Min Woo Lee Wins the Texas Children's Houston Open, Holding Off Scheffler and Woodland for His First PGA TOUR Title

For most of Sunday, Min Woo Lee looked like a man taking a victory lap. Then one swing on the 16th tee turned the Texas Children's Houston Open into a white-knuckle finish, and Lee had to win it all over again with a putter in his hands from 55 feet.

Lee closed with a 3-under 67 at Memorial Park to finish at 20-under 260 and win by one over Scottie Scheffler and Gary Woodland. It is the 26-year-old Australian's first PGA TOUR title in his 56th start, and according to the AP, the 260 broke the tournament record by four shots.

Cruise Control, Then Chaos

Lee started the day four clear and spent most of the round managing it with very little drama. The one early wobble came at the par-5 eighth, where Lee had to take an unplayable lie and still scrambled for par from 87 yards. Lee turned in 2-under 33, then birdied the 12th and 13th back to back to keep the cushion at four. At one point on the back nine, per the AP, the lead was five.

Then came the 16th. Lee sliced the tee shot into the pond on the right, re-teed and played the third from the tee box, and two-putted from 40 feet for bogey. It was Lee's first bogey in 41 holes, and with Woodland and Scheffler both posting numbers ahead of him, the lead was suddenly down to one with two to play.

"That's why Sundays are so tough," Lee said, per the PGA TOUR. "You know people are creeping. You know people are attacking."

The Putt on 18

After a par on the 17th, Lee stood on the final tee with a one-shot lead and every reason to be nervous. The approach from 155 yards missed left and ran through the green, settling on the fringe more than 50 feet from the hole.

"I would have chipped that probably nine of 10 times if I had a match or I was just at home playing," Lee said. Under pressure, Lee chose the putter as the reliable option, and the ball trundled across the green and stopped about 8 inches from the cup. Tap-in par. Title.

"I was very happy to see it go very close," Lee said, which is about the most understated description of a tournament-winning lag putt you will ever hear.

Woodland's Statement

If Lee's day was about holding on, Woodland's was about pure aggression. Woodland played the last four holes in 4 under to shoot 8-under 62, tying the Memorial Park course record, and then had to watch the finish on a phone from the range to see whether it would be enough.

It was not, by one. But context matters here. This was Woodland's best result since brain surgery to remove a tumor in September 2023, in what is the final year of his exemption from winning the 2019 U.S. Open. A runner-up finish at 19 under is a loud reminder of what Woodland can still do.

"Everyone out here knows how talented the kid is," Woodland said of Lee, per the AP.

Scheffler Pushes, Lee Holds

Scheffler, five back to start the day, did exactly what the world No. 1 is supposed to do. A run of four straight birdies pulled Scheffler within one, and the 63 put the pressure squarely on Lee. "Just trying to put as much pressure on Min Woo as I could have," Scheffler said.

The chance to force a playoff slipped away on the 18th, where Scheffler's 7-iron came up about 25 yards short. A chip to a few feet saved par, but birdie was what Scheffler needed. It was Scheffler's final start before heading to Augusta National to defend the Masters title.

The Low Rounds Kept Coming

Sunday turned Memorial Park into a shootout. Sami Välimäki of Finland also shot 62, tying the tournament's single-round record, and finished alone in fourth at 17 under. Rory McIlroy, who was flirting with the cut line on Friday, shot 64 despite bogeys on his first and last holes to tie for fifth at 15 under with Wyndham Clark, Taylor Pendrith and Alejandro Tosti.

Tosti, who started the day second, closed with 68, as did Ryan Gerard, a co-leader after Thursday who finished ninth.

The Masters race came down to decimals. Michael Kim made a 6-foot par putt on the final hole for a 69 and a tie for 32nd, enough to move to No. 50 in the world ranking and grab the last spot inside the cutoff for an invitation. Kim edged Ben Griffin by just 0.2 in two-year average points.

What It Means

For Lee, this is the breakthrough that has felt overdue for a while. The near misses were real: a final-round 76 at THE PLAYERS in 2023, two runner-up finishes in 2024, and a share of the 36-hole lead at Sawgrass just two weeks earlier that ended in a tie for 20th. Lee also became the fifth first-time winner on the PGA TOUR this season and one of eight players to make Houston the site of a first TOUR win.

"I always felt like I had the assets to win," Lee said. "It was just, 'Can you do it, mentally?'"

The rewards are significant. Lee collects 500 FedExCup points and jumps to 16th in the season standings, and the win opens the door to the rest of the year's $20 million Signature Events. Lee was already in the Masters field through the year-end world ranking.

The brother of LPGA major champion Minjee Lee now has a PGA TOUR trophy of his own. It came with a bogey that made it harder than it should have been, and a putt from 55 feet that made it look easy at the end.

Catch up on the week in our Round 1, Round 2 and Round 3 recaps. Final scoring is on the official PGA TOUR leaderboard (opens in a new tab), and the TOUR's winner's story (opens in a new tab) has more.

Sources: PGA TOUR (winner's story, Round 4 recap, leaderboard), AP, NBC Sports/Golf Channel, ESPN. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: PGA TOUR.