Stephanie Wei is a golfer, blogger and writer. She is the proprietor and editor of Wei Under Par — “Sometimes News, Sometimes Rumors, Always Golf” — a blog covering the professional, amateur and collegiate ranks, and topics related to the sport and industry.
Only formed in March 2009, Wei Under Par has quickly become one of the most popular golf blogs and has been mentioned on SI.com’s Truth & Rumors, Golf.com, Yahoo’s Devil Ball Golf, AOL FanHouse, The Guardian, Geoff Shackelford, Golf Observer, ESPN.com, Deadspin and Romenesko, among others.
Most recently, Stephanie covered the British Open at St. Andrews and the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits for The Wall Street Journal Online.
Prominent UK website Golf365.com deems her “at the head of a movement that is changing the face of the golfing media.” Meanwhile, Mediaite named Stephanie as one of the top 25 most influential sports bloggers, writers, and tweeters currently shaping the online sports narrative.
In February 2010 when she contributed to the SI Golf Group’s weekly roundtable,”PGA Tour Confidential,” they dubbed Stephanie as an “up-and-coming voice in the world of golf” Just a week later, she wrote a feature story, profiling PGA Tour pro Ryan Moore that appeared in the March 8, 2010 issue of Sports Illustrated.
Stephanie is the content producer for the social media outlets of a major sportswear company’s golf division. As a budding columnist, she chimes in with her quirky and honest opinions at Avid Golfer magazine and Mediaite. Every now and then she’ll pop by Huffington Post to add her two cents. She’s also written for ESPN.com, where she has contributed blogs on Page 2 and a special feature on Tiger Woods and Buddhism: Should we cut Tiger some slack?
Stephanie has conducted interviews with PGA Tour players Ryan Moore, Rickie Fowler, and Alex Prugh, European Tour player Johan Edfors, LPGA Tour players Cristie Kerr, Christina Kim, Paige Mackenzie, Anna Grzebien, Natalie Gulbis, Karen Stupples and Brittany Lincicome, and LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan.
In April Stephanie appeared on two MSNBC spots to chat with anchor Alex Witt about Tiger Woods and The Masters. As for radio, she has been a guest on Howard & Ike on WIP, ESPN Radio, WFAN in NY, Sporting News Radio, Fox Sports Radio, AOL’s FanHouse HausCast, the Golf Club, and many more.
Stephanie was a competitive golfer for ten years and remains an avid golfer. As a junior golfer, she was nationally ranked in the top 100. She was a three-time Washington State Class A High School Girls’ Champion. In college she was a member of the Yale Women’s Golf Team, where she was captain her junior year. She was named to the Academic All-Ivy Team in 2003 and 2004, and a National Academic All-American in 2003. For her stellar play, she received All-Ivy League honors in 2002, 2003 and 2004. She was also selected by the NCAA to represent Yale at the 2003 NCAA National Leadership Conference.
After graduating from Yale in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in History, she moved to New York City, where she still currently resides. She’s worked as a paralegal at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, investor relations analyst at Credit Suisse, director of business development at a start-up fashion company and public relations associate at FORM.
Now she’s a freelance golf blogger, columnist and writer.
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Kevin Merfeld, Contributor
Kevin Merfeld is a sports writer and assistant sports editor at the Monterey County Herald. After growing up on the Monterey Peninsula, he returned to work for the Herald in June of 2008, specifically with the 2010 U.S. Open in mind. After graduating from USC in 2007 with a degree in print journalism, Kevin was a sports writer and sports desk assistant at the Santa Barbara News-Press for a year.
Kevin’s writing hasn’t really been featured anywhere — unless you count a couple links off geoffshackelford.com and golfobserver.com. He’s covered the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, the 2009 Presidents Cup at Harding Park, and the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, as well the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and First Tee Open.
Kevin played high school golf for Stevenson in Pebble Beach, where his home course was Spyglass Hill. Other teams in his league claimed Pebble Beach, Poppy Hills, Spanish Bay and Bayonet & Blackhorse as home courses. So he was spoiled. Kevin also caddied at Pebble Beach and Spyglass for eight summers between high school and college. He’s broken par a handful of times, but you won’t be hearing about his golfing exploits.
In college, Kevin covered two Rose Bowls, and helplessly stood on the pylon as Vince Young passed him with 19 seconds left to lead Texas to a 41-38 win over USC in the BCS National Championship title game. Kevin also covered the Sweet 16, and spent his weekends working on the preps desks at the Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register.
Kevin would eventually like to be a full-time sports writer/blogger. His favorite sport is baseball, but he loves golf, basketball, football and his fantasy team almost as much. If you are wondering how Kevin ended up writing here, he met Stephanie at the 2010 U.S. Open.
This is the first time Kevin has referred to himself in the third person.
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Intern Kevin, Contributor
Intern Kevin played completely non-newsworthy college golf in the late 1990′s (at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fl.). He has since worked in and out of the golf business in Florida and New York and currently resides in Southport, NC. He is an avid follower of men’s professional golf worldwide.
