American Junior Golf Association
October 1, 2002
Volume 1
Issue 8

In This Issue

Teeing Off:
 At the inaugural PING Junior Solheim Cup, memorable moments were the norm, not the exception.

View from Chateau:
Although not selected to the LPGA Solheim Cup Team, Sherri Steinhauer still found a way to represent her country well.

The Gallery:
See the PING Junior Solheim Cup photo gallery.

The Scoring Tent:
See some new faces on the Ashworth Postseason Series Champions' page.


News From the Fringe:

The Feedback Forum
Win a FREE Polo Golf Shirt!

The All-America Page
See this year's crop of Polo Golf Junior All-Americans.

By the Book
How well do you know the rules of golf? Not as good as Gus Montano, the AJGA director of education. He'll test you here.

Picture of the Month
Guaranteed to say at least a thousand words.

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Proof Positive

LPGA Tour player and U.S. PING Junior Solheim Cup Captain Sherri Steinhauer teaches life's lessons by example.

By Tonya Monroe, AJGA director of media relations
My former boss in college instilled in me the notion of “Eliminate the negative, accentuate the positive.” This saying was engraved into my mind back then, and I try to do that in my everyday life and at my job with the AJGA. The PING Junior Solheim Cup made me appreciate that saying even more. LPGA Tour Player Sherri Steinhauer is this piece of wisdom personified.

Click Above to go to the official PING Junior Solheim Cup Web site.
In every tournament, the ladies of the LPGA strive to accumulate enough points to be named to the Solheim Cup team in order to represent their country in the biennial event that pits them against their European counterparts in match play competition. Sherri was named to that team three times (1994, ‘98 and ’00). She even holed the putt that clinched the Solheim Cup title for the United States in 1998.

 Unfortunately, this year Sherri was not named to the team. Of course she was disappointed, but then she received a voice mail from Pat Abshire of PING. It sounded important so she called him back immediately. He asked her if she would be the captain for the United States in the PING

PING Junior Solheim Cup Captains Marta Figueras-Dotti (Europe) and Sherri Steinhauer (United States).
Junior Solheim Cup. She was the obvious choice for the job – she is an AJGA alum, the AJGA Co-National Chairperson and a member of the PING family.

“I was elated that he would ask me,” she said. “But I was also overwhelmed with the idea. I asked him if I could call him back tomorrow.”

Then she started thinking and asked herself, “Why should I wait?” Ten minutes later, Abshire was
walking out of the office to his car when his cell phone rang. It was Sherri apologetically telling him she did not know what took her so long to decide – of course she would love to do it.

She then went to the AJGA’s Web site to see what kind of hand she was dealt. Sherri painstakingly went through every tournament from the beginning of July to the end of the summer season to see which tournaments the girls who were already selected competed in and how they played. She also sent the team members an e-mail asking them a few questions to get a feel for their personalities. She told them they could give her one-word answers or elaborate further. She quickly got a feel for what each girl was like.

For the week of the inaugural PING Junior Solheim Cup, Steinhauer was just 'one of the girls.'
Sherri got very involved with every aspect of being a member of the team. She talked with Dave Stockton, Judy Rankin, Patty Sheehan and others about the strategy involved in match play competition. She did research on how the girls had fared in other match play events.

 The first day of competition, she was not sure what to expect. She was driving around in her cart and she saw all the girls giggling and having fun and she knew this was what it was all about.

“It was so refreshing,” Sherri said. “I was pleasantly surprised with the chemistry between the players. They all worked together as a team.”

Before the event started, Steinhauer made an effort to get to know everyone on her team. The girls left feeling like they made a new friend.
Sherri was just one of the girls for the week. She rode in the vans with the team to the course, jammed to their music (which she is anxiously awaiting the CD the girls are making for her), she donned an American flag bandana during the competition and a patriotic temporary tattoo on her cheek. She even postponed her departure date for three days. This let her hang out with the girls longer and attend the Solheim Cup with the team and wear their uniforms proudly.

Although she was not chosen to be a member of the LPGA U.S. team, she made it to the Solheim Cup in another way – by helping junior golfers accomplish one of their goals. She turned a negative – not making the team she had been striving for – into a positive because she gave back to the game in another way.

“It gave me a chance to see another side of golf,” she said. “It was very different, fun and a great experience. I am so happy I was chosen.”

The members of the team also got to see another side of golf. They were able to listen to a veteran of the game who shared some of her experiences and mistakes in hopes they would be better prepared for the future.

“It was important to me that they could learn something from me,” she explained. “I’ve been through it and I know what it takes. I have a lot of ideas and experiences that I can relay to them.”

As a seasoned LPGA Tour player, Steinhauer's lesson's were golden. She never stopped teaching, even at meals.
When Sherri spoke, the girls listened. After the final day of matches, everyone involved went out for dinner. Every time she spoke, the girls would lean their heads in to make sure they did not miss a word. This was a dream come true for them. Not only did they win the inaugural PING Junior Solheim Cup and represented their country proudly, but they also had a new friend.

Just another example of the outstanding person Sherri is, she, Beth Reuter and I were at the Solheim Cup sitting in the bleachers between the 18th green and the first tee. All of a sudden, Sherri grabbed my arm and yelled, “Oh my goodness, that guy just fell.” I looked down the hill and approximately 100 yards away, there was an older gentlemen lying on the ground. He tried to stand up, stumbled a few times and fell again. Sherri was sitting on the top row and jumped down the bleachers, grabbed a security guard to call a paramedic and ran down the hill to the man’s rescue. As it turned out, the man was not seriously injured. He suffers from Parkinson’s Disease and falling was not all too uncommon for him. Sherri still made sure he was okay, and kept an eye on him until the last group had teed off and we moved on.

I am not sure who had more fun and gained more valuable experience that week, Sherri or the girls. Both showed the other another side of the game. I do not think I have ever been involved with a person who is more genuine and positive than Sherri Steinhauer. She is truly a shining example of what we should all strive to do in our lives – eliminate the negative and accentuate the positive.