Heading into the fourth and final round of the BC Junior Golf Championships at Nk’Mip Canyon Desert Golf Course in Oliver on July 1 down five strokes to the leader, a tournament win didn’t seem like it was in the cards for part-time Whistler resident James Lee.
“To be completely honest, I was thinking, ‘I’m going to need [to shoot] like 62,’ because he was coming off back-to-back 67s and I played with him the day before and he looked very solid,” said Lee about chasing Vernon’s Ryan Vest in the final round.
But after a couple tough holes to start the round for Vest—while Lee continued the consistent play that saw him score two 70s and a 71 in the first three rounds—the gap began to close.
By the final two holes, the tournament win was up for grabs.
Stepping back from the tee on 17 with hands too sweaty to grip his club, Lee was starting to feel the pressure. As close as he now was to winning the biggest tournament of his life, he was equally close to having it all slip away with even the most minor of mistakes.
In that moment, Lee reminded himself what got him to that point and re-focused on taking things one shot at a time and continuing the consistency that led to his success so far.
“I know that in order to get the best results from my game, I just need to not get ahead of myself and just focus on each shot individually. And so that’s what I tried to do. I tried to block out [Vest’s] scores as much as I could and just focus on my own game, and I ended up on the last hole actually not knowing that I was one shot ahead,” said Lee, about posting another 70 in the last round for a final score of -7.
“I’m super excited and super happy that I was able to come back on the last day there. But I’m more surprised than anything else. I didn’t really think it was a possibility at the start of the day. I just thought I was playing for second place.
“And then I think probably in the car ride back to Whistler, it really hit me that I was a B.C. Boys Champion and that’s a pretty big deal.”
With his win, Lee received an invitation to represent Team B.C. at the Canadian Junior Championships in Kamloops in August as well as an invite to the Canadian Junior Olympic selections in September.
For Lee, a dual citizen who was born and raised in San Francisco, getting this opportunity with Team Canada represents a dream come true.
“Even though I was born in the States, I feel like I’ve always identified more as a Canadian citizen,” he said. “I started hockey very young, before I started golf. I’ve cheered for the Canucks for the longest time. I’ve always cheered for Canada in the Olympics and whenever I see Canadian players on the leaderboards and whatnot. So it means more to me to play for Canada than the U.S. and it excites me quite a bit. So hopefully I can play well at the selection camp and get on the team.”
Immediately after the BC Junior Championships, Lee flew to Scotland for the Scottish Boys Open tournament, where, after starting off with a two-stroke lead through 27 holes, he started to struggle a bit with the increasing wind speeds and fell to a tie for sixth place when all was said and done.
Taking the positives from his play in the Scottish Boys Open, Lee made his way over to Sherwood Forest Golf Club in Mansfield, U.K. to compete in the McGregor Trophy Amateur Championship from July 12 to 15 before returning home to North America where he will compete in the U.S. Junior Amateur Championships in Oregon in two weeks’ time.
With three major competitions under his belt before heading to the Canadian Junior Championships next month, Lee said he won’t be working on anything in particular ahead of time. Instead, his main goal is just to keep the consistency going.
“I’ve been very happy with how I’ve played the last month or so. And if I could just keep up that play, I’ll be very happy,” he said.
“Obviously, it’s good to set goals, but I think what’s most productive for me is to just focus on what I can control and making sure each shot has my full attention and full focus. And if bounces don’t go my way, if I don’t hit the good shots, so be it, but if I can, then that’s great.”
