Amateur Golfer Lee McCoy has to Turn Down $292,800 After Top Five Finish
By Michael Shamburger
Lee McCoy is a senior on the Georgia Bulldogs’ golf team.
McCoy, who grew up playing the Innisbrook course, was in the field at the Valspar Championship through an exemption to play as an amateur. Of course playing as an amateur does have one big disadvantage, you don’t get to keep your winnings. Generally that isn’t an outrageous amount of money because amateurs rarely finish at the top of the leaderboard. In the case with McCoy though, he had to turn down a whopping $292,800. [Edit: McCoy turned the money down prior to the tournament starting with a waiver he signed in order to play as an amateur.]
Ouch.
McCoy got some words of advice from world number one Jordan Spieth while the two were paired together for the final round:
Spieth told Lee McCoy not to look at the prize money list. He looked anyway. $292,800 for solo 4th. "I shouldn't have looked," he said.
— Ryan Lavner (@RyanLavnerGC) March 13, 2016
Of course he looked, who wouldn’t look?
"Via the AP: “I shouldn’t have looked. Lot of money. Lot of money. I think I got like $350 in my bank account right now, so it’s mostly gas money. It hurt, but there’s so much going great for me right now. I’m just trying to take it all in. Just really grateful to be standing there.”"
McCoy’s performance was the best by an amateur in a PGA Tour event in almost 20 years. He is just the fifth player to finish in the top five since Phil Mickelson won while he was at Arizona State in 91.