Kyung-Hoon Lee 4 Under Par Ties 8th "Mock Test Scores Are Good"... Day Leads at 7 Under Par

Ahead of Next Week's AT&T Byron Nelson Title Defense, Warming Up at Wells Fargo Championship; McIlroy Tied 17th at 3 Under Par for Title Defense

Lee Kyung-hoon is making a chip shot on the 18th hole during the first day of the Wells Fargo Championship. Photo by Getty Images/Multibits

[Asia Economy Golf Specialist Reporter Kim Hyun-jun] Lee Kyung-hoon (31, CJ Logistics) is showing good results in his 'mock test'.

On the 6th (Korean time), at Potomac TPC in Maryland, USA (par 70, 7,107 yards), the first day of the PGA Tour Wells Fargo Championship (total prize money $9 million), he scored 4 under par and stood tied for 8th place. 2018 champion Jason Day (Australia) took the lead at 7 under par, Joel Dahmen was 1 stroke behind in 2nd place (6 under par 64), and 'twist swing' Matthew Wolff (both from the USA) was chasing in a tie for 3rd place, 2 strokes behind (5 under par 65).

It is noteworthy that Lee Kyung-hoon won his first PGA Tour title at the AT&T Byron Nelson in May last year. He crossed over to the US in 2019 with the qualification of 5th place in the 2018 Korn Ferry (2nd tier) Tour money rankings and became the 8th Korean champion in history after just 80 events. He has also won twice on the Japan Golf Tour (JGTO) with Nagashima Shigeo in 2012 and the Honma Tour World Cup in 2015, and achieved back-to-back victories at the Korean Open, known as 'Korea's national title,' in 2016 and 2017.

It is surprising that he has been relatively invisible since then. In particular, he was cut off in the last three tournaments consecutively, so before defending his title next week, it is urgent to tune his winning shot sense. Fortunately, on this day, he combined 7 birdies and 3 bogeys, leading with an average of 1.50 putts per hole, a 'stingy putting' performance. Although he made a bogey on the first hole (par 4), he energized himself with consecutive birdies on holes 3, 6, and 9-10, and recovered from a bogey on the 11th hole (par 4) with a birdie on the 12th hole (par 3). He added 'stepping stone birdies' on the 14th and 16th holes near the end. The bogey on the 18th hole (par 4) was rather disappointing.

Day stood out with a maximum drive of 323 yards and a fairway hit rate of 85.71%, showing 'precise shots.' Locally, the big news is the winning march of world No. 7 Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland). He is defending his title on a 'winning turf' where he has swept 3 of his 20 PGA Tour wins. He is tied for 17th place (3 under par 67). In Korea, Kim Si-woo (27) joined this group, while Kang Sung-hoon (35) was only tied for 106th place (1 over par 71).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.