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Min Woo Lee is the best of Australia's Masters debutants after opening with five birdies in a first-round one-over-par 73 at Augusta National.
Young gun Min Woo Lee was left buzzing after continuing his Masters odyssey with an adrenaline-charged, birdie-filled opening round at Augusta National.
A day after lighting up the par-3 contest with his major-winning sister Minjee on the bag, Lee led the way among Australia's three Masters rookies with a rollercoaster round of 73 to be in a tie for 31st in the 90-man field.
Even one over par wasn't enough to wipe away the 23-year-old's beaming smile after Lee bagged five birdies to go with four bogeys and a double on Thursday.
"Unbelievable," was how he described the experience.
"First time around, and I thought there were a lot of good things out there.
"I got it going early and just made a silly double on six, but that's Augusta National. It was pretty brutal towards the end but I'm happy with my score."
Teeing off before the biggest gallery of his life, Lee dropped a shot on the first before collecting birdies on four of the next seven holes to briefly share the early lead.
"It's crazy. It's the most people I've seen ever in one spot," he said.
"I was just really jacked up. Everything was going five, 10 yards longer and it kind of took a while to adjust to it.
"My heartbeat was probably jumping, but I felt really calm out there.
"Yeah, watching from TV, I would rather be out here playing, but I hopefully gave a good show to the guys back home and everyone watching. It's fun being out here with all the people."
His next goal to make the halfway cut, with Lee trailing first-round leader Sungjae Im by six shots.
Fellow Augusta rookies Lucas Herbert (74) and Cam Davis (75) are one and two strokes further adrift.
"Just proud of sort of battling away. I'm not too far away," Herbert said.
"You play well tomorrow morning, and you're not that far away again. So I haven't shot myself out of the tournament, I guess."
Herbert made double bogey after finding the water on the famous par-3 12th but was otherwise solid first time around the Georgian pines.
Davis couldn't buy a birdie on his debut.
"It was a tough round of golf, but very enjoyable. Great to be out there and get my first one under my belt out there," he said.
"I actually hit the ball really well, just didn't make anything happen, and it kind of turned into a bit of a grind with the winds being hard to read.
"But I was prepared for that to be the case. I can't be too disappointed."
