DELTA, B.C. - Shelly Stouffer saved her birdies for when she really needed them in the final round of the Canadian Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship.
The Nanoose Bay resident began the final round with a three-shot lead — thanks in no small part to a four-under 68 in the second round — but that cushion had evaporated by the time she and American Catherine Matgranga had reached the 16th tee at Crown Isle Golf Resort in Courtenay...
Matgranga, a Fort Worth, Tex., resident had birdied the 14th and 15th holes to pull even. Stouffer hadn’t made a birdie all day. The momentum seemed to be on the Texan’s side.
But as she has done so often the past few years, Stouffer hit clutch shots when she needed them. After both players parred the 16th hole, Stouffer finished birdie-birdie to win by two shots and win her second Canadian Mid-Am title in the last three years.
The win followed by two weeks Stouffer’s fifth straight B.C. Senior Women’s Championship at the Sun Peaks Resort near Kamloops. “It’s going well so far,” said of her season to date. “I am liking the direction it is going.”
Stouffer’s youngest son, Brett, caddied for her on the back nine of the final round. “My son is playing golf, too, and it’s been hard to organize because he was over at Ledgeview this week playing in the B.C. Amateur, so that’s why he was here for the last nine holes and finished caddying for me. It’s been a good ride so far and I’m just going to try and keep going.”
The Mid-Amateur is open to players aged 25 and older. Stouffer, 54, also won the Mid-Master competition for players aged 40 and older.
The B.C. team of Stouffer, Vancouver’s Jamie Oleksiew — who finished third in the Mid-Am —and Aram Choi of Surrey won the Margaret Todd Trophy as winners of the inter-provincial team championship.
With her victory, Stouffer has earned an exemption into this year’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, which goes Sept. 7-12 in West Newton, Mass. She’s also now exempt for the 2025 Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship.