The Dearborn resident defeated MSU women’s golf coach to take the crown
From Michigan Women’s Amateur runner up last year, to 2019 champion on Friday (Aug. 9), to LPGA Tour Q-School in a few weeks, Elayna Bowser is trending up.
Bowser, a 22-year-old Dearborn resident who is turning professional for LPGA Qualifying in a few weeks, defeated Michigan Golf Hall of Famer and MSU coach, Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll, 4 and 3 in the championship match at Spring Lake Country Club.
“It means a lot,” Bowser said of giving her a boost heading off to Q-School. “It is the top women’s amateur tournament in Michigan and to win it feels like I reached the ultimate goal for a Michigan amateur golfer.
“You know (Slobodnik-Stoll) is a Michigan golf legend and you know she is going to bring it each time she plays. She is just a solid player. I stuck to my game plan though and was able to come out on top. It feels good especially after last year finishing second in 19 holes. It is the icing on top. It is going to help me move forward in my career and give me some confidence.”
Bowser, who recently graduated from Loyola University in Chicago, was a runner-up last year to Kerri Parks of Flushing in a tense 19-holes final, and she admitted that result played a role in her approach to the tournament this year.
“It was a part of it, a lot of it actually, and knowing this was going to be my last amateur tournament, I wanted to finish strong,” she said.
Bowser went two-up with a 15-foot birdie putt on the 9th hole, then expanded the insurmountable lead to 3-up with another birdie on 12, and 4-up with a par on 13. Bowser earned her spot in the finals with a 4 and 3 win over Abbey Pierce of Bloomfield Hills and Grand Valley State University in the morning semifinals. Slobodnik-Stoll beat Heather Forthusniak of Brighton and Kansas State University 6 and 4 in the other semifinal.
Bowser’s first phone call after winning the 103rd Michigan Women’s Amateur was to her brother Evan, who is playing on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada.
“He played in his share of Michigan Amateurs, but never got the title, so I got the edge on him,” she said and laughed. “He said ‘congrats, you are officially the better Bowser golfer.’”
ONCE A COACH, ALWAYS A COACH:
Slobodnik-Stoll has a busy day job as the MSU Women’s head coach, but has always maintained a competitive schedule and remains extremely relevant to her players. But during the Michigan Amateur week, her teenage daughter, Olivia, served as caddie and the role of mom turned into coach as well with Olivia on the bag.
“Part of me signing up for this week was not only because I wanted to play, but because I wanted to get experience for my daughter, Olivia, who just (recently) decided to play golf,” Slobodnik-Stoll said. “So, it’s half my motivation just to show her, and I guess after she was calculating how many holes we had to walk, it was over 100, and I said, ‘well, that’s the experience that we wanted.’
“Every shot that I played out there I tried to explain to her what I was doing… to give her some ownership of the match, like ‘what do you think on this putt?’ I felt like I was doing double duty a little bit – listening to her but trying to guide her and give her those experiences. I’m just thrilled that she wants to play the game. I hope that she’s enjoying this whole experience and in the back of her mind I hope she’s thinking to herself, ‘I want to be playing and my mom pushing the cart’ in this situation instead of visa versa.”
Mission accomplished, because just moments later, Olivia said: “This was super cool. It was my first time as a caddy for her, and just watching her play just made me realize how good she is. It was super cool to learn from her. I learned a lot of new things for my game, too. She was telling me what she was doing for each shot and situation. So that helped a lot.”
“I kept thinking I want to be back here next year (to play); this will be me next year.”
At age 47, the coach gave the entire field a solid run, almost claiming her third Michigan Amateur title.
“I feel like we have so many role models in our state who are older, in the senior divisions that can still play,” she said after the final. “I just want to be a role model for young women too, that you can have a job and a family and still be a competitive golfer. Whether there’s a 20- or 30-year difference between people, we can all play together.”
Slobodnik-Stoll is the winningest golfer in Golf Association of Michigan (GAM) history with 18 titles, including two amateurs in 1996 and ’98.
Complete results found here: https://www.gam.org/default.aspx
