The competitive résumé of Meghan Stasi is a decorated record of a lifelong amateur who is still adding to her bucket list.
And if you ask how many USGA championships she has played, her answer might come as a surprise.
“I don’t really know,” said Stasi, 44, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “Somewhere around my age, I think.”
In fact, Stasi has competed in 44 USGA championships, winning four U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur titles and playing on the victorious 2008 U.S. Curtis Cup team. Last month, she was named captain of the 2024 U.S. Curtis Cup squad.
“Being asked to fill the role of captain is humbling,” Stasi said during her media announcement. “I can’t wait to begin this journey and, most of all, be part of the U.S. team again.”
Stasi has now won 19 Florida State Golf Association tournaments, including two Florida Women’s Amateur titles and five Florida Women’s Mid-Amateur crowns. The eight-time FSGA Women’s Amateur Player of the Year was inducted into the FSGA Hall of Fame in 2021, becoming its youngest member.
She believes she has plenty more golf to play. Her appetite for competition has never waned since her days as an All-Conference USA golfer at Tulane University.
Even with a solid individual record deep into her mid-amateur career, Stasi is still adding to her team resume. In mid-February, she partnered with Ina Kim-Schaad to win their fourth Women’s International Four-Ball title in five years at The Wanderers Club in Wellington, Florida. Stasi has won the event a total of eight times with various team partners, the February triumph marking her first victory of any kind in 2023.
Stasi and Dawn Woodard have faced much younger competition in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, an event the USGA launched in 2015. But the two have held their own, posting a quarterfinal finish in 2015 and advancing into the round of 16 three times.
“I’ve played practice rounds and casual rounds with Meghan, but when it matters, she has a little different gear,” said Woodard, of Greenville, South Carolina. “With Meghan, there’s just no quit.”
Stasi won consecutive championships at the 2006 and 2007 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, and again in 2010. At the 2012 Women’s Mid-Amateur in San Antonio, the past champion found herself five holes down with five holes to play.
“Meghan came back, won the last five holes, went to extra holes, won the match and ended up winning the championship that year,” said Woodard, a three-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur medalist.
Then there was the round of 32 match during the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball at Streamsong Resort where Woodard gratefully witnessed Stasi’s steady putting stroke. The pair had won hole 16 and tied the match on the 17th green before coming to No. 18 for a must-make, eight-foot par putt to force extra holes.
“It was a difficult breaking putt, but I sensed a calm with her,” Woodard said. “I felt like I could see her saying, ‘I’m not going to lose,’and she made it.”
They won the match on the 20th hole with a birdie before losing in the round of 16 to end their championship quest.
That kind of tenacity has helped solidify Stasi’s reputation as a quietly pugnacious amateur. Each year, she carefully plots her tournament schedule, juggling at-home responsibilities with her husband, Danny Stasi, owner of the Shuck-N-Dive Cajun Café in Fort Lauderdale.
“We’re very hands-on at the restaurant and when we’re in town, we’re there every day,” Stasi said. “Fortunately, our staff is incredible. Without them, I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving for golf tournaments.”
“My goals are the same as they’ve always been — to play and to win — but I am a little older now and players are a little younger, which definitely affects which tournaments I play.” – Meghan Stasi
Stasi admits her practice time is more limited and will be even more precious as she prepares to captain the Curtis Cup team. Her tournament selection also is strategic and she’s back in the gym for strength training and Pilates.
“My goals are the same as they’ve always been — to play and to win — but I am a little older now and players are a little younger, which definitely affects which tournaments I play,” Stasi said.
Last year, Stasi was co-runner-up at the St. Rule Trophy, a small invitational tournament held in Scotland at St. Andrews on the Old Course. She fell in love with the event and St. Andrews when she played there as Meghan Bolger on the 2008 U.S. Curtis Cup team.
She has since become a member of the St. Rule Club, a women’s club on the 18th hole at St. Andrews. Stasi and her husband recently bought “a little place at Royal Dornoch” and hope to spend more time there in the future.
A native of Voorhees, New Jersey, Stasi plays out of Tavistock Country Club in Haddonfield, New Jersey, as well as Fort Lauderdale Country Club and The Club at Quail Ridge in Boynton Beach, Florida.
She was invited to join Pine Valley Golf Club in 2022, alongside fellow amateur Sarah Ingram and World Golf Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam as the club’s first women members.
“It’s been an honor,” Stasi said. “You can’t turn that down.”
And even as a mid-am, her golf milestones continue unfolding with each new year.
“She kind of quietly goes about doing what she does,” said Woodard, who will pair again with Stasi this May at the USGA’s Women’s Four-Ball at The Home Course in DuPont, Washington. “Golf has been good to Meghan and she’s been good for golf.”