Stephanie Kono ’08’s journey to athletic greatness got off to a challenging start. In 1997, the seven-year-old finished dead last in her first O‘ahu Junior Golf Association tournament. In her next competition, she finished second to last.
From there, she continued to progress up the leaderboards and within a few years was winning tournaments against much older golfers. Kono’s precociously strong all-around game was bolstered by her consistency and resilience, which allowed her to maintain the strength and feel needed to succeed.
At 11, she won the 2001 HSWGA Match Play Championship and received a proclamation for her own day from the Governor’s Office. By the time she was a Punahou freshman, she had won the HSJGA Tournament of Champions and completed a career grand slam of the Hawai‘i women’s majors by adding victories in the HSWGA Open, Stroke Play Championship, and Jennie K. Wilson Invitational.
In two years of varsity golf as a Punahou freshman and sophomore, she twice won the ILH individual championship and ILH Player of the Year award. She placed fifth in states as a freshman, then as a sophomore won the individual championship while setting a one-day course record and breaking the previous HHSAA two-day mark by four strokes.
During her junior and senior years at Punahou, she focused on outside tournaments, playing in a total of six USGA Girls’ Junior team events and qualifying for a U.S. Amateur and a U.S. Open.
She continued her remarkable golf career at UCLA, where she won four individual events, was a three-time first-team All-American, and helped the Bruins win the national championship in 2011.
After college, she played professional golf for eight years, including three on the LPGA Tour. In 2018, she won the Donald Ross Classic on the Symetra Tour and retired from the pro ranks in 2020.
Today, Kono lives in Florida and works for a health data science company.