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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 16, 2019

Danny Lee

Farmingdale, New York

JOHN DEVER: Good afternoon, and welcome back to the 2019 PGA Championship here at Bethpage Black. Pleased to be joined by Danny Lee of New Zealand, who's also the 2008 U.S. Amateur champion. He opened with an opening round 64 today. That included eight birdies and a couple bogeys. The 64 is his low round of the year, and it is his best effort of his career in a major championship.

Danny, let me ask you about your round today. Maybe the 15th hole you bogey, and then how did you buckle up and go birdie-birdie when you came in from there?

DANNY LEE: I know my game was good today. I thought I was going to bounce back really quick at 16, but I missed the fairway by four yards, so I made a nice up-and-down there. And No. 17, it was 200 yards to the pin. It was tucked, a right front pin, but the way I was hitting it, I felt like I can really hit a good one there, and I hit a solid 6-iron and hit it to like two and a half feet. It was an easy tap-in.

JOHN DEVER: So you've had some first-round successes before, most notably the 2015 PGA at Whistling Straits, and including 16 Masters. Maybe what did you learn from those two experiences and how might you apply that in the hopes of sustaining your solid play here this week?

DANNY LEE: Well, at first, I wasn't hitting it far enough to compete out here on the major championship -- PGA Championship or U.S. Open. Masters I might have had a chance. But now I'm definitely hitting it further. I can carry my driver about 290, 295 in the air. That's a huge bonus for me. And that was actually the first time I actually got to play in a major with this distance.

I'm actually interested in myself what I can do out there this week.

Q. How long have you been working with George Gankas?
DANNY LEE: About a year and a half.

Q. And just describe what he's done for you and Sung Kang.
DANNY LEE: I don't know, it's a long lesson if I sit here and try to do this, but just trying to turn more at the backswing and use the ground force a little bit more. I've always been trying to make my swing on the perfect plane every time, and he definitely broke that mindset of mine. Your club doesn't have to be traveling on your perfect path every time to hit the ball in the fairway, and that was a huge learning progress for me.

Q. Has becoming a father changed your approach to how you approach golf, I guess, and the PGA TOUR?
DANNY LEE: Yes and no, but I know my family is sacrificing out there for me to chase my dream out here. I guess I should say yes. I sometimes feel like I'm a bad person when I play bad because a young baby and my wife and my mother-in-law traveling with me out here, and when I don't make a good result, it just makes me feel like I didn't do what I'm supposed to do. I definitely have that kind of mindset in my head now.

But I don't know, nothing has changed, though.

Q. A lot of guys say it gives them more perspective, they're able to deal with bad rounds better. Has that been the case for you can you? Can you realize there's something more important than playing well?
DANNY LEE: I don't get as frustrated when I have a bad round. I definitely learn how to just laugh it off and put it behind me. I wasn't able to do that before.

Q. (Question in Korean.)
DANNY LEE: He asked No. 7 and No. 10 out there is extremely hard because of the distance, but what do you think about it, and that's what he asked me.

But I think every hole is tough out here if you miss the fairway. If you hit it in the rough out here all day, it's so penalizing, you can't really advance your ball close to the green. Me and my team made a promise that whenever I hit it in the rough, we're going to just advance back into the fairway. We don't care if we're going to hit 5-iron on the next shot or 100 yards on the next shot. It doesn't matter. We're just going to make sure we hit the fairway again and then get the momentum back and try to eliminate all the big scores as possible.

Q. A read a story in the New Zealand paper, you describing the game of golf is hard, and it was sort of weighing on you. Can you sort of describe how you coped with that feeling, and was the newborn baby part of the process of renewing your spirit?
DANNY LEE: Yeah, it's definitely tough out here playing in the Tour golf life. It's not easy. Some of the top 20 guys in the world make it look easy, but it's not always fairy-tales and unicorns out here. I know I work really hard on getting my body strong because I always wanted to hit it further. I always wanted to carry -- able to carry 290 bunker, straight over it, but I never had that until this year.

