Johnnie Walker Classic at Perth, Western Australia

Amateur Danny Lee (18)

birdies last two holes for

historic victory

PRESS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE ASIAN TOUR
New Zealand’s amateur sensation Danny Lee showed why he is a star in the making when he claimed a dream victory over a field of top professionals at the Johnnie Walker Classic today.
The 18-year-old birdied his closing two holes for a five-under-par 67 to edge out Japan’s Hiroyuki Fujita, Felipe Aguilar of Chile and overnight co-leader Ross McGowan of England by one stroke at The Vines Resort and Country Club in Perth, Western Australia.
It was a terrific performance by the Korean-born Lee, pictured above with the Johnnie Walker Classic championship trophy, who first made the world sit up and take notice of his prodigious talent when he became the youngest winner at the US Amateur Championship last year, eclipsing Tiger Woods’ record.
The victory, courtesy of his winning total of 17-under-par 271, made Lee the first amateur to win the prestigious Johnnie Walker Classic in 18 editions where past champions include his idol Woods, Greg Norman, Ernie Els, Fred Couples and Nick Faldo.
“It feels like I’m in a dream and I hope nobody wakes me up,” said Lee, who wasn’t eligible to win the US$304,286 top cheque due to his amateur status.
“I have won a couple of amateur tournaments before, but this is a different feeling than that. This is a pro event, and all I wanted to do here was to make the cut and get into the top-20. That was my goal and today I played extremely well and I won.”
Lee’s triumph made him the fifth youngest winner on the Asian Tour and youngest on the European Tour at the age of 18 years and 213 days. He also became the fourth amateur to win a professional tournament in Asia and second to do so in a European Tour event after Spain's Pablo Martin.
Starting the day two off the lead, Lee was one under through 12 holes with three birdies and two bogeys before producing four brilliant birdies over his closing six holes to etch his name on one of Asia’s most prestigious trophies.
It was however a crucial 12-foot par save on the 16th hole which kept Lee firmly in the title chase. “I was 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,” he said.
Lee will compete in the US Masters in April as US Amateur champion and will subsequently turn professional where he will have the option of taking up membership on the Asian Tour, European Tour and PGA Tour of Australasia, which tri-sanctioned the Johnnie Walker Classic.
“I’ve played the Asian Tour events and The European Tour events and 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,” said Lee.
When asked what his goals were in golf, he replied: “To be the next Tiger Woods maybe. 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. Obviously I can't win three events in a row, the U.S. Amateur, as he did but I'll try to break his record on the (US) PGA Tour.”
Fujita, winner of the Pine Valley Beijing Open on the Asian Tour last season, overcame a poor start to charge up the leaderboard and set the clubhouse mark of 16-under-par with two closing birdies for a 67.
“I did my best and played a near perfect round. I missed a few putts but still holed some. All credit to Danny as he is a very good player,” said Fujita, who has won five times in Japan. “I didn’t have the best of starts when I bogeyed the first hole. I duffed my approach shot and had a ‘fried egg’ in the bunker. But I didn’t give up and fought hard and got some birdies in the end. I’m happy with how I played as this was my first tournament of the season.”
McGowan opened up a two-shot lead after an eagle on the ninth hole and birdied the 12th hole to maintain his push for a maiden professional victory. However, bogeys on the 14th and 16th hole saw him slip back and he missed an eagle chance from 25 feet to force a play-off with Lee.
“On 18, it was another misread. The greens are very quick and it was tough to get the perfect line all the time,” said McGowan. “I played pretty nicely all day and on the back nine, I had several in between yardages and dropped a couple of shots in those and it was a bit frustrating really. I stuck to my game plan and hit the ball solid and played nicely. I just didn’t quite get the breaks,” said the Englishman.
Aberdeen-born Michael Sim shot four sub-70 rounds to finish joint seventh on 274, only three shots behind winner Lee.

