LIV GOLF TUCSON

March 19, 2023

Danny Lee

The Gallery Golf Club

Press Conference

Q. Congratulations, Danny, and welcome. How does it feel to win on LIV Golf League in only your second start?

DANNY LEE: I mean, it feels pretty amazing. Last win I had was 2015 at Greenbrier. That was also a four-man playoff. Maybe it was a coincidence, I don't know. But it feels pretty amazing right now.

Q. The look on your face when you won was pretty remarkable. I think there was a couple people tearing up in the audience. You could really see the passion. Tell us about your day and the first putt in the playoff that didn't go in and how you kept your mind in the game after that.

DANNY LEE: I mean, conditions were really hard out there. There was some gusts of wind and greens were getting firmer and firmer, and they put the pin on really tight spots out there.

I didn't start off really nice. I wanted at least 1- or 2-under after the front nine, but I had a slow start at the beginning, and then Leishman was so far ahead of us, I wasn't even looking at the individual score at the end. I was just so caught up with the team game. I was just trying so hard to put myself in the position for team podium, which we did, and I'm just trying to prove Kevin was right -- Kevin made a right decision to pick me over here.

Q. This is really unique in that you just talked about this whole round you were looking at the team leaderboard and not the individual. Obviously it's not like that on other tours. How is it when you're coming off of the green and you had your whole team waiting for you. How does that feel different out here?

DANNY LEE: I mean, it feels a little different, and it feels a little bit relief, even if I happen to miss that putt and lose in a playoff. My team is going to just say it's going to be okay, you can do it next time.

There's a place I can go somewhere for disappointment or whatever it happens, and I'm just really happy to do something special in front of my team and make our team proud.

Q. You're loving the team competition aspect, it's safe to say?

DANNY LEE: Oh, yeah.

Q. Danny, you talked about your last win was 2015. That was eight years ago. Did you wonder if you would ever get back into the winner's circle, or did you have the confidence that one day --

DANNY LEE: I mean, there was a couple times I was very close, but it felt like the other guy was just having an incredible day, and I was just a couple short of winning. My best part of my game is probably I'm always confident, and I always believe in my game.

Even I was falling apart a little bit the last couple years because of my injury, and outside of my golf situation, but starting this year, I was just hitting it well, and I just had to get my putter working somehow. That's why I switched to the long putter. I'm just happy to see I'm making great progress.

Q. I talked to Kevin, and he said that you guys had a really long chat at one point and that you called him again a few times just to make sure that you were on the right path of what you wanted to do with your career.

DANNY LEE: I mean, it was a life-changing decision. To be honest, I wasn't getting what everybody's like thing, like everybody is getting like $100 million, $50 million, $30 million. I wasn't in that situation. Kevin just called me, hey, do you want to come over and play for my team.

I thought about it, and I looked at the schedule. There's three events I really like. Tucson wasn't in my head, but Mayakoba, I always played well there, Greenbrier, I won there, and then Singapore, Sentosa, which we're going to come back to, I have played well there before.

Then Kevin just told me that I know you're working hard, you're so -- he could see that my game is so close to being great, but he told me that this environment of LIV Golf is probably better for me than staying out on the PGA TOUR. The reason he told me that was probably I tend to play too many weeks in a row, and then -- I mean, you can't play great every single round. You're going to have one bad round. On a fourth or fifth week in a row and when you have a really, really bad first round, sometimes it's really mentally hard to grind it out for that second round to make the cut.

That kind of stuff was a little different, but here, you only have 14 events. You've got to make most of it, and I don't want to let anybody down on my team.

I've been working so hard the last couple weeks. I never practiced that much in my life. Between me, Sihwan and Kevin, we were playing so many rounds together, range balls together, just talk about what would be the best way to get better, and showing signs already.

Q. How long have you known Kevin? I assume it's been a while. Do you consider him a mentor or just a friend?

DANNY LEE: Yeah, I mean, as a Korean American, he was the best golfer -- best Korean golfer I know. I've known Kevin for like plus 10 years. When I struggle with my game or my life, sometimes I call Kevin or I'll go to his place and ask for his advice.

When Kevin thinks he's your friend, he's one of the nicest guys. He wouldn't lie about anything or make me feel good to see something. He'll tell me what's up straight away. Yeah, I lean a lot to Kevin the last three, four years. I thank him for that.

Q. What's it feel like to win -- this was obviously the strongest golf event held in the world this weekend. How does it feel to know that you won and you played better than anybody in the world this weekend? How is that feeling? How life-changing is it for you?

DANNY LEE: I mean, it wouldn't change my life.

Q. I mean, that's a lot of money.

DANNY LEE: Yeah. I mean, it is. Whenever I play in a tournament, I never really look at the prize money or anything like that. I just want to be the best I can be. I mean, there's so many great players, legendary players out here.

This week, I'm the man! (Applause.)

Q. Also, you had missed that putt on 18. I want to ask you, how important is the mental aspect? You showed no emotion. It was great short-term memory. How important is that especially in a playoff against three really good golfers?

DANNY LEE: I mean, when I missed that short birdie putt on the second hole, I was going through some emotions, like oh, my God, what have you done, you idiot.

I was just trying not to react to anything. I know my ball-striking is there. I was hitting my driver really good all week.

I wasn't thinking about missing the green to the right with a pitching wedge on the third playoff hole, and I think I got pretty lucky on the birdie putt.

Q. How do you plan on celebrating tonight?

DANNY LEE: I don't know. Probably drink a lot. (Laughter.)

Q. Kevin Na mentioned on the broadcast and it seems like it's coming up a lot and you've been dancing around it some, but you basically just alluded to the fact that you seem really happy and that's freeing you as a golfer. I'm kind of curious, maybe what is that happy?

DANNY LEE: Well, yes, I am happy. Yes, I made probably the best decision to play on LIV Golf. I mean, it's such a great Tour out here. You get to play with one of the best in the world, and there's a team aspect. It just teaches me how important is each shot out there because there's a team involved. It doesn't matter if you're having a bad day or a good day. Every shot counts, if it was like -- you just want to get involved in a team event.

It's a little different than what I grew up playing in, but I love it out here. It's awesome.

Q. You still like drinks, money and trophies?

DANNY LEE: I mean, like I said before, it doesn't hurt. Yes, I love playing out here.

Q. It's clear the emotion you just raising that trophy just now right in front of us. My question is it's clear that you have emotions about this win. What do you think your fellow countrymen in South Korea and New Zealand are experiencing right now seeing one of their own up on top of the leaderboard of LIV Golf, which is an unbelievably stacked field? What does that mean to them do you think?

DANNY LEE: I'm sure wherever I'm playing, which Tour I'm playing at, if you're my true fan, I think you're going to be happy for me. They're going to support me wherever I play. Hopefully you were watching while I was doing some pretty amazing stuff.

Q. This is your first tournament win in the state of Arizona. What made this tournament different than any others that you've played here?

DANNY LEE: Like I said before, every week is important out here, and especially when Kevin is eyeballing me with we've got to make it up to that podium. It was putting so much pressure on me, I couldn't sleep at night.

But it means a lot. When I play with Pat and David Puig, nothing was cheering for me because they're from Arizona State. But today quite a few fans were pulling for me, and I'm always happy to see that.

Guys, I pulled it off!