Golf: Lee's win could inspire others

Danny Lee won his first PGA Tour title, taking out the Greenbrier Classic today. Photo / AP

Frank Nobilo has got his wish.

Before the start of the PGA Tour's season-opener last October, Nobilo, a former New Zealand touring professional that 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 have three representatives - Steven Alker, Danny Lee and Tim Wilkinson - with full status on the PGA Tour this year but before today none had registered a victory.

"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'd 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 he 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 today. 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 record a win against the game's best players but inconsistency plagued him.

Putting four solid rounds together in the same week had alluded Lee but you'd like to think this could be the catalyst for an upswing.

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 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 mentioned they want to be in the mix for the two spots on offer at next year's Rio Olympics - 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.