Michigan Golf Journal September 2020

Michigan Golf Journal Player Profile MSU golfer Valery Plata, a native of Columbia, finished one round away from the national final for the 120 th U.S. Women’s Amateur in mid-August, potentially changing the course of golf life for the young college player at MSU. For starters, her world rankings will vault, and she should get an invitation to the 2021 Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Plata, still a teenager and yet the reigning Big Ten Player of the Year who is heading into her junior year this fall, made it to the U.S. national semifinals by defeating Kennedy Swann of Austin, Texas, 1 up, in the quarterfinals, before bowing out to defending champion Gabriela Ruffels of Australia, 2 and 1. MSU coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll was scanning the list for early National Letters of Intent signed in Nov. of 2017 for the fall 2018 season, and noticed Plata was not listed as signing anywhere. Plata was only age 16 at the time, but Slobodnik-Stoll and her assistant Caroline Powers leapt into action, simply floored that no U.S. college signed the phenom. “We thought with the caliber of who she was, ‘how could she have not signed?’ So literally, that minute, we fired off an email to her to confirm if we had missed something (with the NLI’s list) or if her signing wasn’t put out in the news,” Slobodnik-Stoll said. Plata toured MSU in January 2018 and committed the following day. That summer, Plata made the final 8 of match play in the U.S. Girls’ Junior in California. Slobodnik-Stoll went to watch and called Powers to say, ‘holy cow, this girl is legit!’ “She’s just such a sweet young woman, and I mean young. Her entire college freshman year she was 17, didn’t turn 18 until June (2019). We’re so happy to have her as a Spartan and she continues to improve and impress.” MSU Golfer Valery Plata Finishes in Final 4 at U.S. Women’s Amateur By Tom Lang Continues on page 8 >>