Michigan Golf Journal December 2019

Michigan Golf Journal SU Alums on LPGA Tour Two MSU Alum Earn LPGA Tour Cards MSU alums Liz Nagel (DeWitt) and Sarah Burnham (Minn.) each earned their way to priority status on the 2020 LPGA Tour by finishing in the top 25 of the LPGA Q-Series, which took place at Pinehurst; 8 rounds of golf starting Oct. 23 and concluding Nov. 2. Nagel – age 27 and the pride of DeWitt, winner of the 2018 Michigan PGA Women’s Open, two Michigan high school state titles and two Miss Golf Awards in Michigan – finished T16 in the Q-Series. She is also, more impressively, a thyroid cancer survivor after being diagnosed in November of 2012 during her senior year in East Lansing. Nagel made a handful of LPGA Tour starts a few years ago but has mostly played the Symetra Tour since. This year she lost a grandfather in January, the family dog in May and then her maternal grandmother in June. That’s when Nagel took four weeks off from golf to be with her family in mid-Michigan. “It’s probably been the hardest year of my life, and that’s saying a lot because cancer really sucked too,” Nagel said. “So, I came home just to be with my family and at the time I wasn’t playing bad but wasn’t playing good, just wasn’t putting four rounds together … obviously your perspective changes and I By Tom Lang Sarah Burnham and Liz Nagel Continues on page 14 >>