For Canadian Shelly Stouffer, winning the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur at Anchorage Golf Course in Alaska earlier this month felt like it was meant to be.
The 52-year-old British Columbian knew she had a leg up on this year’s field considering she grew up in Prince Rupert, a port city on Kaien Island that isn’t too far from the panhandle of the 49th state, and felt like her familiarity with playing in Alaskan-like conditions would be advantageous. She had recently beat defending champion Lara Tennant 4 and 3 in a singles match as part of the PNGA Cup – a Ryder Cup-style, mixed-gender event put on each year by the Pacific Northwest Golf Association. And she finished third in the Senior Am last year, just missing out on the final match after losing to Ellen Port in the semifinals in Alabama, so it wasn’t far-fetched to think that she had a legitimate shot at her first USGA title.
Stouffer opened her campaign with an 81 on the first day of stroke play, a score that would’ve made most other players a little hot under the collar. But it didn’t faze the former professional one bit, and with her youngest son, Brett, on the bag cheering her on, Stouffer bounced back with a 68, the only under-par score shot that week.
“The 81 was very uncharacteristic,” said Stouffer. “I had to think that the last time I shot in the 80s was probably months and months ago. My son's like, ‘You don't do that.’ And I go, ‘No, I don't.’ I knew it was gonna be tough out there. And it was still in the top 64 so I wasn't really worried. I figured I could definitely play better than that.”
Her two-day total of 149 was good enough for the No. 2 seed and it was game on for Stouffer once match play began. She handily advanced through the rounds of 64, 32 and 16, winning 5 and 3, 5 and 4 and 8 and 6, respectively, and won her quarterfinal match 3 and 2 defeating fellow Canadian Judith Kyrinis.
The semifinals saw her take down Kathy Hartwiger after Stouffer won three consecutive times on holes 12 through 14, ultimately closing out the match with a par on the 15th to win 4 and 3. And although Australian Sue Wooster seemed to have the advantage of experience considering it was her third time playing in the final match in the last four years, she too ran straight into the Stouffer buzzsaw, falling 4 and 3 to finish runner-up once again.
“I felt like I could hit every shot I needed to hit and I was hitting the ball really well,” said Stouffer of the win. “It just felt like it was gonna be my week and it just ended up being that way.”
While Stouffer is no stranger to the winner’s circle, this title means way more than the others, the grandiosity of winning a USGA championship aside. Five years ago in 2017, Stouffer’s husband, Ward, passed away unexpectedly at the age of 56, leaving her alone to raise the couple’s two young sons in the wake of unspeakable tragedy. Ward, too, played professional golf and always supported his wife’s competitive endeavors, encouraging her to tee it up as much as she could.
“Ward was all about winning national championships and he always wanted me to go play them and I'm thinking it's no big deal,” said Stouffer. “But then I just started to kind of get that mindset that, yeah, it's really great to win these national championships. Obviously, he's looking down on me. He's super proud of me. He would have loved to have been there.
“There were some pictures that we got the morning before. The sun was kind of peeking through the clouds and I was on the range all by myself and my son took a picture of me and you have my name there and it was me swinging in it. There was this ray of light that kind of comes down onto my club. It looks really cool. I was like that's Ward shining down on me.”
Stouffer is set to tee it up this week in the U.S. Senior Women’s Open at NCR Country Club in Kettering, Ohio, a berth she earned with her victory at the Canadian Women’s Senior Amateur Championship last year. It’s her first time playing in the senior major and she’s already having a ball, catching up with some of the people she played pro golf with back in her heyday and teeing it up with 2019 champion Helen Alfredsson, two-time Senior LPGA Championship winner Trish Johnson and 43-time LPGA Tour winner JoAnne Carner in a practice round on Tuesday.
“Helen bombs it and Trish bombs it pretty good too so I can keep up with them kinda. It was pretty awesome just to compare my game to their game. It's just exciting to take it all in and to be around it all and (Wednesday) my practice round is with Annika Sorenstam and a couple of other gals so this is just so cool.
“Obviously, I want to make the cut. I want to do very well. It would be awesome to play near the end of the tee times on Sunday and just see how it goes.”
While Stouffer’s week in Dayton will be made even more special with her sister and former LPGA Tour caddie, Sandra, on the bag and while she’ll be soaking up every single second spent around the legends of the game, she’ll of course be thinking of her late husband as she makes her way around NCR. But Ward’s sage golf advice will still be ringing in Stouffer’s ear and she knows that he’ll be walking with her every step of every round. And it’s that thought that comforts her as she readies herself for the challenge of a U.S. Open and for the magnitude of this major moment in her golf career.
“His thing was always fairways and greens, fairways and greens. That's just the basics, fairways and greens, and stay below the hole. Those are the three things – fairways and greens and stay below the hole and make a few putts.
“It’s so crappy that he's not here anymore. But you know, he's looking down on me, watching me do some pretty cool things now, so that's cool.”
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