Golf champion, East Greenbush teacher Nancy Kroll dies at age 62
Kroll won a state title, record 7 NEWGA championships
By Joyce Bassett,
Columnist
Updated Dec 2, 2025 3:21 p.m.
Nancy Kroll, who earned a state championship title and holds the record for Northeast Women’s Golf Association championships, died this past Wednesday at age 62.
Most recently a member of Pinehaven Country Club, Kroll was supported by a dedicated group of friends, neighbors and caregivers — many of them fellow golfers — during a 17-month battle with cancer.
A Rotterdam resident and longtime teacher in the East Greenbush Central School District, Kroll’s success in Capital Region golf tournaments was legendary. In 2018, she recorded her seventh victory in the Northeastern Women’s Golf Association championship, breaking Mary Jo Kelly’s record of six NEWGA titles.
“Nancy was an amazing presence in women’s golf in our entire region for many years,” said Jane King, president of NEWGA. “The golf community has lost a very special person.”
Kroll’s previous victories came in 1987, 1988, 1992 and 1996. Then, after a 15-year hiatus from competitive golf, she won titles in 2015, 2017 and 2018. The 31-year span between her first and last titles also is a record.
She was an advocate for women’s golf, playing in both competitive and social leagues.
“I grew up playing NEWGA,” she told the Times Union in 2018 after she won her last title. “It means a lot to me. There are some great winners on that trophy. It’s important to me that we keep NEWGA strong and recruit more golfers and get some clubs that used to be part of NEWGA back in.”
She recorded 10 holes-in-one during her career and competed in the first-ever USGA Team Championship and the NYSGA Amateur Series finale. She won the Schenectady Women’s Championship in 2017 and 2018 and represented Schenectady Municipal Golf Course in the NEWGA organization.
She was taught to play golf by her father, Edward Kroll, who was the golf professional at Leatherstocking Golf Course in Cooperstown for 42 years. He was a member of the Professional Golfers Association of America for 58 years, earning his Class A title in 1955 and earning many golfing accomplishments at both the local and national levels.
Her father died in 2013 from Alzheimer’s disease at age 83. Kroll won her only state championship the following year, the New York State Golf Association’s Women’s Senior Amateur Championship at Kanon Valley Country Club in Oneida. The win was tinged with memories of growing up playing the game.
“I had a good teacher,” said Nancy Kroll. “My father helped me since I was about 10 years old. I’ll be practicing, and his voice will be in my head, or I’ll remember an expression or a phrase of encouragement that he would say. I wanted to win it last year when he was still alive, but he was here with me today.”
John Souza, PGA pro and director of golf instruction at Ballston Spa Country Club, knew Kroll as both a client and friend for more than 20 years. The key to her championships later in life was her ability to discover new strengths in her game, he said.
“She was molded pretty firmly by her dad; she wouldn’t really stray too much from what he would say,” Souza said. “We would come up with new, smart ways for her to take advantage of her new superpowers.”
Souza said she was one of the best women amateur golfers to come out of the NENY-PGA region. She was the very definition of a champion, he said, and often gifted her dad’s unique PGA memorabilia and golf books to him and other PGA pros.
“She wanted to have her dad live on through other people,” he said. “She was genuine and kind, and supportive of others.”
Carolyn Mancini of Binghamton Country Club, who was a partner with Kroll in many two-person better ball events, said their friendship evolved after they shared a cart during her win at the NYSGA Women’s Senior Amateur Championship in 2014.
“I think Nancy just always loved the game of golf. She grew up with it. She always had a really great swing, nice and easy, and she understood the mechanics of it,” she said. “She had a lot of fun and made a lot of friends through golf.”
Mancini said the pair’s discovery that they could both rattle off quotes from the movie “Moonstruck” solidified their friendship.
“She was a catalyst for women’s golf and a proponent of the game,” Mancini said. “I lived two hours away and she would ask me to play in tournaments, like Ballston Spa’s 100th anniversary invitational last year. She introduced me to the players of the 518.”
Kroll left her roots in Cooperstown as a junior in high school and attended Cardinal Newman High School in West Palm Beach, Florida, where she played golf year-round. She continued her education and golfed at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., and Florida Atlantic University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in education.
Kroll earned her master’s in special education at The College at Saint Rose and was a special education teacher at Howard L. Goff Middle School. She began teaching in the East Greenbush Central School District in 2007.
“Mrs. Kroll was a beloved member of the East Greenbush Central School District, dedicating her career to teaching children with special needs,” the school district said in a statement. “We extend our heartfelt condolences to the Kroll family, her friends and colleagues.”
She is survived by her sisters Louise Anne Kroll of Cooperstown and Kathryn Kroll of Oneonta. A celebration of life will be held in the spring.