Ahead of his debut round as a full PGA Tour member this week, Min Woo Lee acknowledges that he concurs with Jon Rahm that The American Express is a “putting contest”.
Lee, 25, earned enough FedEx Cup points last season as a non-member to be eligible for the full PGA Tour in 2024.Since receiving Special Temporary Membership last summer, he has been permitted to participate in the PGA Tour.
After taking on the moniker “The Chef,” the gifted Australian went on to win the Australian PGA at the end of 2023, marking his third victory on the DP World Tour.
With that, Lee is focusing on his whole rookie season on the PGA Tour, which begins at The American Express in California.
The 72-hole competition is held on three distinct courses: PGA West Stadium, PGA West Nicklaus, and La Quinta CC.
Rahm and Lee both agree that The American Express is a “putting contest”; Lee just doesn’t use as many swear words!
The 2022 competition was controversially referred to by Jon Rahm as a “piece of s*** set-up f***ing putting contest week”.
As Rahm blasted off a green, a golf fan caught those precise remarks on camera. After finishing T14 that week, the Spaniard was questioned about the footage.
He didn’t hesitate to speak.
“I mean, the video is pretty self-explanatory,” Rahm remarked. We’re playing a golf course where missing the fairway has no bearing whatsoever, and we’re the top players on the planet—the PGA Tour. There were moments when a one-inch miss on the fairway was more detrimental than a twenty-yard miss. I think that was a mistake.
There’s nothing more that I can say. We played a lot of golf with no rough, which I understand, but you can’t oversee the entire golf course in the desert and things like that can’t happen.”
Naturally, Rahm is not in the area this week because he abruptly decided to sign a contract with LIV Golf at the end of 2023 and is presently suspended.
Rahm reportedly agreed to a multi-year contract worth about £450 million.
Speaking ahead of his opening event of the 2024 PGA Tour season, Lee acknowledged that he was eager to get rolling, although he acknowledged that this tournament will be won on the greens, as Rahm had predicted.
He only refrained from using profanity.
Lee stated to the press:
“I am quite happy. It’s going to be a wonderful week. It’s a great easer, in a way, because there are a lot of birdies and the scoring is low, but you still have to play really well, hit your drives well, and wedge it close. It’s a putting competition, as Jon Rahm stated, and if you get on the green, hopefully you hole some putts.”
Here, scores are usually quite low; since 2006, all winning rounds have been more than 20-under par.
Patrick Reed established the record at the 72-hole tournament back in 2014.
That week, Reed, who is currently on the LIV Golf League alongside Rahm, shot 28 under par.
Since the legendary Arnold Palmer won the American Express in its inaugural event in 1960, it has gone by a number of titles.
From 1965 to 2011, it was most well-known as the Bob Hope Classic.
With five victories in his tournament (1960, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1973), Palmer owns the record for most victories.