To have that, not just myself, me and my team put so much work into it. When the results are not there, it definitely gives you a little heartbreak and a little bit of terror out there, and some of the media is expecting me to do better than that. But sometimes I get a little bit disappointed about that, my honest feelings. But all I can do is do my best, I think.

Q. When you start your round and you see that Brooks Koepka is 7-under 63, four shots clear of the field, what type of attitude do you take out there, and did something -- at some point did something click in that made you think you could get close?
DANNY LEE: Well, I wasn't surprised when Brooks shot 7-under this morning. I mean, have you seen him playing U.S. Opens and PGA Championships the last three years? When you're hitting driver, pitching wedge every hole. I wasn't -- yeah, I wasn't surprised at all. But it didn't change my game plan at all.

I'm not like Brooks Koepka long, but I can carry it about 290, 300 now. My mindset was honestly some kind of under-par round would be good, but obviously I did a lot better than that today, and I was very pleased with it.

Q. I just want to know what you mean by when it's not as easy as it looks out here. What do you mean by that? Maybe for the guys outside the top 50 in the world. Take me through what it's like fighting for your Tour card and how hard that is.
DANNY LEE: Well, if I am honest -- do you want a really, really honest answer? So if you're maybe near top 50 in the world, it's okay. But outside of 100 in the world, obviously your endorsement money is not great. I mean, even I wouldn't pay an outside 100 in the world, pay that much. Let's be honest.

And when you are fighting for your Tour card every year, it's basically where you work out here. How would you feel when you lose your job tomorrow? And you put a lot of effort into it. You've tried your best, and you did everything you could do, and you don't have a job tomorrow. That's the same feeling we have.

I know it's a dream-chasing work, and I'm grateful and happy to be out here and happy for my opportunities out here, but it's not taking baby from candy out here.

Q. I remember you telling me at the Canadian Open last year that you had a pretty crippling back injury. How bad was that, and what were your most negative thoughts when that happened?
DANNY LEE: I think it happened at the third playoff event in Boston. I played two holes, and something -- I felt something on my back, and the only place I could go was lying on the ground. The next morning when I got up from my bed, I could not move my legs. I never had that kind of injury before, so I was freaking out and was telling my wife, okay, are we going to open up a Korean barbecue restaurant now? And she's like, "hell no." (Laughter.)

But whenever you have that kind of injury, it freaks you out a little bit. But me and my trainer put a lot of good work into it. Whenever I have a week off or when I don't play golf for a month, I do a lot of work on my body and training really, really hard. And he's not an easy, nice trainer, either. I mean, he kicks my ass every time we work out.

I'm actually -- I really felt like I've overcome my injuries, I think.

I tore my ligament between L4 and 5. Apparently there's a ligament between the nerve and the discs, and then I tore half of it, 50 percent of it, and it wasn't fun.

Q. You mentioned the work you put into getting longer off the tee. Was there something that clicked, or can you put your finger on what helped?
DANNY LEE: If something clicks and I'm able to have 300 carry, golf would be easier, I think. I think it was a mix of working out hard. I'm definitely a lot stronger than a year and a half ago.

Technique also helps. Me and George, I'm all about the distance, and that could be my problem, too. I always want to swing -- able to swing over 120 swing speed. But all my teammates told me it's not in my genetics, but I'd like to prove them wrong.

But I'm really happy with my distance at the moment.

Q. Like you said, you're not Brooks long, and you only hit seven fairways today. Just how did you score, considering how difficult that rough is today?
DANNY LEE: I can't remember every single shot I hit today, but the only thing I can remember is whenever I hit it on the fairway, I was able to convert that to the birdie. I think I made a lot of good up-and-downs, I think, even when I missed the fairway.

Q. The par-3s, the 3-under there, what was it about them?
DANNY LEE: My iron game has been always good, and I always have a lot of confidence in them. And pins today were -- I guess I really liked the pin locations today, what they gave us, and I was able to go straight at it every single time.

JOHN DEVER: Danny, you have an interesting story, and we wish you best the luck the rest of the week and hope to see you again. Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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