Min Woo Lee claimed his first Rolex Series title after a brilliant play-off victory over Thomas Detry and Matt Fitzpatrick and secured his place at next week's Open Championship. This will be Lee's first appearance in the oldest golf major, but if we take a look at the statistics, he shouldn't expect a great week at Royal St George’s GC.
We all know about the Par 3 contest curse, but can we say that there is a curse which relates the Scottish Open and The Open?
Since the first edition of the Scottish Open in 1972 the tournament has been played the week before The Open (with two exceptions - 1986 & 1996) but only on a few occasions the Scottish Open champion has been in the mix at the following Open. Only one player managed to win the Scottish Open and The Open Championship in the same year.
Phil Mickelson at the 142nd Open Championship © Getty Images
The lone exception is the legendary Phil Mickelson who won the Scottish Open in 2013 and then surprisingly claimed his fifth major at Muirfield a week later. Four Scottish Open champions from the last 20 editions of the tournament have missed the cut a week after their triumph. The average position of those who made the weekend is 25th which is far from impressive even for a major.
The good news for Min Woo Lee is that it has happened before for a player to win the Open at his first participation. Ten players have done it before. The last who did it was Ben Curtis in 2003 who held-off Thomas Bjørn and won in his major debut.
Ben Curtis and Thomas Bjorn (R) at the 2003 Open © Getty Images
Lee played solid golf all week, so who knows. If he keeps the momentum and the high standard, he can become the first Australian major winner since 2015 when Jason Day won the PGA Championship.
