Australian golf star Min Woo Lee has revealed he will play the Masters with a broken finger after suffering the freak injury in the gym last week.
Lee is also entering the year’s first major with an untimely bout of the flu but is remaining upbeat after detailing exactly how he fractured the wedding finger in his right hand.
“I dropped a dumb bell on my hand,” he said after managing nine holes around Augusta National on Tuesday with countrymen Adam Scott, Jason Day and Cameron Smith.
“I was in the gym 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 threw the dumb bell down and somehow clipped my right ring finger. Broke it.
“So I 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 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 pressure on me playing well.”
The 25-year-old is bidding to join his LPGA Tour star sister Minjee as a major winner and maintains, despite his injury and illness, that he can still challenge for the green jacket.
But the West Australian admits he will have to dig deep.
“You’re going to hear it from my voice: I’m not 100 per cent yet,” Lee said.
“Other than that, I actually feel very all right. Could have been a lot worse. I’m pretty happy to be standing here and especially playing nine holes and give it 100 per cent.
“I mean, (the) recovery was very miraculously good.
Min Woo Lee. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
“I have it bandaged up right now. I hit my first shot for the last week on Friday, so hit my first full driver. 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 I’m recovering very good, so icing and elevating as much as I can.”
The injury hasn’t even stopped the West Australian from doing weights.
“I still went to the gym last week as much as I could. Obviously didn’t do that exercise,” he said.
“Every time I looked at that 20-pound dumb bell, yeah, gave it a death stare.”