Shannon Finds Home on Golf Course
October 16, 2020
By Doug Donnelly
Special for Second Half
JACKSON – As a freshman at Michigan Center High School near Jackson, Kamryn Shannon was a volleyball player who decided to try golf for the first time.
“My grandpa (Bob Shannon) was the golf coach for a long time at Michigan Center,” Shannon explained. “He wanted someone in the family to pick up the game. I decided I’d give it a try.”
Her Cardinals teammates are happy she did. Now a junior and in her third season golfing, Shannon will lead the Cardinals into the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Final on Saturday at Michigan State University’s Forest Akers West. This will be the second consecutive season the Cardinals have qualified. Last year, Michigan Center finished 15th as Shannon shot a two-day total of 197.
“Our team has come a long way,” she said. “If we were to finish in the top five, I would be so happy for us. I’d like to see all of our hard work pay off.”
Shannon, 17, took to golf quickly.
“It kind of came easy, but I was putting in tons of work,” she said.
Shannon lives in Vandercook Lake but started attending Michigan Center in the sixth grade. She has two older sisters, one who played basketball for the Cardinals. Besides golf, Shannon plays basketball and softball for Michigan Center.
Last basketball season, the Cardinals reached the Regional Final before the season ended due to Covid-19. She scored four points, including a 3-pointer, in Michigan Center’s 42-41 upset of Grass Lake. The Cardinals won their final 16 games of the season.
“We had a pretty good team,” she said. “We had four seniors who were really good and being recruited to play college basketball.”
Shannon said there was some concern this school year about the golf team being allowed to compete in the conference and Regional tournaments after students were sent home due to the coronavirus.
“The golf season almost ended,” she said. “Luckily, the school pulled through.”
Shannon finished first at the Cascades Conference Tournament, helping Michigan Center to its first conference golf championship at Ella Sharpe course in Jackson. The team won each of the conference events by an average of 37 strokes, and all five Cardinals golfers – including also Baylee Carlisle, Elly Trefry, Sydney Cramer, and Savana Stewart – made first team all-conference. The team set several records during the outstanding season, and they were ranked throughout.
At the Regional, Shannon was medalist after shooting an 87 at the Cascades Golf Course in downtown Jackson.
She now attends school virtually every day. After school she works at The Grande Golf Club in Jackson, on the range picking up balls and cleaning carts. Working there has its advantages.
“Because I work there, I can use the range and golf for free,” she said. “I was going there a couple of times a week because we live near there and my mom said, ‘Maybe you ought to get a job there.’”
It was a good idea. Shannon said it’s helped her game.
“I’m super happy with how I’ve been doing this year,” she said. “Last year I got a lot of double bogeys and triple bogeys. This year I try to hit pars on every hole, but even if I don’t get one, I’m not mad.
“Golf can be super tough. You have to be able to think about the shot and stay calm, go up to the ball, focus on just that and swing. I’m down about 10 strokes from last year.”
She credits Steven Saari, the head golf professional at The Grande, with helping her game.
“I started taking lessons from him, and he’s helped me so much,” she said. “When Steve tells me something, I go and hit one or two buckets of balls every day until I get it down. I knew when he started teaching me that I really had to listen. There are so many little things in golf that make a big difference.”
Shannon is long off the tee – hitting drives consistently in the 240-yard range. She said she works about three days a week at the course but is there pretty much every day.
The daughter of Craig and Stephanie hopes to study golf course or sports management and play golf in college. She’s made some unofficial visits already to in-state schools.
For this weekend, she has a goal. She wants to break 80.
“I know that I am capable of it,” she said. “I did it this summer in tournament play. That’s what I want to do.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Michigan Center’s Kamryn Shannon watches a drive. (Middle) Shannon was the medalist at last week’s Regional at Cascades. (Photos courtesy of the Michigan Center girls golf program.)
Cass City's Langenburg Rolling Into Final Focused on Her Game, Not Her Finish
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
October 15, 2026
Lindsey Langenburg knew she was in the middle of a great round during the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Girls Golf Regional at Twin Brooks Golf Club in Chesaning.
But in order to keep it going, she tried as hard as she could to block out how great she was playing.
“It gets a little nerve-racking,” the Cass City senior said. “I remember the whole round, I wouldn’t check the scoreboard. The girls I was playing with were like, ‘Lindsey, you’re in first.’ I was like, ‘Don’t tell me that.’ Going into it, my mom and dad and coach were like, you know what you’re doing, just go out there and give it your best.”
