Unlike other Olympians, Min Woo Lee was not waiting four long years for Thursday’s opening round of the Men’s Golf Competition at the Summer Olympics. That doesn’t mean he didn’t want to play his best, though, and it certainly doesn’t mean he wasn’t nervous.

Despite the nerves, Lee felt ready. The Australian said he striped it on Wednesday, striped it so well he thought he was going to shoot 10-under in the first round. Unfortunately golf is a cruel game, even at the highest level. Lee’s 10-under dream turned into a nightmare, his 76 currently placing him in a tie for 59th at five-over-par with Colombia’s Camilo Villegas. He was last in the 60-player field at Le Golf National. 

Fellow Australian Jason Day fared much better, shooting a 66 to sit two-under-par and six shots behind the leader, Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama. The 2021 Masters champion’s blistering 63 put him two ahead of Xander Schauffele (65), the reigning PGA and Open Champion and defending Olympic golf gold medallist.

Lee could have stormed off in a huff following the disastrous start, but the 26-year-old first-time Olympian decided instead to speak with the media, offering up a painfully honest assessment of his first competition day in Paris. 

“It was pretty garbage,” Lee said. “But I was saying in the other interview, sometimes you’re going to go a little bit backwards to go forwards. Working on a couple things and there was a lot of good out there.

“But it’s just unfortunate as a player. You always want to play your best but sometimes the results don’t show that, especially at a course like this where it’s pretty tough and penalising. I felt like I was in all the penalties today. Didn’t drive it anywhere near as good I normally do. Normally I’m striping it lately. Hitting it pretty good off the tee but lots of water and lots of balls missing. Had to just kind of battle through that and yeah, it’s quite tough when you’re in thick hay most of the day.”

Lee found the water on the first hole of the day, leaving his approach short and left on the opening par 4. That led to a double-bogey six, his first of two doubles on the round. He made three more bogeys and just two birdies the rest of the way. 

“It’s nearly embarrassing,” he said. “You work so hard. I striped it yesterday. You’d thought I could shoot 10-under yesterday. It’s just a sport where that happens. It’s not like I was nervous or anything to produce those swings but just not comfortable when I was out there.”

He did admit that the scene on the first tee did get to him, too. 

“I never really feel it on the first hole but emotionally, I felt it on the first hole when I got a announced. I think that just shows how much it means to me and yeah, it was pretty cool. I nearly had a tear in my eye which is not normal. It was quite cool to get announced like that. I was pretty impressed with the crowd out here early on. I think it was really good.”

The good news is there is no 36-hole cut in the Olympics, so Lee will get three more cracks at Le Golf National. Medalling seems out of the question now, but, as Lee expressed post-round, playing for your home country is enough motivation to fight all the way to the finish. He’ll be back at it again on Friday at alongside Canada’s Corey Conners and South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout.