Sparked Early by Record Round, Griswold Caps Championship-Filled Season with Finals Win
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
October 22, 2026
PORTAGE — Olivia Griswold had never carded an under-par tournament round of golf before this season.
But when she accomplished the feat for the first time – Aug. 24 at the Battle Creek Lakeview Invitational – Griswold not only set a course record but used it to kickstart her path to winning the medalist honor at this past weekend’s MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final.
The 17-year-old Portage Central senior shot a 9-under-par 63 to win the Lakeview Invite, setting a course record at Cedar Creek Golf Club in Battle Creek. She carded eight birdies and an eagle.
“That gave me a lot of confidence going into the rest of the year,” Griswold said. “I hadn’t ever shot under par in a tournament until that day, so going straight to 9-under was pretty cool.
“Last year and the two years before that, I would always approach Regionals and state Finals differently than I did this year. I’d approach it timid and afraid and intimidated by everybody else. I didn’t believe I was good enough to go out and do a good thing.”
Under-par scores became the definition of this year for Griswold, who is headed to Western Michigan University to continue her golf career and major in biomedical sciences, on a path to becoming a medical doctor.
“I am very excited to represent my hometown, the place I grew up in,” she said. “I’m super excited to be part of their program. I feel like I align really well with a lot of their values and goals.”
Griswold led the Mustangs to their third straight Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference. Individually she is a two-time SMAC champ.
“We’ve seen how hard she works and all the hours she’s put in, and it’s honestly inspiring,” senior teammate Seneli Amaratunga said. “She’s such a great person and such a good captain.
“It’s very motivating to know we can rely on someone like her, especially because Olivia’s very consistent and how good she plays.”
The next step in Griswold’s championship journey this fall was Central hosting the Regional at Milham Golf Course in Kalamazoo, where her team finally broke a championship drought that covered at least 15 years.
Once again, Griswold added the medalist honor.
“We won by 17 but were up by 25 at one point,” Mustangs coach Tony Ely said. “That was a little less stressful than my normal day on the golf course with the women.”
Central felt at home at Battle Creek’s Bedford Valley, the Division 1 Final host, after playing there three times this season.
“I played there many, many times, probably more tournament golf there than any other course,” Griswold said. “I felt very confident.”
Her warmup for the Finals was winning the Golf Association of Michigan (GAM) junior tournament the week before at Michigan State’s Forest Akers West.
“This kid is the first I’ve seen that sought out to play the toughest competition, and it shows,” Ely said. “You can’t teach that mental side.”
Rain did not put a damper on the Mustangs during the first day of the Final.
“Looking back, it was really calm in the van Friday morning,” Ely said. “The weather was crap, it was state Finals, we were coming off a Regional title. I was pretty juiced up but the kids were calm, cool and collected.”
Ely bounced around to all his golfers during play, checking to see how each was doing.
“There’s like there’s six of me on the golf course,” he laughed. “I want them to know I’m there for them. Whether it helps or not, in my mind, if I don’t do that, I go home feeling like I didn’t do everything I could have.”
One bonus after Friday’s round was traveling back home to Portage.
“We were soaking wet, so it was nice to shower in our own shower, go to bed in our own bed,” Amaratunga said. “It was a nice reset for the next day.”
Griswold said playing in the rain takes a “mental reset” but there was an “oops” moment for her on the 13th hole.
“I hit a shank because the club slipped in my hands,” she said. “Instead of letting that get to me, I kept to my game and stayed focused.”
Her 67 on Friday tied the Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals record for 18 holes carded by Shannon Warner in 2006 at Forest Akers East.
“It’s really special and makes me feel really proud of myself for the work I was willing to put in this year,” Griswold said. “Since late March when basketball season ended, I practiced pretty much every single day. Having that score and having that record feels like all of that pays off.”
Not lost among Griswold’s accomplishments was Portage Central finishing third behind Northville and Macomb Dakota in the team standings.
“Coming out third is incredible because I remember my freshman year, we didn’t even make it to states,” Amaratunga said.” We’ve seen our progress through the last four years, and I’m so proud of the team and how far we’ve come.”
The Mustangs finished sixth the previous two seasons.
