Danny Lee, from Rotorua. Photo / Paul Taylor.
National champion Danny Lee chases the record books in the New Zealand under-23 golf championship in Hawke's Bay starting tomorrow.
Victory will make Lee, 17, the first player to claim the title three times.
He currently shares two wins with Australian Nathan Green, the 2006 New Zealand Open
champion.
Lee is set to do battle with local star Nick Gillespie after the pair featured in some superb battles in 2007.
The teenagers finished the year as the country's best two players, and the only males to be selected for the Titleist academy elite squad.
Lee beat Gillespie in the final of the New Zealand amateur championsips, after the Hawke's Bay player had won the North Island amateur and Lee the South Island amateur.
They were the only amateurs to make the cut in the New Zealand Open in Queenstown last month with Lee pipping Gillespie by two shots to win the Bledisloe Cup.
Gillespie bounced back the following week to beat Lee in matchplay during the New Zealand Interprovincials, on the way to being selected as the player of the tournament.
The Hawke's Bay player will need to be at his best as Lee as started the year off in style, shooting 15-under par to be leading individual at this week's under-23 team championships in Taupo.
He has a liking for the brilliant surrounds of the Hastings Golf Club at Bridge Pa, noted for its pristine conditions.
Last year, Lee streaked away from the field to win by 11 shots and low scoring is likely after two days of rain this week has softened the dead-true Bridge Pa greens.
The under-23 championship has taken on added significance with most of the country's top players pushing for selection for the Eisenhower Trophy later this year in this age group.
The exception is Hamilton's James Gill, currently on scholarship at St Andrews University in Scotland.
Others expected to be to the fore include national representatives Gary-John Hill (Northland), Peter Spearman-Burn (Wellington), Sean Riordan (Takaka), Perry Hayman (Wellington) and Travis O'Connell (Auckland).
The capacity field of 156 will be cut to the leading 72 players plus ties for the final two rounds on Saturday.
- NZPA
