Ariel Chang fashioned the perfect ending to a long and eventful week in winning the 42nd Michigan Girls Junior State Amateur Championship. The 17-year-old Macomb Township golfer held off Audrey Becker of Grosse Pointe Farms 2 and 1 in the championship match at Michigan State University’s Forest Akers East golf course.
She set a tournament and junior girls course scoring record with a 9-under 62 to win stroke play medalist honors, and then battled to win her second major GAM title of the summer. She was also the GAM Kickoff Champion in June.
Chang is the third consecutive stroke play medalist to go on and win the championship. She has a year remaining at Utica Eisenhower High School and has verbally committed to the University of Detroit Mercy golf program.
Lauren Timpf of Macomb made it a Macomb area sweep when she won the 15-and-under division for the second consecutive year. The 13-year-old Timpf, who also won the 15-and-under title in the GAM Junior Kickoff, turned back Grace Wang of Rochester Hills 5 and 4 in the final.