Zoey Smith, a student at Science Leadership Academy at Beeber, first started playing golf at the age of 4 and now she has won a city championship, writes Kristin A. Graham for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

This fall, as a 10^th grader, she won the Philadelphia Public League girls’ individual golf championship. She was the only member of the school’s new golf team.

This win has extra special meaning for Smith and her mother because she hadn’t played competitively in four years.

Her father, Michael Smith, taught her how play golf at the age of 4, despite never having played himself. He first taught himself the game and started taking her out to courses.

Her dad grew up in Norristown playing basketball but wanted Zoey to play a nontraditional sport to increase her chances of earning a scholarship for college.

“He started to read up on golf and how the game is played. He bought every gadget to learn how to practice, to teach her the weight of the actual club, and how to hit the ball,” Atiya Clements-Smith, Zoey’s mom said.

After her father died though, she just couldn’t keep playing without him.

Read more about Science Leadership Academy at Beeber’s Zoey Smith and her journey to city golf championship in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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