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.
"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.
Was cooking too hard. Restaurant closed for now. Masters time now. Let Him Cook🔥 https://t.co/ipZaEtupWV pic.twitter.com/HhBlQON9PyApril 9, 2024
"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.
