2008 U.S. Amateur champ to play at Turning Stone Resort

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VERONA, N.Y. -- The 2008 U.S. Amateur Champion, Danny Lee, has accepted Turning Stone Resort Championship's fourth exemption to play in the tournament Sept. 29 -- Oct. 5 at Turning Stone's Atunyote Golf Club. At 18 years, 1 month of age, Lee became the youngest U.S. Amateur Champion in the competition's 113-year history besting the previous holder of that distinction, Tiger Woods, by six months.

Lee

"Danny is a tremendously talented player with a great future ahead of him," said Ann Spencer, Turning Stone Resort Championship Tournament Director. "He will draw a lot of attention from area golf fans eager to see him up close at this stage of his career."

The Korean-born, New Zealand resident was also the 2008 Western Amateur Champion and Medalist and won the 2008 Mark H. McCormack Medal as the No. 1 ranked amateur in the world at the end of the season. He was the No. 1 ranked amateur on both the R&A Amateur World Ranking as well as the Golfweek/Scratch Players Amateur Ranking in 2008. In Lee's only appearance in a PGA TOUR event, he finished tied for 20th at the 2008 Wyndham Championship, shooting four rounds in the 60s.

The Turning Stone Resort Championship is the richest tournament of the PGA TOUR's Fall Series with a $6 million purse with $1.08 million going to the winner. It is the first and only regularly scheduled PGA TOUR event hosted on American Indian land. In addition to the Turning Stone Resort Championship, the Tom Fazio-designed Atunyote Golf Club has hosted the 2006 B.C. Open presented by Turning Stone Resort and the 2006 PGA Professional National Championship.