Michigan Golf Journal December 2019

5 December 2019 www.michigangolfjournal.com most fearless players I have ever watched,” said MSU coach Casey Lubahn, who did pursue Eichhorn. When Eichhorn did play junior golf tournaments, he most often headed west into Wisconsin, where Marquette coach Steve Bailey noticed the young man’s game. “I always put a big emphasis in recruiting on kids who win,” Bailey said in reference to the smaller fields Eichhorn played in due to his geography. “A lot of other (coaches) might have shied away from him because a lot of those events might not have been at the highest level, but I think the more and more you can put yourself in those positions and capitalize, to me that says a lot about you. And he did it time and time again; and not only did he win he did it by impressive margins and with scores not too common at the junior level.” In a recent conversation, Eichhorn admitted he didn’t think he was missing too much by staying close to home in his youth, nor traveling far and wide to try out finely manicured turf at large resorts. He was simply happy playing a short nine-hole course with his grandfather much of his childhood, working on different types of shots on his own, and making good scores. To this day he’s never had a formal golf lesson and admits people say his swing is a little funky. “Growing up on some of the courses that I did kind of taught me how to play shots from not perfect lies and not in perfect conditions all the time,” Eichhorn said. “I wouldn’t trade it for the other way around at all.” Eichhorn said he learned the game mostly at Wild Pines in Hermansville. He liked that it was shorter and he could learn the confidence-building value of making birdies and pars as opposed to longer 18-hole courses, “where at that age you’re just hoping to break 100,” he said. “At Wild Pines I could score, and rounds became more important to me I guess you could say. A Continues on next page >>