Self-Taught Eichhorn Launches into Elite
May 20, 2016
By Dennis Grall
Special for Second Half
ESCANABA – Hunter Eichhorn is not your typical young golfer. Instead of just pounding drives all over the course, he actually thinks his way around.
The Carney-Nadeau junior, who may be the best of a young core of golfers in the Upper Peninsula, loves to "strategize" his way to low scores. He fired a brilliant 5-under-par 67 on May 16 at Menominee Riverside Country Club, one of the peninsula's most demanding layouts.
He had a career-best 10-under 62 at Royal Scot Golf Club near Green Bay while competing on the Wisconsin Junior Golf Tour in 2015.
"The way he manages his game is quite incredible. He adjusts to the golf course and he adjusts to what the golf course is asking for," said Jacob Polfus, the C-N golf coach. Polfus is also the C-N basketball coach, and Eichhorn was a second-team all-conference selection in 2015-16.
Basketball was his primary sport as a youngster, then he dropped it for golf during grades 3-9 before joining the varsity basketball team the past three years. "I just started loving golf. I enjoy everything about it, the competition, being competitive with other players.
"I love to win and play against good people and beat them. I like meeting new people and making new friends I would never meet if I was not playing the game."
He got into golf with the urging of his grandfather, Steve Pipkorn, who would bring him to Hermansville Wild Pines Golf Course, a 9-hole course about 12 miles from home. Often he would spend the whole day there, getting picked up by his father, Brad, on Brad’s way home from work in Norway.
Escanaba golf coach Brian Robinette, one of only two people ever to give Eichhorn lessons, said those numerous early rounds at "a mom and pop course" were beneficial in those early years.
"He was able to make par and have birdie putts. He played hole after hole out there. It kind of launched his career, shooting good scores at an early age," said Robinette, a former state junior champion and Olivet College Sports Hall of Fame golfer.
Those rounds at Wild Pines were special, Eichhorn agreed. "I play by myself a lot. I can focus on it more," he said of those growing up rounds. He is a self-taught golfer and has never had a swing coach.
"I'm confident where I'm at, the way I do things," he said.
With extensive play on U.P. courses – his favorites are Iron Mountain Pine Grove and Harris Sweetgrass Golf Club – and on the Wisconsin Junior Tour, he has developed a solid game that compares well with the region's top adults. He plays in a Tuesday night men's league at Highland Golf Club, near Escanaba, and also gets into Friday evening adult matches there.
Eichhorn may only hit driver twice on some courses, knowing it is important to keep the ball in play. "I like strategizing more than just attacking it with driver," he said with a smile that comes from drives that went astray. "Strategizing is a big part of scoring, finding the right angles into greens. Just knowing what consequences can come out of the swing (with out-of-bounds or water looming on fairways).
"If you don't pull the shot off, it could cost you a shot or two. It is a constant game of learning from all situations. Just a bad thought can cost you."
Eichhorn pounds his drives 280 to 300 yards (a 7-iron flies about 190 yards) but acknowledges, "I hit plenty of shots off-line. I'll admit it." Because of those wayward balls, he said recovering from bad shots is probably the best part of his game, along with chipping and putting.
Polfus said "the biggest thing is he doesn't put pressure on to hit driver all the time. He can hit all the shots, and the way he can check it up from certain distances, it is amazing to watch him play. The way he has grown most is how he handles himself when he does hit a bad shot."
Eichhorn admits that wasn't always the case, especially by throwing clubs in his earlier years. "My parents were not thrilled," he said with a chuckle. As he gained experience and age, "I realized it doesn't help your game."
Polfus said Eichhorn's primary growth "is his attitude. He calms himself. You can see him smile more now (on the course). He understands you are going to make mistakes and see how you respond."
Robinette likens his playing style to the transformation seen in golf across the country. "I see very athletic kids who just aren't intimidated by anything. They are fearless," he said, citing PGA Tour standouts Rory McIlroy and Jason Day as examples of that mentality and approach.
"They look down the hole and see birdies everywhere. He (Eichhorn) is fearless. He thinks his way around a golf course very well. He has a good routine; he pays attention to all the details to not make mistakes. His fundamentals are very good. He swings pretty hard, but he is still under control. He doesn't miss the middle of the club face. His misses tend to be pin high."
With a year of high school remaining, he already has some big plans. He will play the Wisconsin Junior Golf Tour again this year along with U.P. junior events and will likely play in the Upper Peninsula Golf Association men's tournament in Sault Ste. Marie.
He played in last year's UPGA event in Marinette, Wis., and learned a lot from that experience. "The competition level was really high. You have to play at even a higher level than you think you can," he said.
