Golf A Big Winner At Annual Sport BC Awards
Shelly Stouffer Was Recognized For Her Tremendous 2022 Season At The Sport BC AOY Dinner - Image Credit BBrault/Golf Canada
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
Nanoose Bay’s Shelly Stouffer, UBC coach Chris Macdonald, the UBC women’s golf team and Debbie Pyne, the longtime managing director of player development at British Columbia Golf, were all recognized at Sport BC’s 55th annual athlete of the year awards ceremony.
Stouffer was selected master athlete of the year after an incredible 2022 season that saw the 53-year-old become the first British Columbian to win a United States Golf Association championship when she captured the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur in Alaska.
Stouffer won lots of other events last summer, including the B.C. Senior and Mid-Master titles, the Canadian Senior, Mid-Amateur and Mid-Master crowns and the Pacific Northwest Golf Association’s Senior Women’s Championship. “I guess I was lucky I wasn’t up against Connor Bedard,” Stouffer said with a laugh about her Sport BC award.
“It was awesome and really exciting to be recognized by Sport BC.” When she reflects on her summer of ’22, Stouffer is understandably most proud of her U.S. Senior Amateur win. “It still blows my mind that I am the first B.C. person to ever win a USGA event,” she said. In an interview from her Nanoose Bay home, Stouffer said she hopes she delivers a solid encore performance this summer.
“I am going to play in a lot of events. I am going to play in the U.S. Women’s Amateur and I am thinking I might go overseas to play in the British Senior Women’s Amateur. I have kind of laid out my schedule and it’s a lot.”
Her schedule includes both the B.C. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship at Sandpiper Golf Course in Harrison Mills and the B.C. Senior Women’s Championship at Christina Lake Golf Club, where she will attempt to win her fourth straight title. Stouffer has continued to work on her game over the winter. “I have worked hard on my body this winter and I am really excited about where my game is going. I’m hitting the ball farther than I have in the last five years. I feel like there’s more great things to come this year.”
Macdonald, the coach of the men’s and women’s golf teams at UBC, was named male coach of the year. He also coached B.C.’s teams at the Canada Summer Games to gold medal performances. Macdonald was especially pleased to see the 2022 UBC women’s team win the team of the year award.
That team, consisting of Grace Bell, Elizabeth Labbé, Sonja Tang, Emily Li and Shania Remandaban, went undefeated in the 2021-22 season and won both the NAIA and Canadian University/College Championships. “It was just a really special group,” Macdonald said of the women’s team.
“Right from the start there was a really special chemistry with the girls. They pushed each other and they pushed us as coaches and they really wanted to do something special because I think they felt it was a really unique group. They all really got along and had different skill sets. They gave each other permission to play well, which was really cool.”
Pyne and Sue Griffin, the former CEO of the BC Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, both received Sport BC’s In Her Footsteps . . .Celebrating Women in Sport award that goes to individuals who have demonstrated their commitment to being role models and mentors of young women.