CMC75 Moments: Tain Lee Wins National Championship for 2010 Men's Golf
As part of the buildup to the 75th Anniversary celebration for Claremont McKenna College (visit CMC's 75th Anniversary Countdown Page to learn more), we are reliving many of the great moments from CMS athletic department history over the 75-day countdown from April 17 to July 1. If you were a part of this great moment and would like to add to the memories, or if you would like to submit your memories of your own favorite CMS Athletics moments, fill out the form on our main 75th Anniversary page.
Great Moments from 75 Years of Athletics
2010 Men's Golf: Tain Lee Wins National Title
As an athletic department, CMS had a fair number of individual national championships across different sports through the years heading into a new decade in 2010, with standout athletes in tennis, swimming and track and field finishing first in their events. It hadn't happened in golf, though, before sophomore Tain Lee teed off at the NCAA Division III Championships.
Lee was competing as an individual, earning his way into the field through strong regular season play, including a SCIAC Championship and league Player of the Year honors prior to heading to the NCAA Championships. He proved his selection was more than meritorious with a pair of 69s to open his four-round weekend and easily advancing through once cuts were made.
He stayed steady throughout, holding off a last-round surge from SCIAC rival Mitchell Fedorka of La Verne to win the individual championship by three strokes with a 280. Lee added to his individual honors by taking home the Jack Nicklaus Award as the top player in Division III, and made a strong run at a second straight championship in 2011 before finishing as the runner-up.
CMS had a strong season as a team as well in 2010, winning two of the SCIAC regular season tournaments and placing John Morris on the All-Region and All-SCIAC teams in addition to Lee. Kyle Casella also joined Morris in earning All-America Scholar distinction for the Stags. Lee's efforts would help start the program on a quick uphill trajectory – his senior year in 2012, he brought his teammates with him as the Stags earned a team qualification and finished fourth, and by 2016, CMS had a team national championship to put in the trophy case.
Lee, meanwhile, has continued to play and recently turned heads on the PGA Tour, when he held the lead for eight holes in the third round of the 2021 Palmetto Championship at Congaree from June 10-13, before ending in a tie for 14th. It was his third career PGA Tour event, after qualifying for his first at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in January, and then earning a qualification again in April at the Valero Texas Open. The player he beat out for the 2010 title, Mitchell Fedorka, now serves as the CMS Head Men's Golf Coach.
Kyle Casella:
The year started off in horrific fashion for the Stags. We traveled to Chico for the Chico State Classic at Butte Creek Country Club in October and were met with some nasty weather. The tournament was called after two rounds which was mercy as we were nearly bottom of the pack. Tain (T-12) and John (T-25) played ok but Ryan, Jay, and I struggled to find form (we all shared T-69). To top it off, our flight was cancelled due to weather so we had to drive 10 hours back to Claremont in torrential rain and wind. It was an auspicious start!
The next event was the CMS Invitational, where we bounced back strong. Tain dusted the field with rounds of 64-65-69 for a -18 total on the North Course at Los Serranos. Is that still the program record? It has to be... That concluded the fall programming other than a heads up match against Occidental.
In the spring, I believe we struggled a bit in SCIAC #1, as we always did at Sierra La Verne CC. We came in third. We then made our second trip up to Cal State Bakersfield's event at Seven Oaks CC. It wasn't very memorable other than I remember a lengthy discussion around which McDonald's breakfast sandwich was optimal prior to 36 holes of golf. The fierce debate between the McGriddle and the McMuffin rages on. I think Tain actually won that event as a Freshman in 2009 against a very strong, mostly D2 field.
At SCIAC #2 at East Valley CC, hosted by Redlands, it was very windy and we pulled off a gritty one shot victory over Redlands. Nothing better than beating those guys (Pomona was, of course, irrelevant). At SCIAC #3 I can't remember the details very well other than that I was playing poorly coming in so coach benched me and played me as an individual. I believe, and memory may not serve me correctly, that had I been playing as part of the team we would have won (but maybe that is selective memory).
We finished off March with our traditional trip to the Kingsmen Invitational which was held, as always, at the tremendously difficult La Purisima Golf Club. I believe we had both John's dad and my step-dad Ed on the trip with us, so we enjoyed some fine meals at the Hitching Post. This was also the first year that Bim upgraded us to the double rooms at the Courtyard Marriott from the Pea Soup Andersen's lodge, where we had previously bunked three to a room. I am not sure if it was the hotel or the meals, but after many years of trying the Stags finally won the Kingsmen by a convincing 15 shots over Redlands. Tain was first, J-Mo was T-3, and Manotoc was 10th.
SCIAC 4 was a disaster and we knew we would need to play well to rebound and have a shot at a team berth for nationals. We did the job at home in SCIAC 5 at Empire Lakes (RIP) and headed into the the SCIAC Championships feeling pretty good. I think it was fairly close battle between us, Redlands, and La Verne. Tain won the individual title at the SCIAC final but we missed out on the automatic berth. I think we were very hopeful of an at-large bid but it didn't come to fruition so we were left to cheer on Tain at Nationals. I remember constantly re-loading Golfstat from my iPhone. In those days it uploaded every three holes. Tain led wire to wire and held off Mitch's excellent final day 67 for the trophy.
The event at Congaree ... what a weekend for the Stags! It was amazing to watch Tain on TV compete with the world's very best. There is a pretty popular golf podcast called the Shotgun Start, and the co-host, Brendan Porath actually picked Tain as his "one and done" pick for the week (they have a contest where each person picks one player each week, and you can only use one player a season). It was a very controversial pick and the #taintrain was making rounds on golf Twitter over the weekend. Amazing!
2010 Men's Golf Roster
Head Coach: Bim Jollymour
Assistant Coach: Gary Havro
Kyle Casella (Sr., CMC)
Austin Gomez (Fr., CMC)
Ryan Irish (Fr., CMC)
Tain Lee (So., CMC)
Michael Liu (So., CMC)
Matt Manotoc (Sr., CMC)
John Morris (Sr., CMC)
Drew Oetting (So., CMC)
Chris Sercu (Jr., CMC)
Jay Tymkovich (So., CMC)