Wake Forest Athletics
Gold Rush Feature: Always Learning
3/8/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
This article was originally published in the Feb. 26 edition of Gold Rush.
The ability to perform well when you're not at your best is what can separate a good athlete from a great athlete. Lee Bedford is already learning that lesson, and so far, he's passed the test.
In the first tournament of the spring semester, the JU Invitational Jan. 31-Feb. 2, Bedford said he hit it "as bad as I've hit it in a year and a half." Coach Jerry Haas said the junior had been fighting an illness and "didn't have his golf muscles back."
Despite all that, Bedford still managed to shoot even par in two of three rounds and gutted out a top-15 finish.
"That should be my worst score and worst finish for the semester," Bedford said afterward. "That's my goal, anyway."
It's a reachable milestone for Bedford, who is entering his second spring as a top performer for the men's golf team. In fact, he's finished out of the top 20 only once in his last three semesters, and that was enough to get him All-ACC and honorable mention All-American rewards last spring.
He has shown the ability to scramble and put up a good number, but when Bedford is at the top of his game, he'll beat you because he'll work harder than you, plan more carefully than you and, oh yes, he'll also strike the ball better than you.
Bedford grew up near a golf course in Cary, but he didn't get serious about the game until early in high school when he turned his focus away from team sports. He realized he could be good, and then suddenly, good wasn't going to be good enough. He had to be great.
"Living right next to the course helped -- I could ride my bike over to practice really easily," Bedford said. "That let me get a lot better a lot faster, and be in control of my own schedule. I still like that: the feeling that what I do, not anybody else, determines what happens to me."
Success did come quickly. He was the state's top amateur as a senior at Cary Christian, and Wake Forest came next. With that came confidence, maybe even a little cockiness at first, but Haas said it's settled into the right kind of attitude.
"His greatest strength is his belief in himself," Haas said. "There's not a lot of choke in Lee. He enjoys the spotlight, he enjoys being the man, but he knows to get that, he has to play well."
Even with all that, Bedford admits his mental game isn't what it should be. He's more of a ball-striker, drives-and-fairways kind of guy.
"Usually, I hit a lot of greens, a lot of two-putts, without having to work that hard at chipping or putting," Bedford said. "But if I learn to make some putts and my ball-striking does break down, maybe next year at Sawgrass (the site of the recent struggle), I get a shot or two back."
Bedford said he patterns his approach after Lanny Wadkins, who found a fair amount of PGA Tour success after a Wake Forest career. Bedford spent a few days with Wadkins last year.
"If you knew Lanny, he admits he doesn't have the best mental game," Bedford said. "But he's a great ball-striker. It's good to see that somebody with the same attributes I have in a golf game has done so well. It gives me some motivation to pursue what I've always wanted."
That, of course, is a life on the PGA Tour. He's got another year and a half before he can make that happen, but in some ways, he's already preparing. For example, he seemingly has this summer planned day-to-day and wall-to-wall, with eight tournaments in seven states, most of them trips he plans to drive alone.
"That's kind of the point of the summer, to go on the road on my own, drive to all the tournaments, figure out how to tweak things on the road, play well when I'm tired, all the stuff I'm going to have to do for real the next year," Bedford said. "Hopefully it'll be a good experience and I'll also play well."
Players Mentioned
