“He is a better person than he is a player”: Lee Hodges earns big praise from Jay Seawell

Lee Hodges is asserting his dominance at the ongoing 3M Open 2023 in TPC Twin Cities, Minnesota. At the time of writing, he led the points table by four strokes ahead of second-ranked J.T. Poston.

In an interview with Amanda Renner on CBS Sports, University of Alabama Men's Golf coach Jay Seawell was asked about Hodges. Seawell praised his pupil for being a better person than a player. He said:

"No Ma'am (he's not going anywhere), he is really good. I think he will be out here for 20 years. He is a better person than he is a player. You know, I'm glad that the America, the golf fan are getting a chance to meet him because I think he is a special person."

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"She just called me dumb" - Alabama coach Jay Seawell recalls his wife's words when he failed to recruit Lee Hodges to his roster

In 2014, when Jay Seawell refused to recruit Lee Hodges to his roster, his wife Stephanie told him bluntly that he was making a mistake. As quoted by Golf Digest, he recalled the incident, saying:

"She just called me dumb." said Seawell. "Yeah, I wasn't smart enough the first time."

Seawell added that his wife told him that Hodges would go on to become a great player. However, at the time, Seawell overlooked his wife's advice and recruited another golfer. He said:

"My son played junior golf with him, and so we were having a chance to recruit him and he was kind of a tweener, kind of a little bit of a late bloomer."

"And we took another guy, which 'cause you only have four-and-a-half [scholarships] and you can't … recruit everybody. And my wife goes, ‘Why are you not recruiting Lee Hodges?’ I'm like, well, ‘I just like this guy better.’ And she just called me dumb. She said, 'you're just dumb. This guy's so nice and he's gonna be a great player'."

Jay Seawell then revealed that Lee Hodges joined UAB, worked on his game, and got really good. However, when Alan Murray, the UAB coach, left the role, Hodges called Seawell and this time the Alabama coach made no mistake and recruited him.

"And he went to UAB and then, well, he committed and then he actually got really good after he committed to them," said Seawell.

"And she goes, 'I told you you were dumb.' And then when [UAB coach] Alan Murray left to go to Washington, he called, and I wasn't dumb one more time. I was a little slow, but my wife told me, 'You finally got it right.' And so when he wanted to come to Bama, I made sure we were gonna do it this time," he added.

The Huntsville-born golfer took the internet by storm after his dominant performance in the ongoing 3M Open 2023. He looks set for a win at the event, which will undoubtedly please Jay Seawell and his wife, Stephanie.