LCA Golfer Is Dressed for Success
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If Lexington Christian Academy junior Hager Collins one day wins the Masters golf tournament and slips on the traditional green jacket, you can bet he’ll look sharp.

After all, how many 16-year-olds read GQ and know about pocket squares?

Hager not only looks sharp, he is sharp -- both in the classroom and on the golf course.

In his first two years in high school, he’s a two-time Academic All-State selection and carries a 3.3 GPA.

Along with Shakespeare, he has studied Dante, Cervantes and Virgil.

That’s tougher than playing Nicklaus, Palmer and Woods.

It’s not too much of a stretch to say Hager might be a PGA pro himself some day.

A 6-foot-1, 155-pound all-around athlete, Hager excelled in football and baseball before devoting himself exclusively to golf, a game he started when he was 5.

It’s not surprising that he chose golf -- his father Kevin played at Georgetown College, and the family home sits between the third hole at Lakeside Golf Course and No. 16 at Andover Country Club.

Hager started winning tournaments at an early age. As a 13-year-old, he entered 12 tournaments in the Musselman-Dunne junior tour -- and won all 12.

By then, he already was a member of the LCA high school team.
He played on the JV in sixth and seventh grade and made the varsity as an eighth-grader.

And LCA is no ordinary high school team.

The past three years, the team has advanced to the State tournament, placing fourth in 2007, third in 2008, and an agonizing second last year, by one stroke to perennial power St. Xavier in Louisville.

LCA this year has been sensational. In the first tournament of the year, the Eagles shot a state record 24 strokes under par.

Hager broke the individual state record that day with an 8-under par 64 at Griffin Gate golf course, but you won’t find his name in the record book.

Teammate Hunter Stewart shot a 9-under 63 the same day to set the record. (Hunter was the Scholar Athlete in November 2007.)

Last year, Hager won the State Junior Amateur and his first high school tournament. He shot a 65 in Pikeville, the same tournament won by PGA pro and Ryder Cup team member J.B. Holmes.

Despite the glistening golf resume, Hager’s parents admire his course demeanor even more. He’s a gentleman on the greens.

“When we’re at tournaments, parents come up to me and say, ‘I’m glad my son is playing with Hager,’” said his mother Lisa. “That makes me more proud than any score he shoots.”

Said his father: “Hager is honest and respects the ethics of the game.”

For Hager, golf is the purest of sports -- it all rests with the integrity of each player.

“In golf, there isn’t an official following you around to make sure you follow the rules,” he said. “It requires integrity and class that other sports don’t require.

“Once you put the tee in the ground, it’s all up to you.”

With Hager, that has worked out just fine.