Min Woo Lee Playing The Masters With Broken Finger After Freak Accident

The Australian dropped a dumbell on his finger last Saturday but says the recovery has been "miraculously good"

Min Woo Lee in a white cap and white jacket during a Masters practice round
The World No.32 broke a finger and caught the flu ahead of this week's Masters
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Min Woo Lee is one of the contenders for the Green Jacket this week but the young Aussie will be taking on Augusta with a broken finger after a freak gym accident.

The 25-year-old, who has three DP World Tour wins to his name, was runner-up at the recent Cognizant Classic but is hampered this week at The Masters thanks to an unfortunate incident where he dropped a dumbell on his finger.

And to make matters worse, he had to call off his practice round on Monday due to "feeling under the weather" from catching the flu this past weekend.

Lee says it has been "amazing" how quickly his finger has healed but he only started hitting full shots on Friday.

"I hurt my hand last week. Broke it. But, yeah, I have it bandaged up right now. You know, I hit my first shot for the last week on Friday, so hit my first full driver," he explained at Augusta on Tuesday.

"Yeah, honestly, it's actually amazing how fast the recovery was. It was bruised, still swollen, but not actually that painful which is really strange. Somehow recovering very good, so icing and elevating as much as I can.

"Yeah, I guess it wasn't the best prep, and I go the flu two days ago. Yeah, it's going great.

"I was in the gym on I think Saturday. Yeah, Saturday last week. I was just doing like a side bridge glute thing and it was literally my last rep, last set thing, and I like threw the dumbell down and somehow clipped my right ring finger.

Min Woo Lee holds up the Australian PGA Championship trophy

Lee has four pro wins since joining the paid ranks in 2019

(Image credit: Getty Images)

"Went to the doctor and I thought it was okay because I could move it. It was just red. I thought it would be fine. Then they came in and said, you've broken it. So, yeah, a lot of anxiety.

"This is the first time telling the public. We didn't know as a team to tell or to not, and I felt like I should tell people because there was a lot of the pressure on me I guess playing well. Honestly, felt nearly up to scratch to where it was when I saw you. So it was -- yeah, I mean, recovery was very miraculously good.

"Early on I was hitting chip shots and stuff, like few days afterwards, and it was pretty average. Yeah, I mean, I played a full nine holes and hit some decent shots so, again, just surprised.

"Yeah. I think it was very lucky. It was a very lucky. It was probably the best worst thing."

Lee plays with Patrick Cantlay and Rickie Fowler at 10.06am on Thursday morning and 1.12pm on Friday afternoon after the Masters tee times were released on Tuesday.

He plays in his third Masters this week, with his best finish of T14th coming in his 2022 debut.

Elliott Heath
News Editor

Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!

Elliott is currently playing:

Driver: Titleist TSR4

3 wood: Titleist TSi2

Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1

Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5

Ball: Srixon Z Star XV