The post Why Danny Lee borrowed his buddy’s clubs and ended up with a Callaway deal appeared first on Golf.

The post Why Danny Lee borrowed his buddy’s clubs and ended up with a Callaway deal appeared first on Golf.

It’s more than just money games and camaraderie that comes from practice rounds between PGA Tour players. Sometimes it’s entire equipment deals. 

Such was the case for Danny Lee and Callaway. The new deal that the equipment company announced Wednesday afternoon might have never happened if it wasn’t for Si Woo Kim.

Lee became a Callaway staffer in 2009 after his U.S. Amateur win, but the relationship went on surprising hiatus at the beginning of 2019. He bounced around from TaylorMade to PXG over the last three years, but now he has ultimately completed his circuitous route back to Callaway.

“For my curiosity, I had to try [to see what else was out there],” Lee said Monday, adding he “decided to explore the world a little bit with the golf clubs. I’ve been with great companies, but now I’m back in with the greatest company I’ve ever worked with.”

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It’s a deal that already has 12 Callaway clubs in Lee’s bag this week, and one he can attribute, at least in part, to Kim’s generosity, and Lee’s curiosity. The two often peg it together during mid-week practice rounds, and will even play during their off weeks together back in Dallas, where they both live. It was during one of those rounds in 2021 that Lee’s club curiosity took over.

“I like to hit other people’s clubs [when we’re practicing],” Lee said. “And I’ve tried Si Woo’s clubs many times. [I liked] the whole general bag. His irons looked really good and especially the driver. It’s a really good looking head.”

Shape, Lee says, is a crucial factor for his club selections. And there was just something about Kim’s driver and irons that stood out to him whenever he’d flirt with the idea in practice. Just a couple shots per practice round was all it took to create the “first trigger” in Lee’s mind that he wanted something that looked cleaner, or maybe faster at address. These Tour pros can be particular, but when they know what they like, they know what they want. 

“The shape. For me, it’s all about the shape and how it looks,” Lee said. “It looked so clean and just looked like it was going to go straight.”

During this hectic time of the PGA Tour restarting season Tour pros will spend hours and hours over days and days trying to dial in new gear or “explore the world,” as Lee said, looking for something that makes sense with their game. But with the right amount of intrigue, it might not take all that. You might just find it right there next to you on the tee box.

As for Kim, “He was a little surprised [that I joined Team Callaway],” Lee said. “He thought it would never happen again.”

But now that it has, Kim deserves some thanks, right? Perhaps a finder’s fee? Lee cackled at the idea before offering up a solid compromise: 

“I’ll buy him a nice dinner.”

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The post ‘I wasn’t trying to kill anybody’: Danny Lee apologizes after near-miss appeared first on Golf.

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At the end of his press conference on Friday, after answering questions about PGA Tour status and making cuts and adding ball speed, Danny Lee had a message of his own.

“Can I add something?”

Lee wanted to make sure that everyone knew: He didn’t do it on purpose. During Thursday’s opening round at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, TV cameras were trained on Scott Gutschewski putting on No. 10 when a ball bounded into the picture and settling on the far end of the green. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the ball actually made contact with Gutschewski or not — if he was a punt returner in the NFL, they would have gone to video review — but it was a close call. The ball had come off the driver of Danny Lee, who was hitting a provisional tee shot over the trees on the drivable hole.

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“I’ve been getting a lot of DMs about No. 10,” Lee said after Friday’s round, a second consecutive 67. “I mean, hitting up on the green. I mean, first of all, I apologized to everybody and I apologized to Scott. I watched it on TV too, how close it almost hit him. I mean, Jesus, thank God it didn’t hit him.”

Lee explained that he had no idea the group was on the green as he reached the hole. Nobody else seemed to realize that he was going for the green.

“But at the time when we showed up on the 10th tee, they weren’t even on the fairway. I gave another five to seven minutes and then I hit my first one way right, hit the cart path, went 90 yards right. So even then no one said, “They’re still on the green, you should wait,” or anything like that.

“So I obviously hit my provisional, hit a better line, better shot, landed on the green and some of the people were like, ‘What are you doing? Like did you not know they were on the green?’

