Golf: Teenage star shows striking maturity

New Zealand amateur golfer Danny Lee will be the main attraction when the New Zealand Open starts...
New Zealand amateur golfer Danny Lee will be the main attraction when the New Zealand Open starts at The Hills tomorrow. Photo by Gregor Richardson.
Danny Lee walked into the media tent, sat down and quietly began flicking through a magazine.

The 18-year-old New Zealand golfer, born in Korea but developed in Rotorua, had 10 minutes to kill before the latest in a long line of media commitments.

Everyone wants a piece of this new young star, who won the US Amateur last year and will turn professional after playing in the Masters next month.

Lee, up close, is a slight young man with a rather unexceptional face and bearing.

He's wearing a white v-neck sweater, blue pinstripe pants and black golf shoes, and his blonde-highlighted black hair sprouts out of a Callaway golf visor.

Because he's a special case - he was invited to the Open by the organisers after winning the Johnnie Walker Classic last month - he gets a special introduction from the tournament chairman.

Lee settles in a comfortable chair, leans forward and waits to be asked the usual questions.

There's a striking level of maturity about his answers. He's still a teenager and English is his second language, but he is considered in his responses.

Still, he enjoys a joke.

Asked about coping with the attention he has been receiving and the large galleries that have started following him, he suggested they helped calm his temper.

"It's great because they're cheering for me and they go really loud when I make putts.

"When I don't make putts, they try to cheer me up.

"I think I can control my anger a little bit better because I can't throw clubs when all those crowds are around."

Lee said his family and some close friends had come to Arrowtown to watch him play in his last amateur event in New Zealand.

"I've got my own extra crowd."

Lee was widely expected to be drawn to play with Sir Bob Charles in the opening round of the Open, but that hasn't happened.

Interestingly, Lee hasn't even met the golfing great.

"If I am playing with Mr Bob, it will be such an honour and a great experience," he said before the draw was released.

And what would the young amateur ask the 1963 British Open champion?

"I'll ask him, 'How do I have to putt'?"

Lee won the Bledisloe Cup, for the leading amateur, with rounds of 73, 71, 75 and 69 the last time the Open was played at The Hills.

But he regards himself as a professional already. And he knows what he will buy when the millions start rolling in.

"Fast cars."

Lee played 16 holes in his practice round in squally winds and rain yesterday and found The Hills a challenge.

"It's getting tougher. The greens are way firmer and the rough is longer. Hopefully, if the weather gets better I will play a little bit better than today."

Lee has a new caddy, Anthony Knight, and also a new world ranking.

His win in Perth and top-10 finish in the New Zealand PGA have catapulted him to 144th in the world, up from 562 a month ago.

After the Open, Lee plays in the Georgia Cup (a head-to-head against the British amateur champion) and then the Masters at Augusta National.

• Lee is joint second favourite to win the Open, behind New Zealand's David Smail, NZPA reports.

Smail, New Zealand's top-ranked professional at world No 88, is paying fixed odds of $10 to win and $2.70 to finish in the top five. He won the Open in 2001.

Lee is paying $13 and $3.20 to finish in the top five.

New Zealand PGA championship winner Steve Alker is fifth favourite, paying fixed odds of $25 and $5.50 to finish in the top five.

 

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