With an average golf score of 73.53 and a 3.96 grade point, 16-year-old Maria Stackhouse is drawing early comparisons to a young Tiger Woods. Last year, the high schooler competed in her first LPGA tournament, the Mojo 6, and was tapped as the first African-American student representative on the American Junior Golf Association Board.

Mariah Stackhouse is making history … chipping away at championship titles. Hailing from Georgia, Stackhouse has been playing golf since she was two — and the work has paid off. She was the 2008 and 2009 GWGA Georgia Women’s Amateur Champion and the 2009 PGA Georgia Women’s Open Champion. Stackhouse is currently ranked 19th in Polo’s Golf Rankings and has already collected 12 top-ten finishes over the last four years in tournaments around the country, with victories at the 2009 Ringgold Telephone Company Junior Classic and the 2010 AJGA Junior at Steelwood.

What’s next for Mariah?

As the 2011 player representative on the American Junior Golf Association’s Board of Directors, Stackhouse’s will meet with the AJGA’s leadership to drive the conversation on the association’s future. However, it’s on the greens that she’ll have to prove herself — with 2011 AJGA events that include the biennial PING Junior Solheim Cup, which will be played in Trim, Ireland – in order to live up to the Tiger Woods comparisons.

WATCH THEGRIO’S 100 MARIAH STACKHOUSE HERE

In her own words …

“Tiger is a great golfer, but I don’t want to model myself too much after anyone else because then you’re trying to get to a level where they’re at and you never know what you can achieve. Tiger has done great, but I want to see how far Mariah can go,” Stackhouse told Reuters in 2010.

A little-known fact …

In 2008, Stackhouse won the Georgia Women’s Amateur Championship – making her the youngest player recorded to do so in its 80-year history.

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