“But I didn’t, I honestly didn’t. I wasn’t trying to kill anybody out there, that’s not my intention. I’m just trying to come out here like rest of other players, just play my best golf possible. That was my intention. I apologized to everybody. I just want to make sure that I apologize to everybody. I mean, there’s no excuse for it, it’s my fault hitting up there, but I just want to clarify things.”

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The near-miss didn’t seem to bother either Lee or Gutschewski. In fact, Lee didn’t even play the ball in real time — he actually found his first and made bogey from there en route to an opening 67 that left him T4. On Friday he was stalled out at one over par through 13 holes but then rallied for a wild finish, holing out for eagle at No. 5 and then finishing birdie-birdie-birdie-par.

“To be honest, I haven’t really made the cut in a while and I haven’t played in a while, so I was just trying to make it to the weekend. I was just grinding it out,” he said. Lee’s last made cut on the PGA Tour came at the Palmetto Championship in June. “That one lucky shot on No. 5 and that just kept going, like momentum was building in positive ways and I kept making putts and a lot of birdies coming in.”

Lee sits T4 heading to the weekend. He’s seeking his first top 10 on the PGA Tour since March 2020. He’s also hoping for a high enough finish to regain status via Minor Medical Extension. Bermuda is one of three tournaments Lee can play to earn 289 FedEx Cup points for full status (which would require a finish of solo second or better) or 135 points for partial status (solo fourth or better).

As for Gutschewski? The 45-year-old has had a rollercoaster pro journey, going 10 years between Tour starts before earning back his card for this season. He followed up a Thursday 69 with a Friday 70 to leave him comfortably inside the cut line at T34. He seemed content to celebrate a job well done post-round.

Both men head back to Port Royal on Saturday with plenty on the line — and their heads no doubt on a swivel.

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It was the six-putt heard ’round the world: On Saturday at the U.S. Open, Danny Lee approached Winged Foot’s 18th green at three over for the day. All that was left to do was clean up a four-footer for par, and prepare for his final round on Sunday.

But unfortunately for Lee, disaster struck. Lee missed the putt for par, and an earnest attempt to drain the ensuing 5 1/2-footer for bogey also blew by the edge of the hole. Lee then proceeded to half-heartedly whack the ball back and forth past the hole another three times before his sixth putt finally dropped for a quintuple-bogey 9. Ouch.

Lee withdrew from the championship about an hour and a half after finishing his third round, citing a wrist injury. On Tuesday, Lee took to social media to address the incident for the first time.

“I apologize for my actions at us open [sic] last week,” Lee’s post began, describing those actions as “unprofessional” and “foolish.”

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“My frustration took over me and combined with injury I had to fight with it for all week,” Lee continued. “Still just an excuse. I shouldn’t left [sic] like that.”

Lee concluded his post with a promise to do better. “Now I gonna [sic] take some time off and think about what I did and starting next time I’ll show up as a better person and have better sportsmanship,” he wrote.

Lee is currently ranked 112th in the world. He has one career PGA Tour victory: the 2015 Greenbrier Classic. He also notably won the U.S. Amateur in 2008 at only 18 years old, breaking Tiger Woods’ record by becoming the youngest player ever to do so at the time.

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We have all had our “nightmare moments” on the golf course and can certainly relate to what happened to Danny Lee in the U.S. Open at Winged Foot.

And while the first couple of misses may have come from poor technique, the next three certainly came out of frustration — something all golfers can relate to.

1. Set up is everything

A good set up in all of your golf skills is super important. When it comes to putting, putter face alignment and shoulder and forearm alignments determine proper path.

An open stance, can often cause the path to change and this appears to be what caused his first miss. And this doesn’t mean to say you cannot have an open stance, but your ball position would need to match this so that your forearm and shoulder alignments are correct to produce a good path.

Using putting training aids can help to check putter face alignment as well as body alignments. One of our favorites (and DJ’s, too!) is the Perfect Putting mat, which does what it says, as we wrote here:

“The lines on the mat make it easy to focus on starting your ball on the correct line — a vitally important element of good putting — and the slight uphill feature has two added benefits: First, it trains you not to leave putts short; And second, it allows the ball, once it does drop into the hole, to roll directly back to you.”

