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JOHNNIE WALKER CLASSIC

February 22, 2009

Danny Lee

PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

GORDON SIMPSON: Danny, many, many congratulations, by a long way, the youngest winner of the Johnnie Walker Classic, the youngest winner ever on The European Tour, and only the second amateur to win a European Tour event. Quite a formidable day in your life, I would imagine.
DANNY LEE: It still feels like I'm in a dream and I hope nobody wakes me up.
GORDON SIMPSON: Did you ever in your wildest imagination think that this week you would be sitting with the trophy right in front of you.
DANNY LEE: I was dreaming about that and my goal was to be making the cut after two rounds and trying to get into the top 20 or top 10. I played extremely well the last few days, and yeah, here I am.
GORDON SIMPSON: At what stage this week did you think, this dream could be reality.
DANNY LEE: After nine holes this morning, I wasn't feeling really great with my woods. So I was just trying to play as safe as I can, make birdies on the last five holes, and yeah, I was thinking about it after nine holes.
GORDON SIMPSON: And you did it in style, as well. We'll move onto questions.

Q. On Friday, your caddie, after you double-bogeyed the 12th, gave you a bit of an upper cut and said, let's have some fun over the closing stage. Today you bogeyed 12. What did he say to you today?
DANNY LEE: Nothing. (Laughter) Just patience, it will come, and calm down, keeping patience, that's what he said to me.

Q. Obviously this is the first time on the bag for him.
DANNY LEE: And I'm loving it.

Q. Can you tell us his name?
DANNY LEE: Jason Hamilton.

Q. You said earlier in the week that you had not finished off tournaments with the last two rounds very well; do you think now that you've done it that it changes your --
DANNY LEE: Yeah, maybe. But I don't know, what do I say?

Q. I was just wondering if you felt the Kiwi support; did you notice?
DANNY LEE: Yes.

Q. What are your plans and what will you do between now and travelling to the United States to play the Masters?
DANNY LEE: I'm planning on playing next week and playing the two New Zealand events in New Zealand, and I hope to play the Arnold Palmer Invitational and play the Georgia Cup, Masters, and then I don't know what I'm going to do from there.

Q. Just going on from that, when you turn professional, you're now eligible for membership of The European Tour, within 14 days of turning professional. Would you intend to immediately take that up, after winning straightaway?
DANNY LEE: Maybe, yes. But you know, winning the European PGA event, it's pretty amazing, what I've done.
GORDON SIMPSON: Are you still struggling to come to terms with what you've done this afternoon? But you're enjoying it nonetheless?
DANNY LEE: Yeah, very.

Q. During the last four days, you missed a few short putts, your long putting was sensational, but you missed a few short ones, was that a concern on the closing day?
DANNY LEE: No, I've been doing that all week. (Laughter) And now today I somehow I got used to that, and wasn't really happy about that.

Q. There's been a lot of type about you and talk about that you're going to be a great player. That's going to get probably worse now for you. How have you sort of handled that and how are you going to handle the type that's going to be about you now?
DANNY LEE: Just don't take the phone calls. (Laughter) It's easy. Just kidding.

Q. How do you deal with that?
DANNY LEE: I get really nervous when I'm having this media stuff, so I know that means I don't hate this media stuff. I really like media stuff, and I think --
GORDON SIMPSON: I think you might get plenty of practice at it after this.
DANNY LEE: My uncle.

Q. Just going through the closing holes, you had a few birdies, but that par putt that you made on the 16th, you reacted very strongly. How crucial was that for you?
DANNY LEE: I was at 15-under and the leader was at 16, so I was thinking, this is the putt if you want to win the tournament.
I was really focused on the putt and I made it.
GORDON SIMPSON: How far?
DANNY LEE: I don't know about the feet, about four meters.

Q. You mentioned the Georgia Cup after Bay Hill. What is that?
DANNY LEE: It's a U.S. Amateur winner and British Amateur winner.

Q. One-on-one?
DANNY LEE: 36-hole match play.
GORDON SIMPSON: What are your personal experiences of the Masters on TV? What's your earliest recollection?
DANNY LEE: I'm not sure. I probably only watched it on TV. It looks pretty hard. Just go there and hope to learn one of the hardest golf courses in the world, just go up there and learn how to play some day.

Q. Who has been your inspiration? Who would you say is someone you've looked up to?
DANNY LEE: Michael Campbell and Phil Taturangi helped me a lot with my swing and my mental stuff. And I always look up to Tiger Woods when I was really young. He's still my idol.

Q. You get to play with him now.
DANNY LEE: Yeah. Now that he's back.

Q. Just looking ahead for your future in professional golf, are you thinking Europe or Asia tour as your future tour?
DANNY LEE: No, I played the Asian Tour events and The European Tour events, and both, I just loved them. It's a great experience and they treat you really nicely, and you know, I wish I could play in every Tour event I can.

Q. Do you feel coming from the Korean background that there's greater pressure on you to play in Asian Tour events rather than going and playing in the U.S.?
DANNY LEE: Not really. That doesn't really make a difference if I'm playing the Asian Tour or the U.S. Tour or the European, because I'm just a player and I just want to play well wherever I go.
GORDON SIMPSON: What's your experience of Europe?
DANNY LEE: Really fun travelling all around the world and staying at one of the greatest hotels in the world. Yeah, really fun.
GORDON SIMPSON: Which one?
DANNY LEE: Abu Dhabi.

Q. What are your long-term goals? What do you want to become known as in your golfing career?
DANNY LEE: Tiger Woods. (Laughter) The next Tiger Woods maybe.

Q. You say you want to be known as the next Tiger Woods. A lot of people find that a burden for a young golfer. Are you saying that's the sort of thing that you want to be known as?
DANNY LEE: No, I can't compare to Tiger because he's one of the greatest players in the world, and he's the No. 1 ranked player in the world and all I want to do is just break what he's done and obviously I can't win three events in a row, the U.S. Amateur, but I'll try to break his record on the PGA TOUR.
GORDON SIMPSON: Danny, it's been an amazing day, a great performance and enjoy being the Johnnie Walker Classic Champion for 2009.

End of FastScripts

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