Golf: Kiwi Danny Lee confirmed as new LIV Golf member

Danny Lee of New Zealand. Photo / AP

Kiwi Danny Lee has joined the breakaway Saudi Arabia-backed golf league which is splashing millions to get players’ signatures.

Lee is one of three new players announced by LIV Golf to the team rosters today, with Lee joining the Iron Heads GC team alongside captain Kevin Na.

The new LIV Golf season begins this week at the El Camaleón Golf Course in Mexico. Lee knows the course well, finishing second in 2018 Mayakoba Golf Classic event before shooting a 62 the following year to take the opening round. He continued that form to finish in a share of seventh in 2021.

The class of 2023 ⚒️#LIVGolf #IronHeadsGC pic.twitter.com/8g1FspIUmi

— Iron Heads GC (@IronHeadsGC_) February 20, 2023

LIV and the PGA are involved in a legal battle in America, and the breakaway outfit is battling to generate a following to match what the PGA has built up over many decades.

But the signatures keep coming, with Lee joining players like Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka on the tour backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

The 32-year-old Lee achieved his sole PGA Tour victory in 2015 at the Greenbrier Classic in West Virginia, is ranked at 259 and has career earnings of $24m.

He burst into prominence in 2008 when he beat Tiger Woods’ mark as the youngest winner of the US Amateur Championship, when he had just turned 18.

This helped propel the Korea-born Lee, who was raised in Rotorua from the age of eight, to becoming the number one amateur in the world, with inevitably extravagant claims about his potential.

He turned professional the following year, just after winning the European tour’s Johnnie Walker Classic in Perth. But his career has been unable to meet the early projections. His best finish in a major was 17th at the Masters seven years ago.

He played at the Genesis Invitational in recent days — where Woods made his return — but missed the cut.

DP World Tour standout Thomas Pieters from Belgium, No 34 in the world, and American PGA player Brendan Steele are the other players about to be revealed as LIV recruits today.

Pieters ranks as a big-name signing, as a former Ryder Cup star with six international victories including in Abu Dhabi last year. He has reportedly signed for a seven-figure fee.