Before the Self Regional Healthcare Foundation Women’s Health Classic was created in 2014, Alex Stevenson was a typical happy 10-year-old kid. He enjoyed playing sports like tennis and soccer at the local YMCA in Greenwood, and he also took guitar and drum lessons.

The Stevenson's, who live in Stoney Point, signed up to be a host family the first year of the event. Alex quickly gravitated to the sport.

“This tournament started my competitive golf career,” said Alex, now 14, while warming up for Tuesday’s pro-am. “Seeing all the girls come out and realizing that they can do this for a living made me want to start.”

Four years later, he is a freshman on the Greenwood High School varsity golf team (which he made in eighth grade) and has given up most of his pre-Self Regional Healthcare Foundation Women’s Health Classic hobbies to focus on golf.

He is consumed by the sport. He walked a practice round with his “host sisters” Britney Hamilton and Laura Wearn earlier this week and wants to soak up as much knowledge each year the Tour comes to town.

“It’s amazing to see how great all the Epson (Tour) players who have stayed at our house and their friends are to him, they have really taken him under their wing,” said Alex’s mom, Michelle. “Once golf started, the other stuff (hobbies) went away.”

Alex, who is the junior club champion at The Links at Stoney Point, is currently taking lessons with Tommy Pendley and is now a very talented junior golfer. Alex said that he never envisioned himself playing the sport before the tournament came into his life. He played just once or twice a year because his parents played.

“If we didn’t host the players, I don’t think I would have connected with the tournament as much,” said Alex, who is referred to as “little bro” by players who have stayed with the Stevenson's. “Britney takes me wherever and she keeps tabs on me throughout the year.”

The family even rigged a golf hole in Lake Greenwood where Alex can chip from the family's backyard. Each year during the tournament, players come over to the house and participate in a chipping contest.

“The Tour is what sparked all of this,” said Michelle. “My husband (Mark) during the first or second year got a little crazy and said ‘if anyone makes a hole-in-one than I’ll pay for your entry fee at the next tournament’ so they were all out there.”

When the Tour used to play in Asheville, the family would travel to watch.

“Whenever they are close and we can, we go,” said Michelle, who was also playing in the pro-am. “Two years ago, we were going to see the last tournament in Daytona, but Alex’s Drive, Chip & Putt competition was on the same weekend.”

Alex actually made it to the round before Augusta at the Drive, Chip & Putt competition in 2015.

“I remember when Alex was 10 or 11 and he would come to the tournament and he just caught the bug,” said Hamilton, who now caddies on Tour after playing for three years. “He is an athletic kid and he has improved a lot. He just fell in love with the sport and now he plays all the time.”

“It’s really special to think that us being here with the tournament got him into the game,” continued Hamilton. “I’ve gotten to watch him grew up and I consider them family.”

The Epson Tour and the Self Regional Healthcare Foundation Women’s Health Classic is about more than golf. It’s about a community that has embraced the players and a teenager that found his passion.

Tournament in Greenwood Leads Teenager to Golf

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