Offer Sisters Too Good to be Refused in Leading Forest Hills Central to First Finals Title
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
October 17, 2026
EAST LANSING — For Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central girls golf head coach Ann Offer, the original plan once her daughters Alivia and Abigail got to high school was just to be a parent and follow them around the course.
Ann Offer and her husband got their girls into the game when they were young, and there were constant foursomes and training sessions as they were growing up – so just rooting them on as a parent seemed natural.
But before last season, Forest Hills Central needed a head coach, and essentially Ann Offer said, “Why not?” and pursued the gig.
“I’m so happy I did, because there are moments I’ll never get back,” she said. “I get to spend time with my girls, be with an amazing team, and we made history, right?”
Indeed they did, as the Rangers claimed their first Finals championship in girls golf by winning Division 2 this weekend at Michigan State University’s Forest Akers West.
Motivated by a third-place finish last year in Ann Offer’s first as coach, Forest Hills Central finished with a two-day score of 642, well ahead of the 687 carded by runner-up South Lyon.
Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood (713), Grand Rapids Christian (720) and Muskegon Reeths-Puffer rounded out the top five.
Forest Hills Central entered Saturday’s second round with a 17-shot lead and only added to it as the day progressed.
“We were like, ‘You’ve got to get to the center of the green,’” Offer said. “Don’t (be) pin hunting because these are tough pins here.”
Leading the way for Forest Hills Central was Alivia Offer, a junior who won the medalist honor after finishing in a tie for sixth last year.
She shot a 72 on Friday and followed with a 77 on Saturday for a two-day total of 149, six shots ahead of Grand Rapids Christian sophomore Eleanor O’Grady (155). Muskegon Reeths-Puffer's Sophia McCollum, last season's medalist, and Farmington Hills Mercy's Megan Guerrera tied for third.
Offer shot a 1-under 35 on the front nine during the second round.
“I just stuck with my process,” she said. “Trust in myself and thinking about all the great things I had with my team. My mom’s the coach, and my sister is on the team. I was just trusting in my game. My iron play was really good, so that was really helpful.”
Abigail Offer was next for Forest Hills Central, placing seventh with a two-day score of 162 (83-79). Junior Camille Tierney (164) and senior Carolina Vandervelde (167) rounded out the top four for the Rangers.
In addition to the future being bright for Forest Hills Central, the same can be said for a South Lyon team that wasn’t highly-ranked going in, but achieved its best finish in a two-day Final.
South Lyon won Division 2 in 2020, but that season’s Final was played as a single round due to COVID-19 precautions.
Leading the way this time was freshman Presley Kiehler, who was fifth individually with a 158.
Lions head coach Kurt Bernas said one reason his team might not have been highly-ranked going into the tournament was that he made it a point to play lots of players during the season, given he had 26 golfers in the program.
“I rotate them and I tried to give them a little bit of a rest,” Bernas said. “I never really played my top five at the same time, but maybe once or twice. We kind of were under the radar a little bit. But it’s only because I wanted to give them a rest and not wear them out. In years past, we’ve played them every single time, and were ranked really high, but then they were tired by the time they got to this. So I tried something different this year.”
PHOTOS (Top) Forest Hills Central's Alivia Offer follows a tee shot during Saturday's Division 2 Final. (Middle) Muskegon Reeths-Puffer's Sophia McCollum follows through on an iron shot during her second round. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)
Mustangs Complete Championship Climb
October 15, 2016
By Tom Kendra
Special for Second Half
EAST LANSING – Macomb Lutheran North’s route to an MHSAA championship seemed like a simple 3, 2, 1 countdown.
The Mustangs, who finished third at the Lower Peninsula Girls Golf Division 4 tournament in 2014 and second last year, broke through with a 36-stroke victory over second-place Livonia Ladywood on Saturday at Forest Akers West in East Lansing.
But for veteran Lutheran North coach Lori Gill, the road to the title started much more than three years ago – last century, actually.
