Michigan Golf Journal January 2021

Michigan Golf Journal JR Players of the Year Junior Girls’ Player of the Year: Ariel Chang Ariel Chang of Macomb Township, and Utica Eisenhower High School whose next stop is the Univ. of Detroit Mercy, went over her scorecard for a third time because she wasn’t expecting a total of 62. “I knew I had a good round, but I was trying not to think about the score while I was playing and I figured it would be a few strokes higher than that, maybe a 65,” she said. “I surprised myself. It was my best round ever.” Chang, who posted a 9-under-par 62 at the Michigan Junior Girls State Amateur Championship at Forest Akers East to take medalist honors in stroke play, went on to march through match play that week and win the state championship. Her 62 was the lowest gross score of the year in a GAM tournament and she won another title in the GAM Junior Kickoff Championship. Chang, who is a GAMmember through Youth on Course, totaled 1,248 Player of the Year points. Kate Brody of Grand Blanc was second with 983 points and Sophie Stevens of Highland followed with 867 points. MGJ Junior Boys’ Player of the Year: PJ Maybank Cheboygan’s PJ Maybank III entered three Golf Association of Michigan (GAM) junior tournaments over the summer and won each of them, to bat 1.000, highlighted by winning the Michigan Junior State Amateur Championship at TPC Michigan. “The thing I remember best from the summer was the last day of the Junior Am,” he said. “In the morning semifinal match, it came down to (the 18th hole) tied, and I pulled it out. My mom and my sister had come down from Cheboygan that morning and I wasn’t sure I was going to get to the final. Then I did, and then went on to win that final match with my whole family there. It was definitely special.” Maybank, 15 and a sophomore who attends school on-line and spends the winter with family in Orlando, Fla., also won the GAM Junior Kickoff Championship and the GAM Junior Invitational. “My top performance of the summer was definitely the Junior Am,” Maybank said. “I played something like 120 holes in four days and I was consistent in all of those matches and in stroke play.” MGJ