Forest Hills Eastern Rises at D3 Final
October 20, 2012
By Gary Kalahar
Special to Second Half
BATTLE CREEK – The pain in Kelsey Sands’ shoulder Saturday morning had her thinking she would not be playing in the final round of the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 golf tournament.
“I was crying,” the Ada Forest Hills Eastern senior said of the injury plaguing her during her warm-up at Bedford Valley in Battle Creek.
Sands not only teed it up, her huge improvement from Friday’s first round typified her team’s comeback as the Hawks emerged from a tight four-team race to win their second state title in three years.
Top-ranked Forest Hills Eastern totaled 710 strokes to nip the 712 of Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood and the 713 of both Grosse Ile and Detroit Country Day. Forest Hills Eastern started the final round in fourth place, 18 strokes behind Grosse Ile.
All five Forest Hills Eastern players improved their scores in the second round, played in cold conditions but markedly better than the rain and wind of the first round. Just three other players in the field improved more than Sands, who shot a 94 to come in as the Hawks’ fourth scorer after a first-round 109.
“You need to have all four scores,” Forest Hills Eastern coach Brian Telzerow said. “She wasn’t going to play. We prayed as a team, and she said, ‘Let’s give it a try.’ She played phenomenally.”
Forest Hills Eastern did not have another player in Battle Creek, so without Sands the Hawks would not have the ability to throw out a score.
“It went away maybe a third of the way through the round,” Sands said of the pain she believed came from a pulled muscle and which subsided as she got her round off to a solid start with three bogeys and a par.
Henna Singh’s fifth-place 167 with a second-round 83 led Forest Hills Eastern. Jordan Duvall shot the Hawks’ best score of the round, an 81 that left her at 169 for her third straight top-10 state finish.
“I usually come out and play well in the state finals,” Duvall said. “It’s fun for me. I like the competition at the state level.”
With his team facing a large deficit after the first round, Telzerow channeled some Ben Crenshaw and reminded his team of the U.S. team’s comeback in the Ryder Cup in 1999.
“I said, ‘I’ve got a feeling. That’s all I’m going to say about it,’ ” Telzerow said.
“Coach told us the story about the Ryder Cup, and we took that in perspective and said, ‘Hey, it’s 4½ shots a person, why not come back and make it happen,’ ” Duvall said. “We knew we had the potential. We knew it was going to be tough, but we knew we could do it.”
Anne Parlmer shot an 85 for the Hawks’ other final-round score.
“That was remarkable to come up with those scores, especially in these conditions,” Grosse Ile coach Jim Bennett said after the Hawks stopped his team’s bid for a third title in four years. “They stepped up when they had to.”
Telzerow said being in fourth place after the first round might have aided his team’s rally. Players from the top three teams were paired together for the final round.
“We’re the fourth team, so nobody’s really going to be paying attention to us,” Telzerow said. “Let’s go play our game and not worry about the other teams. There wasn’t any of that nervousness about how any of the other players were doing. They could play their own kind of golf.”
“They really came from out of nowhere and beat us,” Country Day coach Peggy Steffan said after her team posted its best MHSAA Finals finish.
Her fourth trip to the Finals didn’t make handling the nerves any easier for Dearborn Divine Child senior Natalie Blazo.
“(Friday) I was a wreck,” Blazo said.
But Saturday was a lot better, and Blazo shot the round of the tournament to claim medalist honors. Her 76 was four strokes clear of the next-best round and gave her a 157 total.
Blazo was seven strokes ahead of Clio’s Ayla Bogie and Cranbrook-Kingswood’s Cordelia Chan.
“I thought that I had a chance (to be medalist), yes,” Blazo said. “That I could do it, a little iffy. I wanted to get in the top 10 at least.”
Blazo punctuated her round with a tap-in birdie on her last hole, the par-4 No. 3. Blazo and Bogie, playing as individual qualifiers, were tied for the lead after the first round and thus paired together in the second round.
“There were some girls who were close who were playing with their teams, so I always knew there could be somebody shooting lower than me,” Blazo said. “My putting was great. I made some long ones to save par.”
Jackson Northwest took fifth at 743 for its third consecutive finish in the top six.
PHOTOS: (Top) The top-10 placers stand together after receiving their medals Saturday. (Middle) Ada Forest Hills Eastern poses with its team trophy at Saturday's Division 3 Final. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Byron Center's Elzinga on Track to Contend for Rare Back-to-Back Finals Title
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
August 23, 2023
BYRON CENTER – Macie Elzinga will attempt to accomplish a rare feat this season as she embarks on her senior year.
