PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Min Woo Lee said on Saturday night he had a chance to change his life on Sunday.
The 24-year-old Australian was playing in the final group of the Players Championship with Scottie Scheffler with a chance to win the most important tournament of his life, a win that would give him security as a full PGA Tour member and get him into the major championships.
Lee trailed Scheffler by two shots entering the day and he birdied his first hole to reduce the lead to one shot.
When Scheffler bogeyed the third hole, the two were tied at 13-under par.
Maybe the moment was too big for Lee, who took a triple-bogey 7 on the fourth hole and never recovered, finishing nine shots worse than Scheffler’s winning 17-under par.
“It happened really quick,’’ Lee said. “It’s one of those things where it’s Sunday and you just make a couple bad decisions and it all kind of falls down. But I hung in there pretty well. I didn’t have it all today. It’s funny how yesterday I felt like I had the best swing in the world, and then today I just felt like nothing could go right.
“I’m [still] pretty proud of the result and I think it will take me a long way. It could have been a lot worse. That’s for sure. It wasn’t easy. That’s part of it.’’
Lee praised the crowds, who were chanting his name all the way around the course, right to the end.
“Scottie’s won a lot of tournaments and everyone wants to see an underdog kind of win and play well,’’ he said. “I think obviously they were favoring Scottie, but I enjoyed the crowd out there. It was fun, but it’s hard to engage the crowd when you’ve just made triple bogey and double bogeys and you’re trying to keep your head up high.
“But just for a second there, you just have to stop and really look at the crowd and you’re here for a reason and you’ve done really well and, yeah, that was probably the most people I’ve ever seen on one hole, on 17, so it was pretty cool.’’
Alex Smalley carded the third hole-in-one of the week on the famous par-3 17th hole.
It was the first on a Sunday of the Players since Fred Couples did it in 1997.
It was the 13th ace on that hole in tournament history. The hole was playing 133 yards Sunday and Smalley was coming off a double bogey on 16.
“I made a mess of 16, hit a wedge over the green in the water, and then hit one too many more putts than I wanted to,’’ Smalley said. “I figured I might as well just go right at [the flag on 17]. It landed right on the downslope and just went in.’’
It was the first hole-in-one on the PGA Tour for Smalley, who made the cut on the number at 2-over to play the weekend.
“My caddie told me it would be pretty funny if I kind of fake threw it in the water, so I went ahead and listened to him,’’ he said. “There was no way I was teeing off on 18 with that ball, either. It’s in my bag somewhere.’’