Lee gets coaching from Aiken

Former US Amateur champion Danny Lee may have missed his second cut in as many weeks at the Joburg Open on Friday, but thanked Thomas Aiken for a few tips on his South African jaunt.

Lee missed the cut by three strokes when he finished the second round at level par on Friday. He has struggled since turning professional after he won the Johnnie Walker Classic early last year, but is feeling optimistic after some coaching from South African player Aiken.

“Thomas gave some good advice for my swing,” said Lee. “I always wanted to hit a fade, but I couldn’t, so I asked Thomas because he has such a good fade. He gave me a few tips and ended up hitting it really good on the second nine today.”

“Unfortunately I had a terrible start this morning. I went bogey, par, bogey, bogey, bogey. My distance control was terrible although I hit it straight.”

Lee says his immediate target is to try and qualify for a second Masters appearance, although he’ll need some stellar results in his next few tournaments in order to go from 148th in the world to inside the top 50.

“If I play the next few events really well hopefully I can make it. I’m not trying to look beyond that because it’ll just give me too much pressure.”

Lee added that he had enjoyed his first trip to South Africa, which began with the Africa Open in East London last weekend.

“I love South Africa and it was exciting to come over here and enjoy it. I’ll definitely come back because it’s such a nice place and the people are so nice.”

The New Zealander did have one reservation, however: the fact that he’s had to field so many jibes about South Africa’s success against the All Blacks in the 2009 Tri-Nations.

“I’ve been asked about that so many times,” he said. “It’s not nice to keep teasing someone like that!”