HOUSTON — Min Woo Lee played golf Friday until the edge of dusk. He got little sleep and woke up extra early, having to finish the last two holes — a birdie and a par — of the second round of the Texas Children’s Houston Open. He had every reason to feel weary and beat on a muggy Saturday afternoon at Memorial Park Golf Course.

He shot 63.

The 7-under round included nothing outwardly heroic. His most daring play came on the tee of the short par-4 17th, reachable and lined all the way down the right by water. Lee enjoyed a four-shot lead at the moment. He took driver anyway. He missed the green left, pitched over a bunker and two-putted for par. He neutralized what could’ve been the biggest mistake of his long day in Texas.

He was one of the first players to arrive Saturday morning, owing to a rain delay that took up two hours of the tournament Friday. He completed his second round and waited.

Playing in the final group with Scottie Scheffler and Taylor Pendrith, Lee eased into a third round that saw a scoring average of 68.1. Two pars. Then a birdie. The game was on.

He turned at 4-under 31, three shots better than Scheffler, who held a one-shot lead over three players, including Lee. The clouds that had hung over Houston since Thursday morning floated away. Lee birdied the 10th and the 12th. He added one more at the 14th to get to 17 under, the leader by four.

Lee said he never doubted his decision to hit driver on the 17th, which measured 301 yards Saturday. He ignored the water. He pictured a hard cut off of the left greenside bunker and took the kind of driver swing that ranked first in the third round in driving distance (325 yards on soggy, spongy turf). He bet on himself.

“I mean, why not?” he said. “I’m an aggressive player. I trust my game.”

He also understood Memorial Park. It’s a broad, sturdy municipal course in the heart of the city, the exact opposite of many municipals in the state, with their snugly narrow fairways lined by old pecans or oaks and full of tricky turns and bends. Lee recognized an opportunity.

“It’s pretty open,” he said, “so why not?”

That might be the kind of big question on his mind as he enters the final round Sunday with a four-shot lead.

Why not him? Why not now?

He has never won in 55 starts. He has, however, had his chances. He contended late at THE PLAYERS Championship in 2023. He shot 76 in the fourth round and tied for sixth.

He shared fifth that summer at the U.S. Open. His two runner-up finishes on the PGA TOUR came in 2024, at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches and the Rocket Classic. He was the 36-hole co-leader at the PLAYERS two weeks ago. He shot 73 in the last round. He tied for 20th.

His ability to drive the ball far has long been the envy of his peers and spectators alike. That’s exactly what Memorial Park rewards at the Texas Children’s.

“I just think overall everything’s kind of clicking,” Lee said. “I feel really good about it.”

Other players mounted runs. Alejandro Tosti shot 65 to finish at 13 under. Ryan Fox shot the same score and ended at 12 under, tied with Scheffler and Ryan Gerard.

Scheffler made no such move. The No. 1 player in the world, who finished second last year in this tournament, managed a 1-under 69, which included his first two bogeys of the week. He will start his round Sunday five strokes behind Lee.

“I feel like I hit it better today than I did yesterday,” Scheffler said, recalling an 8-under 62 that thrust him into the lead. “It’s a funny game sometimes.”

Memorial Park can be a deceiving parkland course that appears, with its relative openness, to be there for the taking. That happens — it happened a lot Saturday, when there were only two scores in the 70s among the top 25 on the leaderboard, and both of them were even-par 70s. But, as Rory McIlroy noted, the course cannot be taken for granted.

“It’s one of those golf courses where you give yourself loads of chances from 20, 25 feet,” he said, noting Memorial Park’s big greens and substantial length. “And when you’re not converting any, it feels frustrating.”

McIlroy did some converting. He shot 5-under 65 to finish in a tie for 14th at 9 under.

“It’s such an easy golf course to make a ton of pars,” McIlroy said. “But then to make a run of birdies almost feels difficult. But it also feels difficult to make bogeys.”

Lee has five of those through 54 holes, with none of them on Saturday. He’s made 22 birdies.

“It’s trending well,” Lee said.

He and his coach have been working on his move, steepening his swing with his irons.

“Shallow it out and have less spin,” he explained, adding that the adjustment works particularly well in the wind. (Texas has wind.) “We’ve been working on this for the last two, three years. The last couple of weeks, since THE PLAYERS, it kind of clicked in.”

His iron play this week, he said, has “been amazing,” Lee said.

He appeared chipper and cheerful. He looked like he could (and would) be happy to play an emergency nine, just to keep good things going. Good golf does that to a man, even when he's exhausted. Lee sounded ready to go.

He was. To his room.

“Today was a really long day," Lee added. "I need to get back into bed.”