Colorado teacher wins Briarwood tournament

Nancy Stevens took the rest of the field to school at the Briarwood Country Club Nine-Hole Women's Championship.

The retired first-grade teacher shot rounds of 51 and 47 to capture her first competitive golf title.

"I had no idea that I had won the golf tournament until they made the announcement at our club luncheon later that day," said Stevens, an Iowa native. "I don't know if I could have withstood the pressure if I had realized how close the scores were."

Stevens rallied from a 2-shot deficit after first-round play and needed three straight pars over the final three holes to finish with a 1-shot victory over Jane Fennelly.

"I stayed out of the water and the traps on the final day," said Stevens, who also belongs to the Briarwood Lady Putters. "It really was an honor to win the championship because the nine-hole group has been so welcoming to me and so much fun to be a part of at Briarwood."

Stevens had quit playing golf for 18 years prior to moving to Sun City West three years ago from Fort Collins, Colo.

"We put our clubs away, packed them in the garage and left them there," Stevens said. "When I started playing again, I just pulled out the old clubs."

Stevens added a Cobra driver and a lob wedge to her bag but kept the rest of her old set, which she used nearly 30 years ago.

"She hits the ball a long way, but she could probably hit it even farther if she got some new clubs," said Kim Stevens, Nancy's husband. "Nancy doesn't like to change."

Stevens' desire to maintain the status quo also applied to her teaching career.

The first-grade teacher taught in the same room at the same school for her entire career.

"I still keep in touch with a lot of my former students," said Stevens, who earned a doctorate in early childhood education from Northern Colorado University. "I've even taught the children of some my former first-grade students."

The Stevenses spent much of their spare time inside card rooms during their 18-year golf hiatus.

Both immersed themselves in contract bridge and traveled across the country for tournaments.

"There's no money to be made, but you earn points to become a master player," Kim Stevens said. "We traveled all over for tournaments, but when we moved here, we decided to do different things, like play golf."

One of the attractions of bridge was the opportunity to play the best players in the world, Stevens said.

"As a golfer, I'll never be able to go against Tiger Woods," Stevens said. "But as a bridge player, you just might find yourself across from some of the greatest players in the world."

The Stevenses also had a brush with celebrity during their bridge days, sitting across the table from actor Omar Sharif.

"It was a lot of fun," Nancy Stevens said. "But we're having a lot of fun right now at Briarwood."