The question could soon be ‘what next?’ for Danny Lee.
But he’s not ready to think about it.
The immediate answer is Adelaide, next week’s venue for the LIV Golf Tour.
But after more than 15 years as a professional golfer, early into his second year on the LIV Tour, he is facing an uncertain future. The sell for LIV Golf players is that across the 54-hole events, there is no cut.
But Lee is facing one.
The 33-year-old sits in a share of 48th on the LIV Tour standings, tied for last having yet to record a point over the opening four events, which are earned with at least a top 24 finish.
Players finishing in the top 24 at the end of the 14 events secure a spot for next season. Outside of that and you’re missing out on 2025.
Whether you’ve got a job next year might be something that fazes most people but it’s a situation Lee’s used to. Like most players on the PGA Tour he spent patches of his career fighting for next season’s card.
“Keeping my card on the LIV is not really on my mind. Whenever I play I want to play the best golf I can play and it’s not really on my radar.
“I know I’m a good enough player to do anything out there. When I have my game, it doesn’t matter who I play against. When I have it, I have it,” Lee told the Herald from his home in Las Vegas.
Lee has earned the confidence to find his game. He won his maiden LIV event in Tucson last March, in just his second appearance, to claim the biggest prize of his career in a US$4m winner (NZ$6.7 million) cheque.
He’s also made a key change that he’s banking on improving his results this year. He took a much-needed break.
After being plagued with a wrist injury for the past three years, he underwent surgery removing bone fragments following the season-ending event in Miami last October.
It was the first time in his career he took decent time off but the recovery time meant he only had three weeks to prepare for the opening tournament in Mexico.
In the first two events, his ball speed hadn’t returned but he’s now back to 100 percent.
“I never took two months off in my life and I never had surgery like that before. The first couple (of) events I was honestly just trying to find my game and I was freaking out a little bit.
“Everything felt new to me. Me and my team worked really hard on it and I’m hitting it really good. I just haven’t scored very well in the last two events.
“There’s only 14 events out here and it’s very hard to show where my game is because every event you play is a pretty big event. Your expectation is high. You have to do well.
“My game is in a good place. Just got to score a little bit better. I feel like we’re in a good spot,” Lee said.
Now that he’s fully fit and able to, Lee’s been putting in the work. And he’s ready to fight for his spot.
In the lead-up to Adelaide, he’s been working with his team and caddie at his Las Vegas base, where he moved from Dallas following his divorce a few years ago.
IronHeads GC captain Kevin Na, who enticed Lee to make the move to LIV Golf, also resides there along with a number of tour professionals he regularly plays with.
The coming stretch of events include a return to Australia, where he won his first professional event in 2009, followed by Singapore where Lee’s had a good record.
The season ends at Greenbrier, the scene of his only PGA Tour win in 2015.
Next stop LIV Adelaide was a huge success in 2023, rated among the players as the best tournament of the year.
It proves to be even more popular, with more tickets sold in the first 48 hours they went on sale than what was sold for the entire event last year.
Capacity has been increased by 50 percent with about 30,000 expected to attend each day across the three rounds at the famed Grange Golf Club, the same course Lee represented New Zealand in the Eisenhower Trophy in 2008.
The highlight at the Grange is the par three 12th dubbed the ‘Watering Hole’, which provided the highlight at LIV Adelaide last year as 4,500 fans witnessed Chase Koepka’s hole-in-one.
Lee is looking forward to the boost of support from Kiwi fans making the most of the Anzac Day holiday weekend and he’s happy to help out for those who miss out on tickets.
“It was one of the best LIV events I’ve seen. I played 14 events last year, four events this year and Australia’s for sure one of the biggest events out of all of them. All the Australian patrons and NZ patrons, there’s a lot of support out there,” Lee said.
“Last year [Kiwi] fans came over and supported me. It’s huge for me. Little stuff like that, it gives me a confidence boost. Hopefully this year more NZ fans come over. If you need tickets just DM me,” he added.
The LIV Golf league, backed by the Saudia Arabian Public Investment Fund, recently lured former world number one and last year’s Masters champion Jon Rahm away from the PGA Tour to join the likes of fellow major winners Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson.
World number two Rory McIlroy this week denied reports he’s been offered US$850m (NZ$1.44b) to join the LIV Golf Tour.
As the field keeps getting stronger, the odds of performing well each week rise and Lee’s IronHeads GC team have certainly claimed the underdog tag against stacked rival teams.
But Lee wants to see more players make the shift to LIV Golf.
“I honestly think we have one of the best fields. I look at it like a major week.
“You get to play against a lot of the major champions, even when you play on the PGA Tour you don’t see them often. You get to play against them for all 14 events across one year, it’s pretty special and I’m sure for the fans to see all the big named players out there in one spot is pretty special.
“That’s what LIV is delivering every week we play. There’s also the team aspect ... that’s what they’re delivering and it’s making progress.
“I want more of the better PGA Tour players to join. It’s the future of the game right now.
“I loved every week playing on the PGA Tour and playing well over there gave me a great life,” he added.
“It was one of the best tours in the world and I loved playing in it. I was very competitive and trying to make it out there. And now I’m on LIV and I’m doing the exact same thing. It’s a very new tour.
“So every week, every year that goes it’s getting better and better and I think there’s only upside, I don’t see any downside going into the future.”
Over the weekend Lee watched the US Masters from his Las Vegas home, having played in the event twice before. He was cheering on friend and fellow LIV Golf member DeChambeau who held a share of the first-round lead before eventually finishing in tied sixth.
Lee himself has not given up on returning to Augusta despite the LIV Tour path being harder due to the lack of recognition from the Official World Golf Rankings.
(Lee’s current ranking is 751, DeChambeau is 110).
The way to make it would be to win another major, which he still has plans to achieve.
The last of Lee’s 13 major appearances was the US Open in 2022 and he plans to enter qualifying for this year’s event which takes place at Pinehurst no.2, the same course he won the United States Amateur Championship in 2008.
Qualify and he’d be seeking to emulate Matt Fitzpatrick who won the 2022 US Open at the same course he won the US-Am. It’s also a special course for New Zealanders, being where Michael Campbell lifted the 2005 US Open. Lee is still thinking big.
“Last year because of my injury, I wanted to play US Open qualifying and British Open qualifying but I couldn’t. I know my body and I couldn’t play 36 holes. I’d have to give up a LIV event to play in it.
”This year I’m definitely doing it. The course has changed since I won the US-AM there but I’ll try and qualify for it. If I get in, my objective is to win obviously, and that takes care of getting into the Masters and the other majors. Hopefully I’ll make it happen.”
Cameron McMillan has been a sports journalist since 2003 and is NZME’s Deputy Head of Sport. A career highlight was live blogging the 2011 Rugby World Cup final from Eden Park (in a media box surrounded by French journalists).
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