Delighted to be joined by our defending champion of the Genesis Scottish Open, Min Woo Lee, great to have you back here in Scotland. Just take us back to last year and it was obviously a momentous win for you being a first Rolex Series victory but also how excited you are to be back here with it being a co-sanctioned event with the PGA TOUR.
Lee: It’s an awesome, obviously, alliance they brought together. Obviously I wish it was a year before, but hopefully I can recreate what I did last year. I played the front nine and I’ve seen a few changes. It’s going to be tough if it stays this wind. I’m excited to be back and to play.
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Talk about your game coming into the week.
Lee: I’m happy to be back. I’ve been playing in America the past six months after being over earlier in the year. I feel like my game has improved from playing in America. Courses are tough over there and I’ve been playing really good and been able to lock in a little bit and feel like every week I’m learning something new. Last week in Ireland, the greens were really soft, so it was very different to America. It was a bit of an adjustment. Bit windy, something I’m not used to. Nice to see familiar faces and hope to play well.
When you talk about the changes that have been made since last year, how they tried to improve this golf course, is that what you feel, every time you come back?
Lee: Yeah, the first year I played it, I thought it was a really nice track. Second year I didn’t think there was that many changes. I didn’t really take it in that much. But there was there was two winds we play, one wind was downwind and the other day it was into the wind. All week it’s going to be one specific wind and if we do play that front nine, especially I’ve only played the front nine, but it’s going to be tough. I mean, they put two bunkers, one bunker on 1 and right on 7 right in the middle of the fairway where everyone hits it. Hopefully the wind blows harder so I can hit it over, which it was like that today this morning. So it could play more of an advantage for longer hitters.
As defending champion, how much of your focus is this week and how much is on next week across the water?
Lee: Yeah, sure, the next few tournaments are really, really important to me. Obviously, next week is a Major and this week is defending. You know, it’s a big event on The European Tour. The field’s very strong and you just need to do well and for me, I need to do well, as well, the next two weeks. I’m looking forward to it. I mean, next week is obviously the important one but I take these two with really good care.
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Is it possible to get through a golf press conference these days without being asked about LIV?
Lee: For me personally, my goal was to be on the PGA TOUR and get on the Presidents Cup team, and with that, I can’t do that. At the end of the day I’m just trying to play the best golf I can and I’m happy where I am, playing Europe and playing America. So play well and it will handle itself. I’m really happy with where I am. I know I haven’t been playing that good, so I need to focus on playing good.
The Presidents Cup, won’t have the players that have gone to LIV — will that detract you playing from the Presidents Cup if half the players that should have been there can’t play?
Lee: For me, I think some people might not want to play that event going to the LIV Tour, but I’ve just been pro for 3 1/2 years and I really enjoyed playing team events as an amateur and I want to get that feeling back. Every day it means something and every shot means something. Obviously, the American side is going to be crazy good, like last year, every year, but it would be nice to play in a team environment again but no, it’s attractive. I would love to — I’m not sure about playing against America at their home side.
So what did the LIV teams, do they mean anything to anybody?
Lee: That’s cool, I guess they are trying to make it somewhat like fun for the fans. I mean, like I said, personally, I haven’t watched it. I just — I’ve been playing nearly every week so I’ve been doing my best to play on the PGA TOUR and here. So it’s not a Presidents Cup feel. For them it’s every week. It’s not like it’s just one week and it happens every two years or every, you know, few years, like a Ryder Cup or a Presidents Cup. It means a lot more when you play those team events, when you have your country, when you’re representing your country. I think it’s a little different.
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Is there things that you would like to see differently being done on either the DP World Tour or the PGA TOUR?
Lee: No, I think — I’m just a golfer. I mean, the guys that are actually changing the rules, they know what they are doing. I’m just trying to play golf really. I’m very simple. It’s not like I’ve made millions and millions of bucks and I want to have more and bigger prize money. That would be nice but it’s not like I want it to be — I mean, I’m happy with where I am and what they are doing.
It’s really good that the European Tour and the PGA TOUR have formed up to get ten guys on The European Tour, the top 10 guys next year getting their PGA TOUR card, I think that’s awesome. I think a lot of the players will start seeing that as a pathway and playing through here first. We might get a lot more better fields and then you get on to the PGA TOUR. I think they have done really well.
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