You can buy it at Fairway Jockey right here.

2. Putter face at impact is the key

Aiming your putter face well and maintaining stability throughout your stroke will help to convert a lot of putts and has certainly proven to be a huge measure of success or not when it comes to short putts.

On his second putt, the face appears to close right before impact and this causes the ball to move left

Once again, this is something that can be practiced with training aids, and I am also a big fan of using a chalk line to practice face aim and stability.

3. When you are struggling, slow down!

In every sport I have ever played, I know that feeling of, “This isn’t going so well, so let me hurry and get it over with.” While this may be the instinct, it is about the worst thing you can do.

Slowing down, will typically allow you to calm yourself, catch your breath and think more clearly.

Once Danny missed his second putt you can certainly see this hurry up mentality take over and there is not longer any look of preparation or set up routine.
Learn from this and when you have difficulties, slow yourself down, get back into routine and if you have to change your game plan, you will have the clarity of mind to do so.

4. Have a goal that you can accomplish with high certainty

When we try to force things to happen in golf that may be greater than our skill level, it can sometimes result in problems. If you are struggling with short putts, just trying to roll them close so that they are slowing down around the hole will likely give them a higher percentage chance of rolling in as the ball will be more affected by gravity as it slows down.

You can see Bryson does an amazing job of this on his last putt to win the tournament. Now, he was certainly in the driver seat at this point, but when the ball fell into the hole it barely trickled in and if it had not fallen, it would have been extremely close.

The lesson to learn from this is to lower expectations and attempt goals you can accomplish.

5. Make a change

When you have a huge problem with a part of your game, the worst thing you can do is take it personally and carry it with you. Once you have a handle on any particular technique issues that they may or may not be, it can be a great confidence builder to change the club that caused the problem….a new putter in this case.

I have had the opportunity to play with some really great players and they are often really good at blaming outside agencies for failures rather than themselves. To be honest, this is brilliant and it helps to keep and build confidence.

I would like to see Danny Lee do this. Change your putter. Own up to the mistake and move on and every golfer who has played for any period of time will understand.

Why do we all find this story so interesting? I think it is because we all can relate. So much of golf on television is watching the best players play their best golf, but every now and again, we’re reminded that golf brings everybody down to earth.

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MAMARONECK, N.Y. — Saturday night, there were whispers around the 18th green at Winged Foot.

Did you see it?

No, I was volunteering by No. 9 — can’t believe I missed it.

They lost track of his putts!

The word was out: Winged Foot had finally broken one of its competitors. After six putts from four feet and a subsequent WD, Danny Lee was out of the U.S. Open.

Lee arrived at the 18th green just three over par for the day. If he could get up and down, he’d actually beat the field average and hold steady on the leaderboard, safely inside the top 40 and in line for a solid payday.

His approach shot from the left rough settled on the upslope just short and right of the green. Not bad. From there, he hit a nifty chip, using the backstop just behind the flagstick to stop his ball just four feet beyond the hole. That’s when things got interesting.

For a while, the media and the viewing public only knew Lee’s final score for the hole: A quintuple-bogey 9. But on Sunday morning, Golf Channel aired the Lost Danny Lee Tapes, and whoa! Here’s the video, and then I’ll tell you everything else we know.

You don’t often see it play out quite like that on Tour! Okay, here’s everything I know about the Danny Lee six-putt.

-Sources tell GOLF.com there was some confusion in the immediate aftermath as to just how many putts Lee had taken. Between Lee, his caddie, his playing partners and the walking scorer, nobody was completely sure how many putts he had taken. It’s not clear if they were able to quickly access the footage, or if there was some disagreement as to the final tally, but we can see now that they ended up with the correct number: six putts for a score of 9.

-After his round, Lee withdrew, citing a wrist injury. No further detail was provided. Lee has battled a wrist injury throughout his career, and, well, we won’t speculate any further on whether the WD was also tied to the fact that he six-putted the 18th green.

