Senior Season Setting Up as Brody's Best of Storied Grand Blanc Career
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
August 31, 2022
Grand Blanc’s Kate Brody entered her senior golf season a bit conflicted.
The 2020 Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final champion knew her game was as good or better than it’s ever been, but she wasn’t happy with some recent results.
Then she shot a 62.
“I just was hitting every shot kind of right where I wanted to,” said Brody, who shot 10-under par at The Fortress in Frankenmuth on Aug. 25 during the Saginaw Valley League Preseason Tournament. “I wasn’t really thinking about much while I was playing. I’ve never played that well before. There was probably only one shot that I wasn’t happy with.”
The 62 was a personal best in tournament play for Brody, and could be the spark for the final year of an already illustrious high school career.
Brody has never finished outside the top four at an MHSAA Finals event, taking third as a freshman and fourth as a junior. She was named first-team all-state by the Michigan Interscholastic Golf Coaches Association after all of her first three high school seasons, and has committed to play golf at the University of Wisconsin when this school year is done.
But Brody wasn’t happy with how her summer season had panned out, and even on the day she shot 62, said she didn’t feel all that confident until she got to the first tee box.
“I didn’t have as good of a summer as I wanted to playing in tournaments around the state,” Brody said. “I wasn’t nervous going into my senior season, but I knew I was going to have to keep working hard to shoot the scores I wanted to. I feel like my game is definitely better than the last couple summers. I think I’ve gotten smarter on the golf course. I’ve definitely gotten better near the green with my chipping and putting, and I’m hitting it a lot farther, too.”
That leaves the main ingredient for Brody’s success in her own head – and she’s mastering that approach as well.
“My mental game has gotten a lot stronger,” she said. “I know that I’m going to have bad shots and a couple bad holes. I’ve tried really hard to keep it together and honestly forget about it and move on.”
All of that work has made this level of success possible for Brody, but she started with quite a foundation.
Brody’s parents, Jenn and Doug Brody, are the LPGA professional and head professional, respectively, at Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club. Jenn played at Michigan State and on the LPGA Tour, and was inducted this past summer into the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame.
Kate started playing at 4 years old, although she said there are pictures of her holding a club earlier than that. She didn’t start playing competitively, however, until she was 11.
“I don’t think my parents really wanted to push me into it,” she said. “I just really liked coming out to the golf course in the summer. It was just fun for me. I didn’t really take it super seriously until middle school. I also played travel soccer and basketball when I was little. Those were my main sports over golf until like seventh grade.”
Golf became Brody’s main focus right around the time Glen Bauer took over as coach of the Grand Blanc girls program. And he knew before she took a class at the high school that he had something special.
“I started coaching when Kate was in eighth grade, and I tried to get her on the varsity team when she was in eighth grade,” Bauer joked. “Some young players, you know right away if they have what it takes to be a great golfer and a great person. She just was so far advanced from pretty much everybody that’s been here as a freshman. A lot of that is DNA, but it’s also what she had worked on since she was 4½.”
While Brody grew up rooting for the Spartans, and had a coach who was pulling for her to wind up at Michigan, it was Wisconsin that got the jump on recruiting her and never fell back to the rest of the pack.
Badgers coach Todd Oehrlein was in contact with Brody the first day he was allowed by rule, and a visit to Madison in October of 2021 sealed the deal.
“I could tell that he and (assistant coach Kristen Simpson) really wanted me,” Brody said. “I wanted to go somewhere I felt wanted and felt like I would be valuable to the team. I really felt a good connection with my coaches at the start, and that was a big part in the decision. As soon as I stepped on campus, I really fell in love with it. It blew me away, everything about it. I didn’t have a lot of interest in visiting other places.”
Brody’s commitment came shortly after her junior season wrapped up, and she admitted the recruiting process had created excess pressure in the past.
Now, it’s one less thing to worry about as she tries to focus on the matches and tournaments immediately ahead while working toward the bigger goal of another Finals title.
“Those big goals are always in the back of my head,” she said. “I think it’s really necessary to have them to achieve what you want. But when I’m going to the next tournament, it’s not like I’m thinking about the state championship. I’m thinking about that round. When I’m off the course, I’m thinking of that bigger goal.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Grand Blanc’s Kate Brody, here following through on a putt, has posted a tournament personal best 62 this season. (Middle and below) Brody, as a toddler and a few years older, took to the game at a young age and made it her main game during junior high. (Photos courtesy of the Brody family.)
