Rodney Stilwell has won all of Staten Island’s amateur golf tournaments, most of them multiple times, including five Staten Island Amateurs, six Staten Island Classics, and a combined 14 Senior Amateurs and Senior Classics. But there was a time when all that seemed impossible.
As a young boy, Stillwell was run over by a city bus, his right leg crushed, the knee ruined. In the years after college, the pain only grew worse, and by 1988, when he was unable to walk the courses, his competitive career seemed over.
Over time, advances in medicine provided a glimmer of hope. After several complicated surgeries and a three-year rehabilitation program, Stillwell returned to competitive play at the age of 46, his game as good as ever; adding to his string of titles and, in 2013, becoming the only man to complete the “Staten Island Slam” – winning the Staten Island Amateur, Staten Island Classic, Senior Amateur and Senior Classic in the same year.
Class of 2024