#TBT: Warner's 136 Tops Leaderboard

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

September 4, 2014

Shannon Warner became a high school golf legend at Livonia Churchill with back-to-back MHSAA Finals championships during the springs of 2006 and 2007. 

Few since have approached her incredible scores shot during those title runs at Michigan State University. 

Warner's two-round 136 at Forest Akers East in the 2006 Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final remains the lowest 36-hole Finals score in MHSAA history, one stroke better than Whitehall's Laura Kueny on that same course in LP Division 3 in 2005. Warner's score also remains five strokes lower than the next lowest in LP Division 1 and Class A history, scores of 141 shot by Rochester's Amy Meier in 2008 and Grandville's Stacy Snider in 1998. Warner's rounds of 67 and 69 in 2006 rank first and tied for third, respectively, in LP Division 1 Finals history for 18 holes. 

An individual Finals qualifier in 2006, Warner won by 11 strokes over Meier, Lake Orion's Darby Peters and Grand Blanc's Ashley Bauer. Warner also was an individual qualifier in 2007 when she shot a 145 at Forest Akers West to best Meier by five strokes. Warner's 145 ranks as the fifth-lowest 36-hole Finals score in LP Division 1/Class A history. She then made the 2007 fall Finals with her team (the first LP Girls Golf Finals played in the fall), tying for fifth.

Warner played her first three collegiate seasons at Michigan State University and finished her college career in 2012 at Eastern Michigan University, earning first-team all-Mid-American Conference honors as a senior. She won the Golf Association of Michigan Women's Championship in 2013 and made the match play semifinals of the GAM Women's Amateur Championships last month. 

PHOTO: Livonia Churchill's Shannon Warner, then a sophomore, watches a shot during the Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final at Forest Akers East. 

Banner Day For Lutheran North Golfers

By Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com

October 15, 2022

EAST LANSING - With his team tied with Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood after the first round of the MHSAA Division 3 Girls Golf Finals, Macomb Lutheran North coach Alex Schlump didn’t need to deliver a big pep talk to his team going into the second and last day.

Instead, it was just a simple message he’s preached to his team all year.

“The focus was to play your own game,” Schlump said of what he told his girls. “We had to be mentally stronger than everybody else and we knew we were. That’s been our strength all season long, whether it’s been playing in the rain or playing in 40-degree weather.”

That mental strength was the difference for Lutheran North, which captured its first state title since 2017 on a chilly and windy day at Forest Akers East.

After Cranbrook and Lutheran North shot identical scores of 336 on the first day, Lutheran North was six shots better on the second day, shooting a 332 to finish with a final total of 668. 

Cranbrook finished as the runner-up with a final score of 674, while Grosse Ile, which entered the day three shots back, took third with a 677.

Grand Rapids South Christian (682) and Grand Rapids Catholic Central (695) rounded out the top-5.

Leading the way for Lutheran North was junior Lauren Timpf, who followed up a first round score of 70 with a 72 in the second round to finish as the medalist with a 2-under par score of 142. 

“I have played this course many times, and just coming into the week, I tried to give myself as many birdie opportunities as I could,” Timpf said. “Just take advantage of the short par-5 and getting there in two. Just really playing aggressive to get those birdie opportunities.”

Flanking Timpf was sophomore Saige Rothey, who tied for 13th with a two-day total of 163 (78-85). 

Grosse Ile senior Lily Bargamian was the individual runner-up, finishing seven shots behind Timpf with a 149 (75-74). 

Charlotte senior Hannah Robinson was third with a 150 (75-75), while Grand Rapids Catholic Central sophomore Ava Wisinski and Grand Rapids Christian freshman Lillian O’Grady tied for fourth at 153. 

The highest finisher for runner-up Cranbrook was junior Mackenzie Behnke, who tied for ninth at 160. 

Cranbrook was the defending state champion, but head coach John Minnich wasn’t unhappy at all to at least come away with a runner-up trophy given he called it a rebuilding year for his squad with no seniors.

“We play in the same conference in the Catholic League that Lutheran North plays in, and we’ve played them several times this year,” Minnich said. “Every match and every tournament we’ve played with them has been neck-and-neck. To be honest, they’ve had more firepower than we’ve had all year. Our players were more consistent though. We didn’t make the big numbers. We didn’t avoid them this tournament. We made a few too many big numbers.”

In the end, that proved costly for a Lutheran North team that beat out several larger schools to win the Macomb County championship earlier in the year, and now has another state championship trophy to add to its case. 

“We knew we had so many good players and talent coming back,” Schlump said. “We have a team that’s mentally strong,” he said. “That is something we knew we could do with the group of girls we had.

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PHOTOS (Top) Lauren Timpf wins her second consecutive MHSAA medalist honors. (Middle) Division 3 team champions, Macomb Lutheran North. (Photos by James Traynor.)