3 minute read

Australia's Min Woo Lee will be the highest-ranked golfer at the elite Asia Pacific Amateur Championship in Singapore this week.

Australia's Min Woo Lee has accepted that the pressure of being the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship's highest-ranked player is an obstacle he'll have to overcome to secure a dream invitation to the Masters at Augusta National.

Lee headlines a six-player Australian contingent at the event and at No.10 on the world amateur rankings the 20-year-old is the top player in the field this week in Singapore.

Organised by the Masters Tournament and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, the Asia Pacific Amateur affords the winner a start in the following year's Masters and British Open should they retain amateur status.

Lee, the younger brother of LPGA Tour star Minjee Lee, is desperate to contest professional golf's two most revered major championships as an amateur.

"It would mean a lot; it's a dream," Lee told AAP from Singapore.

"We all want to play the Masters at least once in our lives, but a British Open would also be special."

With the event restricted to players from the Asia Pacific region, American amateur stars such as world No.1 Braden Thornberry and No.5 Matthew Wolff, as well as reigning US Amateur champion Viktor Hovland, from Norway, were ineligible to play.

It leaves Lee as the only player in the field from the world's top 10 and he will tee off on Thursday at Sentosa's New Tanjong course as the heavy favourite.

"There is a bit of pressure being the highest-ranked player but I've gotten the hang of that from other tournaments I've played," Lee said.

"You still have to play good golf to win and I'm determined to do that this week."

Lee led last year's Asia Pacific Amateur in New Zealand at the 36-hole mark, only to fade to a tie for third place.

"It is unfinished business for me this year. I felt like I didn't play that great in Wellington and came third," he said.

With intentions to turn professional at the end of this year, this is likely Lee's last chance to join fellow Australians Curtis Luck (2016) and Antonio Murdaca (2014) as Asia Pacific champions.

Also competing at Sentosa are Lee's countrymen and fellow world top-30 amateurs David Micheluzzi (13) and Zach Murray (30), who was the only Australian to make the round of 16 at this year's US Amateur at Pebble Beach.

The Australian contingent is rounded out by Dylan Perry (31), Shae Wools-Cobb (37) and Blake Windred (55).