Lee focused on using exemptions to earn 2010 PGA Tour card
When Danny Lee became the youngest player to ever win the U.S. Amateur last summer, a world of opportunity awaited.
There were the invites to prestigious tournaments, including the Masters, as long as he did not turn professional. There came a victory at the Johnnie Walker Championship, a European Tour event played in Australia.
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Danny Lee has only seven sponsor exemptions for the 2009 season, but through other various ways, he could play in several more PGA Tour events this year.
Now comes the next phase for Lee, who was born in Korea but is a citizen of New Zealand. Lee turned pro after missing the cut at the Masters and will make his PGA Tour professional debut this week at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
"I just wanted to play on a different level of golf, and I think as an amateur, I've done everything," said Lee, 18. "Winning the U.S. Amateur, and winning the Western Amateur and winning the professional event as an amateur ... and I want to play on a [higher] level and more competitive golf."
Lee's last tournament was bittersweet. The thrill of getting to compete in the Masters, of staying in the Crow's Nest above the clubhouse, of playing with defending champion Trevor Immelman, will not be forgotten.
But Lee would like to put in the past the way he finished. After having a reasonable chance of making the 36-hole cut, Lee six-putted the 10th green and went on to shoot a back-nine 47 on his way to an 81.
He left Augusta with his mind on New Orleans and getting paid to play.
Soon after the Masters, he announced a deal to have International Management Group represent him. He also signed with Callaway Golf.
Now comes the interesting part.
Lee definitely has options. His victory earlier this year in Australia gives him a two-year exemption on the European Tour, one he is intrigued about. But he prefers to play the PGA Tour, where he will have numerous chances to earn his card for 2010.
He is allowed to accept up to seven sponsor exemptions, one of the reasons he decided to skip the Arnold Palmer Invitational two weeks prior to the Masters. He wanted to save his exemptions for events where he could cash a paycheck and help him earn enough money to skip Q-school later this year.
Outside The Lines: At The Turn
One journey ends, another begins. Danny Lee, 18, and Gary Player, 73, found out a lot about each other -- and themselves -- at the 2009 Masters. Wright ThompsonIf he were to finish in the top 10 in a regular PGA Tour event, that would get him into the following week's full-field event, meaning he would not need an exemption. Lee will also play the Memorial and AT&T National via exemptions given to the U.S. Amateur champion -- although it doesn't matter that he turned pro. And they will not count against his seven.
Although by turning pro he gave up an automatic spot in the U.S. Open, Lee is exempt into the final stage of qualifying -- which he can take part in the day after the Memorial near Columbus, Ohio.
Once all those opportunities are used up, Lee will need to have earned more than the 150th finisher on last year's money list ($537,958) in order to receive unlimited exemptions for the rest of the year. If he can finish among the top 125 money winners by the end of the season, he would be exempt for 2010 without having to go to the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament.
As difficult as that task might seem, it has been accomplished quite frequently.
Among the players who have managed to earn PGA Tour cards going through the sponsor-exemption route were Gary Hallberg, Bobby Clampett, Justin Leonard, Tiger Woods, Charles Howell, Matt Kuchar, Ryan Moore, Hank Kuehne and Sergio Garcia.
Phil Mickelson and Scott Verplank both won PGA Tour events as amateurs and used the two-year exemption available to them after turning pro.
Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington never had to go to Q-school, either.
So Lee has quite the group to follow, after already doing quite a bit to this point.
So far, Lee has accepted sponsor exemptions to next week's Quail Hollow Championship, the Byron Nelson Championship and Colonial. And by winning the Johnnie Walker, he has a spot reserved in the no-cut Bridgestone Invitational, a World Golf Championship event.
If Lee plays well, all will take care of itself.
Taking stock of Tiger
The Masters was about as frustrating as a tournament gets for Tiger Woods. He tied for sixth despite never hitting the 18th green in regulation, bogeying it three of the four days. It took him until Sunday to birdie the par-5 second hole. Both weekend rounds, he snapped his drive way left on the par-4 opening hole, leading to a double bogey in round three.
