Min Woo Lee Wins Scottish Open After 3-Way Playoff
- Details
- Category: Inside Golf
- Published: 2021-07-12
NORTH BERWICK, Scotland (AP) — Australia’s Min Woo Lee won a three-way playoff against Matt Fitzpatrick and Thomas Detry at the Scottish Open to clinch his second European Tour title.
Lee birdied the first extra hole after the trio had finished tied on 18-under par at The Renaissance Club following a 90-minute weather delay late in the final round.
Lee and Detry also secured places in the British Open at Royal St. George’s, with England’s Jack Senior claiming the final one on offer thanks to a tie for 10th.
The 22-year-old Lee, whose sister Minjee Lee was runner-up in the Ladies Scottish Open at nearby Gullane in 2018, had earlier birdied six holes in a row from the third on his way to a flawless closing 7-under 64.
That set the clubhouse target on 18 under and the final pair of Fitzpatrick and Detry were the only players capable of matching it after rounds of 67.
Ian Poulter, Ryan Palmer and the Irish Open winner Lucas Herbert finished a shot behind, with U.S. Open champion Jon Rahm another stroke back in seventh, a result which means he loses his No. 1 ranking to Dustin Johnson.
On an extremely crowded leaderboard, Detry had emerged from a five-way tie for the lead with a birdie on the 13th. But the Belgian then missed from close range for par on the 14th at the moment the hooters sounded to suspend play due to the threat of lightning.
When play resumed Lee was the first to take advantage of the pivotal par-five 16th and his birdie was subsequently matched by Detry and Fitzpatrick, with Lee then leaving a birdie putt on the 18th just inches short of the hole.
He made no such mistake when the trio returned to the 18th for sudden death however, holing from nine feet for the winning birdie.
Australia’s Wade Ormsby had earlier won 204 bottles of whisky for making a hole-in-one on the 12th, one bottle for each yard of the hole.