Photo Credit: Dave Knachel/Virginia Tech Athletics
Collegiate sports may have gone quiet for multiple months now, but that hasn't stopped some former and current Virginia Tech athletes from competing in professional and amateur events, and impressing.
That includes current Virginia Tech golfer Mark Lawrence Jr. who is having a tremendous summer.
Lawrence's strong summer started a few weeks ago when he won the Virginia State Open. His victory was in dominant fashion leading from start to finish and winning the three round tournament at Roanoke's Ballyhack Golf Club by an impressive seven shots.
Lawrence joins a group of Virginia State Open champions that includes seven-time major champion Sam Snead (1946) 21-time PGA Tour winner including 1977 PGA Championship winner Lanny Wadkins (1971), and multiple other PGA Tour winners including Blacksburg native Lanto Griffin, who won the 2019 Houston Open and ranks in the top 15 of the FedEx Cup currently.
Lawrence didn't stop there though as he continued his great summer by winning the 2020 Virginia Amateur. This is Lawrence's second Virginia Amateur title, joining a select group of golfers who have won multiple Virginia Amateurs including two-time U.S. Open champion Curtis Strange.
By winning the Virginia State Open and the Virginia Amateur, Lawrence joins an extremely short list of golfers who have won both events including Jay Woodson, Vinny Giles, Keith Decker, Tom McKnight, Stephen Smith, Chandler Harper
He also joins an even smaller group to win both events in the same year as he joins Tom McKnight (1985), Stephen Smith (1979), and Vinny Giles (1969) in completing that feat.
These are the latest accomplishments in Lawrence's tremendous amateur career that also included a run to the semifinals of the 2017 U.S Amateur, during which he beat 2020 U.S. Amateur champion Tyler Strafaci, losing to current PGA Tour player (and 2017 U.S. Amateur champion) Doc Redman. He also outlasted several current PGA Tour players including 2020 PGA Championship winner Collin Morikawa, and PGA Tour winners Matthew Wolff, Viktor Hovland, and Joaquin Niemann.
Mark Lawrence Jr. has put together a tremendous amateur career to date with one more season left to add to his impressive resume and leave a strong legacy before turning pro and looking to join former Hokies Johnson Wagner and Brendon de Jonge in reaching the PGA Tour.
