She came through the qualifying stage at the Wallasey links, then beat two favourites, Charlotte Wild from Mere and Royal Liverpool’s Laura Jones, on her way to the title, the biggest win of her developing career. “It was a bit of a shock, but a nice shock,” she says. “It is beginning to sink in now.”
Stephanie, aged 18, a member at Sandiway and Wallasey, will now captain her county in its bid to become champions of the north, a title which would also give Cheshire the chance to compete for the English championship.
She used to be a keen footballer, playing in the under-14s for a Whitby team in the Cheshire Girls League. She played left-back when she would really have preferred a position in the attack. But she helped her team win the knockout cup and the league in the same year.
Then, when she was 13, her dad Jeff took her to swing a golf club for the first time at Pryors Hayes and booked her some lessons.
She recalls: “It was really just to see how it went. I was still playing football at the time. But I grew more passionate about golf and I gave up football. My handicap came down quite steadily.”
She won her first competition at Pryors Hayes, where she has won six trophy competitions. She has won monthly medals at both Sandiway and Wallasey and, at the Northern Girls Jamboree where girls from six counties compete, she was judged the best overall player two years in succession. She has won the Wallasey Junior Open twice and she has also had three holes in one, at Pryors Hayes and Aldersey Green.
But it has been a big step from such wins to become county champion. “I am glad about this, for all the practice I have put in,” she says.
On the way to the final she beat Wild, recent winner of the Cheshire girls championship, on the 18th green.
Charlotte, who has been working on her golf game in the sunshine of America, was bidding to repeat the success of county colleague Natasha Podmore from High Legh Park in winning the girls and the ladies titles in the same year.
Stephanie’s win put her in the final against Laura Jones, winner at Formby Ladies of the Leveret Trophy, one of women’s golf most prestigious tournaments.
Stephanie believed that she could win the championship. “I knew I had prepared as well as I could and before the championship I did have a lot of practice rounds at Wallasey,” she added.
But she also admits that she thought that after victory in the Leveret and with her game in top form Jones could be a winner. But Stephanie won 5&4. “I think I did save a bit of luck for the final,” she says generously. “I think I held my nerve. When Laura hit a great shot I was able to match it.”
The final also brought her a new situation, being followed and watched by spectators. “But I did seem to keep my focus well and just play my normal game,” she says. “I feel the win has shown me that if I can win this then I can win other things.”
She finished her studies at Tarporley High School last year and is now on a gap year, which means playing golf most days. She hopes that her championship win will help her get a golf scholarship at Stirling University, where she hopes to combine golf with studying psychology.
She would like to become a golf professional. But even in the short term such as the 2007 season and the tournaments ahead she does not set herself targets. She says she will just see what happens.
But one certain date is Northern Counties Week at Eaglescliffe, County Durham, in June.
Her name is first on the list in the team announced after the championship by county captain Pam Draper.
She has played for Cheshire in friendly matches. At Northern Counties Match week she will make her debut in the top ranks – and as the captain.
Can Cheshire Ladies repeat the northern triumph of 2003? Could they then progress to become national champions, the title Cheshire last held in 1996. “That would be great,” Stephanie says.
