Recent Northview Heights SS grad earns LPGA tour card.
Northwood Heights Secondary School grad Rebecca Lee-Bentham has earned full-time membership in the LPGA.
Photo/GOLF CANADA-GRAIG ABEL
Just a little more than a year after graduating North York's Northview Heights Secondary School, Rebecca Lee-Bentham, who will turn 20 in March, has earned a coveted full-time membership into the LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association) tour.
Lee-Bentham who grew up in Richmond Hill, but moved with her family to Scarborough in her teens, shot a clutch final round 67 on Sunday, Dec. 4 to close out the LPGA tour's gruelling five-round, final qualifying tournament at the LPGA Champions Course in Daytona.
It was the low round of the day and propelled her into a tie for ninth from a tie for 38th where she started the day. The top 20 finishers earned full-time status.
Q-school, as it's called, is quite the grind, although Lee-Bentham was up to the task, easily advancing out of two earlier four-round qualifying tournaments in Florida, finishing tied for 18th after stage two Sept. 27 to 30 (top 70 and ties advanced) and tied for 12th after stage one July 26 to 29 (top 50 and ties advanced).
Bentham warmed up for the event, winning her first ever professional tournament in the Florida SunCoast Ladies Series Nov. 21 to 23. She fired a 68-66-70 to win by two strokes.
Her fantastic autumn results seems to indicate she made the right decision to forego her University of Texas golf scholarship after one successful year.
"My decision to leave UT was difficult, but it made the most sense to me," she said in an interview during the tournament, posted on Golf Canada. "I've had so many people telling me to wait, but professional golf is what I've always wanted to do, ever since I started at the age of 12.
"College students work hard to earn a degree, in order to get the job they want. Well, the job I want doesn't require a degree, but it does require a lot of hard work and dedication. I just want to give myself the best chance to succeed in something I love to do."
Lee-Bentham closed out her final year of high school at Northview Heights, finishing fourth in the provincial junior high school golf championship in fall 2009 and then closed out her junior career winning the Canadian junior girls golf championship in summer 2010.
- Norm Nelson