GR Catholic Central Earns 1st Finals Title, Timpf Claims 3rd Medalist Honor
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
October 21, 2023
ALLENDALE – Adverse weather conditions couldn’t prevent the Grand Rapids Catholic Central girls golf team from making school history.
Despite two days of rain, wind and chilly temperatures, the Cougars overcame the elements to win their first Lower Peninsula Division 3 Final.
Catholic Central shot a 673 at The Meadows at Grand Valley State to win by 12 strokes.
Williamston finished runner-up with a 685, while 2022 champion Macomb Lutheran North (696) was third.
“It’s exciting,” Catholic Central coach Kim Napieralski said. “Just think about it. The boys had their first a couple years ago, and now the girls have their first. We’re on a roll.
“The good news about this weather is I have mudders for players. They don’t care about the conditions as much as some other teams perhaps. It was hard to get through the puddles of water, but they just kept playing.”
Lutheran North senior Lauren Timpf won the medalist honor, claiming her third individual Finals title. She became the seventh golfer in MHSAA Lower Peninsula girls golf history to achieve the feat, carding a 5-under-par 67 to finish with a two-round 141.
The Cougars’ previous best team finish at the Finals was fifth, which happened last year, but they got contributions from across the line-up to prevail.
“It’s been that way all season,” said Napieralski, who returned three of her top four golfers from a year ago. “A couple of girls at the top and then our three, four, five and sometimes even six. It could switch up any day. We go really deep as far as talent across the board.”
Junior Ava Wisinski led the Cougars with a 158 and finished sixth individually.
“I'm just so proud of my teammates," Wisinski said. “We knew it was going to be a challenge when we went into it, but we really stuck it out and it was a good fight.
“It was really wet out there, but I think we did well despite the conditions.”
Sophomore Kelly Preston also placed in the top 10 with a 159, while sophomores Margaret Deimel and Sofia Piccione and senior Katie Cook also played well.
Cook, the team’s lone senior, said it was even sweeter to win in her final tournament.
“I’ve been on the team since my freshman year, and just seeing it grow has been awesome,” Cook said. “We worked so hard to get here. We’ve had a really good season, and our depth is where we shine and we can all put together good scores on any day.
“We came into today thinking we were even with everyone around us. The conditions were awful, and half of it was playing golf, but half the battle was dealing with the conditions out there. It was really hard, but we did it. We were willing to battle through it.”
Catholic Central opened with a 334 and led Lutheran North and Williamston by 18 strokes heading into the final round.
“It was important to play well the first day and it felt good, but we came into today with the mentality that we’re going first day again,” Napieralski said. “We are all even, straight up.”
Timpf fired a first-day 74 and was tied with Spring Lake’s Zoe Dull entering the final 18 holes. Dull and Grand Rapids Christian’s Lillian O’Grady both finished with two-day totals of 149 to tie for second.
“I know I didn’t play my best golf yesterday, and I just really tried to block it out of my head and know that I am capable of going low,” Timpf said. “Since it was my senior year and last high school tournament, it just really meant the world to me to come out here. I've been working all four years to try and accomplish this goal, and to just come back from where I started today and end up winning is super special.”
Timpf recorded a double-bogey on her first hole, but recovered with four straight birdies on the back nine.
“After the first hole I thought that I’m not going to win this if I don't start making some putts,” Timpf said. “I started draining a bunch of birdie putts, especially on the back nine, and that got it going for me.
Williamston was tied with Lutheran North entering Saturday, and the two teams were still knotted on the back nine.
“What my girls did the last hour and a half is kind of a blur to me,” Hornets coach Brian Kent said. “We started making putts, we started making chips and I thought for the first time in school history we are in the top five and might get state runner-up.”
The Hornets shot a 333, the lowest in the final round. This was their first top-two Finals finish.
“I'm proud of my team,” Kent said. “I knew on day one of practice that we had a special team, but this is not what I thought. This course is tough on a good day, let alone with these conditions. We all had to play the same conditions, but they were hitting greens and fairways all day long and that's what saved us.”
Leading the way for Williamston was junior Nicole Schafer, who finished fourth overall with rounds of 77 and 73.
Freshman Paige Radebach and seniors Ellie Thorburn and Allison Kane rounded out the top four.
PHOTOS (Top) Grand Rapids Catholic Central's Ava Wisinski follows a shot during the weekend's LP Divison 3 Final. (Middle) Macomb Lutheran North's Lauren Timpf putts during her run to a third medalist honor. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)