DANNY LEE EDUCATING DANNY DANNY LEE EDUCATING DANNY

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 DANNY LEE EDUCATING DANNY
Danny Lee says to himself as he walks into the
clubhouse at the Wairakei International Golf
Course just outside Taupo. Lee has just finished tied for second in
the Wairakei Open, one shot behind Hawke’s Bay professional Doug
Holloway. He isn’t happy. Lee isn’t interested in second place. This
17-year-old amateur expects to win every tournament he enters –
amateur or professional.
His frustration is understandable. For four days at Wairakei, Lee hit
the ball superbly from tee to green but couldn’t make a putt. In the
first round he needed four attempts to hole out on a par three and
he reckons he had at least 10 three-putts over the weekend. Lee has
tried and tested as many as 50 putters but still hasn’t found one that
works consistently.
“My putter doesn’t help me much,” Lee says. “If I could get my putter
going – 10 under par, bang!”
The unmistakable thermal fragrance of flatulence and rotten eggs hits
you as you get closer to Taupo. On a wet, grey Sunday in September,
the low cloud cover serves to concentrate the sickly smell oozing from
the Wairakei Terraces. And yet, turn off the main Rotorua – Taupo
road, drive through the entrance gates to Wairakei International Golf
Course and the malodorous scent miraculously evaporates.
Tuis, fantails and other native birds provide the soundtrack in a
stunning park-like setting with perfectly manicured greens and tree-
lined fairways. Wairakei has been rated as one of the top golf courses
in the world outside the US by Golf Digest magazine and is rightly
considered one of New Zealand’s best.
Most of New Zealand’s best amateurs and a motley crew of our
rookie and lower ranked professionals are in Taupo for the Wairakei
Open. I’m here to see Danny Lee. He is in the final threesome with
tournament leader Josh Geary and Richard Wright. Lee started the day
three shots behind Geary but despite trying conditions, has clawed
one of those back on the front nine.
The players have been forced to take shelter under the nearest tree
for almost an hour as play was suspended due to heavy rain. Many of
the early starters struggle to break 80 while almost all of them have
that windswept, wet, “I need a hot shower and a hot whiskey” look
about them. Some of the professionals look like amateurs. Some of
the amateurs look like they would rather be anywhere else but on a
golf course.
Danny Lee arrives on the 10th tee looking like he has been playing
on the Sunshine Coast. He is immaculately turned out in white
shoes, navy pants, white T-shirt and a navy visor with his jet-black
hair, complete with gold highlights, perfectly groomed. The 10th at
Wairakei is a par three measuring 176m. Lee pulls out a five-iron
and launches a sweetly struck shot that soars high and straight
at the flag, landing stone dead just three feet below the hole. He
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DANNY LEE EDUCATING DANNY
turns to his caddie and coach Mikki Strong, and clicks his tongue
twice in satisfaction. It is the first shot I’ve seen him play and it is an
impressive introduction.
Almost two hours later, Lee walks off the 18th after a final round
of 70. It is good enough for joint second place, just one shot behind
the winner and rookie professional Holloway. It is the second year in
a row Lee has had to settle for second behind Holloway and when I
meet him the next day he is still brooding over the putts he missed.
“His putting is not as bad as he thinks it is,” his coach says in his
defence. “He hits a lot more greens than most players so he gives
himself a lot more birdie opportunities. He just doesn’t take as many
as he should.”
Lee’s ability to create birdie opportunities on the course is causing
quite a buzz off it.
“Everybody is chomping at the bit to get a piece of him but there
is nothing signed yet,” says Strong. “He is still an amateur and we
won’t make any decisions on his future until the end of next year,
until he has had a chance to be selected for his first Eisenhower
Trophy team.”
The big decision facing Lee is whether to turn professional or take
up a scholarship with one of the many American universities chasing
his signature.
Lee’s uncle, who owns a driving range and a pro shop in San Diego,
has a drawer full of business cards from the leading American
universities, including Tiger Woods’ alma mater, Stanford University.
Scouts from Michigan, USC and UCLA have also expressed an
interest. His uncle, who also doubles as his manager, is also collecting
business cards from the major golf equipment companies who are
desperate to throw sponsorship dollars at him.
“He has the ability to be one of those very special players who
turn professional and are instantly financially secure for life,” says
Phil Aickin, the former high performance manager and CEO of
New Zealand Golf.
“He might win a New Zealand Open as an amateur – it might not
be this year, it might be next year. Or he could win a US Amateur
title and he will have Callaway, Nike and Titleist and all the other big
names in golf just climbing over each other to support him.”