And yet, at one point during the final round, Woods was just a stroke out of the lead.
"I'm obviously disappointed I didn't win. I was on the periphery of being in contention and being right there in the mix," Woods said Monday at a media day for the AT&T National, which he hosts. "I was just a fraction off. I didn't putt well until Sunday, and being a fraction off in that, and I do mean a fraction -- like [caddie] Stevie [Williams] and I were talking about it, 'Like how many times would you hit a shot that was one yard off?' And one yard is 30 or 40 feet at Augusta. Just takes the wrong side of the slope. And it just seemed to be happening all week.
"It was just one of those weeks I was just that much away from posting some really good numbers. Unfortunately it didn't happen, and consequently, I didn't win."
Woods missed a playoff by four strokes and somehow shot 68 on Sunday despite what he called a "band-aid" swing and a poor warm-up session.
There has been plenty of conjecture about Woods' heated words toward instructor Hank Haney on the driving range following the second round and his lack of words following the final round when he was somewhat terse in a few comments to the media.
But keep in mind, Woods was playing in just his fourth tournament since returning from an eight-month layoff following knee surgery. Perhaps his victory at Bay Hill heightened anticipation, but Woods has still played just 14 competitive rounds.
Still, only three players who made the cut finished worse than Woods in putting and he hit just 36 of 56 fairways, which has become more important at Augusta.
And yet, there seems to be plenty to build on when you tie for sixth and seemingly have so many issues.
A look at this week's PGA Tour venue
After being played two weeks prior to the Masters last year, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans has returned to being played two weeks following the Masters at the TPC Louisiana, where Argentina's Andres Romero won his lone PGA Tour title a year ago.
This is just the fourth year for the 7,341-yard, par-72 venue that first hosted the tournament in 2005. Because of damage from Hurricane Katrina, the tournament moved for a year to English Turn G&CC, where it had been played from 1989 through 2004, then went back to the TPC Louisiana in 2007, when Nick Watney captured the title.
The Pete Dye-designed course ranked 32nd out of 54 courses in difficulty on the PGA Tour last year, with the par-4 sixth proving to be the toughest. The 476-yard hole yielded just 19 birdies last year.
But the very next hole played the easiest. The par-5 seventh played nearly a half stroke under par.
A New Orleans tour stop dates to 1938, when Harry Cooper won at City Park Golf Club. From 1949 to 1957 there was no tournament, but it resumed in 1958 and has been played every year since.
Bob Harig covers golf for ESPN.com. He can be reached at BobHarig@gmail.com.
Birdies and bogeys
Birdies:
1. Brian Gay. Who knew he had that in him? Gay stretched a 3-shot lead to a 10-shot victory at the Heritage, and earned his first Masters invitation in the process.
2. Nick Price. Despite three double bogeys on Sunday, the Hall of Famer managed to capture his first Champions Tour title at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am.
3. Kenny Perry. He has yet to play since the Masters, but you have to give him credit for dealing with the loss in such a classy manner.
Bogeys:
1. Boo Weekley. He finished a respectable tied for 13th at the Verizon, where he had won the past two years, but that was Boo's first top-20 finish since he tied for 17th at the Match Play Championship.
2. The Corning Classic. After 31 years in the small New York town, one of the LPGA's longest-running events is calling it quits after this year, due to, among others things, the economy.
3. The Crowne Plaza at Colonial. Another PGA Tour event in trouble? It appears that Crowne Plaza will invoke a clause in its contract to get out after the 2010 tournament, according to the Dallas Business Journal.
No reminiscing for Price
When the Open Championship returns to Turnberry in Scotland this summer for just the fourth time and the first since 1994, Nick Price will not be there to take in the scenery at the famous links.
Price, who won his first Champions Tour event on Sunday, is 52 and could return as a past champion to the course where he went birdie-eagle-par over the final three holes to edge Jesper Parnevik and win the second of his three major titles. But Price will take a pass.
