Min Woo Lee rediscovered his touch around the greens in spectacular fashion as he recorded three chip-ins en route to a second-round 66 at the US PGA Championship.
The Australian started his week with a 72 but his remarkable hat-trick on Friday helped him to four under and ensured he will be playing on the weekend at Valhalla Golf Club.
"A few chip-ins, which was nice," he said. "That definitely helped the scorecard. But a bit more solid than yesterday.
"Yesterday I just had a few missed iron shots and today it was trending in the right direction.
"The chip-ins were nice, obviously, and those were three birdies, so it was most of the score."
After a birdie on the tenth, he produced his first chip-in from the greenside rough on the 12th and then followed it with a moment of magic on the 16th.
With a bunker between his ball and the hole and a downhill lie to contend with, Lee managed to get a soft landing, although the ball still clattered the pin before falling.
A dropped shot on the 17th was then regained on the second with his third chip-in of the day and he went on to add gains at the fifth and seventh.
"It's a weird one," he said. "The last couple of weeks I haven't chipped as good as I normally do.
Second round 66 (-5) for @Minwoo27Lee including THREE chip ins 👨🍳#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/TrzN0DI2fk
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 17, 2024
"Normally I would have a chip-in a tournament and I would chip it, on a decent lie, I would probably nearly close to hole it or be around the hole.
"The last couple weeks it's been pretty average, so it's nice for the confidence to hole three of them.
"They weren't easy ones. 16 was pretty special: it was in deep rough into the grain and I was just trying to get it on the green close and it ended up going in.
"It was just one of those days where it kind of went my way. Yeah, they just dropped."
