Lee glee as amateur acetames professionals

NEW ZEALAND amateur Danny Lee is looking forward to a bright future after making history by becoming the youngest ever winner of a European Tour tournament with a one-stroke victory at the Johnnie Walker Classic.

The teenager carded a closing five-under-par 67 at The Vines to finish on 17 under, one shot ahead of Ross McGowan of England, Hiroyuki Fujita of Japan and Chile’s Felipe Aguilar.

At the age of 18 years and 213 days, Lee surpassed the record of Dale Hayes at the 1971 Spanish Open and also became only the second amateur after 2007 Estoril Open de Portugal champion Pablo Martin to win on the Tour.

He showed nerves of steel to secure the title with a birdie on the final hole in the £1.25million event.

“It still feels like I’m in dreamland,” he said. “Hopefully no-one wakes me up. I played extremely well the last few days.”

Lee will turn professional after the Masters in April is setting his sights extremely high. “I can’t compare to Tiger Woods because he’s one of the greatest players in the world and he’s the number one ranked player.

“All I want to do is just break what he’s done. Obviously I can’t win three US Amateurs in-a-row but I’ll try to break his records on the PGA Tour.”