Sim's financial reward was 42,461 Euros.
Sim emigrated with his parents from the Granite City in the early 1990s when he was only seven and later became the world's top-ranked amateur. A stress fracture of the lower spine during the period between winning promotion from the US Nationnwide tour to the US PGA Tour led to him losing his US players' card.

Fellow-Aberdonian Richie Ramsay got back on a sub-par track with a closing round of 70 for 287. Richie earned 3,397 Euros for 65th place

Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie was second-best Scot in joint 25th place, finishing with a 69 for 278. He earned 14,082 Euros.

Andrew Coltart had a 68 for 281 to earn a joint 45th place pay-out of 7,784 Euros and complete a good final day's set of scores by the Scots-born competitors.
The £1.25 million Johnnie Walker Classic observed a one-minute silence at 10am to mark the national day of mourning following the Victorian bushfire tragedy.
ALL THE FINAL TOTALS
Par 288 (4 x 72)
271 Danny Lee (Nzl) (am) 67 68 69 67
272 Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 68 68 68 68, Ross McGowan 70 67 65 70, Hiroyuki Fujita (Jpn) 67 68 70 67
273 John Bickerton 66 70 66 71, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 70 68 66 69
274 Michael Sim 69 69 67 69, Lee Westwood 66 73 68 67, Adam Blyth (Aus) 68 68 71 67
275 Paul Casey 71 68 70 66, Taichiro Kiyota (Jpn) 68 70 69 68, Markus Brier (Aut) 70 68 70 67, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 67 68 70 70
276 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 64 72 69 71, Tony Carolan (Aus) 65 72 71 68, Nick Dougherty 73 66 70 67, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 70 67 74 65, Peter Senior (Aus) 70 67 69 70, Graeme Storm 73 64 73 66, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 65 71 72 68
277 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 68 71 72 66, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 70 69 67 71, Ian Poulter 68 69 71 69, Andrew Dodt (Aus) 70 66 70 71
278 Anthony Kim (USA) 68 68 75 67, Chris Gaunt (Aus) 68 69 71 70, Colin Montgomerie 67 70 72 69, Sang-moon Bae (Kor) 70 70 65 73, Tim Wood (Aus) 69 72 68 69, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 73 66 70 69
279 Won Joon Lee (Aus) 71 70 66 72, Alexander Noren (Swe) 68 69 73 69, David Smail (Nzl) 70 71 69 69, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 70 66 68 75, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 73 68 70 68
280 Damien McGrane 66 68 72 74, Gareth Maybin 68 70 68 74, Peter Lawrie 67 70 69 74, Seve Benson 70 67 71 72, Anthony Wall 70 70 69 71, David McKenzie (Aus) 68 73 69 70, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 71 68 69 72, Craig Parry (Aus) 71 69 69 71, Brad Kennedy (Aus) 71 68 70 71
281 Scott Hend (Aus) 68 72 71 70, Clint Rice (Aus) 67 71 73 70, Andrew Coltart 72 69 72 68
282 Anthony Kang (USA) 67 67 77 71, David Howell 70 68 74 70, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 71 70 74 67, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 70 71 70 71
283 Brett Rumford (Aus) 71 70 70 72, Gary Lockerbie 69 69 72 73, Scott Laycock (Aus) 68 71 70 74, Alistair Presnell (Aus) 72 68 73 70, Richard Finch 69 70 71 73, Simon Khan 68 73 72 70
284 Phillip Price 68 70 73 73, Andre Stolz (Aus) 69 67 72 76, James Kamte (Rsa) 73 67 74 70
285 Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 71 67 74 73, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 72 65 75 73, Marcel Siem (Ger) 72 69 73 71, David Frost (Rsa) 73 64 70 78
287 Richie Ramsay 68 73 76 70
289 Darren Beck (Aus) 70 70 78 71
292 Benn Barham 68 72 82 70
293 Anton Haig (Rsa) 69 72 79 73, Hyung-sung Kim (Kor) 68 71 77 77
294 Michael Long (Nzl) 74 67 77 76
Retired: Robert Dinwiddie 71 70 70