The Byron Center standout is looking to join an elite group of golfers who have won multiple individual MHSAA Finals championships.
Elzinga blazed to an impressive five-stroke win over 2019 and 2021 medalist Gabriella Tapp of South Lyon at last year’s Lower Peninsula Division 2 Final at Forest Akers West Golf Course in East Lansing.
Only 10 Lower Peninsula golfers have won back-to-back Finals titles. Shannon Kennedy of Bloomfield Hills Marian was the most recent in 2019 and 2020.
“I always expect to win, and I'm really hoping I do again this year,” Elzinga said. “Two of my best friends are in Division 1, and we are moving up to Division 1 this year, so the competition is definitely better than it was last year. But I know that if I play my game and play to the best of my ability, then I can make something special happen. That's the goal.”
Elzinga shot rounds of 72 and 76 en route to her 2022 Finals victory while helping earn the Bulldogs a fourth-place finish.
“I wanted to win badly, and I knew I was capable of it,” Elzinga said. “I had come up barely short the year before and got third. I was coming off a really good season so I definitely knew that I had a chance to win it, and that was my expectation.”
Her stellar overall game was on display as she managed the course with accuracy off the tee and a deft short game.
“Everything was going well for me, but the biggest thing was I think I missed less than five fairways the whole tournament so that was definitely big,” Elzinga said. “I was driving the ball really well and putting well, which helped me seal the deal.”
Byron Center girls golf coach Jon Van Ryn believed his No. 1 player had the skill set to be in the mix.
“I knew that she had it in her to be one of the top contenders in the state, but I was just so impressed with how poised she was throughout the whole tournament,” he said. “I was pleasantly surprised by the win, but I knew she was capable of that as well.”
Elzinga, who has committed to Bowling Green State University, became the first golfer in Byron Center history to win an individual Finals title.
“I definitely love my school and the community, and it was definitely cool to be the first golfer to win a state championship,” she said. “I’m glad I could win something like that for the school.”
Elzinga’s quest to repeat will be more difficult as Byron Center moves up to Division 1.
She will more than likely be challenged by two of her friends and area rivals, Rockford’s Jessica Jolly and East Kentwood’s Elise Fennell.
Fennell finished runner-up last year in Division 1, while Jolly finished in a tie for third.
“We’ve grown up around the game together, and it’s definitely a lot of fun playing against them,” Elzinga said. “All three of us were talking to the same colleges for school.”
Van Ryn also has high aspirations for Elzinga despite the jump to Division 1 this fall.
“My expectations for her are to hopefully see her take a state title again, and I would love to see the team take a state title along with her,” he said. “We moved up a division, so it's going to be tough. We have a lot of competition, but she loves all the other strong golfers and has a good friendship and rivalry with all of them.”
Elzinga made an immediate impact upon arriving at Byron Center and helped lead the team to a Finals appearance as a freshman in 2020.
She didn’t finish among the top 10 individually that year, but was a key cog in Byron Center’s best finish (runner-up) the following season while placing third as an individual.
“I’d known her for several years before that, so I knew when she came in that she immediately was going to be one of our top players,” Van Ryn said. “She definitely came right in and filled that No. 1 spot right away and never looked back.
“She just makes very few mistakes and is always thinking multiple shots ahead. She keeps her ball right down the middle of the fairway and she has a phenomenal short game. She's just a very intelligent and skilled golfer.”
Elzinga has played well so far this season with a pair of third-place finishes at the Kent County Classic and Sydney Carfine Memorial Invitational, where the Bulldogs finished runner-up to Rockford.
She is one of three returning golfers after the team graduated five from a season ago. But despite the departures, Elzinga has confidence in the team’s ability to contend.
“We’ve built a pretty good program around here since I’ve been here, and I’ve already been surprised by this year’s team,” Elzinga said. “Everyone worked really hard in the offseason, and the girls we have coming up from the JV are just as good. I think we have a chance to do something special this year as well.”
Dean Holzwarth has covered primarily high school sports for Grand Rapids-based WOOD-TV for five years after serving at the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years along with shorter stints at the Ionia Sentinel and WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Byron Center’s Macie Elzinga sends a putt toward the hole during last season’s Lower Peninsula Division 2 Final. (Middle) Elzinga celebrates her individual championship at Forest Akers West. (Top photo by High School Sports Scene; middle photo courtesy of the Byron Center athletic department.)