By Julie Williams, Golfweek
College golf venues are increasing in grandeur, and the newly formed Jackson T. Stephens Cup is a good example of that. The new event goes on the books next fall and will debut at the Alotian Club in Roland, Arkansas, a former Western Amateur venue. The next two editions of the tournament rotate to Seminole Golf club in Juno Beach, Florida, in 2022 and Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas in 2023.
The name comes from Jackson T. Stephens, a former Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club. His son Warren will serve as tournament chairman while Bill Macatee, longtime CBS Sports golf anchor, will be the vice chairman. Mark Brazil, tournament director for the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Cup, will be the tournament director with the American Junior Golf Association managing tournament operations.
There’s something to the idea that if you host it, they will come. The tournament committee’s goal is to assemble the strongest competition possible in college golf. The field will include seven of the top NCAA Division I men’s and women’s teams in the country, with an eighth team in each group competing at the invitation of the host club.
Introducing the Jackson T. Stephens Cup, a national college golf tournament named in honor of the late Augusta National Chairman, Jackson T. Stephens.
The inaugural Stephens Cup will be played Oct. 17-20, 2021 at The Alotian Club in Roland, Ark. #JTSCuphttps://t.co/8tKjIgg6Pz pic.twitter.com/kInozyJBm4
— Jackson T. Stephens Cup (@TheStephensCup) November 18, 2020
For the inaugural tournament in 2021, a selection committee will invite the teams by the end of 2020. For subsequent tournaments, invitations will be determined through a unique Stephens Cup ranking based on the Golfweek and Golfstat college rankings.
“Our goal is to create a distinctive and highly-competitive collegiate tournament that is comprised of tomorrow’s PGA Tour and LPGA stars playing some of the country’s premier golf courses,” said Warren Stephens. “Dad truly believed that golf instilled life lessons and built character, especially when started young. Therefore, he would be very humbled and proud that this tournament is named in his honor.”
Brazil noted that the tournament must be worthy of its namesake, and the current three-course lineup certainly makes it so. The Alotian Club is s ranked 14th on Golfweek’s Best list of the top 200 modern courses in the country.
The ultra-private Seminole Golf Club, a classic Donald Ross design that will host the Walker Cup matches in 2021, needs no introduction. The links-style Trinity Forest is a previous host of the PGA Tour’s Byron Nelson Classic.
The tournament, to be played Oct. 18-20, 2021, will begin with 54 holes of stroke play, divided into two 27-hole days, which will set up a match-play bracket for a final day of 18-hole matches. The event will also recognize its 54-hole winners upon completion of stroke play.