Eichhorn also may try to qualify for the U.S. Junior Amateur. He has also received attention from college golf teams from Michigan State University, Marquette University and South Dakota State University, where the head coach is Upper Peninsula native Casey VanDamme.
He also has big plans after college. "I want to be a professional golfer. I want to be really, really good," he said. "It will take a lot of practice (something he does at a very high level). I'd like to be the best I can be by (age) 22 or 23. I want to give myself a chance to be good on the PGA Tour.
"It will obviously take a lot. I know it is a far-fetched goal, but it is something I am willing to work for. This will give me the reality check, and that is why I'm going to go to college (for a business degree)."
Robinette believes Eichhorn's passion for golf and strong work ethic will help him reach his goals. "The secret for him is in the dirt. He has probably hit more golf balls his age than anybody I've come across. Mike Nagy, maybe," Robinette said of the former Manistique standout who just completed a four-year golf career at the University of Tennessee.
"He (Eichhorn) is a student of the game. He has a very high golf IQ. This is not a social sport for him," Robinette added.
In addition to Eichhorn, the upcoming MHSAA U.P. Golf Finals at three locations will feature several other promising players. Others with excellent promise are freshman Nathan Rousseau of Escanaba, freshman Jordan Jurmu of Marquette, a participant of the chip, putt and drive national finals at Augusta National in April, and junior Bryce Douglas of Gladstone.
Two outstanding girls are freshman Paxton Johnson of Escanaba and sophomore Kaaren Liston of Houghton, who won the U.P. Division 1 title last year.
Denny Grall retired in 2012 after 39 years at the Escanaba Daily Press and four at the Green Bay Press-Gazette, plus 15 months for WLST radio in Escanaba; he served as the Daily Press sports editor from 1970-80 and again from 1984-2012. Grall was inducted into the Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame in 2002 and serves as its executive secretary. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for the Upper Peninsula.
PHOTOS: (Top) Carney-Nadeau's Hunter Eichhorn watches one of his shot during a tournament Wednesday at Irish Oaks Golf Course in Gladstone. (Middle) Eichhorn studies the putting line on No. 17 green at Irish Oaks. (Photos by Denny Grall.)
Performance: NorthPointe Christian's Erik Fahlen Jr
June 15, 2018
Erik Fahlen Jr.
Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian junior – Golf
The NorthPointe ace fired a two-day 71-67-138 to win the individual championship at last weekend’s Lower Peninsula Division 4 Final at Forest Akers East, leading the Mustangs to their first team title since 1996 in earning the Michigan Army National Guard “Performance of the Week.” Fahlen’s 138 was the lowest score in LPD4/Class D Finals history since the tournament went to a two-round format in 1994 and tied for fourth-lowest for all divisions – even through he played through steady rain in East Lansing.
The victory was his fourth this spring, following championships at the Kent County Classic (shooting 74), Ottawa-Kent Conference Silver final (68) and Muskegon Mona Shores Invitational (73 plus a playoff). He also took second at his Regional and at the Katke Classic and averaged 74.9 strokes per round. NorthPointe, on the strength of two top-10 individual finishes by Fahlen and seventh-place Logan Holtkamp, a third that just missed by Hayden VanErmen and career-low scores from its fifth player Lance VanErmen, locked up the LPD4 team title with a few holes to play Saturday on the way to winning by 33 strokes. The individual race, meanwhile, came down to Fahlen, Suttons Bay’s Thomas Hursey and reigning champion Austin Fauser of Clinton – Fahlen and Fauser were tied with three holes left before Fahlen finished birdie-par-birdie to clinch the medalist honor.
Fahlen had finished 11th at the LPD4 Final in 2017, then decided to make golf a year-round pursuit playing on three junior tours last fall and winter that took him to Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee among southern locales. He has a busy playing schedule mapped out for this summer, filled with Golf Association of Michigan (GAM), United States Golf Association (USGA) and American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) events. He also carries a 3.6 grade-point average as he looks toward college and continuing to golf at that level, and he’ll have one more opportunity next spring to lead NorthPointe for his dad Erik Sr., the Mustangs’ coach.
Coach (and father) Erik Fahlen Sr. said: “He played probably 20-25 tournaments outside of high school since last state finals, and he won nine of those. … (Heading into last fall) he hadn’t ever cracked the 60s, and then over two months he had two 69s and a 67. He got the confidence to finish, got in his mind he can shoot in the 60s – he’s just got to finish it up. … (On Saturday), I’m talking to him at the 18th tee and I said, ‘We’ll, you’re one stroke ahead but you both (Fahlen and Fauser) have one to play. A birdie will win it, par might win it, and with a bogey you will be a playoff.’ He looked at me and said, ‘I’m not going to be in any playoff. I’m going to birdie this hole.’ Those experiences in tournaments have helped him finish. When you’re golfing, you’ve got to learn how to finish.”
