Sophia Gambini of William Blount High was selected as the 2024 Girls Golf Player of the Year, as presented by Brad Rose Golf.
BY DAVE LINK
Sophia Gambini has memories for a lifetime from the 2024 state golf tournament, held Oct. 10-11 at Sevierville Golf Club’s Highland Course.
Playing for William Blount, the home-schooled senior won the Class AA state championship on the third playoff hole after missing a chance to win on the first extra hole.
And she will never forget the entire experience.
“It was awesome,” said Gambini, the 2024 5Star Preps Girls Golfer of the Year. “Honestly, I will never forget that moment. Just those two days in general, that was a great memory.”
Gambini, who moved to Blount County from Las Vegas before her junior year of high school, wasn’t a newcomer to the state tournament. She played for Heritage during the 2023 season and finished fifth at state.
This year, she came back from a two-stroke deficit after one round and won it.
After shooting two par-70 rounds, Gambini finished regulation play in a three-way tie with Hardin Valley Academy freshman Addisyn Newman (68-72) and Dickson County freshman Poppy Pewitt (72-68).
Gambini could have won on the first playoff hole, but her eagle putt rolled past the hole.
“I had like a 5-, 8-foot putt on the first hole for eagle and I slammed it by,” she said. “That would have been a good clutch moment.”
Sophia Gambini competes in the TSSAA Region 2-AA Region Tournament on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024 at Oak Ridge Country Club in Oak Ridge, Tenn. (Photo: Tanner Walker/5SP)
Instead, she regrouped the next two holes. On the third, she hit the green in two shots, rolling an eagle putt from about 25 feet close to the hole and tapping in for birdie.
Gambini became the first girls golf champion in William Blount history.
“Definitely those two days,” she said, “you learn a lot in two days.”
Gambini will take what she’s learned next fall to ETSU, where she will continue her golf career. She took an unofficial visit to the campus in Johnson City a couple of years ago.
“We thought the campus was beautiful,” she said. “When we moved here, I first emailed (ETSU). They were one of my first emails. It’s not too far. I can still come (home) if I need to be with my family, and the coach (ETSU’s Stefanie Shelton) is amazing.
“I think that’s what did it for me. We had that connection immediately, and I know that she can help me get to the next level.”
Gambini’s move to Blount County was prompted when her father, Paul Gambini, retired as a police officer in Las Vegas after 25 years.
After considering staying West, the Gambinis took a leap of faith and moved to Blount County.
“He wanted something quieter, his own land, trying to get out of the city, basically,” Sophia said. “We’d never been over to the South, like we don’t have any family here, so we just moved over to the South. He really wanted Montana and Idaho, but you can’t golf there because of the winter (weather). He also gets the best of both worlds here, so we decided to move out here.”
Growing up in a golfing family, Gambini played other sports before focusing primarily on golf during middle school.
She hasn’t lost her passion for golf as she prepares for her college career.
That means lots of offseason work, which is going on right now.
“With no tournaments obviously coming around for a bit, I’m now kind of more working on some swing work that I couldn’t work on as much during season because you don’t really work hard on that (in season),” Gambini said.
“At that point, you just want to play golf and play your game, so I’m just doing a little bit more swing technique and more course management, because you can never do enough of that.”
She doesn’t want her golf career to end in college.
Gambini wants to give professional golf a shot.
“That’s the dream, that’s the goal,” Gambini said, “so I’m going to work as hard as I need to work to achieve that goal.”