James Vargas & Andrea VanderLende
James Vargas
Birth Date: 2/6/84
Current Residence: Miami, Fla.
Hometown: Miami, Fla.
College: University of Florida
Family: Single
Occupation: Professional Golfer
Three words to describe teammate: Determined, Supportive, Fun-loving
Andrea VanderLende
Birth Date: 7/6/83
Current Residence: Longwood, Fla.
Hometown: Longwood, Fla.
College: University of Florida
Family: Single
Occupation: Professional Golfer
Three words to describe teammate: Fun, Competitive, Caring
View James and Andrea's Audition Video
View James and Andrea's Bio Video
View Andrea's Swing Video
View James' Swing Video
View Andrea's Holes Video
View James' Holes Video
They fight like cats and dogs. She is from Venus, he is from Mars. However you describe it, Andrea VanderLende and James Vargas fit the popular description of a bickering couple. And in a series that will test team’s relationships, this duo could produce fireworks. But what else is new? The two dated as teens and since have developed a “brother/sister” relationship that, like siblings, is sometimes volatile but always caring.
“She is my best girlfriend,” Vargas said in describing the relationship. “We get along well and support each other. There are times that we can argue but it never ends up bad. It is never mean spirited. I want the best for her and she wants the best for me.”
Both experienced successful junior careers – Vargas played in a PGA TOUR event when he was 17 – and attended the University of Florida on a golf scholarship. In Gainesville, though, their careers took different paths. While she excelled with a runner-up finish at the 2003 NCAA Women's Golf Championship and was captain of the women’s golf team her senior year, his game digressed.
“It was disappointing,” Vargas said of his collegiate career, where he was a teammate of PGA TOUR standout Camilo Villegas and Big Break Mesquite contestant and current Nationwide Tour player Matt Every. “I felt that I didn’t play to my potential and let the whole college atmosphere get to me. If I had to do it over again, I would know how to do it better and not make the same mistakes, because it set me back in my golf.”
While his career has not gone as hoped, Vargas has found his old form while playing on the Hooters Tour. Earlier this year he won the circuit’s Guatemalan Open and says he is now on pace to join his Gator teammates at the next level.
For different reasons, VanderLende’s career is not where some would have expected. Upon graduating, she passed on playing golf full-time and took a job as an assistant golf professional at Carmel Country Club in Charlotte, N.C. The decision not to play professionally was derived both from burnout and her father’s death. He had owned a driving range and was her coach and inspiration in golf, and the loss sent her reeling.
With the passion to compete still engrained in her, VanderLande recently quit her job and is playing on the Duramed FUTURES Tour, where she already has a top-five finish this year.
“I’m in a good place right now and feel good about the decisions I’ve made,” she said about her time away from competitive golf. “I wouldn’t change a thing. Moving away from home and living in a big city helped me mature.”
Seemingly, both have the game and the perspective to weather the emotional storms that Big Break traditionally puts on competitors. And that could lead to a happy ending for these ex’s.
