Sang Chun Lee (; January 15, 1954 – October 19, 2004), most commonly known simply as Sang Lee, was a Korean-born American professional

three-cushion billiards Three-cushion billiards, also called three-cushion carom, is a form of carom billiards. The object of the game is to the off both while contacting the at least three times before contacting the second object ball. A point is scored for each s ...

player and world champion.

Professional career

Born and raised in South Korea, Lee moved to New York City, United States, in 1987, at age 33. Dubbed the "

Michael Jordan Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player, who is currently a minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Ass ...

of three-cushion billiards""Ideas & Trends; They're Sort of Like Mike"
by Caitlin Lovinger, ''New York Times'' (online edition), January 17, 1999. Accessed December 30, 2006. at the time of his arrival in the United States, Lee already had eight Korean national titles under his belt. Lee promptly went on to dominate three cushion billiards in the US, winning a record twelve consecutive USBA National Three-Cushion Championship, from 1990 to 2001. Lee became the UMB World Three-cushion Championship in 1993. in 1999 he was ranked number 11 among the Billiards Digest "50 Greatest Players of the Century" and ranked 5th "Greatest Living Player of the Century" At the 2002 USBA National Three-Cushion Championship, his impressive run came to an end when he was defeated by Pedro Piedrabuena in the finals. Aptly, Piedrabuena received his early training in billiards from none other than Lee. The same year, Lee finished 2nd in Three-cushion event of the Asian Games where he was bested by Deuk-Hee Hwang, another Korean cue artist. As a player, Lee's ambition was "making billiards beautiful in America",Carom Tournament Press
/ref> – restoring the recognition and competitive level of three-cushion in that part of the world – but he did not live to fulfill it, as he died in 2004 due to

stomach cancer Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a malignant tumor of the stomach. It is a cancer that develops in the Gastric mucosa, lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a numb ...

. On May 15, 2007, Lee was inducted into the BCA Hall of Fame."BCA Hall of Fame 2007 — 51st Inductee: Sang Chun Lee"
,

Billiard Congress of America The Billiard Congress of America (BCA) is the governing body for cue sports in the United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is ...

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is the most populous city in El Paso County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 478,961 at the 2020 census, a 15.02% increase since 2010. Colorado Springs is the second-most populous c ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, United States; accessed March 2, 2007

Sang Lee International Open

Each year after Lee's death, a tournament featuring many of the world's best three-cushion players, known as the Sang Lee International Open, has been hosted at Carom Café in

Flushing, Queens Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial ...

, New York, the

billiard hall A billiard hall, also known as a pool hall, snooker hall, pool room or pool parlour, is a place where people get together for playing cue sports such as pool, snooker or carom billiards. Such establishments commonly serve alcohol and often ha ...

Lee was a co-owner of at the time of his death."Billiards' Best Spin Doctors Vie in a Three-Cushion Zone"
by Corey Kilgannon, ''New York Times'' (online edition), August 18, 2006. Accessed December 30, 2006. 2012 it has been renamed to ''Verhoeven Open''.

References

External links

Sang Lee International Tournament Official Site

Photos from Sang Lee International Open 2008

Carom Cafe Online Billiard Resource
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Sang American carom billiards players South Korean carom billiards players World Cup champions in three-cushion billiards 1954 births 2004 deaths Place of birth missing Place of death missing Deaths from stomach cancer Asian Games silver medalists in cue sports Asian Games silver medalists for South Korea Medalists at the 2002 Asian Games Cue sports players at the 2002 Asian Games World Games bronze medalists for the United States World Games medalists in cue sports South Korean emigrants to the United States Medalists at the 2001 World Games