You can tell a lot about a man from their golf bag. Min Woo Lee advertises Wagyu beef and his Instagram handle, not necessarily in that order.
In big, brash letters across the front of his sleek black bag reads “Kow Steaks”, an American Wagyu beef provider. They might have stumbled upon one of professional sport’s most unlikely endorsements.
It started when Lee added an innocuous social media post with a tagline: let him cook. The loose translation is: let him do his thing.
He walks onto tee boxes and down fairways, and primarily Americans, who will shout anything at anyone, will bellow the slogan at Lee. He laps it up. Some savvy advertising guru saw a chance to make a buck.
On Thursday, after he shot a sizzling seven-under 64 to be within one shot of the lead after the first round of the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland, one of the first people Lee sought out was a fan who had shirts made up plastered with “let him cook” taglines.
While other professional golfers herd a team of minders to look after everything for them bar putting a little white ball in a hole, Lee embraces his sport’s most riveting brand.
Min Woo Lee and his golf bag which advertises wagyu beef and his Instagram handle.Credit: Getty
He wants to be No.1 in the world, and No.1 on the web too. His huge TikTok and Instagram followings have been built, mostly, by his own ingenuity. He posts viral trick shot videos, asks tournament officials to help him with photos of the day’s play, so he can upload them, and films himself driving down Magnolia Lane at Augusta National, asking fans what song they would have playing in the car.
Told of the fan with the shirt on Thursday, Lee said: “I saw him probably early on. It was pretty cool. Might have to sell it.”
But it doesn’t seem to mess with what he does between the ropes.
Wearing his trademark black turtleneck outfit, the 25-year-old not only upstaged playing partner Cameron Smith (73), but might have played him out of the tournament. The 6am galleries came mainly for Smith, but left wanting more from Lee.
“I felt really good out there, and it’s awesome to have such big crowds, particularly [at] six o’clock in the morning,” he said. “I’m happy they came and supported us. This is probably the biggest crowd I’ve got all year with the exception of The Masters and The Open.”
Adam Scott shot an opening round 66 at Royal Queensland.Credit: Getty
On Tuesday night, Lee’s sister Minjee won the Greg Norman Medal as Australia’s best golfer for the past 12 months. You couldn’t find two more different personalities. You sense Minjee was glad she was flying back to Australia when she won the award because it didn’t mean she had to get up and give an acceptance speech. Min Woo had already won over the crowd as he sat in the middle of Smith and Scott, trading barbs with his older compatriots.
Scott tried his best and keep pace with Lee with an opening round five-under 66, but both are trailing little-known Spaniard Joel Moscatel Nachshon (63), the world No.1162 who tied Jed Morgan’s course record to lead by one.
The only benefit for Scott of his early tee time was trying to beat jet lag.
“I think [when it started raining] was when I was truly waking up, maybe about 7am,” he said.
Smith will need to wake up quickly. The Queenslander bumbled his way through his first round with uncharacteristic iron play, and risks missing the cut as he vies for a fourth Australian PGA title. His primary desire is to win the Australian Open for the first time next week, and the rest of this tournament might be a fine-tuning exercise for Sydney.
“It was frustrating, upsetting,” he said. “I really couldn’t get anything going. I couldn’t get it close enough to the hole. I felt like I would have a half-decent shot, and it would go to 30 or 40 feet, and I would never really have a chance at birdie. It was just crappy.
“There was no reason why you couldn’t have gone low from [when the wind died down]. It was just pretty terrible golf.”
Which couldn’t be said of Lee.
He waltzed out of Royal Queensland and didn’t think about getting a long night of sleep, just what it was going to be like at American rapper Post Malone’s concert later that night.
There might be a collaboration waiting there too. We’ll learn about it on TikTok.
