After Year Delay, Menominee Golf Reigns Again
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
June 4, 2021
HARRIS TOWNSHIP — The Menominee girls had been the frontrunners in the Great Northern Conference throughout this golf season.
They came in first again Thursday, retaining their Upper Peninsula Division 1 title with 373 strokes at Sage Run Golf Course, followed by Ishpeming Westwood with 424 and Marquette with 436.
“We have five real good athletes,” said Menominee coach Tony Hofer, who also coached the Maroons to the 2019 championship before last season was canceled due to COVID-19. “They had to figure out the short game at first. Although when you play every day for a month, you get better. The girls were a little worried going into this course, but they made the course very playable for the kids. This is a very nice course.”
Menominee senior Josie Hofer was medalist at 81, including 39 on the back nine on a partly sunny and warm day.
“I started off with an eight and six on the front nine,” said Hofer, who will be playing at Wisconsin-Oshkosh next season. “I just needed to get the ball on the green. My chipping hadn’t been that good, although it went pretty well today. My driver was a little off, but it’s different every day. That was my best nine-hole score in an 18-hole tournament.
“I’ll probably do some weight training and work on my game this summer. I really need to work on my short game.”
Hofer’s best score in a nine-hole tourney (38) took place early this season at Riverside Country Club in Menominee.
Negaunee sophomore Rachel Niskanen was runner-up at 84, including 38 on the back nine.
“I think my short game was probably a little better on the back nine,” said Niskanen, who birdied on No. 15 and 16. “The front nine may have been a little more challenging, although we weren’t warmed up yet. Once I started to par some holes, I became more confident. There were a lot of hills out there, and I got a little tired going up the hills. It was a nice course, though. I’m happy with my score. I’ve been working on my game a lot. Everything is going okay, but there’s room for improvement all the way around.”
Niskanen, the two-time reigning Marquette County Junior Golf Association champion, was followed by Menominee junior Maddy Derusha with an 86 and senior Jenna Nolde at 97.
“I just played it safe everywhere,” said Derusha. “I had to stay focused and not worry about other scores. My short game went real well, and my driver was pretty good, too.
“I think this is even a little better than winning two years ago. I’m happy for the seniors. It was nice to send them off with a U.P. Championship.”
Nolde, also a Wisconsin-Oshkosh tennis recruit, said her game wasn’t quite as good as usual, but she was happy to place fourth and go out on a U.P. championship team.
“I had a couple rough holes,” she added. “It was a tough course. The fairways were long. Although, my drives and putting were pretty good. It feels really good to win as a team and end my career as U.P. champions.”
Marquette’s Morgan Rhodes and Houghton’s Keegan Leonard shared fifth place at 98.
PHOTOS: (Top) Menominee’s Josie Hofer lines up a putt during Thursday’s UPD1 Final. (Middle) Rachel Niskanen finds her line on the green. (Photos by Justin St. Ours.)
Bath Finishes Unforgettable Fall with Historic Championship Sweep
October 17, 2026
ALLENDALE – The Bath High School sports community will never forget this fall’s girls golf team, which capped the program’s sixth season Saturday by winning its first MHSAA Finals championship.
And coach Chad Vietzke will remember the pivotal details.
“That they go play golf all the time together, they love being together as a group, and just how close they are,” he said. “Last February, six of these girls met up in stocking caps, and there was snow, and they were hitting range balls at a heated area. And I knew then that we had something special.”
And this weekend, unstoppable.
The Bees carded a two-round 739 at The Meadows at Grand Valley State University, holding off runner-up Kalamazoo Christian as a 19-stroke first-day lead faded to only 14 by the end of the second round. Bath also celebrated sophomore Addilyn Duflo’s 14-stroke individual victory as she carded 152 strokes over 36 holes.
Sophomore Hattie Lalonde tied for 10th individually at 183, while senior Sophia Perales tied for 25th and juniors Mya Vietzke and Brooke Kares rounded out the scoring, contributing one round apiece over the two days.
Bath’s girls golf team has reached the Finals all six seasons of its existence, with the Bees’ previous high finish fifth in 2023. They officially began making their move on this championship Oct. 7 when they claimed a Regional title for the first time. But they’d been building toward this weekend for much longer.
“We’ve grown so much. We were out there working in the winter, out there working in the summer. Every day it’s always drive, drive, drive,” Perales said. “We started (this season) great, and we just got better throughout the year. It just kept getting better and better.”
Duflo is doing the same after a magnificent high school debut. She finished second at the LPD4 Final last season as a freshman, and continued to surge this season. She was medalist at the Regional two weeks ago and entered Saturday’s final round with a nine-stroke lead.
She was the only golfer to break 80 on the weekend – doing so both rounds – and her first-round 73 and two-round score fell just outside the top 10 all-time in LPD4 Finals history.
“I didn’t really think about it, like I could do this sophomore year,” Duflo said. “Knowing last year what happened, it was like yeah, maybe I could do it. But I didn’t think it would be this year.”
Elk Rapids sophomore Piper Smith, Fowler senior Noelle Krepps and Byron junior Adalen Brown all tied for second in the individual standings, carding matching scores of 166.
Elk Rapids as a team finished third, followed by Millington among those that broke 800.
(Photos by High School Sports Scene.)