December 10, 2020
Allyn Song Stephens of Houston, Texas, won in the Girls 14-18 Division of the Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championship. Stephens stormed up the leaderboard after an impressive 7-under 65 in the second round that included five straight birdies on Nos. 10 through 14. A closing 69 helped seal the win by three strokes at 8-under 208 for the tournament. The Houston native is No. 114 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings and had three top-5 finishes in her 2020 AJGA season.
Scores: 74-73-79 Total: 226 Points: 3.70
In the last 104 weeks Allyn, the 16-year-old daughter of former Houston Rockets NBA pro athlete Joe Stephens, has competed in 5 events and accumulated a best ranking of 1884, with two top 10 finishes. Father Joe is a judge for Precinct 3 Place 1 of the Harris County Justices of the Peace in Texas. He’s been a constant proponent of her golfing skills and has provided his daughter with the encouragement and guidance a young golfer needs.
Stephens is an up-and-coming golfer with big-time potential. The Kinkaid School junior has a mature calm about her that serves her well on the course.
She has won some 75 tournaments, including the girls 14-18 division of the Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championship that will air on Golf Channel on Wednesday night.
Allyn’s handicap is about a +2 and she has a strong relationship with her doting dad, whereby she is not hesitant to joke with him about his former basketball career since it was before she was born.
As colleges pursue Allyn, she anticipates becoming a part of Stanford, because Tiger Woods played there. She hopes that the recruitment process will be easier for her these days, rather than when her father went through it in the early 1990s.
Joe Stephens is certain that his daughter has the skills necessary to play professional golf. He’d love to witness her competing at the U.S. Women’s Open at Champions Golf Club this week. She nearly qualified for the U.S. Amateur and will try again next year.
She expects to be among the best.
“That’s the goal: to just be like Tiger Woods,” she said. “Basically, you always want to strive to be the best.”
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