
1	-11	Craig Parry	74	64	70	69	277
T2	-10	Brandt Snedeker	69	70	70	69	278
T2	-10	Nick O'hern	70	66	72	70	278
T2	-10	Won Joon Lee	70	70	72	66	278
T5	-9	James Nitties	71	66	69	73	279
T5	-9	Stuart Appleby	71	68	68	72	279
T7	-8	Aaron Baddeley	70	71	69	70	280
T7	-8	Ewan Porter	70	71	70	69	280
T7	-8	Greg Chalmers	69	72	72	67	280
T7	-8	Rod Pampling	73	70	69	68	280
T11	-7	Marc Leishman	72	69	71	69	281
T11	-7	Paul Sheehan	72	70	69	70	281
T11	-7	Robert Allenby	67	70	69	75	281
T14	-6	Jason Gore	73	70	68	71	282
T14	-6	Paul Marantz	68	72	77	65	282
T14	-6	Peter O'malley	72	71	69	70	282
T14	-6	Stephen Leaney	69	75	67	71	282
T18	-5	Geoff Ogilvy	68	72	73	70	283
T18	-5	Kane Webber	70	72	69	72	283
T20	-4	Andrew Tampion	77	67	72	68	284
T20	-4	Hiroshi Iwata	71	69	73	71	284
T20	-4	Jarrod Lyle	70	70	73	71	284
T20	-4	Kevin Stadler	73	71	73	67	284
T20	-4	Matthew Jones	74	68	71	71	284
T20	-4	Michael Sim	72	70	72	70	284
T26	-3	Andrew Bonhomme	67	70	81	67	285
T26	-3	Cameron Percy	74	70	67	74	285
T26	-3	Michael Curtain	73	71	68	73	285
T26	-3	Peter Senior	71	72	73	69	285
T26	-3	Richard Green	73	71	71	70	285
T26	-3	Steve Alker	70	71	73	71	285
T32	-2	Nathan Green	72	70	72	72	286
T32	-2	Peter Lonard	71	70	73	72	286
T32	-2	Scott Sterling	71	72	73	70	286
T32	-2	Stephen Allan	71	69	74	72	286
T32	-2	Takuya Taniguchi	72	71	75	68	286
T32	-2	Wayne Perske	69	69	77	71	286
T38	-1	Adam Crawford	71	69	74	73	287
T38	-1	Michael Long	70	71	77	69	287
T38	-1	Scott Hend	68	74	74	71	287
T38	-1	Wade Ormsby	70	72	73	72	287
T42	Ev	Gavin Coles	71	69	71	77	288
T42	Ev	Matthew Zions	73	68	77	70	288
T42	Ev	Ryan Moore	73	68	71	76	288
T45	+1	Hyung-Sung Kim	71	73	68	77	289
T45	+1	Aaron Townsend	73	71	73	72	289
T45	+1	David Smail	70	71	77	71	289
T45	+1	Marcus Fraser	77	67	77	68	289
T45	+1	Matthew Millar	71	73	71	74	289
T45	+1	Steve Jones	69	69	76	75	289
T45	+1	Sung Lee	69	72	75	73	289
T52	+2	Bradley Iles	69	72	76	73	290
T52	+2	David Diaz	73	71	74	72	290
T52	+2	Kim Felton	67	69	79	75	290
T52	+2	Terry Price	73	71	67	79	290
T56	+3	Brad Lamb	73	71	75	72	291
T56	+3	Tatsuhiko Takahashi	73	71	69	78	291
T56	+3	Terry Pilkadaris	72	72	76	71	291
T59	+4	Ed Stedman	74	69	73	76	292
T59	+4	Lucas Parsons	72	72	73	75	292
T59	+4	Scott Barr	74	70	72	76	292
T62	+5	Rohan Blizard (Am)	72	72	74	75	293
T62	+5	Nick Flanagan	73	71	75	74	293
T62	+5	Scott Draper	72	72	75	74	293
65	+7	Lee M. Williamson	65	72	76	82	295
66	+8	John Wade	75	69	79	73	296
Cut Ev
CUT	+1	Scott Smith (Am)	72	73	-	-	145
CUT	+1	Alistair Presnell	73	72	-	-	145
CUT	+1	Bronson La’cassie	74	71	-	-	145
CUT	+1	Chris Campbell	74	71	-	-	145
CUT	+1	Hamish Robertson	73	72	-	-	145
CUT	+1	Heath Reed	71	74	-	-	145
CUT	+1	John Senden	71	74	-	-	145
CUT	+1	Kurt Barnes	71	74	-	-	145
CUT	+1	Rodney Booth	74	71	-	-	145
CUT	+1	Ryan Haller	74	71	-	-	145
CUT	+1	Steven Conran	71	74	-	-	145
CUT	+2	Tim Stewart (Am)	71	75	-	-	146
CUT	+2	Chris Austin (Am)	73	73	-	-	146
CUT	+2	Matthew Griffin (Am)	74	72	-	-	146
