Dec. 3, 2012
PALM DESERT, Calif. -- What a difference a year makes. Almost a year ago to the day, Richard Lee fought and clawed his way to a 24th place finish at Q-School to earn one of the last PGA Tour cards up for grabs. This year, Lee cruised to a fourth-place finish and Q-School and once again secured priority for the 2013 PGA Tour season. The top-25 players and ties earn cards for the 2013 season, while the next 50 players and ties earn spots on the Web.com Tour. A total of 26 players earned their cards for 2013 at Q-School this year. Despite safely making the cut, it was by no means a breeze for Lee -- who earned All-America honors while golfing for Washington in 2009 and 2010. At the halfway mark of the tournament, Lee was 31st and looking up at the leaders and the cutline. Spurred on by a 8-under 64 in the fourth round, Lee jumped back amongst the contenders and never looked back. He entered Monday's sixth and final round safely in ninth, but he did not rest on his laurels at PGA West today. Instead, he shot a 4-under 68 on the TPC Stadium Course and ended up two strokes behind winner Dong-hwan Lee. The Huskies' Lee ended up -23 overall (66-67-74-64-70-68-409). The winner Lee was -25 and won by a shot over Ross Fisher and Steve LeBrun. Lee, who now resided in Scottsdale, Ariz. after originally hailing from Bellevue, Wash., played in 24 PGA Tour events during the 2012 season. He had one top-10 finish and four top-25's. He earned $547,733 and finished 149th in the FedEx Cup Rankings. Another former Husky, Alex Prugh, was also competing this week in Palm Desert. The Spokane native mounted a late rally with a 7-under 65 on Monday, but unfortunately had too much ground to make up. He finished the tournament at 6-under (74-71-75-68-73-65-426) and tied for 110th in the field of 165. |
