On the back of his three-stroke win at the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship on Sunday, Min Woo will climb to No.38 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

That makes him Australia’s third-highest ranked men’s player behind only Cameron Smith (No.18) and Jason Day (21).

While Smith is desperate to don the green and gold for a second time, Day’s Olympic ambition is less clear.

That could open the door for Lee to join Minjee in Paris, big sister a lock given her current Rolex Women’s World Golf Ranking of No.5.

Such are Lee’s prospects of an Olympic debut, he and a select group of players will undergo fittings for Olympic uniforms this week in Sydney, bringing a new sense of reality to what just a few years ago was an impossible dream.

“I think we’re going to get a team fitting tomorrow or next week,” said the newest winner of the Joe Kirkwood Cup, pictured with parents, Soonam and Clara.

“You don’t want to get ahead of yourself and get fitted for something that you’re not in, so yeah, there’s a bit of pressure there, and I like pressure.

“I normally tend to play well when I need to make something or I need to do something to get in a tournament, so I’m really excited for that.

“That would be a true honour, to play for Australia.”

It's @Minwoo27Lee's world and we're all just living in it 🤩#AusPGA pic.twitter.com/iGDDFJZhq5

— PGA of Australia (@PGAofAustralia) November 26, 2023

Given that the four Australian golf representatives for Paris won’t be finalised until well into 2024, Lee knows that he needs to extend his current rich vein of form for as long as possible.

He also knows that there is the very real prospect of being upstaged this week by big sister Minjee.

Currently being shadowed by an ABC film crew for a future episode of Australian Story, Minjee and Min Woo enter the week as two of the standout favourites for the women’s and men’s Australian Opens to be contested at The Australian Golf Club and The Lakes Golf Club.

Already the first brother-sister pair in golf history to win on major world tours in consecutive weeks, such an accomplishment this week would elevate the Lee siblings into all-time great status well before either turn 30.

The pair have already won the Vic Open two years apart while Minjee has made a habit of stealing back Lee family bragging rights.

When Min Woo won the Scottish Open in 2021, Minjee responded with a breakthrough major victory two weeks later at the Amundi Evian Championship.

And when Min Woo won the SJM Macao Open on October 15, Minjee took just seven days to claim her 10th LPGA Tour win at the BMW Ladies Championship in Korea.

“It’s funny, because every time I win it seems like next week she wins, so if you guys want to put some money on my sister winning next week, you’ll probably win,” Lee joked less than an hour after putting out on the 18th green at Royal Queensland Golf Club on Sunday.

“It’s cool. If I win next week or she doesn’t win, it will be nice to have that for the Christmas and for the New Year’s break, have it for a few weeks, that will be nice.

“I’m obviously trying to be as good as I can and she’s one of a kind. She’s a really great golfer and she’s not slowing down.

“She knows she slowed down early in the year but she’s found a way to win again,.

“That’s not a secret to anyone.

“She’s always worked hard and hopefully I can follow in her footsteps and keep winning tournaments.”

And perhaps matching Olympic gold medals.

Eaves tees off alongside Geoff Ogilvy and American Julian Suri at 6.19am on Sunday in the final round of the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship. It’s no given, but he is hoping that his next game of golf will be at City Golf Club in Toowoomba next Saturday for his birthday.

Because little wins mean so much right now.

Like the four-footer Eaves made to stay alive in the playoff at Monday qualifying for the PGA Championship at Wynnum Golf Club.

Or the 10-footer he made at the second playoff hole that meant, come Thursday, he would join the likes of Adam Scott, Min Woo Lee and Cameron Smith in contesting a golf tournament worth $2 million.

But this is not about money.

It’s about a golfer who had to care for his three children – including a newborn daughter named Josephine – when his wife Kimberly was diagnosed with lymphoma, just nine days after giving birth.

For Sam, a PGA Professional now living in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, golf quickly became an afterthought.

As specialists scrambled to uncover why Kimberly had unbearable back pain, couldn’t raise her right leg and could barely lift her left arm above shoulder height, Sam juggled his baby daughter and two boys aged 3 and 9.

Golf? Sam barely had time to tie his shoes.

“I couldn’t really function some mornings,” Sam shares.

“I’d just get out of bed and be like, I don’t even know how to cook breakfast or pack the kids’ lunch. I don’t know what to grab first. Do I grab them a sandwich or what are we having for breakfast?

“How do you deal with it? I don’t know, mate, because you don’t really know what’s ahead.

“You just deal with it in two-hour blocks at a time.

“What are we doing for the next two hours? I could not think more than a couple of hours ahead at a time.”

