Soomin Lee

Soomin quietly turned professional in 2014 after very impressive performances as an amateur. The first record of his playing experience was in 2010 at the GS Caltex Maekyung Open as an amateur. He was 16 and came T-9th. In 2011 he finished T-10th in the Korean Open behind Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler, and then chased Hideki Matsuyama all the way at the Asian Amateur Championship to finish 2nd one shot back.
In 2013 he won the Gunsan Open on the Korean Tour. He was still a 19 year old amateur at this stage. He kept his amateur status until halfway through the 2014 season, and in 2015 he went to the Asian Tour Qualifying School and picked up his card. It didn?t take him too long to impress. In only his second start of the season he was a runner-up at the Bangladesh Open. A month later he won the Gunsan Open for the second time, but this time as a professional. He finished the year 3rd in the Order of merit on his native Korean Tour.
Then, at the time, probably the biggest tournament of his career came along, the co-sanctioned Hong Kong Open. A final round 64 put him T-3rd alongside Patrick Reed and Matthew Fitzpatrick. He has a lot of promise and like a lot of young Korean golfers he has a beautiful swing. Win or not tomorrow, Soomin is now on our radar, but over the last 10 years we have seen many young Korean golfers rise up but not always stay up.
2016 Notes: Lee came close to winning the Maybank Championship Malaysia but when he double-bogeyed two of the last three holes he finished two shots behind Marcus Fraser and T-2nd. Two months later Lee captured his breakthrough victory in style as he claimed a two-shot win on the fifth day of the Shenzhen International in China with a winning score of 16 under par. Lee's win earns him affiliate membership on the European Tour. Two weeks later on the Korean Tour Lee finished 2nd at the Caltax Maekyung Open, losing a playoff to Sanghyun Park.

2016 Asian Tour results
Tournament Position R1 R2 R3 R4 Total Earnings (USD)
SMBC Singapore Open T-34 70 70 70 74 284 7,100
Leopalace21 Myanmar Open 7 71 66 68 67 272 21,375
Bashundhara Bangladesh Open T-7 64 69 74 67 274 7,950
Maybank Championship Malaysia T-2 66 68 64 73 271 260,565
Perth International. T-22 74 70 69 68 281 12,980
True Thailand Classic Cut 79 69 148 0
Hero Indian Open T-51 72 68 76 72 288 6,142
AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open T-59 75 74 77 74 300 3,189