“This was 19 years in the making,” said an emotional Gill after leading Lutheran North to not only its first-ever girls golf championship, but also the first MHSAA girls golf title for any Macomb County school.
“You are looking at one happy, happy coach. This is a really special group of girls. They are fun, and they are committed.”
Lutheran North took command of the two-day event with a solid team effort on Friday, building up a 16-stroke lead, then came back with an even better team score Saturday to zap any potential drama out of the team competition. Kalamazoo Hackett, the two-time reigning champion, placed third.
Junior Serena Nguyen led three Mustangs among the top 10 individuals with back-to-back 79s, good for fourth overall on the long and challenging Forest Akers West course. Senior Sydney Martens (85-79-164) took sixth and sophomore Kaity Rittner (82-84-166) was eighth.
Lutheran North’s fourth counted score on each day was an 89 – from senior Madison Mohr on Friday and junior Grace Farquhar on Saturday – as the Mustangs were the only team in the field to not count a score in the 90s or higher either of the two days.
“The best part is that it was a total team effort, and we all came through for our coach,” said Martens while cradling the championship trophy in her arms. “Each year we were getting closer and closer. It’s just so nice that we took that final step.”
The battle for individual medalist honors was closer than the team competition, but the experience – and power – of senior individual qualifier Nichole Cox of Maple City Glen Lake was too much for the rest of the field.
Cox capped off a stellar four-year career by winning her third consecutive Finals medalist honor, to go along with a fourth-place finish as a freshman. Cox fired an even-par 72 in Friday’s opening round and overcame a couple of bad holes on Saturday to finish with a 78 for a two-day total of 150 and a four-shot edge.
Frankenmuth senior Megan Watkins and Kalamazoo Hackett senior Naomi Keyte shot identical rounds of 78-76-154 to tie for second in the individual competition.
“I hit my driver great both days – almost all of them were straight with a little draw,” said Cox, who blasted a 280-yard drive on Saturday on the 407-yard, par-5 second hole. “I’m proud of myself because I had two double-bogeys today, but I hung in there.”
Cox, who will play golf at Bowling Green, had three birdies in Friday’s opening round and none on Saturday. She shook off a four-putt, double-bogey on No. 5, her second hole Saturday morning, then started racking up pars en route to her “three-peat.” She became only the ninth girl in MHSAA history to win at least three Finals individual championships.
The closest pursuer to Lutheran North in the team race turned out to be Livonia Ladywood, which improved on its fourth-place Finals finish one year ago. The Blazers captured the second-place trophy behind the big three of junior Gabriella Scopone (83-83-166), who placed ninth, senior Lydia Cranmer (86-81-167), who was 10th, and senior Jordyn Rioux (85-87-172).
But this was Lutheran North’s time for a title.
Martens, the senior leader for the Mustangs who will play golf at Oakland University next year, said the team talked about staying aggressive in spite of its 16-stroke lead after Friday’s opening round.
“Sixteen strokes sounds like a lot, but it’s only four strokes for each girl,” said Martens, whose older sister, Samantha Martens, was also a standout for Gill at Lutheran North. “We are a long-hitting team, and we wanted to keep playing our game and try to extend the lead.”
Gill, whose team was playing in the Finals for the sixth straight year, said another key to the Mustangs’ terrific run over the past three has been playing top-flight competition from Division 1 and other larger schools throughout the regular season. Lutheran North made a statement way back in August by winning the 15-school Flint Powers Invitational, then provided the other bookend to its spectacular season Saturday with a 36-stroke runaway.
“We got a taste of that top three (the last two years) and then winning the title became an obsession,” said Gill. “The girls knew what they wanted to do and they did it. What can I say? They are an amazing group of girls and an amazing group of golfers.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Macomb Lutheran North’s Serena Nguyen fires out of a bunker during Saturday’s final round of the Division 3 Final. (Middle) Maple City Glen Lake’s Nichole Cox holes a putt en route to her third straight individual title. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)