109TH MICHIGAN WOMEN’S AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP
Shannon Kennedy of Beverly Hills Defending at Eagle Eye
EAST LANSING – Shannon Kennedy (pictured above with the trophy in 2024) missed the lower into match play within the Michigan Ladies’s Newbie Championship in 2023, used it as motivation and final yr returned to win the state title.
(Examine Kennedy’s 2024 Michigan Ladies’s Newbie Win)
The Beverly Hills resident and Michigan State College golfer will look to repeat Monday via Friday, July 7-11, within the 109th Michigan Ladies’s Newbie Championship offered by Carl’s Golfland at Eagle Eye Golf & Banquet Middle.
Kennedy earned her nameplate on the Patti Shook Boice Trophy final summer season by successful the ultimate two holes of the title match for a 2-up win over Elise Fennell of Caledonia and Illinois State College.
“I feel my favourite reminiscence about final yr is that I had missed the lower two years in the past and it turned a giant turning level for me,” she stated. “Being on the Michigan State golf group, expectations had been excessive that I ought to compete and have an opportunity to win, after which I missed the lower. With the ability to dig in final yr, lastly getting it executed, reaching a lifelong objective, having my dad there, it was actually cool.”
Her dad, Ted, served as caddie, and he’s defending, too.
“Staff Kennedy is again,” Shannon stated.
Kennedy will lead a discipline of the highest gamers within the state into two days of stroke play Monday and Tuesday to find out a match play bracket of 32 golfers. The spherical of 32 is Wednesday, the spherical of 16 and quarterfinals are scheduled for Thursday and semifinals and the ultimate match shall be on Friday.
It takes greater than golf expertise and stamina to win the Michigan Newbie, Kennedy stated.
“Psychological toughness is the factor,” she stated. “It takes grit and psychological toughness. I obtained down in my closing match, however I used to be capable of dig in and grind it out. I hit the ball nice final yr and struggled with my placing, however I used to be nonetheless capable of do it. You need to notice it’s by no means going to be good, however it may be ok in case you are powerful on the market.”
Kennedy, who graduated with a level in communications and within the fall will begin graduate work in sports activities administration with a fifth and closing yr of golf eligibility remaining, stated she feels nice about her recreation heading into the championship.
“I’ve been enjoying effectively, engaged on it and I’m trying ahead to having the sport firing on all cylinders this yr,” she stated.
As a close-by Spartan at MSU, she has performed the Eagle Eye course a number of occasions. She stated it’s a utterly completely different kind after all than Plum Hole.
“I can used drivers off the entire tees at Eagle Eye, that’s a giant distinction for me,” she stated. “Plum Hole was a terrific problem, too, however at Eagle Eye you have to work out a special plan. It’s a special problem and it will likely be a terrific take a look at for the ladies within the discipline.”
As Kennedy acquired a yr in the past, this yr’s champion will obtain an exemption within the 2025 U.S. Ladies’s Newbie Championship.
Kennedy is one in all 5 previous champions within the discipline. That features her Michigan State coach, Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll of Haslett, who gained in 1996 and ’98. The opposite previous champions are Laura Bavaird of Trenton, the latest GAM Ladies’s Mid-Newbie champion who gained in 2007 and ’08, Elayna Bowser of Dearborn, who gained in 2019, and Kim Dinh of Midland, who gained in 2021.
Different completed gamers within the discipline embrace Bridget Boczar of Canton and Baylor College, the 2023 and 2024 GAM Ladies’s Champion, Sophie Stevens of Highland and the College of Florida, the 2022 GAM Ladies’s Champion, Chelsea Collura of Wyandotte, the 2022 GAM Ladies’s Mid-Newbie champion, and Alena Li of Okemos, who simply gained her second consecutive Michigan Women’ Junior Newbie Championship final week.
Among the many many collegiate gamers within the discipline are Fennell, final yr’s runner-up who’s now at Illinois State College, and Olivia Hemmila, the runner-up in 2023 who’s now at Oakland College.
Of final yr’s “Candy 16” gamers, 13 are within the discipline this yr, together with Kennedy, Boczar, Bowser, Fennell, sisters Amaya and Mia Melendez of Ann Arbor, Olivia Stoll of Haslett and Grand Valley State College, Lillian O’Grady of Grand Rapids, Rachel Niskanen of Negaunee and Central Michigan College, Lily Bargamian of Grosse Ile and Oakland College, Macie Elzinga of Byron Middle and Bowling Inexperienced State College, Grace Slocum of Traverse Metropolis, and Megha Vallabhaneni of Northville and Western Michigan College.
Eagle Eye has hosted a number of state championship tournaments for novice {and professional} golfers in recent times. The Michigan Ladies’s Newbie would be the second main championship the Golf Affiliation of Michigan (GAM) has administered on the Eagle Eye course and third carried out with the Eagle Eye group, together with the 2016 Michigan Newbie on Eagle Eye, and the 2022 Michigan Newbie on the Hawk Hole course.
The award-winning course designed by Pete Dye protégé Chris Lutzke with Dye consulting, has additionally hosted a number of GAM and USGA championship qualifying rounds since its grand opening in August of 2003.
“It’s a championship course in all methods,” Ken Hartmann, the GAM’s senior director of competitions and USGA providers, stated.
“You’ll be able to set it as much as match the sphere that’s enjoying it. It’s difficult for everyone. It’s all the time in nice situation. They’re welcoming and the amenities across the course are second to none.”
INFORMATION, TEE TIMES, RESULTS: Go to GAM.org
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