Stouffer, Shek advance to quarterfinals at U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur
Shelly Stouffer of Nanoose Bay, B.C. and Kim Shek of Bellevue, Wash. both advanced to the quarterfinals of the 62nd U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, being held this week at Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle.
Both players won their round of 32 and round of 16 matches today. Earlier this year, Stouffer was inducted into the Pacific Northwest Golf Hall of Fame, and Shek has won two consecutive Washington Senior Women’s Amateurs.
For Pacific Northwest Golf Hall of Famer Lara Tennant of Portland, it was a bit of déjà vu, as she lost her round of 16 match against Brenda Corrie Kuehn, 5&4. In last year’s championship, Tennant also lost to Corrie Kuehn in the round of 16. Tennant was trying for her fourth title in this championship, having won it in 2018, 2019, and 2021.
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With two days and three rounds still to go, it’s becoming clear that Stouffer is going to take an awful lot to beat. The 2022 winner of this national championship not only won medalist honors on Sunday, adding a 73 to Saturday’s 71, she has also made fairly light work of her three match play opponents thus far.
In Monday’s Round of 64 match, the Canadian beat California’s Shelly Haywood, 6 and 5, and in Tuesday morning’s Round of 32 encounter, she took down 2004 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion, Corey Weworski, 5 and 4. In the afternoon, she did experience a minor glitch when losing the 13th and 15th holes to opponent Stephanie Kiefer of Germany after having gone 4 up through 12, but a par at the 334-yard 16th was enough to win the hole and the match 3 and 2.
“Yeah, I hit a couple of bad tee shots and that cost me, and my chip on 13 went over,” Stouffer said afterwards, “but I had a little bit of a cushion so I wasn’t too worried.”
Ominously for the seven other remaining golfers, the disarmingly laid-back Stouffer says she is feeling great and confident going into the rest of the week.
“I really like the golf course, and I really like how my game is going,” she says. “I’m hitting the ball pretty well.”
She won’t have it all her own way, of course. There’s so much talent, class, and experience left in the bracket; Stouffer won’t be expecting any easy matches. On Wednesday morning, she faces Kathy Hartwiger who beat Debbie Johnson 6 and 5 in the morning and Amy Ellerston 2 and 1 in the afternoon.
Then there’s Australia’s Nadene Gole, who beat Wendy Ohlmeyer and Annik Riff today, Dawn Woodard, Brenda Corrie-Kuehn, defending champion Sarah Gallagher, who had two 3 and 2 victories Tuesday and, like Stouffer, says her game is in excellent shape, local golfer Kim Shek and, of course, the seemingly indefatigable Ellen Port.
A four-time US Women’s Mid-Am and three-time U.S. Senior Women’s champion, Port held off Judith Kyrinis in a closely-fought Round of 32 match and then had a much easier time after lunch, defeating Kim Eaton 5 and 4.
“Judith [Kyrinis] has probably been the most successful and consistent senior player out there the past two years, so it was tough to meet her in the second round,” Port said. “We know each other’s games and there’s a lot of mutual respect. I would have been happy with either outcome, and I think that helped me pull through.”
Port knows Eaton didn’t play her best in the afternoon but was careful not to get complacent. “You have to be careful in those situations,” she said, “because no lead is big enough when you’re playing match play.”
She alluded to it earlier in the week, but Port feels she is finally seeing the light at the end of a multi-year tunnel in which she hasn’t been swinging it as well as she’d like to.
“I feel so good about my swing and where I’m at now,” she says “I’m very happy. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to say I feel confident.”
Port will play Shek in the morning with the eight-time women’s club champion at Sahalee hopefully being able to count on more support from friends and fellow members, including her caddie, Adithi Anand, who plays on the women’s golf team at the University of Washington.
WHAT’S NEXT
The Quarterfinals will begin at 8 a.m. (PST) on Wednesday morning, followed immediately by the Semifinals approximately at 1:30 p.m. Admission is free.
NOTABLE
- Despite healthy victories by Kathy Hartwiger and Shelly Stouffer, the most impressive performance in the morning matches came from France’s Annick Riff who overcame an ugly seven at the first hole to beat Alabama’s Susan West, 7 and 5. Riff, who won the European Senior Ladies’ Championship in Luxembourg earlier this year, won nine of the next 12 holes to seal her place in the afternoon’s Round of 16.
- The further we go in the championship, the more notable the matches become. The most significant clash of the afternoon, pitted three-time champion Lara Tennant against last year’s runner-up Brenda Corrie-Kuehn who had tied for second place in stroke play.
- At 120th in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Rankings (USGA/R&A), Nadene Gole is the highest-ranked senior woman in the field this week. The next highest is Shelly Stouffer at 921st.
- All quarterfinalists are exempt into the 2025 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, which will be held at The Omni Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Va.
QUOTABLE
“I hit a couple of errant shots. But whatever. it’s match play, and sometimes you recover and sometimes you lose a hole. If I do lose one, I just brush it off and go and try to win the next hole. Just don’t lose two in a row, really.” – Shelly Stouffer is clearly feeling pretty unflappable.
“I don’t know. Probably at the (U.S. Women’s) Mid-Am earlier this year.” – Stouffer when asked when the last she did lose two in a row was.
“Yeah, it’s true. My ball striking and my game is just so much better right now. I don’t play in that many events, and every golfer knows when the bottom of their swing isn’t consistent. I’ve worked hard and I know I’m on the right track. It’s the freest and most fun I’ve had playing golf.” – Ellen Port finds golf tough too sometimes.
“No, not really. I felt like this morning I struggled with my ball striking for probably the first eight or nine holes and then started getting it together. I felt like I hit it really, really well the second round, and had some unfortunate breaks, like hitting the pin and careening into a bunker; and hitting a really solid little punch that ended up hitting a tree, but it is what it was. But yeah I hit it really, really well.” – Sarah Gallagher is rounding into form nicely.
“I think you just got to just pace yourself, knowing that it’s going to be a long day. And it was just a matter of pick your line, commit, and go for it. There was a couple situations where my body was getting tired, but you just go and deal with it and get it back on track.” – Kim Shek on maintaining her form throughout a long day in the gorgeous, and warm, Seattle sunshine.
