Name Sang Lee | Education Seoul National University | |
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Died October 19, 2004, South Korea | ||
Sang Lee: 3-Cushion Billiards Run of 14 (w/ full table masse shot) against Sayginer
Sang Chun Lee (Korean: 이상천; January 15, 1954 – October 19, 2004), most commonly known simply as Sang Lee, was a Korean American professional three-cushion billiards player and world champion. Born and raised in South Korea, Lee moved to New York City, USA, in 1987 at age 33.
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Final match sang lee vs dick jaspers 1998 carom corner 150k tour
Professional career
Dubbed the "Michael Jordan of three-cushion billiards" 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 twelve consecutive United States Billiard Association National Three-cushion Championships, from 1990 to 2001.
Lee also won the coveted 1993 Three-Cushion World Cup held in Ghent, Belgium. He almost won it again in 1999 but fell short to Dick Jaspers.
At the 2002 Championships, his impressive run came to an end when he was defeated by Pedro Piedrabuena in the finals of the tournament. Aptly, Piedrabuena received his early training in billiards from none other than Lee. Also in 2002, Lee finished 2nd in Three-cushion event of the Asian Games where he was bested by Deuk-Hee Hwang, another Korean cue artist.
Lee holds the world record for the highest game average in three-cushion. In a match, he achieved a 12.5 average by making 50 points in only 4 innings. His highest run is 28.
As a player, Lee's ambition was "making billiards beautiful in America", – 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.
On 15 May 2007, Lee was inducted into the BCA Hall of Fame.
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 Cafe in Flushing, Queens, New York, the billiard hall Lee was a co-owner of at the time of his death.