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Those in Virginia golf circles have been well aware of Mark Lawrence Jr.’s name for the better part of a decade now. One of the VSGA’s most accomplished junior golfers in recent memory, he racked up three Junior Match Play titles and a Junior Stroke Play Championship before heading first to Auburn and then to Virginia Tech. After an appearance in the 2015 VSGA Amateur Championship match and a spot in a three-man playoff at the 2016 Delta Dental State Open of Virginia, it was clear that Lawrence’s junior exploits were no fluke.
Lawrence’s victory at the 104th VSGA Amateur Championship cemented his standing as the commonwealth’s top male competitor. Yet when he shot 64 on the first day of the U.S. Amateur in California, it was like he burst onto the national scene out of nowhere. Players like Doug Ghim and Doc Redman, the U.S. Amateur finalists, spent their summer playing in high-level national events like the Western Amateur and Pacific Coast Amateur. Lawrence did not. No one in the national press seemed to know anything about Lawrence.
Rest assured, the rest of the country became quickly acclimated with Lawrence, who earned the No. 7 seed for match play and won four matches before falling on the final hole to Redman, who went on to beat Ghim the next day for the title. Lawrence was anonymous no longer.
“It’s been an experience I’ll remember the rest of my life,” Lawrence said after the semifinal loss. “It’s taught me a lot; showed me things I need to work on to get better. I mean, it’s a real honor to have gotten this far. I can’t wait to come back next year at Pebble Beach and see what happens.”
2017 ACCOMPLISHMENTS