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.”
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 GAM member 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.
15-and-under Boys’ Player of the Year: Will Preston 
As soon as he was able to practice his golf game during the pandemic Will Preston, a Grand Rapids Catholic Central golfer, hit the practice center at Cascade Hills Country Club in Grand Rapids.
“It was valuable for me to be able to practice through the spring and all season more than I have before,” he said. “It helped me have a really good season.”
Preston, who won the GAM 14-and-under Match Play Championship, won the GAM Junior Invitational 15-and-under division, and was a stroke play medalist for the 15-and-under bracket at the Michigan Junior Amateur, totaled 1,250 Player of the Year points.
Preston’s best performance was shooting a 6-under 66 in the first round of the GAM Invitational at Forest Akers West, where he won the 15-and-under division by three shots.
“My grandpa is a really good golfer, and he has been a big influence on me,” Preston said. “I feel honored to be the Player of the Year. Winning was fun. It makes me want to keep working like I did this year.”
15-and-under Boys’ Player of the Year: Lauren Timpf
Lauren Timpf of Macomb won four consecutive GAM tournaments in 2020.
Yet she said her best golf was in a tournament she didn’t win. Timpf, before enrolling as a freshman at Macomb Lutheran North High, reached the quarterfinals of the Michigan Women’s Amateur Championship at Forest Akers West Golf Course, at then age 13. She was paired up against the top seed and eventual winner of the championship, Anna Kramer of Spring Lake. Timpf pushed Kramer to the 18th hole before falling 1-up. Timpf was the only golfer to force the University of Indianapolis standout to play 18 holes in the championship.
Timpf, who won the 2019 season-closing GAM Invitational, started 2020 by winning her age group in the GAM Junior Kickoff and then won the Michigan Junior Girls State Amateur, the GAM 14-and-under Match Play and the GAM Junior Stroke Play for five consecutive wins in five tournaments entered.
“It’s a huge honor to be Player of the Year,” Timpf said. “I feel like I worked really hard this past season and feel like it has really paid off.”
