Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll, the winningest Golf Association of Michigan (GAM) player, male or female, in 100 years of history, also happens to be the winningest golf coach, male or female, in Michigan State University golf history.
She is preparing to make yet another run at the Michigan Women’s Amateur Championship starting Saturday, July 18, and this time it is being hosted at what is essentially the outdoor portion of her office.
Forest Akers West golf course – on the campus of Michigan State and just outside the window of her office in the 2016-minted golf team headquarters of the Lasch Family Golf Center – is hosting the Michigan Women’s Amateur for the second time in the last eight years.
Slobodnik-Stoll has won the 104-year-old state championship twice, in 1996 at Egypt Valley Country Club in her hometown of Grand Rapids, and in 1998 at Boyne Mountain Resort.
At age 47, and already in the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame, she made a run to the final match a year ago at Spring Lake Country Club, falling to Elayna Bowser of Dearborn, then fresh out of Loyola University-Chicago and now a first-year professional.
The 2019 runner-up, the coach/competitor who has won an unprecedented 19 GAM titles, including 10 GAM Mid-Amateur wins, is preparing her game and watching over the preparation of her 16-year-old daughter Olivia, who will be playing in the championship for the first time.
“I’m more concerned right now with how Olivia plays,” she said of her and husband Jim Stoll’s athletic daughter who surprised her parents when she decided at 14 that she wanted to play competitive golf after previously showing minimal interest.
“I would like to see her get into the match play. That would contribute another step in her golf process.”
As for herself: “I would also like to make a good run at it again.
“It’s the competition and that’s what I love to do,” she said. “No matter what it is, I love to compete. I would love to be playing in the U.S. ( Women’s Mid-Amateur) even though this year there isn’t one. I want to play in the Michigan Amateur, the GAM Championship and the Michigan Open for as long as possible.”
Slobodnik-Stoll has two summers of golf before she turns 50 and the world of senior golf in both USGA and GAM opens to her as well. She plans to keep on recruiting and winning Big Ten Championships at Michigan State – her teams have won seven in 22 years to go along with 20 NCAA Championship appearances – and she plans to keep on playing.
“When I turn 50, I hope to get the opportunity to play in more national tournaments – that’s a goal,” she said. “It will depend on coaching, though, and my family. It always has.”
Role models who handled family, career, and golf, gave Slobodnik-Stoll inspiration, and she is very aware of her impact on her MSU players, Olivia, and younger players who she might compete against in the Amateur.
“I want to be a role model for these young people,” she said. “I want to show them that playing and competing in golf is truly a life-time sport, and that having a family doesn’t mean you have to stop playing or competing. I’ve been truly fortunate to have the opportunity to coach and play. I take them both seriously because golf is a big part of my life.”
Slobodnik-Stoll, elected to the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame in 2017 at age 45, said she doesn’t stop to consider the accomplishments behind her. She keeps working on the goals ahead, the next tournaments, the next season, the next recruit.
“I had a long conversation with Sarah Burnham (former Spartan now on LPGA Tour) about that kind of thing after she won the (Michigan PGA Women’s Open on July 1),” she said. “We talked about neither one of us being a slow-down type person. We both agreed there is not a lot of times when we sit around and just hang out. There’s always something going on, whether practicing or playing, or organizing the rest of your life.”
Next up: Playing in the Michigan Women’s Amateur at Forest Akers West.
“I didn’t pay well at the Michigan Open, but I’m confident I will gear things up for the Amateur,” she said. “I keep moving and I don’t see that changing for a long time because this is what I truly love to do. I love to play, I love to coach, I love to watch the game, watch my daughter play, to recruit, all of it, and you know, just figure out that puzzle.”
[lawrence-related id=778006747,777928945,777887079]