We’re almost there. The Masters is next week, and it’s coming in a hurry. Before we get there, we’ve got some headlines to cover, a final goodbye to a golf course, and one last week of action before we hit major season.
Min Woo Lee Wins The Texas Children’s Houston Open
Min Woo Lee, who, before this week, was known more for his Instagram posts than his golf game, cooked up a win in Texas. “Chef Woozy” as he’s known, with his catchphrase of “let him cook” held off another good leaderboard. Gary Woodland and Scottie Scheffler finished one shot behind, each made charges on Sunday, including a 62 from Woodland. Woodland is a fan favorite, after recovering from brain surgery, where a lesion was removed from his brain, and his recovery was documented in the Netflix Series Full Swing. Sami Valimaki was three back, Wyndham Clark, Rory McIlroy, Taylor Pendrith, and Alejandro Tosti finished tied for fifth.
It isn’t a surprise that Min Woo Lee won his first PGA Tour. He’s been playing well this year, only missing the cut once at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He had a good week going at The Players before ejecting himself from the first page of the leaderboard, but he still managed a T-20. He had a T-11 finish at the Cognizant Classic and a T-12 at the WM Phoenix Open. He’s been putting himself around the front page of the leaderboard in almost every event he’s teed it up in this year. Lee also has won on the DP World Tour three times, so he’s not new to winning on a big stage. Lee made the President’s Cup team on the International Team for the first time last fall and has been a rising star.
His social media content put him on the map and garnered a following of casual golf fans. His “Chef Woozy” moniker has stuck with him, and fans don chef’s hats at every tournament he plays in. He’s also taken the nickname of “Dr. Chipinski” and ran with it. That’s only when he chips in, and he mimics picking up a phone to call the now-prominent made-up doctor. His social media presence is well-received by a lot of golf fans, while his sister, Minjee Lee is the opposite. Minjee is quieter but has had a far more successful career on the LPGA Tour, winning 10 times, including two majors. It’s a unique phenomenon to see two siblings of opposite gender play very well at the same sport. With Min Woo’s win on Sunday, they become the third set of siblings to win on the LPGA and PGA Tour’s.
Min Woo only has one top ten in majors (2023 U.S. Open) and has had some close calls, finishing T-2 last year twice. Once at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and the other at the Cognizant Classic. With his upward trend, it was a matter of time before the frequent bridesmaid turned into the bride. Lee took control of the tournament with a six-under 64 on Friday and a seven-under, bogey-free 63 on Saturday. It got a little cozy on the back nine on Sunday, but Lee contained his nerves and finished things off with pars on 17 and 18, after bogeying the par 5 16th.
Lee has had some success at The Masters, with a T-22 last year, and a T-14 finish in 2022, which was his first Masters. He missed the cut in 2023, but two out of three cuts made, and finishing inside the top 25 is pretty good. Lee carries a lot of momentum to Augusta and is now the fifth player to win for the first time on the PGA Tour this year.
Fans of Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler will be happy to see their guys finishing towards the top of the leaderboard again. McIlroy and Scheffler will be two of the favorites, if not the top two, for The Masters. Both stars will be looking for their own history to be made. Scheffler is going for back-to-back Masters, something last done by Tiger Woods in 2001 and 2002. That would also be Scheffler’s third Masters in four years, something Tiger never did (Tiger won three in five years). McIlroy will be looking to complete the career grand slam, a feat extremely accomplished.
There was another unique battle raging on in Houston on Sunday. Michael Kim and Ben Griffin were battling for their spot at the Masters. The top 50 players in the OWGR earn a spot at the Masters, and they were 50 and 51. Kim has been sensational this year, specifically, in the last two months. When Michael Kim put his tee to begin round one of the WM Phoenix Open last month, he was ranked 162 in the OWGR. After making a par on the 72nd hole on Sunday, he moved to 50 in the OWGR. The difference between Kim and Griffin’s two-year average points is 0.2. About as slim as it gets, but Kim has been on a tear to get into the Masters. Hats off to Michael Kim, who like Min Woo Lee, has an active social media and a good following. Kim does a fantastic job interacting with fans, explaining life on the PGA Tour, the ups, the downs, and everything in between. Just another feel-good story that golf produces.
LIV Coming To New Orleans Next Year?
WDSU, a news station in New Orleans, reported last week that LIV Golf is “in the final states with state leaders to bring a tournament to Bayou Oaks at City Park in the summer of 2026.” The report states that it could be played as soon as June of next year. It would be a multiyear contract to bring and keep LIV Golf in the bayou for multiple seasons.
WDSU also says that LIV is expected to fund some of the renovations that are needed at the course. The PGA Tour hosts the Zurich Classic of New Orleans at a different course, TPC Louisiana. The PGA Tour has gone to New Orleans every year since 1938. This wouldn’t be the first time LIV has gone to an area of the country where the PGA Tour frequently plays. New Orleans is a good golf market, but it’ll be interesting to see if fans show up for the event, should it go through.
LIV will surely be trying to create an environment similar to the raucous LIV Adelaide, that’s been a feature of the LIV schedule. LIV hasn’t formally announced anything, and their schedule release won’t happen for some time, probably later this year. That also is dependant on if there are any progressions or a finalized deal with the PGA Tour. There still is no public knowledge of any progress on a deal of any sort between the two tours.
An Ode To Quail Valley
Every golfer has a course or courses that are more than just a well-manicured piece of property. Those golf courses are part home/part safe haven/part escape from reality/part security blanket. You get excited to escape reality for awhile, hit shots on your favorite holes in the world, and will fight tooth and nail for why that course is your favorite. For me, Quail Valley in Banks, Oregon was a course that fit my eye, and my heart.
Quail Valley is a par 72 course with four tees. The front tees have a distance of 4,473 yards, and the tips are 6,561 yards. Not too short, not too long. The holes are a great mixture of par 4’s that are short yet demanding, with the 12th hole tipping out at 470 yards. The par 3’s are accessible yet demanding. Such as the 6th hole, which is 163 yards from the back tees, but depending on the wind and hole location, can be terrifying with water in front, bunkers guarding the green, and a small target to get a duece. The par 5’s can be reached in two, but only if you find the fairway, like the 10th hole. A 487-yard par 5, but again, wind direction could determine your fate on the birdie or even eagle opportunity.
Quail Valley will have its final day of golf operations today. The property will be turned into a development with nearly 1,000 homes being built. The sad thing is that Quail Valley has had a lot of success over the last five years, especially with the national boom in golf during the COVID-19 pandemic. Another downside is local high schools and universities have to find a new home just to keep their teams afloat. Hopefully, they can do that, and the next generation of golfers can have positive experiences.
This is happening nationwide, with more and more courses being shut down despite a recent rise in golf interest. Many people across the country are having their favorite courses destroyed for cookie-cutter houses. There doesn’t seem to be any stop to it, as conglomerates offer these courses deals they can’t refuse.
If you played Quail Valley at any point, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Thank you to the owners of Quail Valley for creating an affordable and fun golf course for players of all talents.
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