KEY POINTS:
The evening light is fading at the Wairakei golf course near Taupo, and it is interview time again in the changing world of Danny Lee.
The 18-year-old golf sensation from Rotorua responds with good grace.
"I was going to try and practice and have some rest back in
New Zealand but there were media guys who didn't let me do that," he says good-naturedly.
"Everyone wants a piece of me - but that's no big deal. I've just got to enjoy it. I'll probably have to get used to this if I get famous."
As the Korean-born and raised Lee is quick to point out, his English is not 100 per cent after just seven years living in New Zealand.
But he gets his message across, on and off the golf course.
Lee heads back to the United States on Monday, ready to take on a smattering of professional events in his final year as an amateur.
The youngest-ever US amateur champion has already conquered the grass roots game and won an increasing army of fans. He has been honoured with ceremonies in his home town and received the New Zealand passport which will allow him to lead this country's campaign in the Eisenhower Trophy.
His US amateur title is a ticket to the majors, which means more priceless experience as he builds the foundation for his professional future.
Lee's achievements are extraordinary, including placing 20th in his first American professional tournament last month.
Still, even with all the publicity, it's hard to believe that this young man practising near the Wairakei car park is - amongst millions of golf devotees - the very best amateur player on the planet.
Never mind Lee. The rest of us are having to pinch ourselves.
Lee says: "I think my life has just totally changed 180 degrees. I always believed I was going to do it some day but it came a bit earlier than I thought."
The huddle on the green includes Lee and his girlfriend of two years, New Zealand number one Dana Kim of Canterbury. One of Danny's coaches, Mikki Strong, is also there, along with Danny's delightful mum, Sujin Seo (Korean wives do not take their husband's surnames).
Sujin struggles with English - she is about to take more lessons. As we drive from Rotorua to Wairakei she steadfastly answers questions about the family and why she and her husband Sam moved to provincial New Zealand.
Sujin was a professional - her handicap was as low as 5.2 - from a golf-mad family. Danny first swung a club at her driving range at eight and won junior tournaments when 12. The family decided to drive his career forward through the outstanding junior programme in Rotorua.
Sam Lee has also battled cancer and wanted to leave their home in Incheon, the international airport city of 2.5 million near Seoul, for the cleaner air and slower paced life of New Zealand. Sam is clear of the disease to the point he no longer needs check ups.
They also wanted their two other sons Ben (Korean name Minwook), now 16, and Jin (Jinwook), now 9, to have a less pressured education. In Korea, Sujin explains, there are extreme, unreasonable demands on young boys to be number 1.
"Even number two is not good enough," she says.
But Sujin says: "We were lonely and homesick when we first got here."
To deal with this, they focused all their efforts on Danny's golf and the other boys' education. Life quickly got better. When Danny turns professional next year, the family will move to America but Sam in particular is not looking forward to that. He adores Rotorua, and is - for now - not so sure he will enjoy the States.
What emerges in the Danny Lee story is the strength and determination of his family.
When you ask him what enables him to conduct his famously long practice sessions, he replies: "My family probably - they support me really, really hard."
Sam's parents are wealthy from their massive badminton shuttlecock manufacturing business. This has enabled Sujin and Sam, who is part of the family business, complete financial freedom in New Zealand and the ability to plot Danny's career without undue pressures. In response, a young man with a flair for golf has dedicated his life to the game.
"It is golf, golf, golf - Danny has never even had a holiday," Sujin says.
His remarkable results and practice routine reveal Danny's own single-minded nature, though there is the odd hint this is also a wilful young man. For instance, while he has been most accommodating for the media, Lee is also prepared to make it clear when he's had enough of the endless photo routines.
Neighbours in the pristine cul-de-sac admiringly tell of seeing Lee, hands on head, hopping up the sloping driveway at 6.30 each morning as part of his conditioning programme.
Late at night, perhaps at 10.30, they have also heard the clip of a club brushing over a practice mat and seen the gleam of a shaft flashing over the backyard fence.
Cumbrian Strong says the hardest-working top amateurs and mid-level professionals he dealt with in England only put in half the time that Lee does.
"No one works as hard. It is a career to him and his family have developed a strategy," says Strong, from the 900-member Omokoroa club on the outskirts of Tauranga, who first met Lee when he managed Bay of Plenty teams.
"Danny gets up in the morning, does a bit of fitness work, has his breakfast, then starts like the rest of us. He has a break at a certain time, and his structure around whatever he is practicing is very disciplined.
"He has a unique ability, a gift, in being able to understand his golf swing at such a young age. He definitely has a freaky talent.
"He is not phased even if 20,000 people are watching. He has a tunnel-visioned simplicity to his game, a quick routine, and knows he has hit any shot 1000 times before on the range.
"His worst area was putting. Danny would always stand proud on the driving range with a big smile - he just loves crunching balls away.
"But on the putting green he would kind of sink and was only happy doing that for 10 minutes. We needed to get that spark on the greens.
"I gave him some drills and Steve Jessup (the Wairakei professional and Danny's other coach) gave him good tips and technique changes.
"Now he actually wants to start his practice with a putting competition ... his putting is up there with the best of them."
Lee has come a long way fast. He never questioned the move to New Zealand - as a 12-year-old he simply followed his parents' direction. Lee says: "I had no English at all and had a pretty hard time for the first six months.
"But they have been good times. The New Zealand people are really nice. They don't care where I come from - well, some of them do - but pretty much everyone is nice to me.
"I didn't think about becoming a New Zealander when I first came here. But everyone is cheering me up - I think that's why I want to be a New Zealander."
One of the initial jobs for young Jinmyung was to pick an English name. He's a little bit hazy on the reason for choosing Danny, but then recalls a church in Korea renamed him Daniel.
Danny Lee quickly made Bay of Plenty squads, and six years on is a world star in the making.
It was just two years ago that he decided that golf would really be his career while mingling with great players while qualifying for the American junior and amateur championships.
His experience at the Wyndham PGA in North Carolina last month took his anticipation of professional golf to a new height.
"They treat you like a king, which gets me really pumped up. They treat every player like a superstar," he says.
"They don't care where you come from, whether you speak good English or not. If you are good at golf, they really like you and are interested in you. That gives me a lot of confidence.
"Playing on the greatest golf courses in the world with the greatest players in the world - you can't get any better excitement than that. I just can't wait to get to the PGA tour."
His aim?
"I still don't know how good I am. I can't say that," says Lee, whose hero is Tiger Woods.
"But my goal is to win the Masters because my parents' dream when I started was if I played well enough I would get an an invitation to the Masters. It would make them so proud."
