Golf: Lee gives NZ golf big boost

Breakthrough win on PGA just tonic game needs to fulfil the potential Nobilo craves.

Frank Nobilo has his wish. Before the start of the PGA Tour's season-opener last October, Nobilo, a former New Zealand touring professional who is now a respected analyst with the Golf Channel, said he wanted to see Kiwis winning tournaments on the game's biggest circuit.

New Zealand has three representatives - Steven Alker, Danny Lee and Tim Wilkinson - with full status on the PGA Tour this year but before yesterday none had won.

"You'd love to see New Zealanders contending and winning a tournament," Nobilo told the Herald. "I don't care which one of them it is. It would be great for another New Zealander to win over here. I think that's the big thing; to make more kids want to do it."

But Lee has broken through and recorded the first win on the PGA Tour by a Kiwi in more than a decade after he claimed the Greenbrier Classic in West Virginia in a playoff yesterday. Michael Campbell's 2005 US Open triumph was the last PGA Tour win by a New Zealander.

Lee, who turns 25 later this month, had always shown the potential to win against the game's best players but inconsistency plagued him.

He is exempt for the biggest tournaments on offer for the rest of the season and will be a staple of the PGA Tour for the next two years due to this victory. It's hard not to think that golf in New Zealand is in good health at a professional level.

Like Nobilo suggested, youngsters have players to look up to in the men's and women's game with Lydia Ko setting a fine example, too.

Lee will line up at the British Open Championship at the Old Course at St Andrews in Scotland next week alongside another promising Kiwi in Auckland's Ryan Fox.

Fox made his way through a qualifying tournament in Europe last week and it's great to see strong New Zealand representation at one of golf's most prestigious events.

There's a host of touring professionals from New Zealand playing at different levels across the globe and Lee's win will likely give them a boost to know that a life-changing week can be just around the corner.

More than a handful of Kiwis have expressed a desire to be in the mix for the two spots on offer at next year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro - they will likely be determined by world rankings - and Lee looms as a strong contender.

That race will get interesting in the coming months with players like Fox, Alker, Wilkinson, Josh Geary, Michael Hendry and Mark Brown all potentially motivated to be involved.