Focused freshman: La Quinta's freshman golfer
Ki Taek Lee has game beyond his youth
PALM DESERT — Ki Taek Lee remembers exactly when his 2010 golf season turned around. After struggling to a 6-over-par 77 in the second round of the American Junior Golf Association's Heather Farr Classic in Mesa, Ariz., on April 3, Lee skipped his usual post-round practice session.
“I just went to the hotel and rested and had a long, long sleep, maybe 11 hours,” Lee said with a laugh.
The next day, taking an attitude of not worrying about anything but the shot that faced him, Lee shot a 67, the best round of the day at one of the biggest junior golf events in the country.
The 15-year-old freshman at La Quinta High School has hardly slowed down since.
A torrid spring that has put Lee in Thursday's CIF-SCGA individual tournament has cemented his status as one of the elite junior players in Southern California and drawn favorable comparisons to a La Quinta star from a decade ago, PGA Tour star Anthony Kim.
“As an instructor and teaching for 23 years, seldom do you come across a kid with this kind of talent,” said Joe Simonds, the head boys' golf coach at La Quinta. “He can get the job done. And he's a great kid, a kid who really gets it.”
Lee's late-spring surge has included a slew of low scores. There were rounds of 69 and 66 to win the Desert Valley League individual championship by four shots.
Another 69, again on a course he had never seen in Yucaipa, helped Lee push his Blackhawks team through a regional event, and yet another 69 let him cruise through individual CIF regional play.
“My season has been going pretty great. Too bad my team's season is over,” said Lee, referring to the Blackhawks' season-ending seventh-place finish in the CIF-Southern Section team competition. “We thought we had a good chance (to advance), but I guess something fell apart. But at the beginning of the year, we had a good year, winning Palmetto (in South Carolina), winning all kinds of stuff.”
As intriguing as Lee's ability to hit 300-yard drives is the story of how Lee and his family came to the desert. Born in South Korea, Lee first took up golf at 7.
But the next year, Lee's father closed his successful Japanese restaurant and fulfilled a long-time plan to move his family to Canada to start a new life.
Lee, his parents and his older sister moved to Winnipeg first, where he said it was “crazy cold.” After playing a junior tournament in Vancouver, the family moved there to enjoy better weather and a larger Asian community.
Five years later, when Lee had turned 14, the family moved to the desert to take advantage of the Coachella Valley's golfing community and to have better access to major junior events.
“When I met him last fall, you could just tell he was a good player,” said Mike Wilson, a teaching pro at The Palms Golf Club in La Quinta who also works with former Masters champion Mike Weir. “First of all, he's a little taller, has a little bigger stature than other kids his age. When you see him, just looking at his swing, you can tell it's an advanced swing.”
Lee ended up at La Quinta High School, the same school where Lee's favorite player, Anthony Kim, played golf his freshman and sophomore years.
“I kind of heard about Ki Taek through the grapevine. Some of our kids knew him a little bit through some AJGA events,” said Simonds. “They were talking to him about some of the other players that are playing those tournaments, they were talking about the golf team, talk about anything. Then the parents got the connection going and the next thing I know, the guys on the team said we have this guy from Canada coming, his name is Ki Taek Lee.”
Lee has already demonstrated a high-caliber game, winning his division of the fabled Callaway Junior World tournament in San Diego last summer, and tournaments where Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Kim have won trophies. And Lee has fulfilled his promise in helping the Blackhawks to a DVL title and a berth in the CIF-SS team finals.
But what is it about the 15-year-old with dual Korean-Canadan citizenship that has those around him convinced he can be special in the coming years? For Wilson, there is Lee's swing.
“His natural power and natural swing of his body motion haven't changed at all,” Wilson said of his work with Lee. “The way his hands and arms work in the backswing, we have changed that a little. He was too steep with his shoulder angle. So we have worked hard to get a different pivot point for the backswing.”
For Simonds, Lee's work ethic and maturity seem far beyond the average freshman.
“He works an hour and a half or two hours on his short game, then we have our practice or matches if we have them,” Simonds said of Lee's routine. “Then he goes home, does his dinner and maybe some studies, then goes back to the COD driving range and works on it again. That's every day.”
Simonds also talks about how Lee is constantly learning from other players, such as during last week's CIF-SS individual finals. Lee played with Patrick Cantlay, a senior at Servite High School in Anaheim and the No. 2 ranked boys' golfer in the country. Simonds said he watched Lee observe how Cantlay played his round.
“I knew he was good, but I learned something about him,” Lee said of watching Cantlay. “Nice, steady play. It's all about the short game. That's my attitude toward people. It's golf. You play your own game. You don't play anyone else, just the golf course. When I see a great player, I try to learn something.”
Or maybe the comparisons with Kim, a three-time tour winner who won the CIF-SS individual title for La Quinta in 2001, come from Lee's Korean background and his plan, even as a freshman, to make it to the PGA Tour someday. But that someday isn't before he leaves La Quinta High School. At least that's not the plan yet.
“This year, I'm still going to focus on junior tournaments, junior events,” Lee said. “Next year, I'll start playing more amateur events, maybe pro events as an amateur. I definitely want to go to college, and if I turn pro I can't play in college. I definitely want to experience college.”
“This year, I'm still going to focus on junior tournaments, junior events,” Lee said. “Next year, I'll start playing more amateur events, maybe pro events as an amateur. I definitely want to go to college, and if I turn pro I can't play in college. I definitely want to experience college.”
“He just wanted to make money. There was no reason to go to college,” Lee said. “If I am at that point like, winning a U.S. Amateur, winning on the European Tour, if I am at that point, I might have to think about turning pro. But that's a huge, different step. As of now, the plan is step by step, go to a decent Division I university and it's still not too late after that. I'll be like 21 or so.”
One thing Lee isn't planning on is a college degree.
“Especially when you have Korean parents, it's different,” Lee said. “Right now, I'm not thinking about graduating college. Just go and experience it and determine if I can develop my golf skills. I'm going to college to decide if I am ready for the PGA.
“Maybe my senior year (in high school), I might try to do Q-school, PGA qualifying,” he added. “That's two and a half years. That's my plan for now. But it might get changed next year.”
Monday, June 28, 2010 at 08:23AM 
