{"id":571154,"date":"2026-03-29T02:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T02:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/571154\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T02:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T02:14:13","slug":"min-woo-lee-stuns-with-bunker-shot-at-houston-open-video-karl-vilips-turns-birdie-into-triple-bogey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/571154\/","title":{"rendered":"Min Woo Lee stuns with bunker shot at Houston Open, video; Karl Vilips turns birdie into triple bogey"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been a mixed outing for the Australians at the Houston Open, with cult hero Min Woo Lee<\/a> near the top of the leaderboard at the end of the third round but rising star Karl Vilips<\/a> left to rue a missed birdie opportunity that turned into a triple bogey.<\/p>\n

USA’s Gary Woodland stayed in front at the end of the round on Sunday morning (AEDT) after adding a pair of birdies late, holding a a one-shot lead over Nicolai H\u00f8jgaard.<\/p>\n

Lee – who won the event last year – is tied for third with Michael Thorbjornsen, but sit five shots behind H\u00f8jgaard.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Frustrating’ rule ignites Shield final as super-sub shines<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: MotoGP champ penalised after ‘mistake’ that wiped out rival<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: AFL make decision on grand final after ‘mixed reviews’<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year’s winner produced a stunning shot on the 17th hole, hitting the ball from out of the bunker while on his knees and ending up claiming a birdie.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Min Woo Lee plays a shot from the bunker.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Jason Day<\/a> is tied for fifth at -11 while another Aussie in Adam Scott<\/a> is another two strokes behind on the leaderboard with one round to go.<\/p>\n

Things weren’t as positive for Vilips however, who is tied 27th after a horror round.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old had a chance to seal a birdie but due to the ugly placement of the pin, the Aussie ended up with a triple bogey.<\/p>\n

Controversy aside, the day belonged to Woodland, who has become a popular figure in golf for the way he has handled his recovery from brain surgery in 2023 and earlier this month opening up on his struggles with post-traumatic syndrome disorder.<\/p>\n

His golf has looked as good as ever, with full control of his swing and full use of his athletic power.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just got to take a deep breath,\u201d Woodland said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll have a good night ahead of me tonight to recover and rest, and tomorrow just don\u2019t get ahead of yourself. I\u2019m here, I put myself in this position for a reason.”<\/p>\n

His performance marked the first time he had held a lead at the end of 54 holes since his major title in 2019 at Pebble Beach.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Gary Woodland at the Houston Open.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

H\u00f8jgaard was right there with him, hitting a nice chip on the 16th for a birdie and getting up-and-down from a bunker on the 17th for another one.<\/p>\n

He has made 15 birdies and one eagle the last two rounds.<\/p>\n

The final day in Houston is a big one for many players looking to book a Masters spot, with only the top 50 making it into the marquee event. <\/p>\n

H\u00f8jgaard is still not in the Masters, though at No.47 is virtually a lock to stay in the top 50 barring a curious chain of events.<\/p>\n

Woodland would need nothing short of a victory to get back to the Masters, even a perk such as that is secondary considering all he has gone through.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s been a mixed outing for the Australians at the Houston Open, with cult hero Min Woo Lee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-571154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}