-From my perspective, everything changed midway through that third putt. That was the breaking point. After Lee’s second putt trickled past the hole to easy tap-in range, he just…whacked it. I think part of the reason this video is so relatable is because every golfer is familiar with that feeling of short-circuiting — it just doesn’t usually happen on the 18th hole at a Winged Foot U.S. Open.

-What would have happened if fans were on site? On the one hand, this feels like the sort of thing that would only transpire in a relatively anonymous, fan-free setting. On the other hand, the 18th green is one of the more populous areas of the golf course; plenty of volunteers, spectators and staffers were looking on. Maybe Lee had just had enough.

-Before his WD, Lee was listed as having lost an unthinkable 8.02 strokes to the field putting. Just over five of those strokes would have come on the final green, which is a large majority, but it also means he was already having a rough day on the greens, which could be partly to blame for the final frustration. Lee finished the round with 39 putts.

-Lee will be paid out last-place money after the WD, which comes out somewhere in the range of $25,000. Had he made that initial par putt, he’d have started Sunday at T34, a slot that pays out $68,000. Lee made just over $2 million on the course in the 2019-20 PGA Tour season, so I think he’s doing okay on that front — but this felt like a costly finish nonetheless.

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UPDATE: The video of Lee’s six-putt was released on Sunday morning on Golf Channel. Scroll to the bottom to watch.

U.S. Open courses are known for their capacity to throw haymakers at the best players in the world. On Saturday, one of the best players in the world called off the fight early.

Danny Lee approached the 18th green in the third round at Winged Foot in solid position. Part of the morning pairings who dealt with brutally tough, chilly conditions, Lee walked toward the clubhouse at three over for the day. An up-and-down for par from 75 feet might have been challenging, but certainly wasn’t out of the question.

In fact, after Lee knocked his chip to four feet from the pin, an up-and-down for par seemed likely. PGA Tour pros make 91.4 percent of their four-footers. No sweat.

Lee lined up his putt, made a stroke and absorbed a knockout blow.

The 30-year-old New Zealander missed the four-footer. Then the five-footer coming back. Then he hit a putt that traveled 4.2 inches before bombing the ensuing six-footer 10 feet past the hole.

We’ll spare you the rest of the details, because, well, it wasn’t pretty. When the dust finally settled six putts later, Lee penciled in a quintuple-bogey nine.

The implosion dropped him down to the bottom of the leaderboard, tied for 59th with Rory Sabbatini. But even that lasted only about 90 minutes, and that’s because, shortly before 5 p.m., the USGA announced that Lee had withdrawn from the U.S. Open with a wrist injury.

Lee can take solace knowing that U.S. Open implosions are far from uncharted territory. Just two years ago, at the 2018 Open, Phil Mickelson famously flirted with a DQ after backstopping his own putt to keep it from running off Shinnecock’s lightning-quick greens. But still, as Lee departs New York, one thing is clear:

Carnage-lovers, you’ve landed at least one victory at Winged Foot.

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DANNY LEE is a fascinating, hilarious guy. He has two gears of speed— but can also skip straight past a third gear into fourth, which he just calls “really long.” He does a lot of speed drills before tourney rounds. The crazy-looking drill pictured at right is called the “Helicopter.” Danny (1) takes the club up directly vertical, over his head, then (2) around his body, and then he just swings out of his shoes. Why? He wants to get his speed up beforehand to better control a slower speed during the round. Danny feels if he can swing the club at almost 130 mph while warming up, he can handle 117 or 118 on the course, which is where he’s at now, up from 109- 110 when we started working together. It was Jack Nicklaus who said that first you learn speed, then you learn how to control it. Another Nicklaus lesson we’ve been working on is turning the front leg and knee in and toward the ball more on the backswing. (Trying to maintain the front knee in its address position, as some people advocate, is about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, and you’ll hurt yourself trying.) The lead leg should turn in toward the ball to allow the whole body to load up. That’s speed in waiting.