CUT	+2	Adam Groom	71	75	-	-	146
CUT	+2	Anthony Brown	72	74	-	-	146
CUT	+2	Brendan Jones	71	75	-	-	146
CUT	+2	David Mckenzie	71	75	-	-	146
CUT	+2	Luke Hickmott	76	70	-	-	146
CUT	+2	Peter Wilson	71	75	-	-	146
CUT	+2	Scott Strange	75	71	-	-	146
CUT	+3	Josh Younger (Am)	72	75	-	-	147
CUT	+3	Daniel Beckmann (Am)	72	75	-	-	147
CUT	+3	Jason Scrivener (Am)	73	74	-	-	147
CUT	+3	Josh Carmichael	75	72	-	-	147
CUT	+3	Anthony Summers	72	75	-	-	147
CUT	+3	Brad Kennedy	72	75	-	-	147
CUT	+3	Brett Rumford	75	72	-	-	147
CUT	+3	Jens Nilsson	76	71	-	-	147
CUT	+3	Leigh Mckechnie	76	71	-	-	147
CUT	+3	Mark Hensby	71	76	-	-	147
CUT	+3	Steven Bowditch	74	73	-	-	147
CUT	+4	Chih-Bing Lam	71	77	-	-	148
CUT	+4	Jake Younan-Wise (Am)	71	77	-	-	148
CUT	+4	Andrew Tschudin	74	74	-	-	148
CUT	+4	Aron Price	74	74	-	-	148
CUT	+4	Ben Bunny	79	69	-	-	148
CUT	+4	Craig Spence	78	70	-	-	148
CUT	+4	Gary Simpson	74	74	-	-	148
CUT	+4	Mark Brown	72	76	-	-	148
CUT	+4	Matthew Ecob	76	72	-	-	148
CUT	+4	Tim Wilkinson	73	75	-	-	148
CUT	+5	Aaron Black	76	73	-	-	149
CUT	+5	Adam Bland	74	75	-	-	149
CUT	+5	Gavin Flint	75	74	-	-	149
CUT	+5	Josh Geary	71	78	-	-	149
CUT	+5	Ryan Howison	73	76	-	-	149
CUT	+5	Steven Hassett	76	73	-	-	149
CUT	+6	Toshinori Muto	74	76	-	-	150
CUT	+6	Damon Welsford	76	74	-	-	150
CUT	+6	David Lutterus	77	73	-	-	150
CUT	+6	Euan Walters	77	73	-	-	150
CUT	+6	Jarrod Moseley	76	74	-	-	150
CUT	+6	Naoya Takemoto	72	78	-	-	150
CUT	+6	Peter Fowler	72	78	-	-	150
CUT	+6	Scott Laycock	74	76	-	-	150
CUT	+6	Wayne Grady	73	77	-	-	150
CUT	+7	Matthew Giles (Am)	72	79	-	-	151
CUT	+7	David Gleeson	77	74	-	-	151
CUT	+7	Doug Holloway	73	78	-	-	151
CUT	+7	Richard Lee	72	79	-	-	151
CUT	+7	Shane Baxter	75	76	-	-	151
CUT	+8	Jonathan Moore	77	75	-	-	152
CUT	+8	Paul Gow	75	77	-	-	152
CUT	+8	Sang-moon Bae	75	77	-	-	152
CUT	+8	Steven Jeffress	74	78	-	-	152
CUT	+8	Tony Carolan	76	76	-	-	152
CUT	+9	Daniel Bakss	77	76	-	-	153
CUT	+9	Paul Spargo	77	76	-	-	153
CUT	+9	Peter Martin	81	72	-	-	153
CUT	+9	Ryan Hammond	77	76	-	-	153
CUT	+10	Ray Beaufils (Am)	79	75	-	-	154
CUT	+10	Paul Donahoo	77	77	-	-	154
CUT	+10	Tatsuhiko Ichihara	76	78	-	-	154
CUT	+11	Andrew Pitt	78	77	-	-	155
CUT	+11	David Bransdon	78	77	-	-	155
CUT	+11	Yoshikazu Haku	73	82	-	-	155
CUT	+12	Daniel Nisbet (Am)	78	78	-	-	156
CUT	+12	Scott Arnold (Am)	81	75	-	-	156
CUT	+13	Matthew Guyatt	79	78	-	-	157
CUT	+13	Tim Wise	84	73	-	-	157
CUT	+13	Tristan Lambert	78	79	-	-	157
CUT	+14	Matthew Ballard	80	78	-	-	158
CUT	+14	Michael Campbell	78	80	-	-	158
CUT	+18	Ryan Lynch (Am)	84	78	-	-	162
CUT	+19	Justin Shine (Am)	84	79	-	-	163
CUT	+22	Simon Pope	81	85	-	-	166
WD	-	Kyung Nam Kang	77	-	-	-	WD
WD	-	Wayne Riley	83	-	-	-	WD

Position	Score	Player	Country	R 1	R 2	R 3

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Long wait for Lee at Australian Open

BY Bruce Young | Australasian PGA Tour | 2007 Australian Open | Round Four | 16 Dec 2007