Aickin is one of the leading golf administrators in this country but
he was the Danny Lee of his era, winning three Bledisloe Cups in a
row as the leading amateur at the New Zealand Open. He grew up
with Frank Nobilo and Greg Turner, played on an Eisenhower team
with Phil Tataurangi and was working for New Zealand Golf when
Michael Campbell burst on to the scene, so he is as well placed as
anybody in the game to judge how Lee stacks up.
“In the early 90s, you had Tataurangi who was a standout at 16.
Mark Brown and Marcus Wheelhouse were two unbelievably talented
players and Eddie Lee (not related) was another standout, but so
many New Zealand players don’t reach their potential. I have been
excited about many players but Danny is probably … comfortably the
best I’ve seen.”
I asked Aickin if he thought Lee was ready to turn professional.
“I don’t think he needs to rush it. He has only just turned 17 and it
would be quite nice for him to get a bit more balance in his life, so
that it is not just golf, golf, golf.”
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 DANNY LEE EDUCATING DANNY
Sang Joo Lee, his wife Sujin Seo and their
three boys, Danny 17, Ben 15 and Jin 8,
moved to New Zealand in 2001 for golf
– more specifically for Danny’s golf. Their
eldest son first picked up a golf club as an
eight-year-old on his grandmother’s driving
range in South Korea.
“I think I hit it pretty good,” Lee recalls
of his first swing. “I played on a par three
course and I made birdie at one hole.”
His mother, a scratch handicap golfer and
a teaching professional, recognised and
nurtured his talent. His father – a soccer
player, judo expert and businessman –
recognised his potential and has pushed,
encouraged and cajoled him since. He also
recognised that it would be cheaper and
easier for his son to practice and play the
game in New Zealand where there would
be less pressure on him than in the much
stricter Korean education system.
“They sacrificed a lot for Danny,” says
Strong. “They came here to give him more
freedom to play golf.”
While Lee came to New Zealand for golf,
his coach came for love. Michael, aka Mikki,
Strong moved to Tauranga from the UK four
years ago with his Kiwi wife Sarah.
Originally from the Lake District, Strong
played representative golf from the age
of 14. He reached the last eight in the
British Amateur, where he was beaten
by Luke Donald, and he also played with
and against Justin Leonard, Sergio Garcia,
Justin Rose and Lee Westwood. He didn’t
quite have the talent or the inclination
to try his luck in the professional ranks
and was quite content to do some
casual coaching.
“I always loved coaching but because my
game was ok it led me down the playing
pathway. I was seven when I started watching
my Mum play golf and I would say, ‘why do
you hit it like that, why don’t you try this?’
She would say ‘how do you know that’ and
I’d say, ‘it is obvious’. My Mum always said I
had a sixth sense for the golf swing and now
I believe I do.”
Mikki Strong doesn’t see dead people, he
sees the golf swing.
“When I look at a golf swing I see tracer
shadows of where the clubhead has been. I
always thought everybody could see it,” he
explains. “When I am lining up a putt I can
see the line on the green as clear as I can see
you. It is a shadow, an enhanced shadow of
the colour that is already there.”
I am tempted to suggest that perhaps his
hallucinations are caused by the radiation
he was exposed to in his former life as an
electrical engineer at the Sellafield nuclear
plant in the northwest of England. But I
don’t. He knows just how strange it sounds.
“People I work with, I don’t tell them
straight away in case they think I am weird,”
he admits.
Strong’s first job in New Zealand was golf
development manager with Sport Bay of
Plenty where he managed the junior side
which included Lee.
“I gave him a couple of tips and his
confidence built in me and mine in him.
See your Suzuki Dealer www.suzuki.co.nz
DANNY LEE EDUCATING DANNY
Watching him play at the age of 14 or 15
there was only one other golfer I’ve seen
who was as good at that age and that was
Luke Donald.”
Remarkably, Strong had no formal
coaching qualifications until he started his
apprenticeship as a trainee club professional
earlier this year. Not surprisingly the 41-year-
old would be quite happy to pack in his own
career to caddie and coach Lee exclusively.
“I’d love to continue working with him. We
have a good understanding and if he wants
me to caddie for him when he turns pro I’ll
be there at the drop of a hat,” says Strong.
“I’ve not seen many golfers like Danny
before. I don’t doubt that he is going to
make the shot. He makes the game look
stupidly easy at times.”
Lee’s ability to make the game look easy has
a lot to do with just how hard he works at it.
A typical day starts at 7am with a 20 minute
run followed by some work on his putting
stroke on the putting mat in his room,
before breakfast.
