Danny Lee on his winning secret

Danny Lee's win last weekend has the golfing world talking. Photo / Getty Images

When Danny Lee was eight years old, he would practice his golf swing in his family's crowded apartment in the Korean city of Incheon.

Now, when he is back with his family in their new home in Rotorua, the 18-year-old uses the opportunity to bleach his hair. He has far better places to practice his golf swing - such as the long fairways at the Augusta National next month, side-by-side with idol Tiger Woods.

It is the top amateur's privilege to line up alongside the No 1 professional for the first two rounds, and that may be a big part of why Lee is delaying turning professional for the time being.

He missed out on a A$460,000 ($588,000) prize when he won the Johnny Walker Classic in Perth last weekend, because he is an amateur.

After Augusta next month, he is expected to turn professional. That, and get rid of the blond bleach in his hair. He is getting a bit sick of it.

But he insists the professional tour won't change him - just give him a bigger view of the world as he plays the big events. Holding the trophy in Perth last weekend was a taste of that.

"It was a completely different feeling from winning an amateur tournament trophy. I felt very proud of myself for competing with great professionals, and actually winning it."

His challenges on the course this week, failing to make the cut at the Moonah Classic in Victoria, have been another, more bitter, taste of professional golf.

Lee's parents moved the family to New Zealand when he was 12 to allow him to further his golf. All the family plays, and his younger brothers are good. His father Sam Lee plays off a handy 18 handicap - but mum Sujin Lee is better still, with a 5 handicap.

Coming from industrialised Korea's fourth-largest city, the first thing that struck Danny about New Zealand was the blue sky, he says.

In Incheon, his parents were successful - his father manufactured badminton shuttlecocks and owned rental properties - but still the family lived in a small city apartment.

Brother Ben Lee, laughing, recalls how tricky it was for his ambitious brother to practise his golf swing in the apartment.

Now, it is golf that crowds out all else. Lee has no girlfriend, mostly forswears the McDonald's and potato chips that he loves for healthier food, and professes little interest in the money he can win.

Sujin says she and her husband are likely to move to the United States to support him on the American tour.

"It will be a new experience just like it was coming to Rotorua," she says, in Auckland this week to accompany Ben to university orientation. "We want to be there for Danny and support him."

One of professional golf's top managers, David Rollo of IMG World, tells Herald on Sunday Money today that his company is "extremely interested" in signing up the young player when he turns professional.

His earning potential will be determined by a number of factors, Rollo says, including his performance, his saleability to the public, and how he presents himself on and off the course.

An immediate problem in that regard may be Lee's shy demeanour and his slightly stilted English. It is immediately apparent that Lee has spent his teenage years practising his golf, rather than hanging out with his mates at the mall, chatting.

"Golf is my life from start to end," he says.

Another top sports agent, David Riolo of Australia's Titan Management, says this is not a good time to sign big sponsorship deals, but golf club makers such as Callaway or Titleist would nonetheless be likely to queue to back a player like Lee.

"The sky is the limit for a kid like that," Riolo says. "Danny could be a millionaire overnight ... Through Asia and especially in Korea, you would be looking to market him there.

"He's got to work on improving his English because you have to relate to all markets, but the most important thing is to be yourself."

Lee acknowledges he finds it "quite hard" being in the public eye.

English is his second language - but he says it was his favourite subject at Rotorua Boys' High School, along with golf academy.

At school in New Zealand, he says his classmates were friendly. He felt accepted. But for his parents, the new country was a shock. "They were used to Korean culture."

He, too, misses his grandparents and other relatives in Korea - but he is a New Zealand citizen now. His blue passport arrived over summer.

So, after spending half his life in Korea, half in New Zealand - and with years on the fairways of the US and Europe beckoning - does he consider himself a Korean, or a Kiwi? "This," he says, "is a very hard question.

It is same as asking a kid whether he likes his dad or mum. I am Kiwi yet a Korean."