Michigan Golf Journal November 2020

Michigan Golf Journal Girls High School Finals The most glaring change was reducing the state finals down to one 18-hole round. Since 1993, the finals have been played over two days and 36 holes. Also, noticeably different was playing all four events at MSU, instead of spreading out to include other sites. The intent of both changes was to limit the amount of overnight stays and keeping activities confined to one area. Allison Cui of Okemos won the Div. 1 state title last year with a 73-73-146 and grabbed another this year but in Div. 2, with a one- round 2-under par 70. “I think I was a little nervous going into it, because this year we don’t have that second day to bounce back if you have a bad first round,” said Cui, who started her round with three bogeys early, but bounced back to make five birdies in a 6-hole stretch. Montague’s team win was impressive because it’s only the fifth year in existence for the program. The team finished 4 th at states last year in its first-ever two- round tournament. Coach Phil Kerr said that in 2019 they played much better on the second day, which elevated the team’s finish. “It’s definitely different and there’s more urgency for sure,” Kerr said about the reduction to 18 holes. “Getting off to a good start is huge.  There’s no time to make up for it. We really focused on, how do we come out, where do we stand after the first three or four holes.” South Lyon’s Skatzka made similar observations. “We looked at it as, this is one shot (at it) and we need to be ready from the beginning,” he said. “We felt pretty good about playing here and we felt pretty good about having a one-time shot at it. Whether it’s one round or two rounds, you have to put out your best effort from the beginning.” New Scores Tracking: This fall was also the first time it became mandatory to use the cell phone app called iWanamaker, in which players insert their score into their phone app after every hole. It was made a requirement due to Covid but more recently has been tested in response to the national cheating scandal in May, 2018 at the Boys Regional in which Anchor Bay, L’Anse Creuse and Fraser were accused of signing score cards with drastically abnormal scores for their teams. The results, however, were posted and became official without any retractions made by any of the team members or coaches. The thought of hole-by- hole score entry that could be viewed publicly allows coaches and fans to track Sydney Buchanan of Royal Oak Shrine tees off on the elevated tee of the 9th hole par 3.