The European Tour moves back to where the Race to Dubai began this season, the far east, for the WGC HSBC Champions, Sheshan International GC, Shanghai, in China. Lee had a good finish here in 2007, where, along with Ross Fisher, he was involved in a play-off with Phil Mickelson, who eventually won the title.
Lee did not play here last year.
He joins current champion, Sergio Garcia and Stewart Cink for the first two rounds on the par 72 course. He had a 9.40 tee-time from the 10th on Thursday, opening with a birdie, then making a double-bogey at the 12th. More birdies followed at 16 and 18, to go out in 35. He added more birdies at 1,7 and 8, but blotted his card with bogeys at 3 and 5, to settle for a round of 70 (-2) and T21st place on the leaderboard.
Lee had a 10.40 start from the 1st on Friday. Times are GMT +8.00. He added three birdies and two bogeys to his card for a 71. Three-under earns him T23rd place, with the leaders, Nick Watney and Tiger Woods, on 10-under par.
Rodney Pampling and Garth Mulroy had a 0900hrs (1am GMT) tee-time with Lee, on Saturday. Lee played an excellent third round, opening with a hat-trick of birdies, adding more to his card at 7,14,16 and after a birdie putt agonisingly lipped out on 17, a mammoth drive down the final fairway led to an eighth birdie of the day at 18. His only dropped shot was at the 15th. His 7-under 65 moved him up to 5th place, four shots behind leader, Phil Mickelson.
"I didn't really make a big improvement, I just sank a few more putts," Lee said.
"I felt like I was lacking a bit of rhythm with my stroke for the first couple of days. I tried to free it up - putt with a bit more rhythm and let the putter flow - and I rolled a few in and made a couple of four-or five-footers to keep the momentum going."
He had a final round tee-time of 10.25 (2.25am GMT) with Jyoti Randhawa and Ryan Moore and with his fourth round score of 71, finished 11-under for the event (277) and in T8th place, with earnings of €99,264.44. Lee still holds the top spot in the Race to Dubai, with €2,404,579 but with Rory McIroy only €52,320 behind him (and Martin Kaymer following close behind), he needs to remain in good form.
Phil Mickelson won the event on 17-under par.
