July 18, 2021 | BY AAGD STAFF
At the Dow Great Lakes Invitational, July 14–17, 2021 at Midland Country Club, Midland, TX, powerhouse player Mariah Stackhouse finished with a final score of -3. The graduate of Stanford University, where she was a four-year All-American, and majored in communications, has been on the rise in her sport of choice for several years, and her competitive experience shows it.
Beginning her rookie year with the LPGA in 2017, Stackhouse has recorded a career-best T8 finish at the 2017 Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic. That same year the Georgia resident played in 15 events, made the cut seven times, and gained $81,678 (114).
In 2018, she accomplished more, recording two top-10 results including a career-best T7 finish at the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer. Of the 26 events she competed she made the cut 20 times, and earned herself $273,260 (67). By 2019, Stackhouse was on fire, recording a season-best finish of T5 at the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer and in 20 competitive events she made eight cuts, gaining $127,365 (100) for the year.
At 27-years old, Stackhouse has a ‘wow’ factor about herself. She’s managed to stay atop the leaderboards, confident and strong in herself, her abilities, and as a KPMG Ambassador which she became ahead of turning pro in 2017. Her early successes in golf are partly the reason why she seems to always stay steady and ready for anything. As a 16-year-old kid, Stackhouse was the player representative on the American Junior Golf Association board. Quite a big responsibility for a teenager.
“I started playing golf at (age) two,” she said to the LPGA earlier this year. “I was a daddy’s girl and followed him everywhere he went, so that meant to the golf course. But I grew up playing right here in the Atlanta area, got my start at an inner-city course downtown and grew from there.
“I played local tours here. My dad was very intentional about the journey. He wouldn’t let me advance to the next level until he felt that I was the best at the (current) level, so it was local, then it was state, then it was regional, and then continuing on to American Junior Golf finally towards the end of my junior career.”
“When I was a young girl, my parents created an affirmation for me that I would repeat to myself in the morning every day before I went to school,” Stackhouse said. “That affirmation was four paragraphs long and it focused on a few things. One, me being a confident young Black woman, a confident person, and a confident athlete. To give you an idea of what that affirmation sounded like, I’ll share a couple of lines. One of my favorites is ‘I know that I can do anything I set my mind to. I am a very proud person with my own ideas and my own direction in life.’
Founded in 1950, the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is one of the longest-running women’s professional sports associations. But the LPGA has historically struggled with a lack of diversity and inclusion in the game. Today, Stackhouse is the only full-time Black player on the LPGA Tour. She hopes her visibility and influence on-and-off the course will soon change that.
