Sophie Stevens Named Junior Girl Player of the Year

Qualified for U.S. Women’s Amateur at age 15, inspired by family to succeed

By Tom Lang

Sophie Stevens has had enough wonderful golf career experiences for women 2-to-3 times her age, yet it looks like she’s just getting started.

Stevens earned Junior Girl Player of the Year for 2021 after a season in which she won the GAM Junior Kickoff tournament to start the season and was stroke play medalist in the Michigan Girls’ Junior State Amateur. 

Yet her biggest experience and certain points generator came from qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Amateur, where she was added to the annals of being one of the younger in history to play in that national event.

Stevens, who just turned 16 in late December, said playing in the U.S. Women’s Amateur and narrowly missing the cut into match play, was the highlight of the summer.

“Even though I just missed match play I felt pretty good about the way I played,” she said. “It was a fun experience. I was playing well until I made double bogey on 15 (in the final round of stroke play). It was a bit of a stinger the way I finished there, but I’m taking the positives and the experience of playing that week.

“That was by far one of the coolest things I’ve done. As a USGA event it was so prestigious. Everything was done with excellence. Even the little details like your name plaque on the range. That’s cool to see. 

“But just playing against the top amateurs in the country was so cool, especially since lots of them are in college and I was one of the youngest people there and thinking wow, I still have all these years,” Stevens added. “The best competition I’ve played against, definitely, by far. 

“My dad and I went out there just to enjoy it and I think we did pretty well at it.”

Good thing, because her dad’s fun and positive attitude bought him more time on the bag as future caddy. Many young golfers cannot perform well when parents get that close to the situation, but Sophie gave a lot of credit to her father, Mark, who first taught her the game.

“I don’t envision it yet,” Sophie said with a laugh when asked if she’d have to fire her caddy. “He did a really good job of keeping it fun. If I got disappointed or a little annoyed at myself, because obviously not everything goes as you would plan, he’d remined me why we were there, to have fun, and we did well at that together.”

Mark Stevens was an assistant pro at Pine Lake CC for three years after college, and taught each of his five children the golf swing as part of “gym class” for their homeschool experience. Sophie is the one that caught onto the game the most.

“She just likes competing more than anything and it happens to be golf that she’s excelling in,” Mark Stevens said. “But it just as easily could be some other sport. She likes to have something on the line to win. Sophie gets into a mean game of Candyland with her younger brother; it doesn’t matter what the activity is.”

Homeschooling fulltime keeps Sophie out of high school competition, but she said that’s okay. She plays 25-30 tournaments a year. She thinks she would enjoy the social aspects of high school golf and hopes to find that when college offers come along. She is the second youngest of the Stevens’ five kids, which includes her oldest sister, Samantha, at age 20. 

Samantha has Autism and remains non-verbal. Mark said she uses a keyboard to communicate.

Sophie said that her sister’s challenges, “have definitely made me more compassionate, and more sensitive to people who are often overlooked,” she said. “I’ve realized that everyone is just as special as every other person, and they should all be treated that way. And then obviously, when you think your day is bad, or you’re being treated unfairly, I can always look to her and realize her situation is harder than mine so I can always be thankful and try to help her out in any way I can.”

Sophie competed in the 2019 Drive, Chip and Putt in the 12-13 category, finishing middle of the pack. Now she has her eye on the Augusta National Women’s Amateur as a future goal. 

“Not many people get to go to Augusta, even just to walk the course,” she said about the 2019 visit. “And I didn’t quite understand that at that age, but now that I see so many people that react about my chance to go there; then I realized more it is a big deal.”

“Golf is just something I found out I’m good at, and that along with my competitive spirit I love the creativity of the game, Sophie added. “You can hit so many different shots and there’s always something that you’re bound to be working on to get better. You can never perfect the game, so I like that about it. And the fact I am super competitive really helped.”