Langenburg shot an 81 on Oct. 6, winning the Regional and leading Cass City to a second-place finish as a team, qualifying for the Division 4 Final which takes place Friday and Saturday at The Meadows in Allendale.
It was the best round of Langenburg’s life and tied for the third-best regional round in all of Division 4.
“I was feeling pretty good,” Langenburg said. “I was just trying to focus on not overthinking and taking it one stroke at a time. I didn’t want to get ahead of myself. I just wanted to play each hole by itself. My short game (was working). My chips were right up close to the pin, so I had some pretty good one-putts. My putting was definitely there, too.”
Langenburg’s Regional breakout was a crowning achievement during an already strong senior season. She finished first, or tied for first, in six of the eight Big Thumb Conference Jamborees this fall, and tied for first in the Big Thumb Conference Tournament.
“Last year, I was shooting in the high 40s, low 50s,” Langenburg said. “This year, I dropped down to the low 40s. I had a lot of practice all summer. I was out every day, hitting the range, hitting the course. I was just a lot more focused this year with it.”
Cass City coach Eric Tamlyn said Langenburg took her game to a new level this season, something he knew was right there all along.
“Lindsey always had the ability to bounce back and not let an early bogey or double get in her head,” Tamlyn said. “I think Lindsey kind of put together the round at Regionals we all knew she could. She had been shooting some mid and low 40s. From a fundamental standpoint, she’s just very solid.”
One major change Langenburg made this season was with the club she’s using near the green, switching from a pitching wedge to a sand wedge for her chip shots.
“Last year, I couldn’t get on the green to save my life,” she said. “I had a lot of three-putts and four-putts. I think it was that I hadn’t worked on it so much, because last year I was more focused on working on my irons. (Short game) is a lot of feel, and I think I just got more of a feel for it this year. The sand wedge around the green definitely changed a lot, because it has a higher loft to get it up there. Confidence, especially with pitching, is big. So many times you can get up to the ball and be like, ‘I hope I don’t hit the ground and duff this shot.’ Especially during Regionals, I would tell myself, ‘You know how to chip. Just get up there and trust yourself.’”
Langenburg plans to take her Regional mindset into the Final, and she’s already blocking out the fact her 81 makes her a serious all-state contender, or better, in her third Finals trip.
“Honestly, I’m just focusing on being relaxed,” Langenburg said. “I don’t want to get out there and worry about every shot or try to kill the ball. I’m really focused on tempo and keeping a rhythm.”
Having her teammates with her for the second-straight year will also help Langenburg relax, as classmates Lexi Tamlyn and Lily Jaworski, as well as junior Jaidyn Vanvliet and sophomore Nevaeh Stevens were all part of the Red Hawks’ runner-up finish at the Regional.
“Going alone (as a sophomore), it was my first year playing, so it was a little scary,” Langenburg said. “It was nice knowing my teammates were out there playing the same course – and also, being able to talk to them between days about the course.”
It’s a repayment, of sorts, as Langenburg’s presence was massive this season, not only for scores, but in helping get the younger players ready for this part of the season.
“This year was a little bit different, because Lindsey’s level raised so much, and she was either winning league matches or coming in second,” Eric Tamlyn said. “Lexi had herself a really good year, as well, so we were able to have some of our sophomores, juniors and one of our seniors, usually, step up. That all kind of materialized into a team that was competitive in the league, but we usually ran up against a Millington team that was really talented. We gave them a good run at Regionals; we only lost by six strokes.”
Tamlyn’s outlook on the Final is much like Langenburg’s, as he’s hoping she and her teammates can relax and play their game, and from there the scores will take care of themselves.
“I think that, culturally speaking, making the Finals is usually the goal,” he said. “Winning the Regionals and making the Finals is usually the goal. A lot of what we’re going to stress this week is trying to make the most of this moment and enjoy it. The girls get to go have fun on a world-class golf course. Let’s try to compete, try to have fun and soak up the moment.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Cass City’s Lindsey Langenburg tees off during a match this season. (Middle) Langenburg lines up a putt. (Below) The Red Hawks have advanced to this season’s Lower Peninsula Division 4 Final as a team after finishing runner-up at their Regional. (Photos by Danielle Laming/Cass City Schools.)