This fall marks the fifth anniversary of the Jackson T. Stephens Cup (JTS Cup), a prestigious annual collegiate tournament conceptualized by the Stephens family to honor the legacy of Jack Stephens, a passionate advocate for amateur golf who understood that the game of golf is influential in the development of a young person’s character. Today, the family’s third generation, Miles and John (Jack’s grandsons), serve as the tournament’s co-chairs.

“Our granddad started the tradition of golf in our family,” wrote Miles and John in a welcome letter for this year’s upcoming tournament. “He introduced our father (Warren) to the game of golf and taught him its traditions and values. Granddad believed that golf teaches many life lessons. He was disciplined, hardworking, and honest—all traits that helped him succeed on the golf course and in life.”

Since the event’s inception in the fall of 2021, many of the nation’s strongest Division I collegiate golf teams have been invited to compete, and the coaches at the helm of those programs have shared Jack’s beliefs. “I agree wholeheartedly with [the late] Mr. Stephens,” says Anne Walker, coach of the Stanford women’s team. “Golf mirrors life. The game is full of opportunity, accountability, success, loss, disappointment, surprise, and luck. It requires patience, humility, and strategy but creates friendships. I don’t think there is another sport that teaches lessons in a manner that golf does.”

Every year, the JTS Cup also invites individual players from Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the U.S. Military Academies. (Howard University graduate Kendall Jackson holds the record for most JTS Cup appearances with four.) “The Stephens Cup exemplifies excellence in collegiate golf, and I appreciate the mixture and diversity of the universities,” says Samuel Puryear, the director of golf at Howard University. “The cup also recognizes the relationship with the corporate sector and the non-profit sector. It’s a great example of what giving back can—and should—do.”

While many of the participating collegiate teams accept invitation into the event in part for the tournament’s connection to the late Stephens and the ideals that he embraced, the format of the JTS Cup, itself, is equally attractive. “As a coach, there’s nothing better you can do to simulate and prepare for the NCCAs,” says Kim Lewellen, the Wake Forest women’s coach, who points to the tournament’s 54 holes of stroke play with a final cut determining which schools qualify for the match play rounds. “You get this really good feeling of team golf.

“For all our players, it’s by far one of their favorite events,” she continues. “It’s the first time we play match play all season, and it’s also on TV.”

While the tournament was first conceived to honor the legacy of the late Jack Stephens, the family acknowledges that the event was also created to have a lasting—and wide-reaching—impact. “It is our hope,” says Miles, “that by assembling an annual tournament that features some of the leading collegiate players competing at some of the greatest venues in golf, we will encourage the next generation and help grow the game.”

Adds John: “When our father created this event five years ago, he envisioned it to be a definitive and highly competitive event comprised of future stars on the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour.”

Evidence of that already exists. In 2023, Rose Zhang, who competed on the Stanford women’s team in the JTS Cup the year before, debuted on the LPGA Tour, winning the Mizuho Americas Open—her first tournament as a professional. Looking back on her experiences at the JTS Cup, Zhang has nothing but fond memories. “The event was a really special one,” she said. “It’s one I’ll always remember as our team came together and was able to capture the victory. Doing it at a special place like Seminole made it that much sweeter.”

Ingrid Lindblad, then a senior on the Louisiana State University women’s team, also competed at Seminole. She has since found success as a professional, earning a fully exempt LPGA Tour card after a successful year on the Epson Tour. More impressively, in April Lindblad claimed her first LPGA victory in only the third tournament of her rookie season.

PGA Tour rookie, Luke Clanton, has made the cut in more than 50 percent of the professional events in which he’s played this year. But he also competed in the JTS Cup in three consecutive years (2022, 2023, and 2024). Fellow PGA Tour rookie, Karl Vilips, shot his way to a three-stroke victory during the Puerto Rico Open in March. However, before that he earned valuable competitive experience playing in the JTS Cup in 2022 and 2023. And Germany’s Tiger Christensen, a rookie on the DP World Tour, is just starting his professional career, but he, too, accrued valuable experience playing at Trinity Forest Golf Club during the 2023 JTS Cup.

In other words, future professionals are all but guaranteed to tee it up at this year’s JTS Cup, some of whom might have the potential to develop into superstars on the PGA, LPGA, and DP World tours. It’s just one more reason to tune into the Golf Channel this September. Better yet, it’s one more reason to buy tickets to attend the matches at Shoreacres.

This article was produced in partnership with the JTS Cup.