 DANNY LEE EDUCATING DANNY
After breakfast he does some stretching,
weights and Swiss ball exercises before
heading for the practice range at
Springfield Golf Club in Rotorua. He hits
anywhere between 500 and 1000 balls a
day and plays 18 holes every afternoon. He
left Rotorua Boys’ High School last year to
focus on his golf but tries to fit in three
hours study in the evening as well as a
sneaky half an hour on the PlayStation with
his younger brother Jin. It is a gruelling
schedule but Lee accepts it with a maturity
beyond his years.
Do you enjoy practice?
“Not really but it is sort of my job isn’t it,”
he says.
When did it become your job?
“Last year. I spoke to my parents and said
‘this is what I want’.”
Why?
“Study is hard. Golf is the easiest thing
for me.”
Do you ever take a day off?
“Sometimes. When I am sick or sick of golf.”
What is the longest break you’ve had from
the game?
“Half day maybe,” says Lee.
“When his Dad gives him the day off he
goes and plays anyway,” says Strong.
Aickin says Lee’s work ethic is the thing
that sets him apart from other promising
New Zealand amateurs.
“I remember him as a 12-year old at the
North Island Amateur in 2003 and he turned
up at the driving range on Thursday with
his mother and he hit 700 balls. He went
back on Friday after a practice round on the
course and hit 400 balls and then went out
and played two rounds on Saturday and two
on Sunday and played really well.”
The endless hours spent on the range
have given Lee the callused hands of a
tradesman and a quiet confidence in his
trade. At 1.8m and 72kg he has the ideal
frame for a golfer, strong and solid with
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broad shoulders. He is always immaculately
turned out and already carries himself like
a professional. His English is improving all
the time and if he is prone to the occasional
obscenity after a round he has learned the
importance of staying relaxed when he is
on the course.
“He will come across the fairway to say
hello. He will yell out at me, ‘you are setting
the course up too hard – I can’t make
enough birdies,’ even though he is usually
making more birdies than anybody else,”
says Aickin.
“A lot of the young Koreans don’t have
enough confidence in their English to have a
chat with you. Danny is completely different.
He has a wonderful personality and a
wonderful sense of humour.”
Lee is just outside the top 30 in the world
amateur rankings after a superb year. It
began in January with a course record
equalling 63 in the final round of the national
U-23 championships.
His 20-under-par total was 11 shots clear
of the chasing pack. In May, on a stopover in
Korea on his way to the US, he fired a final
round of 65 to finish third in a professional
“I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL YET. IF I BEAT
TIGER WOODS THEN I WILL THINK I AM OK.”
ARE YOU A GOOD AMATEUR?
“I AM NOT A BAD PLAYER.”
tournament. His efforts went largely
unnoticed by the New Zealand press as he
was forced to register for the event under
his Korean name Jin Myung-Lee.
So considering he only moved to New
Zealand six years ago does he consider
himself Korean or Kiwi?
“I guess I’m Kiwi.”
“Ok, Korea are playing the All Blacks, who
do you support?”
“Of course the All Blacks – what are you
talking about?”
“Favourite food?”
“Korean food – noodles.”
“No lamb shanks then?”
“No, they make me shank”
“Favourite golfer?”
“Tiger Woods”
DANNY LEE EDUCATING DANNY
“Favourite New Zealand golfer?”
“Cambo!”
“Favourite NZ amateur?”
“Me.”
He spent the New Zealand winter in the
US finishing second in the Callaway junior
world tournament and fifth in qualifying for
the US Amateur, where he was the only non-
American in the top 20.
He was narrowly defeated in the first
round of the matchplay by American Casey
Clendenon who was eventually knocked out
in the semi-final. In April, he became the
youngest winner of the New Zealand amateur
matchplay title, earning him an exemption
to his second New Zealand Open.
At last year’s New Zealand Open at Gulf
Harbour he missed the cut by two shots but
he is a lot more optimistic about his chances
at Michael Hill’s new course in Queenstown
from November 29 to December 2.
“I want to finish in the top five,” he says.
That is top five amateur, right? No top five
in the tournament, he insists. I ask Aickin if
it is a realistic goal.
“He will be going into the tournament to
win it. He won’t even be thinking about
finishing as the leading amateur,” he says.
“If he puts his game together and holes a
few putts – because he can putt incredibly
well – then he is capable of doing something
really special.”
And yet Lee still doesn’t rate himself as
highly as others do.
“I never thought I am a good golfer,”
he says.
Why?
“Because I am not a professional yet. If I
beat Tiger Woods then I will think I am OK.”
Are you a good amateur?
PICTURE: HAGEN HOPKINS
“I am not a bad player.”
2007 MICHAEL HILL NZ OPEN
THE HILLS, ARROWTOWN
THU, NOV 29 – SUN DEC 2 1.00PM