Lori Schlicher of Lewiston Tops 2024 Senior Women’s Points List
By Greg Johnson
Lori Schlicher found something in her golf swing and along the way found that it shifted her thought process, too.
“I went from showing up to the (Michigan Women’s Senior Amateur) thinking I could win to showing up knowing that if I play well, I should win,” she said.
Schlicher, 63, won the Michigan Women’s Senior Amateur for a second consecutive year, and to cap the season won the GAM Senior Tournament of Champions. In her two other GAM-conducted tournaments she finished second in the GAM Women’s Senior Championship and tied for second in the senior division of the GAM Women’s Mid-Amateur.
The 2024 season of first and second-place finishes powered her to the top of the GAM Senior Women’s Points list, and she has been named the GAM Senior Women’s Player of the Year.
Schlicher, a Garland Lodge & Golf Resort member, finished the season with 455 points. Shelly Weiss of Southfield and Plum Hollow Country Club, who was runner-up to Schlicher in the Michigan Women’s Senior Amateur and played in the U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur, finished second with 385 points. Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll of Haslett and the Country Club of Lansing, the GAM Women’s Senior Champion, was third with 340 points.
Schlicher is a mother of four daughters and grandmother to seven grandchildren, played collegiate golf at the University of Missouri in her youth, but did not take time for competitive golf again until four years ago.
She said she has never worked with a teacher on her golf game, instead opting to play and self-adjust her swing.
“I keep slashing away until I figure it out and sometimes it takes me a while,” she said. “I play a lot, and once I figure something out, I stick with it. I think this year I figured out a couple of things that will help me out for a while.”
Schlicher said the improvement in her ball striking and mental game has her contemplating entering some USGA national tournaments in 2025.
“It’s given me confidence to try it,” she said. “I was just playing GAM tournaments, and now that I’ve won some, I’m ready to see if the USGA stuff is fun, too.”
