Golf’s Rising Star

Rotorua schoolboy Danny Lee, 18, has the golfing world at his feet after becoming the youngest player ever to win the US Amateur championship, held at the Pinehurst club in North Carolina last week. Lee beat opponent Drew Kittleson from Arizona 5 and 4 in the 36-hole final, capping off a very successful three-week stint in the US, which included another win at the Western Amateur, and a top-20 finish in the Wyndham Championship on the US PGA tour. The Korean-born golfer, who has lived in New Zealand for nine years, will return home briefly next week to attend a ceremony in Rotorua where he will receive New Zealand citizenship. The youngest player to win the US Amateur championship before Lee, who turned 18 last month, was Tiger Woods who was 18 years eight months when he won the first of three successive US Amateur finals in 1994.