Close Call Falls B.C. Lakeview's Way
June 15, 2013
By Tom Kendra
Special to Second Half
EAST LANSING – As the scores were being posted at Saturday’s MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 Boys Golf Final, a familiar, painful and sinking feeling came over senior Matt Garland and his Battle Creek Lakeview teammates.
"We can’t lose by one stroke again – that’s what I was thinking,” said Garland, who was individual medalist one year ago as a junior when his team finished one stroke behind Birmingham Brother Rice. “For a little bit, it looked like that was going to happen.”
Instead, Battle Creek Lakeview and Plymouth tied with identical two-day totals of 601, then Lakeview was awarded the championship based on the first tiebreaker – combined No. 5 player scores over the Friday and Saturday rounds at the Finals at Forest Akers West.
Muskegon Mona Shores and Detroit Catholic Central tied for third at 610 and Traverse City West and Saline tied for fifth at 617.
Losing the team championship on a tiebreaker was a tough end to a fantastic day for Plymouth, which was ranked No. 7 coming into the weekend but nearly stunned the field by rallying Saturday with a four-person team score of 299 – best in the field by three strokes.
That heartbreaking team defeat was tempered somewhat a bit later, when Plymouth senior Kyle Rodes closed out his prep career by winning a three-hole playoff over White Lake Lakeland junior Alex Kleckner to capture individual medalist honors.
Rodes thought he had won medalist honors after backing up an even-par round of 72 on Friday with a 1-under par 71 on Saturday, for a 143 total. But midway through a post-round interview, tournament officials posted the day’s best score – a 69 from Kleckner, giving him a 143 total as well and setting the stage for more golf.
The duo then played Hole 18, then Hole 10, before Rodes won it in dramatic fashion by snaking in a 19-foot birdie putt in front of a big gallery.
“It was fun making a putt like that in front of all those people,” said Rodes, who will play golf at Eastern Michigan University. “It’s exciting that I won, but bittersweet because we didn’t win as a team.
“We are very bitter that it was determined by a tie-breaker and not on the course, but that’s the way it goes.”
The great putt by Rodes was just a continuation of his hot putting throughout the two-day Finals. Rodes made a 30-foot, breaking eagle putt on the par-five 13th hole and backed that up by draining a 40-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole. That two-hole, three-under par stretch helped Rodes win medalist honors and nearly helped the Wildcats pull off a shocking and improbable team championship.
Plymouth made its move on Saturday as a trio of other teams expected to battle for the team title – Muskegon Mona Shores, Detroit Catholic Central and White Lake Lakeland – were unable to generate any kind of momentum.
That turned Saturday’s round on a warm and unusually calm Forest Akers West course into a two-team race between No. 1-ranked Battle Creek Lakeview and unheralded Plymouth.
In the end, while Plymouth had the best individual player in Rodes, Lakeview had the best team from No. 1 to No. 5.
“Nobody knows the value of one stroke better than we do,” said Lakeview coach Anthony Evans. “Our experience of coming so close last year really helped us this year, no question. It took every single one of our guys to win this thing today.”
He’s not kidding.
Garland, the defending Division 1 medalist, actually finished third on his team this year at 74-77-151. Senior Landon Osborne (75-73-148) led the Spartans, followed by sophomore Matt Alderink (73-77-150). Others figuring in the scoring for Lakeview were freshman-to-watch-out-for Andrew Walker (77-76-153) and sophomore Gabe Penegor (80-76-156).
Lakeview needed each and every one of those strokes as the tie with Plymouth was broken by taking the score of the No. 5 player each day. Lakeview had an 80 and a 77 from its fifth-best shooter each day for a 157, compared to 161 for Plymouth.
“This whole season has been about our depth,” said Garland, who led the Spartans to a Regional championship last weekend on their home course. “We know how to grind it out when we have to. I didn’t play well at all this weekend, but I tried to get the best that I could out of my round.”
Coach Evans singled out his two sophomores, Alderink and Penegor, for never giving up and making the dream of the school’s first championship since 2008 a reality.
Alderink bogeyed his first four holes on Saturday and appeared headed for a big number. Instead, he righted the ship and played the remaining 14 holes in 1-over par, including an eagle 3 on No. 13.
Penegor came through in an even bigger way. When it appeared that Lakeview might once again lose by one shot, it was Penegor’s 76 as the No. 5 player that created the tie and then the Spartans’ championship via the tie-breaker.
“Those two kids came through for us, and I couldn’t be more proud,” said Evans.
Rockford’s AJ Varekois (147) placed third and Detroit Catholic Central’s Phil Ritchie and Lakeview’s Osborne tied for fourth individually at 148.
Rounding out the Top 10 were Canton’s Donnie Trosper, Plymouth’s John Tatti and Saline’s Ian Martin tied for sixth at 149, and Grosse Pointe South’s Joe Becker, Traverse City Central’s Winton Munch and Lakeview’s Alderink tied for ninth at 150.
PHOTOS: (Top) Battle Creek Lakeview’s boys golf team poses with its Lower Peninsula Division 1 championship trophy. (Middle) Plymouth’s Kyle Rodes fires a shot on his way to becoming the individual champion at Forest Akers West. (Click to see more at HighSchoolsSportsScene.com.)
Hockey Players Transferring Winter Puck Skills to Spring Golf Swings
By
Tom Lang
Special for MHSAA.com
May 26, 2023
When the Michigan seasons shift from winter to spring, some high school golf teams are a little more eager than others for the hockey season to officially end.
