Standing by The Honors Course's 17th green Saturday afternoon, the second weather delay of the U.S. Junior Amateur final just begun, Clara Lee found a picture on her phone of her son, Min Woo, standing next to Tiger Woods.
At that point in Min Woo's championship match against Noah Goodwin, he led by one hole and was in a holding pattern concerning the 3-foot par putt he needed to hole to win the Junior Am crown.
So Mother Lee did what any proud but anxious mom might do under similar circumstances - she got out her digital photo album. There were Tiger and Min Woo a few weeks ago at Sage Valley, both of them dressed in black caps, red shirts and black slacks. There was Tiger at a Nike golf clinic, both he and Min Woo dressed head to toe in dark gray.
"He's been watching Tiger videos every night this week," she said. "He's a big, big fan of Tiger. At one point at the clinic, Tiger made a huge divot. Min Woo picked it up and posted it on Facebook, saying, 'This is Tiger's divot.'"
It was another adult talking about Tiger during an earlier weather delay that may have done the most to eventually deliver Lee the championship, however.
Down one to Goodwin as he stood over a birdie putt on 14, Lee and his opponent headed for the course's maintenance building to begin a 36-minute break. Once inside, retiring superintendent David Stone told the 17-year-old Lee and 16-year-old Goodwin about Woods' stay in that same maintenance building 20 years and two months earlier during the 1996 NCAA tournament.
"I told them Tiger took refuge in this same building," Stone said. "I talked about Tiger making 80 out here and hitting the ball in the water on No. 9. They seemed to have a good time hearing about that."
Said Lee as he recalled Stone's time with him and Goodwin: "He said Tiger was in the exact same position as us, waiting out a rain delay to win a championship. That made me happier."
That first weather delay certainly refreshed Lee, and possibly turned the match in his favor.
"It definitely helped," he said. "I was very tired. My eyes didn't work. A bit blurry. The week, all the holes we'd played, had gotten to me."
Even Lee's mother was worried before the first rain delay, given that Lee was one down after being two up early in the final nine.
"He looked uncomfortable," she said.
But while both young men would birdie 14, Lee soon took charge after Goodwin's second shot on No. 15 found water, leaving the match all square. Then Lee birdied 16 to take the lead.
Mark WiedmerAt this point, as they headed to the 17th tee beneath threatening skies and swirling wind, they had combined to play 301 holes since the tournament had begun Monday, Lee having completed 153 and Goodwin 148. No wonder Goodwin so often referred to the event as a grind.
And when Lee's second shot on 17 found the grassy wall of the giant bunker guarding the green while Goodwin's second landed on the green, the notion of the match once more squaring heading to 18 certainly seemed plausible if not probable.
But then Goodwin three-putted, Lee launched a flop shot from the bunker wall that would make Tiger proud and, suddenly, surprisingly, he stood only three feet from joining his sister Minjee as the only brother-sister act to win Junior Amateur crowns.
Only the USGA decided to make him wait to strike that putt. Even though he was standing over it, even if it could have all been over in less than 30 seconds, the USGA blew the horn signaling another weather delay. Forty-seven minutes would pass before Lee could return to the 17th green to strike the putt that would make him the winner of the 69th Junior Am.
"I didn't mind the (second) delay," Lee said. "I was putting well. I felt good. I just kept telling myself, 'Right to left. (Aim) around the right edge and it's in."
He also started talking to 12-year-old Charles Warren, the Huntsville, Ala., resident who was the score standard bearer for the match.
"We were talking about Australian and American accents," said the Aussie Lee. "Great kid."
And right after that, at approximately 5:15, in as anticlimactic a moment as possible for such a great match and tournament, Lee sank the putt and Goodwin's heart.
"I got beat by a better player today," said the Texan, who refused to blame the weather delay for his loss. "He was just so clutch coming down the stretch. He made every big putt."
For both Goodwin and Lee this is a big deal. They're both guaranteed spots in the U.S. Amateur in August. They're both now certain to be on the lips of everyone discussing the future stars of golf.
But for Clara Lee, dutifully following her golfing children all over the globe can be a big task. After enjoying a final night of Southern hospitality at Chattanooga businessman John Thornton's home - "We had a little celebration Friday night," she said before adding, "We might have a little bigger party tonight" - she was scheduled to fly to Chicago this morning to catch her daughter in the UL International Crown competition.
After that, there's a night flight to England for the Women's British Open. She's hopeful to get home to hubby Soo Nam Lee the week after that.
"Someone has to have a job," she said of her husband after emailing him pictures of their son's winning putt.
Meanwhile, young Warren was all smiles as he held tight to the scoreboard standard while posing with the new Junior Am champ.
Like Lee's image of Tiger's divot, those photos should soon become Facebook famous. Especially if Lee can follow Tiger's lead by becoming a two-time Junior Am champ this time next year.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com