Two of Lee’s mentors, major winners Day and Adam Scott, who are on the team, heaped praise this week of the 26-year-old brother of LPGA great Minjee Lee. Day backed the big-hitting Lee to “be the next world No.1” – a milestone he and Scott have achieved in their careers. Lee is known for his drives regularly exceeding 190 miles an hour in ballspeed on the PGA Tour and his wildly creative short game.

A three-time winner on the DP World Tour and twice runner-up in his short PGA Tour career, world No.40 Lee blushed but admitted it would be a long road to reach No.1

“I thought I would get this question; I paid [Day] to say that,” Lee joked. “I think it’s easier said than done. Obviously, it was sincere, but I could say that to a lot of people. You just need to work at it. Being part of the Olympics [in Paris in August] with him, there was a switch in my mind where I [realised] I am gifted and I hit it long and I do a lot of things right. But can I get better? Yes, I can.

“I think the work ethic wasn’t as good as it could have been [earlier in his career]. I have to do all the right things to get there, but it’s great to have a friend and a role model tell me that. It’s amazing.”

International team captain, and local hero, Mike Weir, also backed Lee’s talent by sending him out in Thursday’s opening four-ball (best ball) session alongside his hero and 2013 Masters winner, Scott at 11:53 a.m. local time/1.53am AEST. The two Australians will face two-time major winner Collin Morikawa and his fellow Californian Sahith Theegala.

“[Being paired with Scott is] massive; Scotty’s played [over] 20 years of [the Presidents Cup], so he obviously knows how this stuff goes,” Lee said. “[Theegala and Morikawa] are two really great golfers, they’ve been around a lot of the match play and four ball [Morikawa through the Ryder Cup as well as the Presidents Cup].”

Presidents Cup Thursday tee times, pairings

All times local ET (in brackets Australian AEST)

11:35 a.m. (1.35.a.m. Friday) | Xander Schauffele/Tony Finau vs. Jason Day/Ben An

11:53 a.m. (1.53.a.m. Friday) | Collin Morikawa/Sahith Theegala vs. Adam Scott/Min Woo Lee

12:11 p.m. (2.11.a.m. Friday) | Scottie Scheffler/Russell Henley vs. Sungjae Im/Tom Kim

12:29 p.m. (2.29.a.m. Friday| Wyndham Clark/Keegan Bradley vs. Taylor Pendrith/Christiaan Bezuidenhout

12:47 p.m. (2.47.a.m. Friday | Patrick Cantlay/Sam Burns vs. Hideki Matsuyama/Corey Conners

International players sitting out: Si Woo Kim, Mackenzie Hughes; U.S. players sitting out: Max Homa, Brian Harman.