This Masters pro broke his finger last week. How will make you wince

Min Woo Lee smiles. He knows what he did may equally showcase his strength, a bit of his carelessness, and his ability to come clean.

Yeah, this is pretty good. 

He had just finished his practice round on Tuesday at Augusta National in advance of this week’s Masters, and the reporter herd was curious how things looked. He said he’d been sick Monday, but now he was better. He said it was great to play one of his favorite courses. He said the greens were playing quick. While he talked, his right ring finger rested in a wrap. 

Interesting. 

How’d it feel?

“Yeah, I hurt my hand last week,” Lee said. “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. 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 got the flu two days ago. Yeah, it’s going great.”

Wait. 

Break?

More questions. 

Like how, Min Woo?

“I dropped a dumbbell on my hand,” he said. 

Wait. 

You dropped a dumbbell on your hand?

Even more questions. 

Again, like how, Min Woo?

“I was in the gym on, I think, Saturday,” he said. “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 dumbbell down and somehow clipped my right ring finger so it …”

Wow. 

But again, it’s broken. Like broken, broken?

Broken broken. 

“Yeah, so I went to the doctor,” Lee said. “Went to the doctor and I thought it was OK 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 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.”

Wild. 

The takeaways are several.

We appreciate the honesty. Lee could have said nothing. Fibbed. We’d have been none the wiser. 

We respect the dedication. Clearly, Lee had been getting after it in the gym. Feeling the burn. Grinding.  

We respect the pain tolerance. He played Tuesday. He’ll play starting at 10:06 a.m. local time Thursday. Hopes are high.  

We appreciate the ability to laugh at yourself. 

One more reporter question about the injury was asked to Lee. 

Actually it’s more of a comment. 

Maybe stay off the weights for a while then.

“Yeah, I mean, I still went to the gym last week as much as I could,” Lee said. “Obviously didn’t do that exercise.

“Every time I looked at that 20-pound dumbbell, yeah, gave it a death stare.”

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.