Hayden Meikle: Tracing the line from BC to AD

New Zealand's Danny Lee during his first round of the HSBC NZ PGA golf Championship at Clearwater...
New Zealand's Danny Lee during his first round of the HSBC NZ PGA golf Championship at Clearwater, Christchurch yesterday. Photo by Martin Hunter/NZPA.
It now seems you can divide New Zealand golf into two distinct eras - BC and AD.

The BC stands for Bob Charles, the lean lefty with the grace, the poise and the clutch to match the best. For years, he WAS New Zealand golf, and two years ago he was THE story of the Open.

Now all the attention is on AD - Amazing Danny.

Danny Lee has made a bigger splash in his first 12 months in the golfing consciousness than any other New Zealander.

Only Michael Campbell, in recently memory, can compare. While Cambo was great, he took longer to graduate from promising youngster to rookie sensation.

Lee, on the other hand, is our version of the chosen one. A Kiwi/Asian Tiger Woods.

You can't say he'll go on to match Cambo's achievements - the man won a Major, after all - but you can probably predict he will earn more money and become better known.

The kid appears to have the total package. He can play, he's got an interesting life story, he seems obsessed with the game.

I haven't met Lee and I haven't seen him play in person, so I will reserve total judgement until I have seen him at Clearwater this weekend and then at the New Zealand Open.

Tomorrow, I fly to Christchurch for the last two days of the PGA, the tournament that will pop my golfing cherry.

I don't know what to expect. I don't even know if I'm going to enjoy it. But I am excited about seeing the newest big thing in New Zealand sport.

Monday morning, it's off to The Hills, where I will be joined by at least two-thirds of the ODT staff. Not quite, but we'll have a big team there to cover every nook and cranny of the Open.

There was so much excitement about the last tournament, given the performance of Sir Bob and the novelty of the course.

The question now is whether the tournament suffers any second-year blues.

A beautiful golf course can surely sustain only so much interest. The key for the Open bigwigs will be getting a dazzling performance out of one of the better-known golfers.

One Danny Lee, perhaps?

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