Danny

Lee

Lee was announced yesterday as a member of Kevin Na’s team, the Iron Heads (along with Sihwan Kim and Scott Vincent). It will be interesting to see if that duo can stay healthy and play full events during the LIV schedule. During their PGA TOUR careers, they both had incredibly high WD rates with Lee being a WD or DQ in 22 of his 303 starts and Na racking up a WD or DQ in 20 of 457 career starts. Replacing Lee this week at the Honda Classic will be the next alternate, Geoff Ogilvy.

The 33-year-old from New Zealand last played at the Travelers, where he withdrew due to a hip injury. Since then, he also withdrew his name from last week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic. On the season, he’s made 11 cuts in 21 starts with three top 10s -- including a T-10 at the recent RBC Canadian Open in June. For Blixt, it will mark his eighth appearance at Sedgefield CC, where he’s made four cuts with a top 10 in 2014. On the season, the 38-year-old Swede has made five cuts in 20 starts with his best finish being a T-28 at the Canadian Open.

Lee lasted less than 15 holes at the Travelers Championship before exiting early with a hip injury. He was a Wednesday WD last week at the 3M Open and he’d done the same thing this week. His mid-week WDs would have you think his injury is touch-and-go. At 84th in the FedExCup race, he can also afford to wait it out until his body feels better. Lee has just seven cuts made in 21 starts this season but he remains a viable fantasy option due to his upside (three top 10s this season).

Lee was a mid-tournament WD in his lastest start, the Travelers Championship, and he’ll remain sidelined this week. The Kiwi cited a hip injury for that early exit at the Travelers. Lee currently sits at 83rd in the FedExCup race and is easily on pace to crack the FEC Playoffs which will be the eighth time over the last nine years that he’s accomplished the feat.

Lee opened his morning on the 10th tee and scribbled seven pars and a birdie to start his day. From there, he three-jacked for bogey at the 18th, missed two birdie looks from inside of 20 feet, then swallowed two bogeys and a double. His tee shot at the par-5 sixth went just 264 yards and that was when he withdrew from the event. An early exit is nothing new for Lee who now has 18 mid-tournament WDs in his career (291 total starts).

The South Korean-born New Zealander, who bumped nine spots on Sunday after a six-birdie, one-bogey showing, improves to 6-for-8 in the event with three top 25s, three straight, and two top 10s, joining a T6 two tries ago in 2018. It’s his third top 10 of the season in 19 starts, first since T7 at Mayakoba back in November, and now heads to this coming week’s 122nd U.S. Open in Massachusetts (final qualified from Columbus, OH site), where he’ll make his fourth appearance, first since the 120th edition last season at Winged Foot in New York, where he WD (wrist) after an 8-over 78/R3 on 13-over total. For the week, the 31-year-old handed in laps of 68-69-69-65, totaled one eagle and 15 birdies versus eight bogeys, and ranked 11th SG: Tee-to-Green (8.773), including 7th SG: Approach (6.214), and 33rd SG: Putting (1.360), highlighted by a 1.360 SGP on Sunday.

The Texas resident opened on the 10th hole today and took five swipes with the putter on the first two holes. He missed two putts from inside of six feet then hit an errant drive on the following hole, leading to a bogey. His round calmed down from there but he packed up shop after the par-3 16th hole, his seventh of the day. He was 3-over at the time of the WD. This adds to a less-than-stellar WD resume, which now includes 17 mid-tourney WD and 4 DQs, in 282 career starts.

Lee opened his round with a 15'7" birdie splash at the par-4 10th and added three more circles on the next four holes. He remained dialed in from tee-to-green all day, leaving the course ranked 4th in strokes gained off-the-tee (+1.2) and 3rd in approach (+3.4). “I always like this place. Tee to green it just suits my eye very well and obviously I also hit it great today. I wish I can play like this every day.” The 31-year-old is making his eighth appearance at the Valspar with a T7 in 2015 and T21 last year as the two highlights. This 65 will go in the books as his new personal best at the Copperhead Course (previously 67 which he recorded in R4 of 2015 edition and R2 last year).

The Texas resident got his week started at the Nicklaus Tournament Course and took advantage of some steady striking (10-of-14 fairways hit, 15 GIR). Highlights included a closing birdie at the par-4 18th, from outside of 20 feet. Lee is making his eighth appearance at this event and still searching for his first top 25 (T41 in 2017). More recently, he made some noise in the fall with back-to-back top 10s at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship and World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. His ability to rack up those top-heavy finishes (27 top 10s in 274 career starts) continues to keep him on the fantasy radar.

The South Korean-born New Zealander, who arrived off a two-way T2 at last week’s Bermuda, his first top 10 in 37 starts, goes back-to-back for the first time since October of the 2019-20 season, where he chased a solo 2nd at THE CJ CUP in Korea with a T10 at the ZOZO in Japan. He needed to earn 288.207 FedExCup points to meet the terms of the medical (in four events), and satisfies that with one start to spare (327.500 FEC points earned). This was the 31-year-old’s eighth Mayakoba and third top 10, second in his last three, and got there with a Sunday showing of one eagle and six birdies, including a run of B-B-B-E at holes 10-13, versus one, walk-off bogey-5. For the week, he handed in rounds of 68-69-68-64, and totaled one eagle and 21 birdies against five bogeys and a triple. The Texas resident, whose post-round comments are below, is not in the published field at this coming week’s Houston Open.