July 26, 2004

By John Roth

As a highly-coveted prep recruit, collegiate All-America and touring LPGA professional, Duke alumnus Stephanie Sparks has experienced the sport of golf from nearly every angle. But trying to ACT like a golfer? Well that's something entirely different.

On a lark, Sparks auditioned for and landed the part of Alexa Stirling in the recent major motion picture "Bobby Jones, Stroke of Genius." Her scenes required just two days of filming last fall, but it was two days of high anxiety on location in Atlanta.

"It was such a surreal experience getting to work with Jim Caviezel," Sparks said of the lead actor who portrays golf legend Bobby Jones. "I was definitely very nervous. I think I was more nervous than I'd ever been in any golf-related situation. It was such a foreign realm to me, but somehow I got through it."

Sparks, a 1996 Duke grad, was working as a production assistant at The Golf Channel in Orlando when she first heard about the film. Auditions for the part of Stirling, a past U.S. Amateur champion, were being conducted across the country and Sparks' name came up when the local casting director was looking for someone to evaluate golf swings at an Orlando tryout. "I wasn't able to take a full day off work to do that," Sparks said, "but they asked if I'd ever acted before and I said no. Then they said, 'Why not come out to the audition and just try out?' So I went on my lunch break. From there, I got a call back to Atlanta and read in front of the director.

"It was a blast. I had pretty much written it off. I didn't think I'd gotten the part because it had been awhile, and I didn't think there was a chance I'd get it without any previous history of acting. Then I got to work one day and had a message on my machine from a California casting crew."

Casting Sparks as an accomplished golfer was no stretch. At Duke she was a two-time All-America, two-time All-ACC selection, won medalist honors at three tournaments, finished in the top 10 of 22 events and represented the U.S. at the 1994 Curtis Cup.

She then played professionally before taking a job at The Golf Channel last year. After several months as a production assistant, she recently joined the network's stable of on-air talent. She's the host of "Golf With Style," a program that travels around the country visiting golf resorts.

So far she has shot three of the 13 episodes on tap for this season -- at Pinehurst, near San Francisco and at Bay Harbor, Mich. Her first show as host, from Pinehurst, will air July 28. When she's not traveling for "Golf With Style," Sparks does reports on tournaments in progress during the network's regular golf news coverage -- more anxious moments for the broadcasting newcomer.

"I have absolutely no background in this," she laughed. "It's been very nerve-racking. I just had my first experience doing updates on the weekend. I'll be doing updates on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. That was definitely very nerve-racking because it's live TV and it almost killed me."

Despite her successful debut on the big screen, Sparks has no plans to head for Hollywood and pursue an acting career. "I'm just chalking it up to a really incredible experience," she said.

Stephanie Sparks is not the first former Duke athlete to appear in a feature film or TV show centered around her sport.

• Former Blue Devil standouts Bobby Hurley and Thomas Hill were among the many basketball players who appeared in the 1994 movie "Blue Chips," starring Nick Nolte.
• Duke Sports Hall of Famer Gene Banks appeared as a New York Knicks assistant coach in Whoopi Goldberg's 1996 film "Eddie."
• Olympian Curt Clausen, a former Duke trackster, was the technical advisor on race-walking for a 2003 episode of the FOX sitcom "Malcolm in the Middle" that focused on the sport, and Clausen ended up appearing as an extra in the show.
• Before becoming one of ESPN's top basketball analysts, former Duke center Jay Bilas had a starring role in the 1990 movie "I Come In Peace." That film wasn't sports-related, however; Bilas played the character referred to in the credits as Good Alien.