By Greg Johnson
EAST LANSING – July 22, 2020 – Spring Lake’s Anna Kramer led from start to finish – but not without a few challenges along the way – to win the 104th Michigan Women’s Amateur Championship, Wednesday afternoon at MSU’s Forest Akers West Golf Course.
The 21-year-old University of Indianapolis golfer capped off a 5-day stretch where she was stroke play medalist over the weekend to become the No. 1 seed for match play, then culminated the five rounds of match play by beating 2018 champion Kerri Parks of Flushing and Marshall University, 5 and 4 for the very special title.
“I’ve wanted to win this one for a while, and I do love this tournament,” Kramer said. “It’s one of my favorites to play in and I’ve tried a few times. It’s a sigh of relief really. It was a long week, but I took it one day at a time, got through stroke play and played it one shot and one match at a time and tried not to think about what could happen. This is really so special.”
Kramer started the championship match Wednesday with a bogey on the first hole to fall behind, but then won three consecutive holes and pulled away as Parks struggled.
“So, when I lost the first hole that was the first time I’d been down all week in a match,” Kramer said. “Then we kind of had a quick change in a couple of holes and the momentum switched. I was like, let’s go and just kind of try to keep it going steady, do my thing and let Kerri have the hiccups.”
Kramer remained 2-up through the first nine holes, then won holes 10, 11 and 13 for the winning margin.
Parks, who will turn 21 Saturday and last week won the West Virginia Women’s Amateur, said she definitely didn’t play her best in the final match. Parks was on the waiting list for the Michigan Women’s Am and didn’t know until 10:00 a.m. the day before stroke play started that she made in the field after another player dropped out, so she hustled back to Michigan without time to get in a practice round.
“I was tired and with my asthma it made it a little difficult today because of the humidity, but, you know I did my best and it just wasn’t my day today,” she said. “I was a little bit off with my (putting) stroke, and Anna played great all week. I wasn’t going to beat her today.”
Kramer, who won the GAM Championship in 2016, was presented with the Patti Shook Boice Trophy for winning the Michigan Amateur and joked she might take it back to her apartment in Indianapolis in the fall. First, she will take it home for one year and perhaps show it off at Spring Lake Country Club where she is a member with her family and Boice, the seven-time former winner of the Amateur. Kramer had a lot pressure on herself last year to win this event because it was hosted at her home course in Spring Lake.
“It’s hard to win this, I know that, and that makes it really special,” she said of the championship. “Winning here is kind of special, too. I won state here in high school (2015 Division 3 individual title) and I just felt great about this tournament being here. I like the golf course; it was in great shape and I was just excited to be playing a place where I had won before.”
Parks is headed back to Marshall where she is doing research work with a professor, and Kramer plans to play in the GAM Championship Aug. 10-11 at Muskegon Country Club – where she works as a golf bag attendant.
“I’ve played well all summer, so I was confident for this week,” said Kramer, who admitted her 1-up win in the quarterfinal round versus 13-year-old Lauren Timpf of Macomb, was as tough a match as she’s had in a long time. “The tournament was a grind, and Sunday’s rain delay (five hours) was tough to deal with, but I kept getting the lead in my matches and moving on.”
Final Four Set at Michigan Women’s Amateur Championship
By Greg Johnson
(Posted July 21)
EAST LANSING – Spring Lake’s Anna Kramer, the top seed, Midland’s Kimberly Dinh, a chemical engineer, Brighton’s Annie Pietila, the sister of a former champion, and Flushing’s Kerrigan Parks, the 2018 champion, earned spots Tuesday in the final four at the 104th Michigan Women’s Amateur Championship.
Kramer, 21 and a University of Indianapolis golfer, will meet Dinh, 28 and a former University of Wisconsin golfer, in the 8 a.m. semifinal match Wednesday on the Forest Akers West Course at Michigan State University.
Pietila, 19, a recent Brighton High School graduate and younger sister of 2012 champion Emmie Pietila, will take on the 21-year-old Parks, a Marshall University golfer, in the 8:15 a.m. semifinal.
The two winners will meet for the championship in the afternoon.
Kramer, who reached the semifinals for the first time after making it to the quarterfinals twice previously, said she earned her spot by taking out the young kids. She turned back 15-year-old Kate Brody of Grand Blanc 6 and 5 in the morning round of 16, and then held off 13-year-old Lauren Timpf of Macomb 1-up in the quarterfinals.
“They are both really good players, and they are only going to get better,” she said. “Lauren stayed right with me. It was a grind to the finish and a challenge for sure. I knew I had to play hard. You can’t just show up and win. I played pretty solid. I missed a few putts, but I made some, too, and I feel good about getting to the last day. I have a chance.”
Dinh, who recently earned her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and returned to competitive golf for the first time in a few years, earned her spot with a 2 and 1 round of 16 win over last week’s Michigan Junior Girls State Champion, Ariel Chang of Macomb Township, followed by a 6 and 5 win over Mackenzie Blomberg of Grand Rapids, a former Grand Valley State University golfer.
The winner of the GAM Mid-Amateur Championship earlier this summer, Dinh is the final four for the second time. She was a semifinalist in 2014, the summer before her senior year at Wisconsin.
“After not playing for the last few years, I definitely got the itch and again, and I’m just out there enjoying playing,” she said. “I’m not putting too much pressure on myself. This tournament has always been on my bucket list of tournament to win so it’s exciting. I’m seeing where my game stands and trying to be competitive.”
Pietila, who had verbally committed to Western Michigan University’s golf team but found the offer dropped with a coaching change, earned her spot in the semifinals with a dramatic 1-up win over Nichole Cox of Empire in the round of 16, and a 3 and 1 win over Elizabeth Harding of Beverly Hills in the afternoon. Her win over Cox ended when she chipped in from about 40 feet right of the No. 18 hole position.
“I was really shocked when that went in,” she said. “I had a 3-up lead on the front nine, and then Nichole started playing really well and tied it. It was a good chip. I had a lot of green to work with, but you just don’t expect to make those.”
Pietila said she has surprised herself in reaching the last day and would love to win the championship on the same course where her sister Emmie won in 2012.
“I’m not going to think about that though,” she said. “I’m super excited to still be playing. I’ve never made it this far before. I’m just going to play one shot at a time, focus on being positive no matter what and find happiness in every shot.”
Parks, who won the West Virginian Women’s Amateur last Tuesday, earned her spot in the final four with a dramatic birdie on No. 18 against Danielle Staskowski of Clarkston
in the round of 16. She hit a 4-iron hybrid to one-inch on the final hole of a tied match. In the afternoon she topped University of Michigan golfer Anika Dy of Traverse City 3 and 2.
“I think I played great all day,” Parks said. “The match with Danielle was so close all the way, and then I hit that shot at 18. It was exciting. That’s one of the best shots I’ve ever hit in a tournament. Then Anika just had a few bad chip shots and I didn’t make many mistakes this afternoon. I was solid.”
Parks missed defending her 2018 title last year with summer school classes at Marshall, and almost missed this year’s tournament, too. She was a last-minute entry after winning in West Virginia and got in via a withdrawal by another player.
“I’m really happy to be playing in this and getting to the final four,” she said. “Nothing changes for me. I just want to play my game for one more day. I would love to get a chance to win again.”