With support from family, Sam pushed through each day, taking a different kid on a daily excursion to the chemist to try and provide some relief for Kimberly in between bouts of chemotherapy.

Having come five weeks premature, ‘Josie’ didn’t leave hospital for two weeks. By that time, her mother was back in hospital for her first round of chemotherapy.

Sam hasn’t worked since but, eight weeks ago, when Kim’s final cycle had been completed, he planted a seed of playing in the Australian PGA Championship.

It’s one of the few tournaments he plays… and he plays them well.

When Jed Morgan won the 2021 championship in record fashion in January 2022, the Eaves family banked $11,490 courtesy of Sam’s tie for 17th.

Last year, as Cameron Smith was anointed the king of RQ, Sam finished tied for 18th to collect another $22,440.

Yes, making the cut mattered on Friday, but the yellow cap he played in on Yellow Day in support of Challenge suddenly meant more than the cheque he will collect on Sunday night.

In a year in which his brother and caddie this week, Andrew, had a Stage 3 melanoma successfully cut out of his left groin and the family cat was hit and killed by a car, a spot in the field at RQ gave something Sam and the entire Eaves family craves more than anything else right now: Hope.

“Six or eight weeks ago now, I said to Kim, ‘Hey, what do you reckon about pre-qualifying for the Australian PGA?’” Sam says.

“Do some practice, have a hit with the members at City Golf Club and hit some balls in the backyard in the net.

“Just have something to look forward to and have a bit of a purpose.

“I don’t really feel any butterflies or anything because I’m just here for fun.

“I don’t have to win money or do any of that. I am just a golf fan playing golf inside the ropes and I feel just so lucky to be here.

“It’s just pure enjoyment.”

Yet, as his dad savoured a rare moment of joy, Sam was reminded in a text from Kimberly what matters most right now.

“It was ‘Very nice finish there, my love. We’re all super proud, except for Campbell who just has the shits that you can’t answer your phone while playing.’

“Typical three-year-old.”

For Scott, it was a short game chat/lesson with Brett Rumford, while for Leishman it was the experienced eyes of career-long coach Denis McDade.

“I actually played well all year. My putter was not great early in the year and Denis came over and worked it out in about 10 minutes,” Leishman said.

“My putter wasn’t aiming where I thought it was. From 10 feet my putter was aiming about two inches left of the hole, which is not conducive to making putts when your good putts are not going where you think they should be.”

The putts were going where they should during a Saturday 67 that took the Victorian into a share of seventh, however that is eight shots back of 54-hole leader Min Woo Lee on 17-under, with Leishman needing some help to finally end his Australian drought.

“You never know what can happen,” Leishman said. “If I can play like I did today and get a hot putter, get off to a good start, you never know what might happen.”

A long-time visitor to Queensland for family holidays, Leishman’s record in the Sunshine State suggests there may be some truth to his joke that the heat helps an ageing body.

Making his 14th PGA start, Leishman owns nine top-25s, including a second behind close friend Cam Smith in 2018.

“When I first started playing in Queensland, I didn’t enjoy putting on Bermuda and all the different grasses, but now I love it,” he said.

“Hopefully I can use my experience tomorrow, make everything and give the boys something to think about.”

Scott will be thinking much the same after an even par third round where his putter failed to convert the multitude of chances the Queenslander’s iron play continued to present.

“It wasn’t really my day. I couldn’t really get it going and unfortunately, I missed a putt on 12 and then bogeyed 14 and 16 and had a rough run coming in there,” Scott said.

Unlike Leishman, Scott has the benefit of previous triumphs in his homeland’s biggest events to draw on. So too Cam Davis, whose top level experience belies his 28 years of age.

Signing for a 68 on Saturday alongside Leishman, Davis is seeking to follow his own come-from-behind example when he broke on to the scene at the 2017 Australian Open.

“Early on in my professional career I was drawing off that week pretty much every tournament I played in. I know I can do it when the pressure’s on,” Davis said.

“I’m trying to get a more recent memory of lifting a trophy over here.”

Although they will have their work cut out for them, the experienced trio will also have next week’s ISPS HANDA Australian Open. That event certainly now the focus for Cam Smith.

Spending significant time on the practice facilities Saturday, Smith will also take solace from wise words from Leishman.

“We’ve all missed cuts before and that is very disappointing when you do it, particularly in an event that you love so much and have had success in the past,” he added.

“But I think in the long run it’ll be good for him, just to know that it can happen.

“I know he’ll knuckle down and he’ll be better for it next week.”