Sports Illustrated and Empower Onyx are highlighting the diverse journeys of Black women through sports, from veteran athletes to rising stars, coaches, executives and more, in the series, Elle-evate: 100 Influential Black Women In Sports.
There is something amazing about Mariah Stackhouse. On the golf course, she’s focused, in control, powerful, and fierce, but in real life, she’ll quickly tell you: She’s not your superwoman. She is humble and she is human.
“I can remember my first tournament. I was 6 years old and I told my dad, I’m very scared.” Stackhouse was playing in a junior tournament against 9 and 10 year old girls who were much older. To calm her down, her dad told her the story of David and Goliath. “It reminded me that David was small, but also mighty. And I had faith that I would win,” says Stackhouse, who tied for first place with a 10-year-old in that tournament. A tradition of mind over matter was born. “Since that day, I have marked my ball with a capital M and a small D, to remind me that little David is always with me and I can do it,” she says.
But like most professional athletes, whether they admit it or not, Stackhouse says she has days when she still feels like that shaky little 6-year-old.
Never mind that she is heading into her sixth year as a veteran of the LPGA Tour. Forget that she started hitting golf balls with a homemade club at the age of 2; that she was proclaimed a prodigy at the age of 6; that at age 17, she was the youngest black woman to earn a spot in the US Women’s Open; who set records and was a four-year All-American at Stanford University; that in 2014 she was the first black woman to compete on the Curtis Cup team, which the United States won that year; and that at 27, she is the only Black woman with Tour status this season, and only the seventh Black woman to play on an LPGA Tour in its 72-year history.
Somewhere along the way, you settled into a sea of complacency and may have subconsciously undermined your game. With five career top-10 finishes but no career wins to his name, Stackhouse confessed that he has struggled mentally and emotionally at times. “The battle is really on your mind,” he says. “Sixty percent of winning happens there.”
She says she spent most of last season frustrated that she just couldn’t get things right on the field. His mind had become his new Goliath. “Early in the season, I started to feel bad on the green, but I didn’t address it,” he says. “And when you don’t do a mental reset when you need to, the thoughts creep in and attack your confidence, and the next thing you know, you’re out of control.”
The world saw that scenario on repeat with several other black athletes last year. Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka skipped press conferences at the French Open and then withdrew from the Paris Grand Slam and then Wimbledon to prioritize her mental health. Simone Biles suffered the twists and turns at the Summer Games and was forced to miss part of the Olympic competition to focus on her mental well-being. American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson has been banned from competing at the Tokyo Olympics after admitting to smoking marijuana after the death of her biological mother threw her into an emotional panic.
“I’m so happy that Simone prioritized herself,” says Stackhouse. “I felt like the bullies tried to force her to compete despite how she felt, but for a gymnast, it’s really dangerous to perform when you’re mentally out of balance.”
Stackhouse spoke with equal compassion about Richardson, who almost became a social outcast following her mental health struggles with grief and depression.
“Sha’Carri is young and mistakes happen,” Stackhouse says of the 21-year-old track star. “As an athlete, I understood the pressure I was feeling at the time and the load I was carrying. She may not have made the best decision, but I have a laugh for her and I can’t wait for her to come back because we all know Sha’Carri has talent. She has confidence and this salsa and style, and the world is full of opportunity.”
Battling pressure, anxiety, self-doubt, depression, or any other mental health issue can easily derail an athlete’s career if left unchecked. And by failing to take the necessary steps to meet his own challenges early last season, Stackhouse appeared to be taking that path.
“It’s very easy to let positivity distract you from what you’re struggling with,” he says. “You keep telling yourself: I have time. This will happen.”
But it was not like that.
The 2021 LPGA Tour season turned out to be one of the most difficult. Stackhouse played 16 events, was eliminated from 10 and finished the season ranked 150th in the Race to the CME Globe. It was his worst performance as a professional, and at the end of the season, his LPGA Tour card was on the line. The only way to protect his status for the upcoming 2022 season was to finish in the top 45 of the LPGA Q Series.
“Q-Series is where you end up when you didn’t have the season you wanted, and now you have to come back and win your Tour card. That’s routine,” says Stackhouse. “Once the official season ended in November for everyone else, I had to go on for another month to prepare myself mentally and physically for the Q Series.”
During the Q Series, nearly 200 amateur and professional golfers played a 144-hole marathon in just two weeks. It’s a grueling process and may be the most intense focus any of the players will ever experience. Stackhouse says that on some days, his putting game was still shaky.
“My dad tried to talk to me, my agent tried, I worked with a putt coach, but I knew he wasn’t a technician. It was mental,” she says. “My athletic pride just wouldn’t let me talk about it.
“During the third round of Series Q, I was staying with my college teammate and best friend Lauren Kim when I finally opened up. He told me that he had once had a similar experience, and the way he got over it was by writing a list of all his fears, and then, next to each one, he wrote all the reasons why they were dumb. And that just clicked for me.”
Stackhouse says that after making his own list, he began making putts in the next round and birdies before the day was out.
“Sometimes it’s that simple. I felt better on the greens than I have in over a year and a half,” he says.
Stackhouse’s breakthrough was so strong that he earned his Tour card and is looking forward to the 2022 season and beyond. And he takes the example from Osaka of normalizing the need to relieve pressure and take a stand for oneself.
“Last season was transformative. Going through one of my biggest low points in golf and then coming out at the end, having found myself and my confidence again, was the boost I needed to fight harder and not take anything for granted,” he says. “In three years, I want to be in the top 30 on the money list. I want to be an LPGA winner more than once, and five years from now, I want to win a major championship and make the Solheim Cup team.”
Stackhouse says her new mindset has rejuvenated her and she is excited to pursue her goals.
“There is nothing I will take for granted again because I know how it works,” she says. “Now, I have a deeper hunger than ever. I’m really ready to go get it and not look back.”
Madelyne Woods is a contributor to empower onyx, a diverse multi-channel platform that celebrates the stories and transformative power of sports for Black women and girls.
www.si.com
Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.