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Why? He wants to get his speed up beforehand to better control a slower speed during the round. Danny feels if he can swing the club at almost 130 mph while warming up, he can handle 117 or 118 on the course, which is where he’s at now, up from 109- 110 when we started working together.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpSx58NHfpr/

It was Jack Nicklaus who said that first you learn speed, then you learn how to control it. Another Nicklaus lesson we’ve been working on is turning the front leg and knee in and toward the ball more on the backswing. (Trying to maintain the front knee in its address position, as some people advocate, is about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, and you’ll hurt yourself trying.)

The lead leg should turn in toward the ball to allow the whole body to load up. That’s speed in waiting.

RELATED: George Gankas, the hottest (and oddest) swing coach in golf

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FARMINGDALE, NY —After a course-record seven-under 63 during the first round of the 2019 PGA Championship at Bethpage Black, clubhouse leader Brooks Koepka predicted that someone later in the day might match his score.

“Some of these hole locations I think are quite gettable,” Koepka said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you see another good score in the afternoon.”

Some of the best players in the world, including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy, were scheduled to tee off on Thursday afternoon. It was reasonable that one of them might approach Koepka’s number.

Well, someone did pull within one shot of Koepka’s lead at this 101st PGA Championship. But wasn’t Johnson or McIlroy or any other pro who has previously won a major title. It was little-known Danny Lee who threw up a six-under 64. He’s alone in second place, one back.

Most golf fans don’t know much about the 28-year-old Lee. But that could change this week on Long Island. Here are a few fast facts:

Danny Lee is only one shot off the lead at the PGA Championship after 18 holes.

USA Today Sports

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–  He was born in South Korea, but Lee calls New Zealand home after moving to the island nation at age 8. In 2008, he became the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Amateur at age 18. That year Lee also became the top-ranked amateur golfer in the world.

– After turning professional in 2009, Lee earned his first European Tour victory in February at the Johnnie Walker Classic in Australia. That made him the youngest-ever winner on the European Tour. Later that year, he made his major-championship debut at the Masters, but missed the cut.

– Lee joined the Nationwide Tour (now Web.com) in 2011, and he won the WNB Golf Classic in October for his second professional win.

– After failing to qualify for the PGA Tour in 2010 and 2011, Lee finally earned his Tour card in 2012. But he made just 13 cuts in 26 events and returned to the minor leagues.

– After a strong 2013 season on the Web.com, Lee regained his PGA Tour card for 2014 and hung onto it. In 2015, he finally earned his first PGA Tour win at the Greenbrier Classic.

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– Lee’s 64 here on Thursday is his best major-championship score. His best major finish is a T17 at the 2016 Masters. His best PGA Championship finish is 43rd, in 2015.

So, despite his success as a teenager, it’s fair to say Lee remains a big underdog this week. He said his ability to hit the ball farther could give him an edge this week.

“Well, at first, I wasn’t hitting it far enough to compete out here on the major championship — PGA Championship or U.S. Open,” Lee said after his round. “Masters I might have had a chance. But now I’m definitely hitting it further. I can carry my driver about 290, 295 in the air. That’s a huge bonus for me. And that was actually the first time I actually got to play in a major with this distance. I’m actually interested in myself what I can do out there this week.”

Danny Lee is looking for his first win since 2015.

Getty Images

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Lee teed off at 12:10 p.m., just as Koepka was putting a stranglehold on the Wanamaker Trophy. But Lee, currently No. 119 in the world ranking, racked up four birdies on the front nine and tacked on four more on the back. He made a 3 on the par-4 10th hole — the same hole Tiger Woods doubled earlier in the day. Lee only hit seven of 14 fairways, but each time he found the short grass he made a birdie.

“I know my game was good today,” Lee said. “I thought I was going to bounce back really quick at 16, but I missed the fairway by four yards, so I made a nice up-and-down there. And No. 17, it was 200 yards to the pin. It was tucked, a right front pin, but the way I was hitting it, I felt like I can really hit a good one there, and I hit a solid 6-iron and hit it to like two and a half feet. It was an easy tap-in.”

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PGA Championship 2019 photos: A different look at Bethpage Black

When he stepped up to the tee box on Thursday and saw Koepka’s name atop the board, Lee wasn’t intimidated. In fact, he expected it.

