Min Woo Lee made an unbelievable par save on his final hole to keep his spot just one shot behind the leaders after the opening round of The Players Championship in Florida.
Lee hit his final drive so far right it went beyond a grandstand at TPC Sawgrass and his first attempt to get back to the fairway failed.
His second attempt at scrubbing his ball towards the green from pine straw was better, reaching the putting surface, and he nailed a 4m putt to sign for an opening five-under 65 at the $US25 million ($A40m) event considered golf’s fifth major.
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Colombia’s Camilo Villegas and Americans Lucas Glover and J.J. Spaun each fired six-under-par 66s to share the lead at the darkness-halted opening round.
Four-time major winner Rory McIlroy was only one stroke adrift, sharing second with Australian Lee and Americans Akshay Bhatia and Billy Horschel after 18 holes at TPC Sawgrass. It was a mixed day for the Aussies, with top hope Jason Day withdawal hours before play due to illness.
Commentators described Lee’s final hole par as “one of the craziest fours you’ll ever see” and the 26-year-old admitted his relief at preserving his brilliant openining round.
“I just had a feeling that if I hit a good two-iron, which I have been all day, I could have a short wedge in. Managed to produce the worst swing of the day about 40 yards right of where I wanted to hit it,” Lee said of his 18th-hole adventure.
“I was just very happy to have a par putt. I literally had no shot. I had an opportunity to kind of go over the grandstand, and if it ended up in the grandstand I would get a drop, but that was still a tough shot pitching it back this way.
“I wanted to hit the cart path maybe once but not four times, something like that, four or five times. I tried to one-bounce it and then the second – hopefully the second bounce was under the branches and letting it roll out to the fairway. But it just came out – it was into the grain and it just came out absolutely dead.
“Then I just thought, if I can get it past a tree, it would be a straight shot up to the green, but it literally was stuck behind a tree, and I was like, nice one, good job.
“That third shot could have easily gone in the water had I just pulled it but used a bit of magic and tried to cut up a pitching wedge out of the rough and out of the pine straw, and it was absolutely perfect.
“It was nice to have a par putt and managed to sneak it in on the right edge. It summed up the day. It was a really solid day.”
Lee has form at The Players, having played in the final group on Sunday in his tournament debut in 2023, finishing in a tie for sixth.
After nailing five birdies in his opening nine holes, his affinity with the course was clear and an 11th-hole bogey and his errant tee shot on the 18th were among few mistakes for the 26-year-old, who leads the Aussie contingent.
He’s one shot behind a trio of players and five shots ahead of compatriot, and first-timer, Karl Vilips, who shot an even-par 70 after his tee shot on his final hole found the water.
The 23-year-old, who only who secured his place at The Players with a maiden PGA Tour victory at the Puerto Rico Open last week, was flying a -4 through 13 holes but dropped four shots in his last four holes.
Adam Scott battled to a two-over 74, while Cam Davis also had issues shooting a four-over 76.
“I learnt a lot from that day. It was tough. It wasn’t easy,” Lee said. “The way that Scottie (Scheffler) played, just like a machine. Hopefully, I can get that comfortable and hit shots when I need to, and that’s just why he’s so good.”
Day withdrew from the event just an hour before he was supposed to tee off on Thursday because of an illness.
Day, the 2016 champion coming off a top-10 finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, did not immediately disclose the nature of his illness or how long it would keep him off the course.
Min Woo Lee off to scintillating start | 01:00
Spaun birdied all four par-five holes while back-nine starter Villegas birdied five of his first eight holes and Glover, the 2009 US Open champion, birdied the last four holes.
“Great finish,” Glover said. “Any time you can birdie 16, 17 and 18 it’s great because it’s such a great finish and you can throw in 15 as well. Very pleased. I played nice and made putts.”
Villegas, 43, became the first South American player to lead or share the lead after any round at the Players, thanks to some long-distance advice from coach Jose Campra.
“I hit the ball good,” Villegas said. “I’ve not been hitting it great the last couple weeks. Had a long session with my coach yesterday morning from afar — he’s in Singapore right now so we grinded for about two hours on the phone — and I felt a lot better.” Spaun fired a bogey-free round on a difficult day for leaders.
Darkness stopped play with American Max McGreevy facing a 16-foot birdie putt at the famed par-three 17th island hole to grab a share of the lead.
Second-ranked McIlroy, paired alongside top-ranked Scottie Scheffler and third-ranked Xander Schauffele, found only 4-of-14 fairways but was magical in rescuing pars and making birdies.
The Northern Ireland star opened with back-to-back birdies, reeled off four birdies in a row starting at the par-five ninth and closed with a birdie at 18 after finding pine straw off the tee.
“It was a bonus to get it up on the green and hole the putt was a lovely way to finish,” McIlroy said.
“Didn’t drive it the way I wanted to. Didn’t hit it in as many fairways as I would have liked. With the greens being so receptive, you can get away with it a little bit.
“I’m not going to be able to get away with it for the rest of the week. Sort of rode my luck out there a little bit.”
Two-time defending champion Scheffler shot 69 while Schauffele, last year’s British Open and PGA Championship winner, opened on 72.
“I just wasn’t able to score as well as I would have hoped,” Scheffler said. “I feel OK about the round. I did some decent things out there and gave myself some chances.
It was a nightmare opening round, however, for a pair two high-profile stars.
Viktor Hovland is currently last in the field after a disastrous eight-over par round while American Max Homa fared little better at +7.
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