U.S. Senior Women’s Open Set for Ann Arbor

By Tom Lang

    Barton Hills Country Club in Ann Arbor will be hosting its third USGA tournament for women, Aug 20-23, and it will be the third time MSU golf coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll has qualified and played in it. 

    She competed in the 1998 U.S. Women’s Amateur, won by Grace Park, the same year she began coaching the Spartans in her post-playing college career in East Lansing. Then came the 2008 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am.

    Now comes the most recently established USGA event, the 7th U.S. Senior Women’s Open.

    Slobodnik-Stoll became head coach at age 24 at MSU. Another Big Ten coach could tell the competitive juices were still there, and encouraged Slobodnik-Stoll to stay competitive.

    “I felt I was still playing some really good golf (post college playing) and I felt like it was a way for me to continue to be connected to my players and have that respect from them that they could see that I’m still doing what their trying to do at the highest level,” she said. “That’s what has kept me in the game.”

    Slobodnik-Stoll has remained very competitive; in fact she holds the Golf Association of Michigan (GAM) record for men and women of 18 individual championships.

    Suzy Green-Roebuck is not the average Barton Hills member. She won three Michigan Women’s Open titles, won four times on the Future’s Tour after a successful college career at Ohio State, then played seven years on the LPGA Tour, before retiring to raise three children. 

    It was very clear at the recent Senior Women’s Open Media Day that she and fellow club members like NFL and Olympics TV broadcaster Mike Tirico are pumped up to host their third USGA Championship. Tirico introduced both golfers as two of the most influential in Michigan, male or female.

    “This is kind of a full circle pinch me time,” she said at the recent media gathering, pointing out that she was on the LPGA Tour when the ’98 U.S. Women’s Amateur was played at Barton Hills. “And I thought wow, how cool that would be to play an event that big, that close to home.” 

    Green-Roebuck added that when the Women’s Mid-Am played in 2008 she was raising multiple toddlers at home, but enjoyed watching players she had played college golf with, and pros who returned to their amateur status. As her boys started growing and playing golf, there were rumblings of a women’s senior open. 

    “As my game came back into shape, I really zeroed in on that, I really wanted to be a part of that (first one in 2018) in Chicago. And it planted a seed that I think we can really host this (at Barton Hills).

    “I have approached this (stage of life) as a fun, icing on the cake perspective and I think every player at that inaugural Sr. Women’s Open did, and everyone’s appreciated it ever since. My mindset for this is simply gratitude and embrace the chaos; embrace the fun, embrace the people who chose to come out and spend their time here, volunteer for this event, and when it’s time to lock in (on shots and forget there’s four dogs at home), lock it.”

    Green-Roebuck said holes 12-18 should supply most of the competition fireworks.

    “We call it the gauntlet.”

    Michigan Golf Hall of Famer Elaine Crosby of Jackson has also qualified to play in Ann Arbor. She won twice on the LPGA Tour – the Mazda Japan Classic in 1989 and the Lady Keystone Open in 1994. She had a T3 in the 1994 Women’s PGA Championship, and a T6 in the 1990 U.S. Women’s Open. Crosby additionally finished second three times in the Lady Keystone Open and earned 2nd in the LPGA Oldsmobile Classic in East Lansing.

    For fans wanting to support or attend the event, get more information at: https://championships.usga.org/usseniorwomensopen.html