“Well, I wasn’t surprised when Brooks shot seven-under this morning,” Lee said. “I mean, have you seen him playing U.S. Opens and PGA Championships the last three years? When you’re hitting driver, pitching wedge every hole. I wasn’t surprised at all. But it didn’t change my game plan at all. I’m not like Brooks Koepka long, but I can carry it about 290, 300 now.”

Lee’s story is appealing because of his winding road over the last decade. As they learn about it, fans could rally around him. Lee shared just how difficult that journey has been these last few years.

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“So if you’re maybe near top 50 in the world, it’s okay,” Lee said. “But outside of 100 in the world, obviously your endorsement money is not great. I mean, even I wouldn’t pay an outside 100 in the world, pay that much. Let’s be honest.

“How would you feel when you lose your job tomorrow? And you put a lot of effort into it. You’ve tried your best, and you did everything you could do, and you don’t have a job tomorrow. That’s the same feeling we have. I know it’s a dream-chasing work, and I’m grateful and happy to be out here and happy for my opportunities out here.”

Lee’s incredible performance on Thursday might be a blip on the radar. Or maybe, just maybe, he’ll stick around and enjoy some of the glory he’s been seeking for more than decade. He’s certainly earned it.

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One Tour star continued to struggle, a fan favorite ended a winless drought and a local looper cashed in big time. Here’s what you missed from the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico.

Who won: Matt Kuchar (two-under 69, 22 under overall)

How it happened: Kuchar opened the day with a four-shot lead, although it shrunk to three when he made the turn. After birdies on 11 and 13, Kuchar went bogey-bogey on 14 and 15 — both three-putts, the former from off the green — and his lead was trimmed to one over Danny Lee with two to play and Lee in the group ahead. Lee missed a birdie putt on 18 to sign for a 65 and get in at 21 under. Kuchar two-putted on 18, making a three-footer for par, to secure the one-shot victory.

Why it matters: It’s Kuchar’s first win since the 2014 RBC Heritage, when he beat Luke Donald by a stroke. The last time he held the 54-hole lead, at the 2016 Memorial, he shot 73 and tied for 4th. This week he closed it out. The 40-year-old has now won eight times on the PGA Tour.

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Notables: Rickie Fowler closed with a 67 to shoot 14 under and tie for 16th, and Jim Furyk shot 67 and tied for 6th. This week’s other headliner, Jordan Spieth, missed the cut and wasn’t around for the weekend.

Best closing round: Scott Piercy closed his front nine with five straight birdies and added three more in a row on Nos. 13-15 to shoot a nine-under 62. He missed a birdie putt on the 18th for a 61. He finished 17 under and tied for 6th.

Best fill-in caddie role: Kuchar committed to the tournament late, and his regular caddie, John Wood, had a prior engagement, so Wood got the week off. After a few other options fell through, Kuchar was paired with a local caddie named David, although most of the locals call him “El Tucan.” “It’s been quite easy,” Kuchar said Friday. “He’s a steady rock out there and it’s been fun.”

Best shot when it mattered: Leading three different players by three, Kuchar missed the green on the short par-4 11th and elected to putt through six feet of fringe and drained it from about 20 feet. That birdie lifted him to 23 under and four clear, and it came in handy with his one-shot win.

Kuchar. Clutch.

The lead is now 4.#LiveUnderPar pic.twitter.com/73rB6rT4hV

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 11, 2018

Worst shot when it mattered: Trailing Kuchar by three with five to play, Cameron Champ, who shot 62 on Friday, pushed his drive way right on the par-4 14th. The Sanderson Farms winner made double and fell out of contention. Champ shot 69 and tied for 10th.

Up next: The Tour heads back to the States for the RSM Classic in Sea Island, Ga., next week. Austin Cook is the defending champ. Also next week the European Tour finishes its season with the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

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Webb Simpson, Danny Lee, Kevin Kisner and Scott Piercy share the lead of the Dean & Deluca Invitational at six under par after 36 holes.

Webb Simpson, Danny Lee, Kevin Kisner and Scott Piercy share the lead of the Dean & Deluca Invitational at six under par after 36 holes.

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