LIV Golf star Danny Lee was once a top prospect on the PGA Tour but reluctantly says the level of competition he is now facing is far higher after making the big-money switch
Danny Lee has admitted he “feels bad” for the PGA Tour – because he reckons there is no comparison with the level of competition he is facing in LIV Golf.
In 2008, at just 18 years old, Lee became the youngest U.S. Amateur winner, breaking Tiger Woods’ record. He was expected to achieve great success in the PGA Tour when he first started.
However, due to inconsistency and a series of injuries, he failed to fulfill his potential.
In 2016, he achieved his highest world ranking at 34 but experienced some ups and downs in the following years. He had a PGA Tour card for nine seasons out of 11 and faced various injuries.
Nevertheless, his career took a positive turn when Kevin Na invited him to join his Iron Heads GC team.
And while he is loathed to criticise the PGA Tour, he believes the level of competition he is facing in the 54-player, 14-event LIV Golf season is higher than anything the traditional top tour can now offer. Speaking ahead of LIV Golf Las Vegas, Lee told Mirror Sport: “I mean, the PGA Tour was one of the greatest tours in the whole world.
“I loved playing in it and I always loved competing against all the top guys there. But now it’s a different story.
“I can’t complain out here. I’m competing with the best in the world. When you look at the field, I don’t want to say this because I feel kind of bad for the PGA Tour right now, but the last four weeks I’ve seen on the PGA Tour who is on the top of the leaderboard compared to here, and it’s night and day.”
Despite the intensity of the competition on the LIV Golf circuit, the move has proved life-changing as well as career-saving for Lee. He won LIV Golf Tucson in a playoff off last March, earning $4million in the process after his first triumph since a PGA Tour victory at Greenbrier in 2015.
“I won a big chunk of money!” He recalls. “I did pretty good on the PGA Tour, and it was a quarter of what I made in my whole time there in one week, so it was pretty special.”
Lee also credits LIV Golf’s reduced schedule – as well as three-day tournaments – with enabling him to complete a full season after returning from wrist surgery.
“I believe that if I had competed on the PGA Tour last year with my injured wrist, I would not have been able to complete the whole season,” he acknowledges honestly as he displays the scars from his surgery. “I likely would have had to withdraw from the season after Florida, around the end of March, due to the severe condition of my wrist.”
“It was beneficial for me as I would participate in one or two events, then take three weeks off, or sometimes a month off.
This break was crucial for me to rest, receive treatment, and prepare for the upcoming event.
The timing of the break aligned perfectly for me to come over, and I am enjoying myself here.” Although there are signs of progress towards resolution in the civil war within golf, there is still a long way to go as internal conflict and chaos persist.
Lee’s sole focus is on doing everything he can to achieve his goal of becoming one of the top players in the world.
“I’m not concerned about which tour I compete on,” he explains. “We all enjoy playing golf and that’s what matters.” “We simply aim to compete in the most prestigious tour available. This is why we dedicate ourselves to improving our skills and putting in the effort to become top players globally.”
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