Min Woo Lee booked his ticket to the Paris Olympics the place he’ll play with sister Minjee on the Australian crew after Cameron Smith did not make the inroads wanted within the last spherical of the US Open.
Smith wanted a miracle at Pinehurst No.2 to leap greater than 30 locations on the world rankings to usurp Lee within the last occasion earlier than Monday’s qualification cut-off.
However whereas each carded back-to-back rounds over par throughout the weekend, Lee’s one-over last spherical propelled him to a 3rd top-30 main end this 12 months, whereas Smith went backwards.
The Queenslander shot a two-over 72, to complete on seven-over, equal with fellow Aussie Adam Scott in a tie for thirty second. They had been the one three Australians to make the reduce. Jason Day, the highest-ranked Aussie at world No.21, didn’t make the weekend on the US Open however shall be Lee’s Olympics teammate having made his dedication to go to Paris.
Lee was fitted out for an Olympic uniform throughout final 12 months’s Australian Open in Sydney and had made it clear considered one of his main targets for 2024 was to get to Paris.
“Representing Australia can be an honour,” he mentioned not too long ago.
“My sister received to play in it a few occasions and it regarded so particular, so I’ll be very eager to get on that crew and play for Australia.”
The closing date for girls’s Olympic qualifying is June 24, however Hannah Inexperienced and Minjee Lee will once more put on inexperienced and gold, as they did in Tokyo, each sitting within the prime 10 on the world rankings. Grace Kim misplaced her likelihood for a large rankings push by blowing a five-shot last spherical lead on the LPGA tour occasion.
The pairing of Lee and Day in Paris shall be make them the fifth and sixth male representatives on the Olympics. Scott Hend and Marcus Fraser performed for Australia at Rio in 2016, whereas Smith and Marc Leishman performed in Tokyo.
Minjee Lee will head to the Olympics for the third time.
The dearth of Australian success on the US Open continued an 18 12 months drought.
No Australian has received the US Open since Geoff Oglivy joined David Graham (1981) on the honour board in 2006.
Two-time runner-up Day, together with Cam Davis and Jason Scrivener, missed the reduce this week.