This is especially true for the school golf programs in Brighton, Hartland and Muskegon Mona Shores – examples of boys teams that love having hockey players transition from the indoor frozen ice to play golf outdoors on the lush green grass.
“I would take a golf team full of hockey players any day,” said Hartland golf coach Nathan Oake. “I love them.”
We can tell, because his program is full of them.
Hartland and Brighton each have eight hockey players on their 16-golfer varsity and JV rosters.
Mona Shores has three hockey players this year, but usually has more. In 2023 it’s Oliver MacDonald (all-state honorable mention in hockey), Nathan McNarland and Nicholas Taylor, who was voted Division 1 all-state golf last spring, then leading his team to fifth place at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final.
Brighton golfer Winston Lerch was also Division 1 all-state last year in golf and an assistant captain on the hockey team this winter that finished Division 1 runner-up to Detroit Catholic Central. Here in 2023, he shot a 65 to open the season at Oakland University for medalist and has committed to Grand Valley State for golf with his 72-stroke average.
Joining Lerch in the Bulldogs boys golf program are hockey players like Levi Pennala, winner of hockey’s Wall Award sponsored by State Champs as the top high school goalie. Pennala – who recently shot 72 at the Kensington Lakes Activities Association championship tournament, his career low for high school golf – finished in the top 30 last year at the LPD1 Final. Then early this spring when he was away at a high-level junior hockey tournament, freshman hockey player Adam Forcier stepped in and shot a school record 18-hole round for a freshman at 73. Jacob Daavetilla also works into the starting lineup at times.
Forcier tied the record of Davis Codd – who, as a pro hockey player on leave from the Saginaw Spirit OHL hockey team when COVID-19 shut down the league, won the LPD1 Final in 2021 for Brighton.
Brighton golf coach Jimmy Dewling said Codd was one of the earliest to prove to others you can play both hockey and golf and excel. In fact, that June in 2021, Codd went to an NHL scouting camp in Pennsylvania before the Golf Finals, drove overnight back to Forest Akers to play the two championship rounds, won the title, then immediately returned to Pennsylvania to resume the hockey camp.
“On our team, we believe, and TBone (Codd) was a perfect example of it, if there’s any time you have the opportunity to be competitive, it is going to make you a more well-rounded competitor and therefore better at your particular sport,” Dewling said.
“We like hockey players. In the winter, they have to think to where the puck is going, be smart enough to react, and understand how that emotion is going to carry over from one play to the next. When it’s your shift you have to forget about the last shift, or take something from the last shift and put it into the next shift, to have consistent play.
“It’s the same on the golf course,” Dewling continued. “It’s one hole to the next, one shot at a time, being tough, and that’s only going to come from competition reps. We love the athletic ability more so than anything; the toughness and competitiveness all year.”
In addition to Lerch and Pennala starting on varsity golf, they are joined by traditional golfers Matt Doyle, Riley Morton and Andrew Daily, who is committed to Wayne State and finished LPD1 runner-up last spring.
Going into the 2023 golf postseason, Brighton is ranked No. 2 in Division 1. The Bulldogs have won the Next Tee Invite at Oakland Hills, the North Star Invite at Plum Hollow and the KLAA Conference Championship – earning Brighton’s first conference title since 2007. The Bulldogs also were runners-up at The Meadows Invite at Grand Valley State University. The team is averaging 297 for 18 holes.
Oake admitted this is a rebuilding year for Hartland’s golf program. The varsity lineup has only two returning players with varsity golf experience – Keller King and Brady Betteley.
“So, we opted to keep a group of tough competitors with a solid combination of speed and strength – and who are not concerned about the cold conditions that we play in,” Oake quipped.
Five others rotate into the Eagles’ golf starting lineup with King and Betteley: Isaac Frantti is an all-state hockey defensemen playing his first season of golf but shot a career-low 79 at American Dunes recently. He just signed a United State Premier Hockey League tender to play in Connecticut next year. Ian Kastamo scored the winning goal in Hartland’s Division 2 hockey championship victory in 2022, and LJ Sabala is a varsity hockey player as well.
Then there are two non-hockey freshmen getting shots to start occasionally – Dallas Korponic, who finished third at his weight at the Individual Wrestling Finals, and Michael Maurin. Five more sophomores and juniors are hockey players on the JV golf team.
“We hope to be competitive with (Brighton) again soon, but they have the talent to make a big splash this year,” Oake said. “I also play golf at the same club as many Brighton players, so I see them quite a bit and we are friendly. When the Brighton team walked by our team on a recent Monday and all said hello to me and our guys, one of my players looked at me and said that this was the biggest difference between hockey and golf. In hockey, the small talk would be (traded) for the ice, and it would not be very nice out there.
“Either way, I believe both sports are filled with fierce competitors and respect, but when the game is over a handshake and a golf hat tip are offered to the victor.”
This story was updated and reposted with permission of MIGolfJournal.com.
PHOTOS (Top) Brighton takes a team photo after finishing third at last season’s LPD1 Final, and all five golfers are back this season including hockey players Levi Pennala (second from left) and Winston Lerch (second from right.) (Middle) Hartland’s Ian Kastamo (16) takes a faceoff against Brighton this winter. (Below) Mona Shores’ Nicholas Taylor fires an iron shot. (Photos courtesy of High School Sports Scene, Sapshots Photography and Mona Shores’ athletic department, respectively.)