Lee’s decision to change caddies paying dividends at Augusta National

Danny Lee changed caddies just before the Masters, and the new partnership with Mike Hartford is going quite well thus far.

Lee opened with a 68 and shot a 74 Friday that has him tied for fourth at 2-under 142 entering the weekend.

“Obviously it worked very well [Thursday],” Lee said. “It was very hard for me to let my ex-caddie go. It was a very, very tough decision for me, and I’m still a little bit upset about it. But we were thinking about different stuff out on the course, and it wasn’t matching up very well.

“And I wanted to bring my A Game this week, because it means a lot. And I prepared myself the last nine tournaments I played at the beginning of the year, and I felt like I was playing really, really good.”

Lee, who is South Korean born, a citizen of New Zealand and a resident of Irving, Texas, arrived in Augusta last Thursday and had several days of practice and practice rounds to become accustomed to Hartford.

“My putting game and short game wasn’t that good,” Lee said. “So we’ve been working very hard on my short game and putting the last couple weeks, and I think I can see some good results coming in.”

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 6:50 PM with the headline "Lee’s decision to change caddies paying dividends at Augusta National."