September 9, 2025 • by David Tenneson / Images courtesy of Jackson T. Stephens Cup
When Warren Stephens, former president & CEO of Stephens investment bank and current US ambassador to the United Kingdom, set out to establish a premier college golf tournament to honor the legacy of his father, even he might not have realized the magnitude of what he was creating.
Now in its fifth year, the Jackson T. Stephens Cup, which pairs the nation’s top collegiate golfers with world class venues, has already achieved its major objective as a premier event on the college calendar for both men and women’s golf.
An United States Naval Academy graduate (1947, along with Jimmy Carter) and leader of the Arkansas-based financial giant bearing his family name, Jackson T. “Jack” Stephens caught the golf bug a little later in life. However it bit him hard. He was invited to join Augusta National as a member in 1962 and in 1991 was named the club’s fourth chairman.
His eight years in the role happened to coincide with the rise of a young Stanford player named Tiger Woods, who reportedly handed his ball to Jack’s young grandson after the phenom won his first Masters in record-setting fashion in 1997. Stephens retired in 1998 and was named Chairman Emeritus of the club for the remainder of his life. His legacy of philanthropy and support continues to stretch decades after his passing in 2005.
Along with the six NCAA Division I men’s and women’s teams, special invitations are made annually to individuals representing Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) as well as U.S Military Service Academies.
Like traditional college tournaments, the first two days are devoted to 54 holes of stroke play. Along with determining the individual medalists these results also dictate the team match play seeding. The final day of match play features the #1 vs #2 seeded teams squaring off for the men’s and women’s trophies, while the #3 and #4 teams face off for all important match play experience they’ll need for the NCAAs.
Nestled near the Ozark mountains in his home state of Arkansas, the Tom Fazio-designed Alotian Club is Warren Stephens’ baby. The club hosted the 2013 Western Amateur and 2019 Palmer Cup, and as such was the perfect place to start an elite college golf tournament.
In 2021, the tournament’s first year, Notre Dame men and LSU women each ran away from their respective fields in stroke play and followed that up with match play victories to secure the spoils. The first Stephens Cup medalists were both determined by playoffs. Ingrid Lindblad secured her fifth individual win by defeating LSU teammate Carla Tejedo Mulet.
On the men's side, it took three extra holes for Arkansas’ Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira (below) to finally down Palmer Jackson of Notre Dame.
The Donald Ross-designed Seminole Golf Club, host of the 2021 Walker Cup, was the prestigious venue for year two. The 2022 field included both the reigning NCAA champions in Texas (men) and Stanford (women).
Led by medalist Rachel Kuehn, Wake Forest earned the #1 seed in stroke play could not stop Stanford from taking the team title. Looking back, it may have been a key motivation for the Deacons, who went on win a first NCAA Championship in program history the following May.
David Ford captured medalist honors for the men before his North Carolina team took the match play victory over ACC rival Florida State, despite Ford losing 1 down to Luke Clanton.
Previous home of the PGA Tour’s AT&T Byron Nelson tournament, future host of the 2025 US Junior Amateur and home course for SMU, Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas, Texas was the venue in 2023.
Reigning NCAA champions, Wake Forest women, once again finished on top of the stroke play leaderboard, tied with Texas at 23-under par. The Deacons took down the Longhorns 3-2 in the ensuing match play competition, with Carolina Lopez-Chacarra earning a crucial victory over medalist Lauren Kim to win the cup for Kim Lewellen’s team.
The Florida State men were also back in the championship match, taking down medalist Tiger Christensen’s (below) Arizona Wildcats. FSU would go on to finish runner-up at the following year’s NCAA Championship.
The Perry Maxwell-designed Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club has played host to many state and national amateur competitions. Both #1 amateurs in the world on the men’s (Luke Clanton) and women’s (Lottie Woad) sides were in the field, both representing FSU. Evidence of the high-caliber competition is found in the fact neither left with the hardware.
Wake Forest’s Carolina Lopez-Chacarra took medalist honors, but Wake Forest failed to make the title match for the first time in three years. Instead, Oregon took the #1 seed but lost the championship match to Arkansas.
In what proved to be a sign of things to come, the Oklahoma State Cowboys broke a mini slump to take the Stephens Cup and would ride that success to their 12th NCAA championship in the Spring.
On keeping with the tradition of historic venues hosting this premier invitational, the 2025 competitors will take place at Shoreacres in Lake Bluff, Illinois. In 1916, Seth Raynor, the revered ‘Golden Age’ course architect, whose portfolio also includes the Yale Golf Course, deftly utilized a ravine that winds through an otherwise mostly flat piece of property 30 miles north of Chicago. Using this canvas, he created a masterpiece that is regarded as one of the finest courses in the country.
Competition this year will be as fierce as ever. Northwestern women (below), the reigning NCAA champion, will face #1 ranked Stanford, the team it defeated in the Championship Match at Omni La Costa, along with other leading teams including Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, and Wake Forest.
Many of the top amateurs in the world will be competing, including new #1 Kiara Romero (Oregon) and the Cardinal quadruple threat of Paula Martin Sampedro, Andrea Revuelta, Megha Ganne, and Meja Ortengren, who are all ranked inside the top-5 by WAGR.
The men’s hopefuls include Arizona, LSU, North Carolina, Northwestern, SMU and Texas. Altogether, the field features 15 players who appear on the Haskins and ANNIKA Award preseason watch lists.
In 2001, “Jack” Stephens helped start the First Tee program in Arkansas. Twenty years later, a one-year college scholarship bearing his name was established to award annually to one participant of the program.
In keeping with that important connection, the Jack’s Day youth clinic that brings together First Tee participants and the collegiate players is the perfect way to kick off the tournament.