Murphy Closes Championship Career
October 31, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The hardest-working athlete Dan Young has coached stuck around long after practices ended, perfecting shots often by the light of nearby street lamps.
The player was motivated by the chance to win the school’s first girls championship, and an individual title too after falling just short of both the year before.
It sounds like a scene out of a high school basketball movie, and Young has coached that sport at the prep and collegiate levels for 20 years.
But this fall he coached girls golf for the first time, and from senior Kelsey Murphy saw a drive like he’d never seen from one of his athletes before.
Motivated by just-misses from the season before, Murphy willed Plymouth to its first MHSAA team championship in any girls sport and claimed the individual title as well Oct. 19-20 at Michigan State’s Forest Akers East.
“That means a lot, coming from him,” Murphy said. “Our team really made the push this year.
“My main goal for my season was to win the team championship. Winning the individual with this was just a little extra. … It was a nice extra.”
And an extra-nice comeback story.
Murphy gets a Second Half High 5 after making good on her hard work heading into this fall, and sticking it out when tough weather and tough putting threatened that individual opportunity again.
She shot a first-round 73 at the Final to lead by a stroke with one round left in her high school career. But Murphy started the second 18 with five bogeys – and it was hard to not consider the 2011 Final, when Murphy led with four holes to play before finishing third.
Meanwhile, her team led by seven strokes, a nice advantage but hardly comfortable.
“It was mainly putting, and I just went back to the basics. (I learned in 2011) to always make sure you finish the round; any stroke will matter,” Murphy said. “I didn’t used to finish out. I’d give up some strokes at the end. It’s just telling yourself to focus on the next shot. You have to hit every shot.”
Murphy fought back with two birdies during her final nine holes, and finished with a second-round 75 and a two-day 178 – good for the individual win by a stroke. And her Wildcats cut their collective score by three from the first day to win the team championship by 11.
Young told his players the night before the tournament’s start that they deserved to win because of the work they’d put into this season. And at the front of that effort was Murphy.
“I’ve never had somebody who works harder than this girl,” Young said. “We’d get to the range at 2:45 and leave at 6 o’clock, and she’d be there until 7 o’clock every single night. It would be dark, and she’d be using street lights to putt and chip.
“She was grinding it out, not leaving any stone unturned. And the thing about it is all the other girls felt they needed to stay too.”
Murphy averaged 36 strokes for nine-hole matches this fall and 74 for 18-hole events. Her second-most impressive win might have been Aug. 23 at the Highland Invitational at Heather Highlands Golf Club, where she shot a 69 to finish ahead of a strong field. Murphy also shot a 74 to win the Regional at Ypsilanti’s Pine View Golf Course by four strokes as her team won that title by 19.
Keep in mind that Murphy is a relative newcomer to the sport. She’s been playing for a little more than five years, picking up the clubs for the first time after a dislocated knee ended her swimming aspirations.
But with younger sister Sydney in tow – the sophomore shot a 173 at the Final – and their grandmother Emma showing them the ropes, Kelsey picked up her new sport quickly. She’s always been a long hitter and drives the ball 240 yards consistently. Her work on pitching has paid off over the last year, and next up is a focus on longer approaches.
The last 10 days have been a lot of fun for the Wildcats, who have continued to hang out together and were recognized during the football team’s playoff game Friday. Murphy will sign to continue her career at Eastern Michigan University and is among favorites to win the statewide Miss Golf award later this month.
That would be another "nice extra" touch to a finish she'll remember most because of how she ended it.
“I was able to keep my game and get it back on track. It’s the lasting impression, to show I can get my game back,” Murphy said. “I knew through other rounds I could do it. But it was just getting back mentally on track and doing it and being able to come through.”
PHOTO: Plymouth's Kelsey Murphy prepares to tee off during the second round of this month's MHSAA Division 1 Final at Forest Akers East. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com).
Work Paves Way for Stellar Northville Start
September 14, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Stick with it. Work hard. Have faith in yourself, and good things will happen.
The Northville girls golf team has been making good on those promises – and putting it lightly, lots of good things have come their way over the first month of this fall season.
The first MHSAA/Applebee’s Team of the Month for 2018-19 has won all six tournaments it’s played this season, including five in August, while posting incredible scores against elite competition.
That the Mustangs are succeeding isn’t shocking – they did finish fourth at last year’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final, and return five of their top six players from that team. But with a quarter century of coaching cross country and now golf, Chris Cronin knows it takes more for a high school team to reach its potential – and why it’s not just by chance that his golfers have tapped into theirs during a blistering start.
“We had 11 girls return from last year’s team. Every one of those girls took it upon themselves to really work,” Cronin said. “They worked on their swing, a lot of them have additional coaches, they played a lot of summer tournaments. They just got themselves in a position to be playing their best golf.”
Northville opened the season shooting a 304 to win the Orangetheory Fitness Invitational at Hudson Mills in Dexter – with sophomore Nicole Whatley shooting a 1-under 71 to tie for individual medalist.
Next up was the Aug. 20 Sentech Services Tournament at Kensington Metropark, and a performance Cronin called “awe-inspiring.” The Mustangs shot a 291, breaking the previous team record of 313 shot last fall, with Whatley leading the way with a 5-under 67.
“I think it was one of those days where as a team they played as good as they could possibly play,” Cronin said. “The reaction from the other players at that tournament, they didn’t have to say much. It was jaw-dropping.”
Northville went on win the Kensington Lakes Activities Association Preseason Invitational (318), Brighton’s Coach Miller Invitational (307), Saline’s Invitational (333) and last weekend added the Farmington Invitational in 305 strokes, the second-lowest team score in program history. The Mustangs also won the Mason Invitational with a 308 using a mix of players from their “A” and “B” lineups.
Cronin believes he has the deepest team in the state, and it’s a strong argument. Senior Mariella Simoncini is the lone senior among the "A" lineup, and she missed the individual top 10 at last year’s Final by a stroke. Whatley and sophomore Katelyn Tokarz and juniors Sufna Gill and Sedona Shipka all contributed to last season’s fourth-place finish at The Meadows at Grand Valley State, and freshman Megha Vallabhaneni has played her way into the top group this fall.
The Mustangs took their seventh player to the Saline Invitational, and she finished 24th overall. All of that talent makes for a competitive atmosphere – and raises the level of play for the entire team.
In addition to the team’s 291 round, the latest individual achievement by Simoncini struck Cronin as particularly special so far. She shot a career-best 3-under 67 to lead the Farmington effort last weekend and place first individually, “and as a coach, you always want to see when the hard work pays off. She does so much for us on so many different levels with leadership and setting the tone for the girls, talking them through everything from rules … she’s awesome.”
Surely more highlights are on the way. Northville shot a 306 on Saturday to win the Top 50 Invitational at Battle Creek's Bedford Valley ahead of many of the state's best teams. The Mustangs play in arguably the toughest golf league in the state, and have one more invite at Bloomfield Hills Marian.
Regionals are in a month – kicking off an opportunity to play again for the program’s first MHSAA Finals championship.
“We talk a lot in the program about expectations, but opportunities. And we knew we’d have an opportunity to be good this year,” Cronin said. “If you wanted to be part of that opportunity, it was going to require you to do some work. And they did the work.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Northville’s Mariella Simoncini follows through on a wedge shot during play this fall. (Middle) The Mustangs’ winning lineup from one of its August events, from left: Nicole Whatley, Sedona Shipka, Megha Vallabhaneni, Katelyn Tokarz and Sufna Gill. (Photos by Debbie Stein.)