Michigan Golf Journal December 2020

Player Profile Girls’ high school golf across Michigan has witnessed an aggressive youth movement, more in the last three years than any time in the 30 years I have covered prep sports. Freshmen, sophomores, and a few juniors have populated the top portions of leaderboards at the state finals – and one of the newest editions is freshman Lauren Timpf of Macomb Lutheran North High School. She took third place in Div. 3 with a 71 at Forest Akers East at MSU, one stroke behind two seniors: eventual champion Shannon Kennedy who won in a playoff over Ryann Breslin of Grand Rapids Christian. It was Kennedy’s third state title, including one her freshman season. Perhaps more impressive was the then-13-year- old Timpf’s 2020 summer schedule, playing amateur events under the GAM umbrella. Timpf had five consecutive wins in the 15-and-under age category, including the 2019 season-closing GAM Invitational, then the 2020 GAM Junior Kickoff, Michigan Junior Girls State Amateur, and the GAM 14-and-under Match Play; topped off with the Junior Stroke Play. Timpf also reached the quarterfinals of the Michigan Women’s Amateur Championship and pushed eventual champion Anna Kramer, a senior college golfer and GAM’s Women Player of the Year, to the final hole in match play to narrowly miss the Final Four. Timpf’s swing utilizes a forward press in her hips that is less than obvious, but similar to, PGA Tour winner Matthew Wolfe. “My coach has worked with me on that (since age 10) because our theory is the back swing starts with the forward motion. I really try to engage my lower body because those are the bigger muscles. And when I do my little ‘kick in’ we like to call it, I can really activate my hips. “I was doing this before I really heard of Matthew Wolfe and saw him swing.” MGJ Up and Comer: 14-Year-Old Lauren Timpf By Tom Lang