Sang Lee never stopped learning.

It is one of the pillars of his preparation that has allowed him to improve each year at Washington State, and what has allowed him to play what he thinks is his best golf going into what will be his senior season.

“Golf can be played in many different ways,” Lee said. “You can get caught up in how other people do it because there are so many out there that you try and copy what they do, but the key is to learn about yourself and how you play your best.”

Lee has had a longer career than most who enter the world of golf in college. He started making some changes to his game after a redshirt season in 2010-11.

Head Coach Garrett Clegg said the extra year has made Lee a more stable and consistent player. Clegg also said Lee possesses many of the important traits necessary to achieve success at the college level.

“Sang has a fantastic work ethic and that has enabled him to improve over the past four years,” Clegg said. “His golf swing and ball striking have drastically improved over the three years I have seen him. His short game was always his strength, and that is still very good.”

Early on, Lee looked within himself to make adjustments. He got stronger, but it was mostly just mentally learning the game that helped the most. After that, the improvements just kept coming.

“After my fall season of my sophomore year I started working with a swing coach back home,” Lee said. “Basically I studied the game more, learned more about it, and learned more about myself.”

Randy Robb started coaching Lee when the latter was going into the 10th grade at the Edge School in Canada. He said at that point Lee was already a Tae Kwon Do national champion and he knew his work ethic would be fantastic.

Robb said Lee would work so hard studying the golf swing that he would often have to pull in the reigns to sort out what was relevant to his development.

“If there was a drill discussed in golf class, the next day he would come to school and talk about how he spent four or five hours working on it,” Robb said.

Now, entering his fifth season at Washington State, Lee wants to win.

“For myself, I haven’t won in college yet,” Lee said. “I’ve come close a few times, but I’d like to get at least two wins this year individually and I feel like where my games at that’s possible.”

Clegg said he anticipates that Lee will be one of the leaders on the team this year, and that he would like to see him have a great final season.

It isn’t easy to improve year in and year out, and that is why Lee said his proudest accomplishment is that he has gotten better every year. Clegg said Lee’s strengths are in his putting and chipping, and getting the most out of his game.

Lee said his favorite part of golf is that it is an individual sport. When he’s playing, it’s all on him, and that is something he desires.

“I am on a team, but when you’re playing it’s individual, no matter if your score counts for your team at the end of the day,” Lee said. “You’re playing with you and the golf course.”

Lee got his season off to a good start last Monday, hitting four birdies in the opening two rounds of the Southwestern Intercollegiate in Southern California.