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Meet Andrea Lee, Hermosa Beach’s Favorite Golfer Who Played At Augusta This Year

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Hermosa Beach’s Andrea Lee has an imposing golf resume, starting shortly after she picked up the game at 8 years old. She quickly won 50 junior titles in a four-year span and won the Rolex Junior Player of the Year in 2014 at age 16. In the same year, she made the cut at the US Women’s Open.

She’s continued to improve her golf game since the terrific start to her career. As a standout golfer at perennial powerhouse Stanford University, she’s distinguished herself as the number 1 player on the team and a future LPGA star. And with three tournament victories in each of her first three years of school, she’s even held down the title of number 1 collegiate golfer in the country several times.

Overall, she’s amassed a Stanford-record eight collegiate tournament victories. Perhaps her most prized title came just down the road from Hermosa Beach in February of 2019 as she claimed the Northrup Grumman Regional Challenge at Palos Verdes Golf Club.

With a closing round of 73 in extremely difficult conditions, she eked out a one-stroke victory in front of the hometown crowd and helped lead Stanford to one of its most impressive wins against a stacked field.

Her game is the envy of her rivals and teammates alike: she’s a phenomenal ballstriker whose irons shots look like they’re laser-guided at the pin. She even shot a 58 (yes, on 18 holes!) during practice at the Stanford home course in February of 2018.

Lee has a free-flowing golf swing that holds up well under pressure. She’s a feared competitor, especially when it comes to playoffs: she won the East Lake Cup Women’s Invitational in 2016, outlasting her opponent for six sudden-death playoff holes.

Whenever she gets close to a title, she has an uncanny knack for finding the winner’s circle where others might come up short. Her strength is making late birdies down the stretch, regularly practiced using training aids, like in 2016 when she birdied the final two holes of her US Girls Junior semifinal match for a comeback win.

But it’s not all golf for Lee. She’s an outgoing, kind person with popularity that extends beyond the golf team. An avid fan of karaoke, she can often be found on a microphone somewhere near Stanford’s campus, belting out Niall Horan, Bruno Mars or Sam Smith hits with a remarkably good singing voice.

She was brave enough to sing a capella during an interview at the US Women’s Amateur in 2016, and she acquitted herself well. Unfortunately for Lee, her roommates discovered the video online and won’t let her live it down, often pranking her by playing the interview in the dorms.

“Every time they play the video, it drives me nuts, I run away…it’s super embarrassing,” laughed Lee in a Golfweek interview.

As a youth, Lee displayed knacks for rock climbing, soccer, snowboarding, figure skating, and taekwondo, in which she earned a black belt at age 12. And she excels at school, even leaving her high school golf team briefly as a junior to focus on her studies.

The pressures of juggling multiple AP classes plus golf seemed to be too much, but her teammates were able to convince her to return to the team. She promptly helped them win Mira Costa High’s first women’s golf state championship and earned a golf scholarship to Stanford. Traveling for golf was no issue at all.

Lee is a big Tiger Woods fan, so earning an invite to the first annual Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship in 2019 was an immediate career highlight.

One of the world’s most famous golf courses and home to The Masters, Augusta National made waves in the golf world by announcing that it would begin hosting a women’s amateur championship each year starting in 2019.

After the first two rounds at Champions Retreat Golf Club, Lee found herself in a playoff to make the cut and advance to the final round at Augusta National, the course where legends like Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods made their biggest headlines. Once again, Lee was able to come through under pressure and survive the playoff, advancing to the final round at Augusta National and finishing in the top 30 overall.

It was yet another accomplishment to add to Andrea Lee’s long, long list. And it’s a list that is sure to keep growing, as Lee completes her collegiate career at Stanford and makes the leap to the LPGA tour. She has the personality and work ethic to compete and win at the highest level, and I certainly wouldn’t bet against her. – By Jordan Fuller

 

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