Shelly Stouffer Wins Her 3rd Canadian Sr. Women's Championship - Image Credit Chelsey Sweet/Golf Canada
Shelly Stouffer’s remarkable Senior golf success story is showing no signs of waning. The Nanoose Bay resident just keeps adding new chapters.
Stouffer won her third Canadian Senior Women’s title Thursday at Nanaimo Golf Club. Once again, she made it look relatively easy. Stouffer finished the 54-hole event at three-under par to beat four-time champion Mary-Ann Hayward of St. Thomas, Ont., by three shots. Only a late double-bogey prevented Stouffer from having a larger margin of victory.
The fact this win came so close to home and in front of family and friends helped make it extra special. “This is the first one my Mom has actually been at, so that was cool,” Stouffer said. “I had a bunch of friends in the gallery, so it was nice. It was a bit different because there were more people watching this year.”
Stouffer took control of the event with a bogey-free five-under 67 in the second round. She called it one of her best competitive rounds of golf in a long time. “It was a really good round. I have never had a round that low at Nanaimo. I putted really well and I scrambled to make a couple of pars when I wasn’t in the best of spots after my tee shot.”
Stouffer closed with a two-over 74 in the final round and said while she managed to win comfortably, it could have been much closer. “Mary-Ann was hitting it pretty close, but wasn’t making any putts,” Stouffer said. “She had a lot of chances for birdies, but unfortunately they didn’t drop for her.”
The tournament quickly turned into a two-person race. Corey Weworksi of Carlsbad, Calif., finished a distant third at eight-over par. Stouffer’s strong play helped propel British Columbia to the inter-provincial team title. The B.C. team of Stouffer, June Zhang of Coquitlam and Kyoka Takahashi of Vancouver finished the 36-hole team competition at 10-over par to edge Ontario by one shot.
The 55-year-old Stouffer has had a wonderful run since turning 50 and becoming senior eligible. She has won six straight B.C. Senior Women’s titles as well as three Canadian championships. Her biggest win came at the 2022 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship in Alaska, where she became the first British Columbian to win a United States Golf Association championship.
Stouffer is confident she has several more good years of competitive golf left in her. In other words, she’s not nearly done. “I am really liking where my game is going and I definitely feel like I have got a few more years left,” she said.
Next up for Stouffer is the PNGA Senior Women’s Championship, which goes Sept. 2-4 at Squamish Valley Golf Club. The following week she heads to the east coast for the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, which goes Sept. 13-18 at The Omni Homestead Resort’s Cascade Course in Hot Springs, Va. Stouffer was a finalist at last year’s championship at Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle.
A field of 136 players competed in the 54-hole event in Nanaimo. A Super Senior Championship for players aged 60 and older was also contested. Hayward won that competition by eight shots over Weworski.
CHIP SHOTS: Takahashi and Zhang both tied for seventh in the Senior division. Other top B.C. finishers included Sandra Turbide of Maple Ridge (T13) and Jackie Little of Procter (T20).