KEY POINTS:
Danny Lee will be a millionaire as soon as he turns professional in 12 months' time.
That's what his win at the US Amateur championship means in the commercial golf market. Already agents from big sports management firms like IMG, Octagon and Gaylord Sports Management are hovering in
the hope they can sign the 18-year-old, Korean-born New Zealander.
The contest for him will be intense and it's important Lee gets the right advice in the coming months.
When he does turn professional, probably after July's British Open, Lee will have rich endorsement deals to sign immediately. And by then his international profile will have shot up.
After last week's exploits, he's guaranteed a start in more major championships next year than Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie. And if traditions continue, he'll share the first two rounds at Augusta with a former Masters winner and play the opening 36 holes of the US Open with defending champion Tiger Woods.
When Michelle Wie, who never won a US Women's Amateur title, turned professional in 2005, she had endorsement deals with Sony and Nike worth US$10 million.
Because Danny Lee's legs are not as long as Wie's, his market value will be a few dollars less. But because he'll be so attractive to the booming Asian market, some serious money will be on offer. His clubs are already supplied by Californian giant Callaway and next year he'll surely join Phil Mickelson as one of their poster boys.
This is why Lee's win makes him the greatest amateur golfer to ever wear the New Zealand colours.
Sure, Stuart Jones won seven New Zealand titles and the Canadian Amateur in 1967, Phil Tataurangi was leading individual at the 1992 Eisenhower Trophy, Michael Campbell won the Australian Amateur and Gareth Paddison the Canadian Amateur, but Lee's Western Amateur and US Amateur in the same month is one of the most outstanding achievements in New Zealand sport. Period.
Rotorua Daily Post sports editor Craig Tiriana has reported on Lee most. He also had a unique opportunity to watch him up close as Lee's foursomes (alternate shot) partner in Bay of Plenty interclub matches.
"That was a few years ago. He was only 13 or 14 then and couldn't speak much English and didn't know much about the etiquette of the game," says Tiriana. "Like, he'd be taking practice swings behind you when you were preparing to hit. But he was just a kid then. Now, he's just unbelievable.
"As the guys around the Bay of Plenty team say, he hits it hard and he hits it straight. To be honest, I always wondered if he'd be able to get to the absolute highest level because his putting was his Achilles heel. But he's obviously changed that."
Has he what.
Lee's performance at Pinehurst was extraordinary. You didn't need to be there to know how well he played.
If his six matches had all gone the distance, he would have played 126 holes. Seven full rounds. But he whipped his opponents so consistently only 104 holes were needed.
In the final against Drew Kittleson, he shocked his opponent with 13 birdies in 32 holes, by which stage even Kittleson was applauding the extraordinary display of which he was the victim.
Lee first made an impact when he won the Cambridge Classic in 2004. But it was the national under-23 championship at Hastings in January 2006 when people really took notice. He was only 15 but beat the then top players Mark Purser and Josh Geary by six shots over 72 holes.
In the next year's event he lapped the field, reaching 20 under-par, shooting 63 on the final day and winning by a mind-boggling 11 shots.
That started a stellar year when he won the New Zealand Amateur and was leading amateur at the Michael Hill New Zealand Open at Arrowtown.
By the time he again blitzed a strong international field at the Lake Macquarie Amateur in New South Wales in January, winning by 10 shots, his reputation as one of the best amateurs in the world was set in concrete.
James Kupa was the New Zealand team coach then and will be for October's Eisenhower Trophy, came back from Newcastle raving about Lee.
"There were times when I watched him play and I thought, `this kid is the best golfer I've ever seen'," enthused Kupa. "There was this bunker shot, from a small deep bunker on a downhill lie, where he had to get the ball up quickly and stop it near a tight pin on a downhill slope on the green. It would be the hardest shot in golf. He hit to tap-in distance and I thought, `I've never seen anything like this'."
And this was an experienced, respected golf coach, and a fair player himself, being blown away by a 17-year-old.
So the talent is undeniable, the results outstanding and the potential obvious. But there is his education, which by all accounts has been virtually non-existent over the last five years. Lee appears to have been on the books at Rotorua Boys' High School in name only.
Numerous people I spoke to say he's been a full-time golfer since he was 13. The school denies it, but just the time spent in the United States in the last three winters alone would suggest that he's not going to have a truckload of NCEA credits to his name.
Mind you, if the deals come through next year, it shows that attending the Springfield Golf Club's practice fairway when he should have been in class was obviously a better place to be.
Amid the considerable hyperbole that is completely understandable in the aftermath of his win at Pinehurst, there are some warning signs. Lee must be very carefully managed.
His coach Steve Jessup has talked of whether he can continue to swing the club like he does, which means his body won't cope for long with such an aggressive action.
He also needs to watch his schedule of tournaments carefully in the months ahead. Because of the PGA Tour event immediately preceding the US Amateur, Lee played 11 consecutive days of competitive golf. That is unheard of. No wonder he felt some pain in his shoulder during the week at Pinehurst.
The big job for us at New Zealand Golf now is to make sure his commitments are carefully managed and he plays only premium events. Right now, he's as big a drawcard in the game in this country as Campbell or Mark Brown, or any of our professionals.
The New Zealand Golf website has results for him in 17 tournaments this year already, and that doesn't include his trip to Spain in April to play in the Bonallack Trophy or the transtasman test which followed immediately.
As a comparison, Mickelson has played only 18 tournaments this year.
Lee's next big assignment is the Eisenhower Trophy when his presence alone will make New Zealand one of the favoured teams for the world championship event.
But in the next month are the Wairakei and Taranaki Opens. His appearance at either should be carefully considered in light of what the next 12 months hold.
He will know by now that when you win a big tournament, everyone wants a piece of you. The boy is a star but the star is still a boy. Many riches and good times lie ahead.
US Amateur winners often go on to have highly successful professional careers, but it's not guaranteed.
Six have won major championships in the past 30 years but where are Nathaniel Crosby, Eric Meeks and John Harris?
Make no mistake. This is a huge achievement for a New Zealand golfer. Danny Lee has a whole career ahead of him. So there's no need to rush.
