This Win Twice As Nice For Stouffer
It Was Double The Fun, Double The Pleasure For Shelly Stouffer Who Took Both Titles In The BC Women's Mid-Am & Mid-Master Championships At Nanaimo GC - Image Credit Susan White
Nanoose Bay Resident Claims Both The B.C. Women’s Mid-Amateur And Mid-Master Titles At Nanaimo Golf Club
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
NANAIMO -- Shelly Stouffer battled more than just her closest pursuers in Thursday’s final round of the B.C. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship. She also battled the butterflies, which were in full flight as she walked the final few holes at Nanaimo Golf Club.
Stouffer, a Nanoose Bay resident, overcame her nerves and held off Alison Murdoch of Victoria and Christina Proteau of Port Alberni to win the Mid-Amateur title by two shots. “I am pretty happy,” Stouffer said. “I was able to hang in and win coming down the stretch. I was nervous, man.”
Stouffer also claimed the Mid-Master title for players 40 and over. So she won two provincial championships in one day. Not a bad day at the office. “I am pretty happy to win,” she said. “I have never won the Mid-Am before so it's exciting. In a major tournament like this I've never beat Christina before, so it's a good feeling.”
Last summer, when the Mid-Amateur and Mid-Master events were contested separately, Stouffer won her first Mid-Master title and finished runner-up to Proteau at the Mid-Amateur.
Thursday’s final round was something of a roller-coaster ride for Stouffer, who shot a final round of four-over 76 to finish the 54-hole event at 16-over par. That was two shots better than the 66-year-old Murdoch, who closed with an 80.
Murdoch, a Victoria Golf Club member, had begun the day with a two-shot lead on Stouffer. “I was just trying to hit every shot the best I could and it was a much better ball-striking day certainly than the first day, but I just put myself in some awkward spots that I couldn’t get out of,” Murdoch said.
“I'm not totally unhappy with the final result, but I just wish I could have played the same today as I did the other two days. Then it might have been a different final result. But I am still pretty excited about having played quite well overall.”
Stouffer made four birdies on Thursday and two of them came after wayward tee shots. On both the fifth and 11th holes Stouffer punched the ball onto the green from the trees and then sunk long putts for birdie. “I was making birdies from the bushes,” she said. “That was awesome.”
image credit susan white
Victoria's Alison Murdoch Settled For Runner-up In The Women's Mid-Am & Mid-Master After Holding The Lead In Both Through The 1st Two Rounds
Murdoch made things interesting when she birdied the par 5 16th hole to move to within a shot of Stouffer. That lead was still a slim one shot when they arrived at the 18th tee.
Stouffer hit one of her best drives of the day right down the middle of the fairway and put her approach shot about 25 feet below the hole. “That was clutch,” she said of her drive on 18. “On that one, I was just thinking, stick to your routine, pick a target and go with it. I don’t know how I managed to pull that one off, but I did.”
She left her putt about four feet short, but after watching Murdoch three-putt for bogey, Stouffer knew she could two-putt from four feet for the win. She didn’t need two putts as she rolled in her putt for par. “I knew I had two putts to win so that was good and then I made it,” she said. “That felt good.”
Proteau, the pre-tournament favourite, simply could not buy a putt on Thursday, or most of the tournament for that matter. She finished alone in third place, three shots behind Stouffer. “I hit a lot of good shots at one point and then I didn’t really pull the trigger the last couple of holes,” Proteau said.
“It just happens, I guess. I normally do pull the trigger, but I didn’t today. And the putts didn’t help me either. . .But you know what, I didn’t play the best today and the person that did won. That's how it works. Good job by Shelly.”
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