Seungmin Lee, the "Woo Youngwoo of Golf," Achieves Personal Best with Tied 22nd Place

Seungmin Lee, known as the "Woo Youngwoo of the golf world," achieved his personal best result on the Korea Professional Golf Association (KPGA) Tour.

On April 27, at the final fourth round of the Woori Financial Championship (total prize money: 1.5 billion KRW) held at Seowon Valley Golf Club (par 71, 7,031 yards) in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, he shot a 1-over-par 72 to finish tied for 22nd place with a total of 2-over-par 286. This result far surpassed his previous best, which was a tie for 37th at the 2023 KB Financial Liiv Championship.

Seungmin Lee, who has autism spectrum disorder, achieved his personal best by finishing tied for 22nd place at the KPGA Tour Woori Financial Championship. KPGA

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Starting the day in a tie for 14th, Seungmin Lee recorded one birdie and two bogeys. He had a shaky start with bogeys on holes 2 and 4, but made his first birdie on the 9th hole (par 4). In the back nine, he successfully made par saves on every hole. Despite having autism spectrum disorder, Seungmin Lee achieved his dream of becoming a professional golfer by earning full KPGA Tour membership in 2017 after persistent efforts. Like the drama character Woo Youngwoo, who overcame autism to become an outstanding lawyer, Lee has become a symbol of triumph over adversity.

Seungmin Lee won the inaugural US Adaptive Open organized by the United States Golf Association (USGA) in 2022, and also claimed victory at last year's Australian All Abilities Championship. This year, he secured full status on the China Tour. Thanks to intensive winter training, his performance has improved significantly, and he managed to endure the strong winds during the tournament.

Seungmin Lee said, "I'm happy to have set a new personal best," and added, "I enjoyed playing in front of so many spectators at this tournament." He continued, "The secret to my good performance was increasing my practice time by essentially living at the golf course during winter training. I spent 100 days living on the grass," explaining, "Practicing and playing so many shots on the grass led to these good results."

Seungmin Lee does not have a KPGA Tour seed, so he competes in tournaments as an invited player. He stated, "If I get more opportunities to play, my goal is to always make the cut, earn points, and secure a direct ticket to the KPGA Tour Qualifying Tournament at the end of the year."

Meanwhile, Taehun Lee (Canada) managed to reduce his score by only one stroke and allowed Taeyoung Kang and Junhong Park to catch up, all finishing at 5-under-par 279. However, Lee clinched victory with a birdie on the first playoff hole, the 18th (par 4). This marks his fourth career win since the 2021 Hana Bank Invitational, earning him a winner's prize of 300 million KRW.

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