VERO BEACH — Local golf star Jackie Stoelting has proved herself as a top contender on the Golf Channel’s “Big Break,” a competitive reality show she auditioned for in hopes to increase her chances of eventually receiving her LPGA Tour card.
Stoelting auditioned for one of the show’s previous seasons and was selected as an alternate, but when she returned to audition for the current season, she had a little more experience under her belt.
“Out of 3,000 girls that applied, only 12 were chosen, and that’s a really big honor,” Stoelting told VeroNews.com. “Before auditions, I had just gotten married, and just played in the New York Open, which made for kind of a cool story. And I had come really close to getting my LPGA Tour card, but just fell short.”
Filming lasted for 2.5 weeks at Omni Amelia Island Plantation in Amelia Island Florida. Each day of filming generally lasted from sun up to sun down, Stoelting said.
“It was very stressful and very mental. It was totally different than normal golf,” she said.
Though the women in the competition are all experienced golfers, the “Big Break” put pressure on all aspects of their game and more, that most professional golfers would not be used to.
“It’s so critical to really focus when you’re hitting. And it’s hard, because there are cameras in your face and 50 to 60 people watching you,” Stoelting said.
Instead of competing on a course with 18 holes, the women participated in concentrated challenges that demonstrate their skill on a variety of aspects of the game. For instance, chipping to break randomly placed glass panes, or attempting to get closest to the hole from varying distances.
With filming dragging on all day, Stoelting said sometimes it could be an hour between hitting golf balls.
There is strategy involved, too. Elimination often consists of the lowest scoring competitors choosing another player to battle against in a fight to stay on the show for one more episode.
“Everyone pays attention to how everyone does in challenges. Of course, I know when I first got there, in the back of my mind I was thinking, ‘If I have to go into elimination, who can I beat?’”
She added, “You look for girls who struggle and show weakness.”
In the first two episodes of the season, Stoelting has remained one of the standouts, finishing in the Top Two for nearly every challenge.
Monday’s episode showed her hitting only one golf ball before being granted immunity and taking a spectator roll as the other players fought to remain.
But Stoelting comes from a family full of golfers – her mother was her high school golf coach, her father and brothers all play seriously, and she went on to win a national championship with her team at Florida Southern College.
Now, Stoelting’s husband, an assistant pro at Fairwinds Golf Course in Fort Pierce, acts as her swing coach, mental coach, and caddy; both of them spending four to five days a week on the golf course when they are home.
“If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be as good as I am and I probably wouldn’t have stuck with it like I have,” Stoelting said.
Though Stoelting has to remain silent about her run on the show until it all plays out on television, she said at the very least, she has received conditional status on the LPGA Tour and is still golfing professionally.
Tune into the Golf Channel on Mondays at 9 p.m., to watch Stoelting gain exposure for potential future sponsors, battle for up to $175,000 worth of prizes, and ultimately vie for what Stoelting said is the ultimate prize, an LPGA exemption.
