- May 24, 2025
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Lakewood Ranch High junior Emily Storm has been working on her golf game for as long as she can remember.
Her father, Gene Storm, first put plastic clubs in her hands when she was 3 years old. By the time she was 8, she was playing at the local country club with real golf clubs. By 10, she had made her first hole-in-one.
These days, Storm often finds herself daydreaming about playing golf during the school day and hitting the range not long after the final bell rings.
Her dedication to the game is starting to reap her some rewards.
Storm won the American Junior Golf Association Destin-Fort Walton Beach Preview event on April 13. She shot seven-over-par 75-76 to win the event by one stroke at Shalimar Pointe Golf Club.
That win may prove to be monumental to her future beyond Lakewood Ranch.
Storm has progressed steadily in golf since she first picked up a club.
She showed that at the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 3A state championship last fall, when she shot a four-over-par (74-72) to place 10th in her classification.
For Storm, the golf season doesn’t end based on the high school schedule.
She tries to make it out to the driving range at Country Club East in Lakewood Ranch most days and takes lessons once a week with two different coaches — Ryan Macey, director of instruction at Bradenton Country Club, for her short game and Mark Rummings, general manager at Soleta Golf Club, for her long game.
Storm said she’s made strides with her irons recently, and that gave her the confidence to try competing in the AJGA for the first time.
Winning her debut was something that Storm called the best achievement in her golf career, and it couldn’t have come at a much better time.
The 17-year-old is starting to map out her college future and there’s not much time remaining to lock down a scholarship offer.
Gene said that he emailed several colleges about Emily’s AJGA win and has received interest from a few, including Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, Queens University of Charlotte in Charlotte, North Carolina and University of West Georgia — three NCAA Division-I universities.
There’s still some business left to attend to in high school as well.
A state championship is still an unchecked box on Storm’s list of golf goals, and she’s feeling optimistic about the Mustangs’ chances next fall.
“We’ve always been a great golf team, especially for high school,” she said. “We’ve always been the team to beat. I definitely want to get my team up into the top five at states and then myself winning or getting pretty close to it.”
As Storm comes closer to her goals day by day, however, there is a tinge of bittersweetness that comes with her progress.
Gene Storm, now 63-years-old, had four children in his 20s, but didn’t have much time to spend with them due to a heavy workload.
When Emily was born, however, Gene had just picked up golf and was reaching the end of his career.
“I joined a country club because of my business and it was the first time I ever joined,” he said. “It was an easy way to get her and her mom out to the country club. I’d say, ‘Let’s put a club in her hand and then we’ll go to the pool.’”
It wasn’t long before Gene realized he had a special talent on his hands.
Emily started playing in PGA Junior leagues at a young age and would surprise Gene and his friends by beating them by the time she was 10-years-old.
“It was just a bunch of these guys thinking they could beat a 10-year-old, but they can’t because I had a lot of practice with my dad,” she said.
Gene used his secret weapon to his advantage. The two played in father-daughter golf tournament, which meant a young Emily was able to tee off on the closest tee box — often giving Gene a pitching wedge into most greens.
By the time Emily was 12, Gene moved the family from Chicago down to Lakewood Ranch so she could play the sport year-round.
Now five years later, the two still compete in the game, and Gene said he can still beat her every now and again.
They’ve traveled across the country to play golf together, including stops in Las Vegas and the famous Pinehurst No. 2 course in North Carolina.
Though Gene and Emily’s time on the golf course won’t come as frequently one day soon, it’s a price that comes with the reward of all of those sessions on the driving range paying off.
“I’m so happy that he wants me to be a good golfer and wants me to follow my passion,” Emily said. “There’s times when I want to do certain things my way, and he wants to do things his way, but at the end of the day, we both want me to be on top.”
