Min Woo Lee makes fast start at Players Championship

Min Woo Lee has lived up to his promise of delivering a birdie blitz to charge into early contention at the mega-rich Players Championship in Florida.

Lee carded a four-under-par 68 to share fourth place, four strokes behind American clubhouse leader Chad Ramey, midway through the opening round at TPC Sawgrass.

He reeled off seven birdies and was sitting atop the leaderboard at the PGA Tour’s flagship tournament before dropping two shots in his final two holes on Thursday.

Lee is ranked 50th in the world and needs to retain that top-50 position until April 2 to earn an invite back to the Masters, where the Perth ace equalled the front-nine record of 30 shots in the final round last year.

His fine start at this week’s $US25 million event, after missing the cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, should be enough to secure the 24-year-old a Masters spot.

“Everything was clicking, especially the putting. The putting was really solid,” Lee said.

“I did change something with my putting. Felt like I missed a lot of putts right, so I started lining the ball up, and they started on line, which I thought I was doing without the line.

“So it was quite nice to actually see the ball rolling on the intended line. 

“Everything was pretty good, solid off the tee and solid approach play, which is a nice recipe, especially on this course.”

Fellow Australian Cameron Davis, outside the top 100 and needing a big result, also made a strong start with a three-under 69 to be in a tie for ninth.

“Very pleased. It was a good solid round of golf,” Davis said after mixing six birdies with three bogeys.

“Kept it in play really nicely, made a couple putts here and there. But it was just a really well put together round and stayed in it nicely with the mental game as well.

“I kept calm and cruised my way through the round and, if you can do that four times around here, you’re pretty happy.”

Adam Scott, approaching the 10th anniversary of his 2013 Masters triumph, posted an even-par 72, while Jason Day and Lucas Herbert had afternoon tee times.