"It doesn't help with trying to claw back"- Minjee Lee on navigating tricky Le Golf National after scoring over par on day 2 of the Paris Olympics
Minjee Lee finished the first 36 holes of the Paris 2024 Olympic Golf Tournament with a score of 1 over. She is currently tied for 22nd place, 9 shots behind leader Morgane Metraux.
The Australian had an unfortunate second round, failing to break par. After her performance of the day, Minjee Lee spoke to the press covering the event about how she dealt with the challenges of the round.
Here is some of what Minjee Lee had to say (via ASAP Sports):
"I felt like starting today, even warming up, I felt pretty good. But obviously you never know with golf. Sometimes it doesn't quite suit your eye, even though I played practise rounds, played the first round."
She added:
"So yeah, I obviously started bogey and then double. It doesn't help with trying to claw back. I think trying to keep it together, it was nice with the birdie on 18. I've got a few things to work on and hopefully I can turn it up for the weekend."
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games are the third in Minjee Lee's career. In Rio de Janeiro 2016, she tied for 7th place and in Tokyo 2021, she tied for 29th place.
In 10 seasons as a professional golfer, Minjee Lee has 13 wins, 10 of them on the LPGA Tour (2 Majors). She is currently ranked 13th in the world.
A look at Minjee Lee's performance in the first two rounds of the Olympic golf event
Minjee Lee has had an up and down performance in the first two rounds of the Paris 2024 golf event. On both the first and second day, the Australian had some unfortunate moments followed by some very positive ones.
On the first day, Lee was birdie-less until the 14th, with bogeys on the 6th, 7th and 12th. From the 14th, however, she was a different player, making four birdies and no bogeys in her last five holes to finish the round at 1 under.
She started the second round similarly, bogeying the 1st and double bogeying the 2nd. She regained some ground with a birdie on the 3rd, but lost it again with a bogey on the 5th.
From there, Lee picked up the pace, parring the next 12 holes in a row and finishing with a birdie on the 18th. Her score for the day was 2 over, bringing her score for the event to 1 over after 36 holes.
Her main problems were the approach to the green and her putting, in both areas she has negative stats after the first two rounds (-0.880 and -0.680 respectively).
Lee will play the third round in a group with Austria's Emma Spitz and Germany's Esther Henseleit. Her tee time will be at 5:17 am Eastern Time.