"I'd rather give my spot to some guy who can do a Nick Price in 1982," said Price, referring to the Open at Troon, where he finished second to Tom Watson by a stroke as a virtual nobody. "Because I can't win it anymore. There's no way I can win it especially what they've done to the golf course [by adding some 250 yards]. In the summertime now, I like to spend time with my family. If they hadn't changed the golf course, I would have thought about going back. But they've added some major yardage. I'd rather give my spot to another young guy."
Notables
• Not even the world's oldest championship is immune from the harsh economic realities of today. At a media day this week for the 138th Open Championship, to be played in July at Turnberry, organizers admitted that corporate hospitality sales are down 15 to 20 percent. Because of its remote location, Turnberry is expected to draw in the neighborhood of 115,000 spectators for the week, down from 200,000 last year at Royal Birkdale. That means the tournament will likely not raise the purse. Due to the slumping British pound, the purse in American dollars will almost certainly take a big plunge, from about $8.1 million to about $6.3 million.
• Kenny Perry is the only top-10 player entered in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, with Steve Stricker (12th) and Mike Weir (19th) the only others from the top 25.
• For players not already qualified, this week's New Orleans event provides a final opportunity to qualify for the Players Championship in two weeks via the FedEx Cup points standings. Players who are among the top 10 in FedEx Cup points will earn a spot in the Players field.
• While Northern Ireland's Rory McIlory declined an opportunity to become a special temporary member of the PGA Tour (based on his money earnings to date), England's Ross Fisher has taken the invitation. As a temporary member, Fisher, ranked 33rd in the world, can accept unlimited sponsor exemptions in an attempt to earn enough money to gain his PGA Tour card for 2010.
• Tom Lehman is making his Champions Tour debut at this week's Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, where he will team with Bernhard Langer.
• The LPGA's on-again, off-again schedule resumes for the first time in three weeks at the Corona Championship in Mexico, where Lorena Ochoa defends her title.
• The European Tour visits South Korea for the Ballantine's Championship where Ernie Els, Lee Westwood, Henrik Stenson and Fred Couples are entered. Next week, the tour returns to European soil, where it will remain -- save for the majors and world championship events -- throughout the summer.
Catching up with last year's champ
Andres Romero parlayed last year's victory at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans into PGA Tour rookie of the year honors. The Argentine had three top-10 finishes, including a tie for eighth at the Masters and a tie for seventh at the PGA Championship.
This year has not been as smooth. Other than a tie for third at the Northern Trust Open, Romero has not been in the top 10 in any PGA Tour event. He tied for 49th at the Masters after shooting 77-77 on the weekend.
And making matters more difficult this week for Romero is the fact he returned to Argentina last week for a South American event called the Abierto VISA del Centro, where he finished fifth.
Quotable
"That was more emotional to me than just sitting and reflecting on what went on, what was happening. It was the outpouring of love and support from everybody that was really more emotional to me than anything."
-- Kenny Perry on the more than 600 e-mails and 100 letters he received following his Masters playoff loss.
Zurich Classic picks
Birdie Buster: Steve Stricker. He tied for sixth at the Masters after a tie for fourth at the Transitions Championship. He missed the cut in Houston, but has been in the top 17 in six of his past seven events.
Horse for the Course: Tim Petrovic. In addition to his 2005 victory, Petrovic tied for 24th in 2007 and tied for seventh last year at the TPC Louisiana.
Super Sleeper: Todd Hamilton. Coming off his first top 10 since winning the British Open in 2004, Hamilton is on a bit of a roll. He tied for 15th at the Masters to earn a return trip to Augusta National, then was in contention last week at the Verizon Heritage where he tied for fourth.
Winner: Nick Watney. This is where he got his first victory two years ago and adding to his win earlier this year in San Diego seems to be a matter of time. Watney finished second to Phil Mickelson at Doral and has not been out of the top 20 since, finishing 19th at the Masters.