Lee competed in last year ’ s U . S . Amateur Championship and racked up seven top-10 finishes in WAGR counting events in 2024 . |
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A RECRUITING GAMBLE A player ’ s sophomore and junior high school seasons are crucial for college recruiting . Walk the course at any VSGA Amateur or VSGA Junior Stroke Play championship , and you ’ ll spot college coaches wearing school colors and logos , following multiple players at once , trying to get a feel for potential recruits .
What does a player ’ s swing look like ? How does he interact with other players ? What ’ s his demeanor like when he ’ s on a heater ? How does he react when he makes a mess of a hole ? And with a championship on the line , how does he handle the pressure ?
These are all important questions that can ’ t always be answered by perusing tournament results or American Junior Golf Association rankings . That two-year COVID recruiting period forced college coaches to make some tough , gut-level decisions .
“ I don ’ t know that I even really saw him in the recruiting process , which was weird , that doesn ’ t happen very often ,”
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Sargent said . “ We could still recruit over the phone — but there was no visual , no watching a guy play . A player of Bryan ’ s ability required a large scholarship .
“ To go out on a limb and offer a scholarship without having seen him play , that was a big deal for us . But I ’ m glad we did it .”
That leap of faith has paid off handsomely . Landing Lee and James — two of the top players in that ’ 22 class — has the Cavaliers on the brink of greatness . They ’ ve reached match play in the last two NCAA championships , but both times they ’ ve been eliminated by the eventual champion in the quarterfinals . As of January , James was ranked No . 3 in WAGR , with Lee close behind at No . 16 .
“ We ’ re obviously capable of playing against pretty much any team out there ,” Lee said . “ It ’ s not a great feeling losing , but it ’ s also reassuring to me — and motivating — that we ’ re so close that we ’ re losing to the guys who end up winning . Now we feel like veterans . We ’ ve been in this position two
A young Lee , age 13 , shakes hands with Garrett
Kuhla at the 2017 VSGA Youth Championship . Lee and Kuhla ( James
Madison ) are both playing Division I golf today .
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years in a row . We ’ ve got such a deep team with guys up and down that lineup , that we can put a team out there and feel like we ’ ve got a chance to win .”
EARLY BREAKTHROUGHS Lee made his mark on the Virginia golf scene at just 13 years old in 2017 , winning the VSGA Youth Championship at Fredericksburg Country Club . He triumphed over a competitive field that included several players now on Division I golf rosters , such as Garrett Kuhla ( James Madison ), Chase Nevins ( Vanderbilt ), Rylan Shim ( Florida ), Owen Bright ( Tennessee Tech ) and Samir Davidov ( George Mason ), along with Jonathan McEwen ( Washington & Lee ), ranked second nationally in Division III .
Two years later , Lee bested Jimmy Taylor — the 2021 VSGA Amateur champion — in the VSGA Junior Match Play Championship at Williamsburg National Golf Club . Then COVID hit , limiting the competition schedule for top juniors . When Lee played at the 2020 VSGA Junior Stroke Play Championship at James River Country Club , he was nearly unrecognizable from the kid who had won the Match Play the previous summer .
He had committed himself to a fitness program between his sophomore and junior years of high school and dropped nearly 50 pounds . It was no coincidence that his game took off after the transformation .
“ I wasn ’ t really careful with what I was eating or really working out at that age . Knowing I was playing OK golf , I didn ’ t think I had to get in shape ,” Lee said . “ That was just the immature me . I was getting tired toward the ends of rounds , whether
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USGA ; CHRIS LANG ( 2 ) |
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vsga . org |