10-Year-Old's Pater Insists He's Not "Mass Marketing" Daughter

Edgar Thompson with a New York Times story on 10-year-old U.S. Women's Amateur qualifier Latanna Stone's rise and the efforts by her father to manage her career, which included refuting a GolfDigest.com blog post by Stina Sternberg.

“She’s never called, she’s never talked, she’s never seen, she’s never had any contact with Latanna,” he said of Sternberg.

For the casual observer, Team Latanna is an easy target.

Latanna has had a Los Angeles-based publicist since she was 7, works with an instructor, Brian Mogg, and has a mental coach, Bill Nelson, of the Orlando-based Mind Management Group.

Mike Stone, who services equipment for financial institutions, said these steps were to give his daughter the best chance to succeed, not part of a master plan to turn her into a female Tiger Woods.

“It’s not like I’m mass marketing Latanna,” he said.

It should be noted that the family has taken the website down.

Latanna teed off late Tuesday and posted 82-78 to miss the match play portion of her first U.S. Amateur.