Performance Point: “It was a really special weekend, getting to play with the three seniors on our team and it was our last tournament together,” Erik Jr. said. “It really couldn’t have gone any better for us – we played our two lowest rounds of the year at state finals, which is really cool, and I played well individually. We know that we have the game. We were looking for those numbers all year, and they hadn’t really come. It’s a 36-hole tournament, and you’ve just got to take it hole by hole and do our best to shoot the lowest score.”
Rain? No problem: “I use a push cart, and that definitely helps with rain. I’m able to keep multiple towels on my cart and I have an umbrella, and my dad was making sure everything I had was staying dry … And (it’s about) not letting the rain bug you. You don’t want it to really change your game. You just want to go out and play the golf ball, not let it distract you like it happened to many other players, like ‘Hey, it really stinks playing in this rain. I’m getting soaked.’ I didn’t really worry about that. I just go out and play a round.”
Mustangs striding: “It’s sweet to bring back the life of NorthPointe golf. We went through a couple struggles four or five years ago and the team wasn’t looking very good, and now we’ve got a couple young kids in, and my dad gets the coaching job and it kinda gives the program new life – new motivation, that we’ve got to be this championship team and bring a state title back to NorthPointe.”
Thanks Dad: “I’ve been playing in the little junior tournaments since I could walk, really, since I was a really small kid. He was my coach all along for that, so for him to be my coach now since I started going to high school, it’s cool having him be my coach and being the coach of me as well my friends on the team, and having a special connection not only as coach but as a father as well.”
Great leads to follow: “Of course I love looking at Jordan Spieth and how he was in his junior days, and how he was the king of junior golf. That’s something huge to look up to. And there’s a couple of local high schoolers, kids that went to Detroit Catholic Central like Ben Smith, James Piot and Sean Niles. They graduated last year. Those are kids I look up to, to try to get my game to be like theirs; they all went to play somewhere (in college) big and pretty cool for golf. I do not know them personally, but I played in tournaments against them. They were definitely big names; they’d all win these individual junior tournaments and state championships, and I’m trying to get my golf game to be like theirs.”
- Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2017-18 school year, Second Half and the Michigan Army National Guard will recognize a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, and responds as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our nation's freedom or protect lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
Previous 2017-18 honorees:
June 7: Paxton Johnson, Escanaba golf - Read
May 31: Lydia Goble, Schoolcraft softball - Read
May 24: Corinne Jemison, East Kentwood track & field - Read
May 17: Reagan Wisser, Richland Gull Lake soccer - Read
May 10: Clayton Sayen, Houghton track & field - Read
May 3: Autumn Roberts, Traverse City Central tennis - Read
April 26: Thomas Robinson, Wyoming Lee track & field - Read
March 29: Carlos Johnson, Benton Harbor basketball - Read
March 22: Shine Strickland-Gills, Saginaw Heritage basketball - Read
March 15: Skyler Cook-Weeks, Holland Christian swimming - Read
March 8: Dakota Greer, Howard City Tri-County wrestling - Read
March 1: Camree' Clegg, Wayne Memorial basketball - Read
February 23: Aliah Robertson, Sault Ste. Marie swimming - Read
February 16: Austin O'Hearon, Eaton Rapids wrestling - Read
February 9: Sophia Wiard, Muskegon Oakridge basketball - Read
February 2: Brenden Tulpa, Hartland hockey - Read
January 25: Brandon Whitman, Dundee wrestling - Read
January 18: Derek Maas, Holland West Ottawa swimming - Read
January 11: Lexi Niepoth, Bellaire basketball - Read
November 30: La'Darius Jefferson, Muskegon football - Read
November 23: Ashley Turak, Farmington Hills Harrison swimming - Read
November 16: Bryce Veasley, West Bloomfield football - Read
November 9: Jose Penaloza, Holland soccer - Read
November 2: Karenna Duffey, Macomb L'Anse Creuse North cross country - Read
October 26: Anika Dy, Traverse City West golf - Read
October 19: Andrew Zhang, Bloomfield Hills tennis - Read
October 12: Nolan Fugate, Grand Rapids Catholic Central football - Read
October 5: Marissa Ackerman, Munising tennis - Read
September 28: Minh Le, Portage Central soccer - Read
September 21: Olivia Theis, Lansing Catholic cross country - Read
September 14: Maddy Chinn, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep volleyball - Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian's Erik Fahlen Jr. follows through on a swing this season. (Middle) Fahlen poses at Forest Akers East after clinching the Lower Peninsula Division 4 title. (Top photo courtesy of the Fahlen family; bottom photo by HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)