Golfer Danny Lee emigrated from South Korea to New Zealand at the age of 8 and went on to become the youngest winner of the US Amateur in 2008.
Then still an amateur, he won the 2009 Johnnie Walker Classic at The Vines Resort in Perth, Australia, to become the youngest winner on any of the European, Asian, and Australasian tours.
One of golf's down to earth nice guys, Lee turned pro soon after winning in Perth and was riding the crest of the wave, with everybody thinking that he was the next best thing for professional tournament golf.
Our paths have crossed a couple of times -- once at The Vines and the other time in Celadna, the Czech Republic, where I was also coaching.
His playing career has been up and down (that included a six putt).
Since he won the US Amateur, he has won once on each of the European, PGA, Asian, Australasian and Korn Ferry tours with a T17 at the Masters his best major finish.
In 15 years of playing on both the PGA Tour and the European Tour, he won around US$15 million on the PGA Tour and €1.5 million on the European Tour. This equates to roughly over a million dollars per year.
Not bad, I hear you saying. However, planets became aligned allowing Christmas to come early for him last week when he won $4 million for three-days work, in Tucson for winning the LIV Tucson event.
Out of Bounds: "Work hard, do the best you can, don't ever lose faith in yourself and take no notice of what other people say about you." This quote from Noel Coward I've repeated many times to budding young golfers.