Breaking Boundaries: Lee Hodges, the Hometown Hero Who Conquered the 3M Open

 

LAINE, Minn. – Every now and then, Savannah Hodges hears a knock on the front door of their Ardmore, Alabama home.

“Is Mr. Lee home?” is usually the question she gets as she opens the door to find a bunch of kids on the other side.

To Savannah, Mr. Lee is just Lee – her high school sweetheart from the small town nearby. He's the guy who, despite being a pro on the PGA TOUR, moved back with her to their hometown, a place with only 1,500 people, to be closer to family.

To the kids, though, Hodges is their hometown hero – one of the very few pro athletes to come from the small town on the Alabama-Tennessee border.

“They just want to be around him,” Savannah says.

Hodges' local fame hasn't quite reached far beyond his Northern Alabama town. When Lee and Savannah travel to events, they go mostly unnoticed. But that might change after this Sunday.

Hodges’ impressive final-round score of 67 at the 3M Open marked the end of a remarkable week, culminating in a seven-shot wire-to-wire victory for his first PGA TOUR win at TPC Twin Cities. Hodges now jumps from 74th to 33rd in the FedExCup and secures a spot in next year’s designated events and major championships.

“Oh, he's a rockstar back home,” says Jay Seawell, his college coach at Alabama, who flew to Minnesota on Sunday morning to surprise Hodges. “... I’m glad that America and golf fans get a chance to meet him.”

If you want to know anything about Hodges, it all starts in his hometown of Ardmore. His best friends are still the ones he made in high school. His caddie, a few years older, is also from there and played college golf at Auburn. His step-grandfather is the town's mayor, and his dad announces the high school basketball and football games.

It was in Ardmore that he dreamed of playing college golf at the University of Alabama. While most of the town's folks were interested in football or basketball, golf fascinated Hodges. Although he was lightly recruited by Seawell and the Crimson Tide out of high school and initially missed out on the last scholarship spot, things turned around.

“I was a fool,” Seawell says, reflecting on passing him up the first time. “My wife said, 'Why are you not recruiting Lee Hodges?’ … I wasn’t smart enough the first time.”

But he didn't have to live with that mistake for long. After two years at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Hodges transferred in – no hard feelings on Hodges' end. In fact, the golfer Seawell initially chose instead is now one of Hodges’ best friends.

After college, Lee and Savannah initially moved to Birmingham. But that didn't last long. Soon enough, he was back in Ardmore. He’s a hometown boy, through and through.

“They announced me on the first tee from Athens, but if anybody asks, I'm from Ardmore,” he said.

No worries, a large section of the crowd didn't need the clarification. Alongside Seawell, a “couple dozen” folks from Ardmore made the early morning trip to cheer on their hometown golfer. Another 50 or so watched back home at Canebrake Club, the course where he grew up playing.

“I left at 3:30 a.m. to be here,” said one as he stood along the rope line by the 12th green.

The group of supporters followed Hodges all 18 holes. They were there on the second hole when Hodges hit an iron shot to 5 feet for his opening birdie of the day. Hodges insisted there were no nerves. That was the first sign.

They cheered enthusiastically on the par-5 sixth as Hodges knocked a 3-wood to 12 feet and sank an eagle to take a seven-shot lead.

After a bogey on the ninth, his first hiccup of the day, all Savannah had to do was look at Hodges' body language. “Oh, he’s fine,” she said. “I know nothing about golf, but I can tell how he’s doing with his body language.”

Sure enough, he steadied with pars at 10 and 11. Then his gallery erupted in joy as Hodges took that same 3-wood and hit it to 3 feet for his second eagle of the day on the par-5 12th.

“Those were two of the greatest shots I ever hit,” Hodges said, talking about the approach shots that set up the eagle putts.

His most memorable shot, though, might have been on the 18th. Hodges had promised himself to be aggressive, as he felt being passive cost him a chance at the 2022 American Express, where he was the 54-hole co-leader. If the two eagles weren't aggressive enough, Hodges stuck his approach on the 18th to two feet for a concluding birdie. Not only did he win, but he won by seven strokes – the largest margin of victory on the TOUR since Rory McIlroy’s 2019 RBC Canadian Open win.

Savannah watched as Hodges tapped in and gave his caddie, Andrew Medeley, a bear hug.

“I feel numb. This was his dream, and he did it,” she said.

Soon after, she ran out to congratulate him. Then came Seawell, Hodges' agent Jeff Stacy, and his childhood best friend to share in the moment. It wasn't long before Hodges realized the crowd of hometown supporters who made the last-minute trip to watch his dream become a reality.

It was as if Hodges was back in Ardmore for a moment. He celebrated with the people who celebrated him long before he was a TOUR winner. A little slice of Alabama all the way up in Minnesota.

“I'm super proud to be from there and represent those people,” he said. “Man, I'm sure there is a party going on in north Alabama right now.”