Min Woo Lee takes over 12 minutes after hitting ball into bush; Alejandro Tosti reportedly takes issue

Before winning the Texas Children’s Houston Open Sunday, Min Woo Lee took over 12 minutes to take an unplayable and play his third shot on Memorial Park’s par-5 eighth hole.

The lengthy ordeal reportedly drew the ire of one of Lee’s playing competitors, too.

After driving his ball underneath a bush, Lee initially contemplated playing the ball. He got on his knees and attempted to address the ball with several clubs, but eventually his caddie, Bo Martin, called him off.

“We can drop this, kid, get it around the green and have a putt for 5; that’s a win,” Martin said.

So, that’s exactly what Lee did, advancing his third shot to about 85 yards from the hole and then rolling in a 6-footer for par. It was a clutch par save that ultimately proved the difference in a one-shot win over Scottie Scheffler and Gary Woodland; it just took Lee a while – especially considering he wasn’t waiting on a ruling. As Lee lined up that putt, NBC producers put on the bottom left of the screen a running clock for his time on the hole, which was already over 30 minutes.

Though the graphic went away by the time Lee made his stroke, it’s safe to assume it took the threesome of Lee, Alejandro Tosti and Ryan Fox over 31 minutes to complete the hole.

During the hole, the broadcast also picked up Tosti having a conversation with what appeared to be a rules official. There was no audio, but according to NBC on-course reporter Jim “Bones” Mackay, Tosti was unhappy with how long it had taken Lee to take his unplayable. Mackay then mentioned a moment on the first hole after Tosti rinsed his approach shot.

“I thought he was a little bit disrespectful to Fox on the first hole today when Tosti was taking a drop,” Mackay said.

The broadcast didn’t pick up any of that conversation, either.

But the storyline didn’t end there. Four holes later, after the group hit tee shots on the par-4 12th hole, cameras showed Tosti walking more than a hundred yards behind the other two players.

Mackay again chimed in.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but Tosti is playing at his own pace,” Mackay said. “At times, it’s normal. At times, it’s glacially slow. But he’s decided on this particular hole to really take his time, and he’s holding up play in this last group.”

Mackay would later add: “The bottom line is this is incredibly unfair to a 26-year-old guy (Lee) trying to get over the finish line for the first time.”

NBC analyst Kevin Kisner had this to say: “If it was me, I’d just walk over to Tosti and say, ‘What are you doing, bro?’”

The subject wasn’t brought up again the rest of the round, though Tosti was shown trying to punt one of his clubs – and whiffing – after missing the green at the 14th hole.

Tosti, who tied for fifth, was not requested for any interviews by reporters on the ground, per the PGA Tour. Also, Lee wasn’t asked about anything related to Tosti, slow play or his drop in his winner’s presser, though he did say in response to another question, “It was a bit of a backup, so we were waiting every hole.”

This marks the second straight year at this event that Tosti has been in a perceived kerfuffle. During last year’s third round, he and Tony Finau were involved in a debate about who was away from the hole; Tosti would eventually have to putt first, but not before calling Finau back over to move his mark. When Tosti fist-pumped after a birdie at the next hole, NBC on-course reporter John Wood implied that the celebration was directed at Finau, and Wood later described the mood between the two players as “completely icy.”

“It is not comfortable between those two at all,” Wood said. “It’s just tension.”

Tosti wasn’t asked about it that day, but he’s since given his version of events, explaining that he believed Finau should’ve putted first because his mark was where Tosti’s stance was.

“They took that incident to the next level and made a bunch of things and said a lot of things about me,” Tosti told Golf Channel earlier this week. “And then the very next hole, I make a putt for birdie from like 10 feet and I do a fist pump and then the reporter started saying that I fist-pumped to his (Finau’s) face, and it’s not even close. It’s crazy how the people can take and make stories from nothing, and it’s really sad because it really affects the players, and my family suffers a lot when they see things like this, they don’t think that it’s fair.”