He made history and all things viral before it was cool in terms of images. We’ve rounded up the most viral photos and videos of people you probably didn’t know were golfers.
“I’m the only one in my family to play golf. Very little interest, so it wasn’t until I was about 14, when I started to play every day. As I got older I played a lot more and got a lot of the guys in my neighbourhood and my friends, knowing that they don’t know about me,” Lee says of his humble beginnings in a video posted on the Lee Elder YouTube channel.
When he was 16 years old, Lee was voted into the U.S. Golf Association Youth Golf Tour Championships as a middle schooler, becoming the first person in his family to play golf at a professional level. He subsequently qualified for a spot on the PGA Tour.
Outfit of the day: This custom-made shirt with a patch of Lee’s No. 41 from the PGA Tour in the back.
Back in November 2007, at a tournament in Los Angeles, Lee wore a skirt over a golf shirt, something he didn’t think was “a cool thing to do,” but wasn’t sure how to react when he saw other fans’ reactions. “It was really weird … I was really uncomfortable.” Luckily, one of the competitors noticed the look and asked Lee to come out and play with him in a field of golfers that included James Blake and Martina Navratilova. Lee and James had an awesome chemistry on the course and went on to win the event as a tandem.
Watch Lee play in a PGA-sanctioned event:
Explosion: Lee Eager hit by golf ball in full swing at the Caja Magica Golfing Championship in Valencia, Spain in October 2008.
What does a golfer with a hole-in-one look like? Lee Eager, here at the Greenbrier Classic in West Virginia in June 2009.
5. Please note the “pirated” Donald Trump photo, uploaded from a free account on Google+. The alleged leaked images of Eager were altered to appear to be of the PGA Tour player, not of The Donald.
Last year, Eager got a year’s probation and was ordered to pay a $1500 fine for abusing a pelican during a tournament.