Stouffer rebounds from tragedy

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This article was published 30/08/2022 (1226 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Shelly Stouffer remembers Jan. 5, 2017, like it was yesterday.

Stouffer, 52, was at work when she received a call from the secretary at her sons’ school, saying her two kids had yet to be picked up.

Confused, Stouffer asked a friend to visit her house to check on her husband, Ward, who was supposed to drive the kids home that day.

“He wasn’t like that,” said Stouffer. “He’s really responsible.”

Her friend arrived at their home to find Ward dead. The 56-year-old had suffered a heart attack, leaving Stouffer to raise two kids, nine and 11 years old at the time.

“It was really bad… it was a lot and it was difficult,” she said.

Ward Stouffer was a force in the Canadian golf community. For 20 years he was the head professional and director of golf at Fairwinds Golf Club in B.C., after a seven-year run on the Canadian Tour and three-years on the Asian Tour.

After losing his job in the fall of 2015, Ward struggled to find work again, leaving him a free agent for more than a year, a time in which Shelly says caused him a lot of stress.

Shelley Stouffer also has high profile in the world of golf. A pro in her prime on the Players West Tour (’98-’99) and Futures Tour (’98-’04), she made a pit stop on the Asian Tour, a five-event circuit, in 1998.

Stouffer made the trip to Asia alone, leaving her husband at home while she gained experience in tournaments.

“He just encouraged me to go play on tour,” Stouffer said. “He was kind of holding the fort down and I was out playing. It was kind of crappy because I’d be gone for a month or six weeks at a time, so it was pretty tough.”

“He was very supportive. He was all about winning national championships and all that, and I was like, ‘meh, whatever,’” she said with a chuckle. “He just encouraged you to be the best player that you can be and play in the best competitions that you can.”

When her husband died, Stouffer stepped away from golf for more than two years to raise her children.

Yet through children, tragedy and the time away, her game has managed to age like fine wine.

Following her hiatus, Stouffer started playing in local events and on the weekends with her friends. In 2019, she played in the B.C. mid-amateur in Abbotsford and won it. It was a hearty welcome back, until then the pandemic struck.

“I was like, ‘this is going to be the year of Shelly,’ it was going to be awesome,” she said.

Stouffer found senior status throughout the pandemic, and in her first start, won the B.C. senior women’s amateur championship by 12 strokes. It was just a preview for what would follow.

Stouffer is now amid one of the best runs of her career, as she enters the Canadian women’s senior championship at Breezy Bend Country Club this week, capturing four different senior titles this summer alone.

The Nanoose Bay, B.C., native started her year by three-peating at her home course, Fairwinds Golf Club, in the B.C. women’s senior championship. Later, after winning the B.C. mid-master championship by 20 strokes, she tested her hot streak down south in the PNGA senior women’s amateur in Washington, breezing through the competition en route to a title in her first start in the tournament.

As if that wasn’t enough, she recently cruised to a nine-stroke victory at the USGA women’s senior amateur in Alaska, becoming the fourth Canadian to win the event.

“It’s been amazing. Just so awesome, said Stouffer, who also owns a couple of top-five finishes this summer.

“It’s a shame I wasn’t able to win a national championship when (Ward) was alive, but he’s looking down on me and shining and smiling.”

Thanks to her win in the 50th state, Stouffer is now granted a 10-year exemption to the USGA event.

Stouffer has her eyes on a bigger fish while she rides this streak. She said her bucket list win is at the prestigious US senior women’s open.

“That would be the ultimate (win) I think … To win that would be freakin amazing. I just can’t express how cool that would be.”

She’ll have at least a couple more cracks at that trophy, as she holds an exemption into the senior women’s open for the next two years.

Stouffer is set on making some noise on the Prairies first, though. She enters the second round of the Canadian women’s senior championship two strokes behind Leanne Richardson.

It would be an unprecedented run should Stouffer pull off a victory this week. Five titles in one summer across the provincial, national and international stage would be sure to make her husband proud.

Stouffer’s second round tee-time is Wednesday at 12:20 p.m..

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jfreysam