Like Mother, Like Daughter
The Stoll household is all about golf – from MSU to Grand Valley State
By Tom Lang
MSU Hall of Fame women’s golf coach, Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll, kept waiting – and waiting.
She wondered for years when her only child, Olivia, would maybe one day follow in her footsteps and take up the game of golf, for which her and husband, Jim, are so passionate about.
You see, volleyball was Olivia’s game growing up in Haslett under the gigantic MSU shadow. Golf to her was taking a few swings when following her parents around the course or even chipping and putting outside the MSU Golf Facility.
“She was 11, and then 12, and she reached 13 and you start to think, well maybe volleyball is going to be it,” Stacy said about Olivia’s sports path. Then Olivia stopped growing at 5-foot-8 and Stacy pointed out it’s pretty hard to play D1 volleyball at that height.
“But low and behold, when Olivia was 15, she flat out said, ‘I’m going to play golf now.’ Then she said, ‘I’m going to play in college,’ and I looked at her and said ‘Olivia, I’ve already got kids committed to scholarships at MSU who are 15,” Stacy said. “We have a long, long, long way to go.’”
It was a path which would never be easy, but Olivia did very well for herself. By her senior year at Haslett High, she took 3rd in the Covid-shortened 2020 Div. 2 state finals and made first team All-State.
Fast forward on that short but very challenging road and Olivia was named GLIAC Freshman of the Year playing for Grand Valley State University in 2021-22, then won her first ever college golf tournament this past fall, as a sophomore, at a 54-hole event hosted by Findley.
She shot 71-71 the first day. Going into the final round the following day, Olivia was playing with the leader, also a new experience for her in college. What’s more, she had a chance to win. Going head-to-head, Olivia made 8 birdies and scored a 66 to win.
The golfing revelation for Olivia came the summer of 2018. The family had just returned from playing in California, and Olivia enjoyed the atmosphere of some really fine layouts, including the chance to walk Cypress Point. Soon after came a high school team volleyball camp.
“I remember texting my dad and telling him I didn’t want to be here, I’d rather be on the golf course,” Olivia said. “There’s people doing that and getting better than me, and I need to be on the golf course. I’m not exactly sure why that all happened but I remember wanting volleyball camp to be over, and it just dragged on.”
Like most any parent who has tried, in any sport, Stacy admits trying to guide her own child would not be an easy task. She first experienced it from the child perspective when her dad was doing the same thing many decades ago in Grand Rapids. Stacy admits crying many times on the driving range then, despite her love for the game.
Now when it came her turn, would Olivia listen? Would it turn her off to golf?
Thankfully, the answers were ‘yes’ and ‘no.’
“I realized in my head that if I seriously want to play at a good college, I’m going to have to listen to my parents; I don’t have an option or I won’t get to the point where I want to be,” Olivia said about the high school years. “But I will say there were definitely times where … they were telling me stuff and I would not listen. But as I got older, I realized they know what they are talking about, and I need to listen because they just want to help me.”
Jim Stoll spent more than a year as a caddy for MSU grad Sarah Burnham on the LPGA Tour, so he had great access to worldwide golf talent.
“Olivia seeing that firsthand, that gave Jim so much more credibility with Olivia, him being inside the ropes with a Tour player,” Stacy said. “A little, small part of Jim doing that was to give Olivia exposure to the Tour, to see what the best players in the world do and how they act.”
Having a mom that coaches some of the best women’s players in the country at multi-Big Ten Champion Michigan State – and who as a player has won a record 15 Golf Association of Michigan (GAM) tournaments, plus 6 women’s titles at the Michigan Tournament of Champions – doesn’t hurt either.
Stacy said it’s hard to stop being a coach and only wear a mom hat.
“When your kids says she wants’ to do this, okay, now it’s peddle to the metal, and if this is what she wants, and it’s my kid, now my competitive nature is coming out of me,” Stacy said. “If she wants to do this, we’re going to give her every chance under the sun to be successful.”
A chance that so far has paid off, likely with more to come.
While the college golf schedules do overlap a lot – which will include the springtime Mary Fossum Invitational at Forest Akers West which Grand Valley will play in – both parents attend Grand Valley golf tournaments as much as possible.
“It’s just fun to watch, and I think the most fun for me is … she hasn’t hit a plateau yet,” Stacy said. “How much better she can get will be exciting to watch.”
