One of the most valuable lessons Lee McCoy has learned during his college stay at the University of Georgia is that persistence pays off.
So does begging.
McCoy discovered those two helpful traits hundreds of miles from the UGA campus near his hometown in the Tampa suburbs. McCoy grew up near the Innisbrook Resort and his parents were members at the club. As one of the country’s top junior golfers, McCoy played what he estimates as a thousand rounds of golf on the resort’s Copperhead course before moving with his parents to Clarkesville, Ga., prior to his senior year in high school.
“I’ve always dreamt of just getting a tee time here on Thursday,” McCoy said after competing in the Valspar Championship, the PGA Tour event hosted at the course since 2000.
McCoy received a sponsor invitation for the tournament after some very effective lobbying, making several unannounced visits to the office of the tournament director.
“Whenever I was home on break, I would spend a half hour just begging, pretty much all you can do,” McCoy said following his recent appearance in the tournament. “I thank those guys for giving me a shot. I hope I made them proud.”
He did.
McCoy turned in the best performance by an amateur in a PGA Tour event since Justin Rose tied for fourth in the 1998 British Open as a teen-ager. The UGA senior shot 4-under 280 on one of the toughest courses hosting a PGA Tour event, finishing three shots out of the Bill Haas-Charl Schwartzel playoff.
Not only did McCoy record a fourth place finish, he did it playing the final round with golf’s No. 1 player. McCoy was paired with Jordan Spieth on Sunday and won the head-to-head matchup with his fellow 22-year old, shooting a 69 to Spieth’s 73.
The two had played together during McCoy’s first college tournament at the Farm outside Dalton. He played the second day of the event with Spieth, one day after being paired with Justin Thomas, like Spieth a current PGA Tour member.
McCoy has enjoyed an outstanding career in Athens, and is looking to follow in the footsteps of the sizeable number of former Georgia Bulldogs who have gone on to successful PGA Tour careers. He is no stranger to tour events, playing in three of them last summer, beginning with the U.S. Open. He made the cut in the John Deere Classic, and closed out a busy summer by competing on the U.S. Walker Cup team.
Prior to his hectic summer schedule, which included a spot on the U.S. golf team in the Pan-Am games, McCoy led Georgia the semifinals of the NCAA Championship. He was selected first team All-America as a junior, setting a school record with a 70.08 scoring average, and matching Chris Kirk and Russell Henley with a team record four wins during the season, including three in succession.
In the Bulldogs’ second event of their spring schedule, McCoy tied for second to lead Georgia to a 10-stroke victory in Mexico, and is ranked among the top 10 players in the country, in addition to remaining among the top 10 in the world amateur rankings.
McCoy opened the Valspar Championship with a birdie on the par-5 first hole, but that was his only birdie of the day and he finished with a 3-over 74. He birdied all four par 5s in the second round and added a fifth birdie on his final hole for a 71 to make the cut on the number at 145.
Thanks to five straight birdies midway through the third round and a sixth birdie in seven holes at the 13th, McCoy was 7-under with five holes to play and closing in on the leaders. But his tee shot on the par-4 16th found the water and he settled for a double bogey and a 66, matching the low score of the tournament.
McCoy began the final round in the top 10 and was paired with Spieth, who was also six shots off the lead. He reached the par-5 opening hole in two and followed with a second straight birdie after hitting his second shot to six feet on the par 4. McCoy spent most of the next nine holes trying to save par, succeeding four of six times before rolling in a lengthy birdie putt on the par-4 12th. He again reached a par 5 in two and two-putted for birdie on the 14th and parred in for a 69, finishing three back of Schwartzel and Haas, with Ryan Moore one ahead of McCoy in third.
“I don’t think I played quite as well as I did yesterday,” McCoy said. “Obviously, I didn’t make seven birdies, but it was pretty good. Playing with the number one player in the world on my home course on Sunday and just to be somewhat in contention was absolutely incredible. I really had to pinch myself a few times today.”
McCoy enjoyed his pairing with the game’s top player and came away impressed with how Spieth has acclimated to his rapid change in status.
“It’s really incredible to see a guy in his position to have that much class. At the end of the day, I’m still a little college am scrub playing out here with these guys trying to fit in. But the guy had nothing but great things to say and treated me like I really belonged out here. It’s pretty cool.”
Among the advice Spieth gave McCoy was to not look at the sheet in the scorer’s tent with the breakdown of the purse distribution.
“He told me not to look,” McCoy said. “I looked. I shouldn’t have looked. Lot of money. Lot of money.”
Fourth place in the tournament was worth $292,800, which McCoy was unable to accept because of his amateur status.
McCoy will be an amateur for only a few more months and expects to turn pro immediately after ending his college career and “hopefully make some money.”
Until then, McCoy is looking to help lead the Bulldogs to another run at an NCAA Championship, and things got off to a strong post-Valspar start with a victory in the Southern Intercollegiate hosted by UGA at Athens Country Club.
After arriving in Athens in the wee hours Monday morning after driving from Tampa, McCoy turned in a respectable showing, posting scores of 70-71 in the one-day, 36-hole event to tie for seventh individually at 3-under 141.
The next three appearances for McCoy and his Georgia teammates will all be in state, as the Bulldogs compete in the Linger Longer Invitational at Reynolds Lake Oconee March 20-22, the Augusta Invitational at Forest Hills April 2-3 and the SEC Championship at Sea Island Golf Club April 15-17.