Rookie Lee learning the ropes, crushing the drives

text size

Be prepared to do a double take should you ever be introduced to Nationwide Tour rookie Won Joon Lee.

Anderson/Getty Images

Won Joon Lee leads the Nationwide Tour in Driving Distance while averaging 313.4 yards.

I mean, rare is the day you meet someone who sounds like Paul Hogan yet looks like Bruce Lee. But that's the South Korea-born and Australia-bred Lee, who has traveled to America in 2008 looking to make a name for himself in high professional circles and play his way onto the PGA TOUR.

"I can get some crazy looks,'' Lee said last week in Rochester, N.Y., while he was on his way to a tie for 29th in the Xerox Classic. "It happens all the time in restaurants and in airports.''

At least the quizzical expressions have ceased on the Nationwide Tour now that the players have been around Lee for three-quarters of a season. But that didn't mean Jeremy Anderson wasn't flummoxed by the Lee dichotomy in February at the Moonah Classic in Australia. Lee, 22, flashed an impish grin when he recalled a practice-green conversation he had with fellow Aussie James Nitties while Anderson was within earshot.

"When I left Jeremy walked up to Nitties and asked him what was I doing, trying to imitate him?'' Lee said. "James was like, 'Dude, he's not imitating me. He's an Australian.' ''

Then Nitties explained Lee's heritage to a shell-shocked Anderson.

"That's a good one,'' Lee said, laughing.

There's something else that literally sets Lee apart from the Nationwide Tour crowd. That's his prodigious length off the tee. His long distance drives created an immediate buzz that has only grown louder as the 2008 season winds down. Most believe Lee, 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, possesses enough raw power to separate himself from the longest players in the game, including the PGA TOUR's Sultans of Swat, Bubba Watson, J.B. Holmes and John Daly.

"He's long, J.B. Holmes long,'' Peter Tomasulo said after he played an eye-opening practice round with Lee in Canada in June. "There was one par 5 today where he hit wedge in for his second. And I was cranking a 3-wood.''

Lee's season average of 313.4 yards per drive leads the Nationwide Tour by more than four yards a pop, but it fell fractionally last week due to constraints of Irondequoit Country Club's tree-lined, ribbon-like fairways. It was 314.2 beginning the week, matching Watson's PGA TOUR leading number, this despite Lee's admission that he's finally learning to throttle back to 80-85 percent with the big stick.

Just don't ask him the source of his power.

"I'm not sure where it came from,'' said Lee, who didn't touch a golf club until late in 2000, but was hooked the second he did.

That spawned hours upon hours of hard work on the range, where Lee could be found before and after school, striking balls as the sun rose and set. He'd do homework into the wee hours and sometimes drift off to sleep in class, something that didn't sit well with his teachers.

But his home on the range paid off with a rapid ascent among Australia's junior amateur class. In 2006 an Australian journalist hung the nickname "Boom Boom'' on Lee when he was in the midst of winning the New Zealand Stroke Play Championship, the New South Wales Match Play and Stroke Play titles as well as the prestigious Western Amateur, where he began the final round five strokes down and won by five after firing a 61. But it's a sobriquet he would happily secede to its rightful owner, Fred Couples.

"He can have it,'' Lee said. "But I am longer than him.''

Lee turned pro in November of 2007 after honoring his commitment to represent Australia at the world Eisenhower Cup. His biggest moment came in the Australian Open in December when he closed with a 66 that included five birdies on the inward nine to finish tied for second with Nick O'Hern and Brandt Snedeker, one shot behind champion Craig Parry, who has served as Lee's mentor. The two belong to the same club in Australia (Concord Golf Club in Sydney, where Lee's parents still live) and are represented by the same management firm.

"Back in 2005 I was in America to play in some amateur events, Craig had me down to his house at Isleworth (near Orlando),'' Lee said. "That was great and he'll always invite me to play practice rounds if we're in the same tournament. He has said some things to me that really stick in the back of my mind. He has also told me about how to deal with tour life and, most importantly, just to enjoy the game.''It was Parry who encouraged Lee to turn professional.

"He is a fantastic golfer,'' Parry said after Lee almost caught him behind at the Aussie Open. "I really do believe he can win major championships, but I don't want to put too much pressure on him. He's a bright kid who has a lot of confidence in his own ability. He's got a heck of a game. There are traits of Tiger there. He gets frustrated but he gets on with the game.''

Lee's talent is undeniable. Learning to harness it and his enormous power has bewitched, bothered and bewildered him as the Nationwide Tour '08 schedule dwindles to a precious few events, a fact that means Lee better do something spectacular ASAP if he is to reach his appointed goals. He has shown flashed of brilliance, but is in 91st place on the money list with $48,871 earned in 19 events.

He is going through the paces of a rookie playing in a foreign land, where he must decipher airline schedules, figure out where to stay, where to eat and how to unlock the keys to a new golf course every week. So he doesn't look at the season as a failure.

"I didn't expect to shoot up to the main tour right away,'' he said. "I've gained invaluable experience. I love playing these golf courses. And everything on this Tour -- from the hospitality and the way players are treated -- has been top notch. What I'd like to do is get into the Top 60 before the season ends and retain my card for next year.''