Ely said the team was leading heading into the final two holes Saturday, but “my kids got stuck on the two hardest holes and we ended up going down by eight. I didn’t care. The message was sent that we were playing with Northville.”
For Griswold, the 13th hole caused another blip the second day.
“She got to 13 and my heart sank when I saw her down there on the same shot she had on Friday,” Ely said. “She didn’t hit a great second shot from that same position, and I was like, really? We’re going to the exact same spot, and the exact same result happened. She shanked the ball again on Saturday.”
Griswold added, “It was the exact same spot I lost my club. I think it might have been in the back of my mind.”
With her high school golf career ended, the 6-foot-1 senior is preparing for basketball season having earned all-SMAC honors the last three years.
Amaratunga decided not to play winter or spring sports, but said the lessons she learned through golf will stay with her long after graduation.
“I like how tough golf is as far as my mental strength,” she said, “because I feel all the life lessons I’ve learned from golf I can apply to my everyday life, like my patience and resilience. I can use it now in my everyday things.”
Ely said with three seniors in the lineup – including also Matilda Beck – plus junior Elizabeth Rush and sophomore Jordan Jackson, the end of the season was emotional.
“This has been a special group,” he said. “I was emotional when Olivia came off the golf course. I was emotional when each of the girls came off the golf course.
"You just put a lot of time and effort and more importantly emotional stuff into these kids, and to see them succeed is like seeing your own kids out there succeeding.”
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Olivia Griswold follows her shot during Saturday’s second round at Bedford Valley. (Middle) Griswold holds up her championship sign with one hand and a pin flag with the other. (Below) The Mustangs pose for a photo, with Paige Dobbs in the front row, in the second row (from left) Elizabeth Rush, Kaiya Bouschor and Seneli Amaratunga, in the third row (from left) Jordan Jackson, Matilda Beck and Griswold, and coach Tony Ely at the top. (Action photo by High School Sports Scene. Photo with sign and team photo by Jim Cottrell.)
T-K Making Good on Great Expectations
October 17, 2019
By Dean Holzwarth
Special for Second Half
MIDDLEVILLE – The end of last season gave the Middleville Thornapple-Kellogg girls golf team a pretty good idea of what the future might hold.
The Trojans finished runners-up in the Ottawa-Kent Conference Gold, fourth at their Regional and were returning everyone the following season.
“I think it gave them a taste of like, we can do this,” T-K girls golf coach Bob Kaminski said. “They just had to make some improvements.”
The improvements Kaminski felt were necessary to get over the hump came to fruition, and the team made strides in reaching its goals.
The Trojans won the conference title over perennial powerhouse Grand Rapids South Christian and finished third at last week’s Division 2 Regional to qualify for the MHSAA Finals for the first time since 2005.
The conference crown also was their first in 18 years, when they were part of the O-K Blue.
“Last year we played really well,” Kaminski said. “We finished second in the conference and didn’t manage to get through Regionals, but we returned everybody for this year and we just felt like if they worked hard then we could improve and do good things.”
T-K will compete this weekend at Michigan State University’s Forest Akers East Golf Course with a senior-laden group.
There are eight seniors on the varsity squad, with five among the top six. They’ve played together since middle school.
“We all started in seventh grade, and we all kind of talked about how we were going to be on the golf team together,” senior Anna Kaminski said. “We’ve all been pretty close for years, and so going through the entire high school golf journey together has been awesome. Our bond is pretty strong.”
Other seniors are Clair Jansma, Anna Harmens, Paige Willette and Maddie Shepard. Jansma has been one of the team’s best but did not play in the Regional, making the Trojans’ qualifying for the Finals even more impressive.
Junior Paige VanStee has the team’s lowest scoring average.
“Obviously, this feels great (to make it to the Finals),” Bob Kaminski said. “Four of the girls who played at Regionals are seniors, and they came onto the team three years ago as freshmen and they just worked hard. They’ve played really well this year and have had a really good season.”
A key factor in the Trojans’ success has been their ability to consistently drop scores.
From last year to this one, a steady decline in each girl’s scoring average has paved the way toward a Finals berth.
“We’ve seen a big jump this year,” Bob Kaminski said. “We actually looked at some stats, and a number of them improved three or four shots from what they were last year. It’s a hard-working group, and they’re always trying to get better.”
Kaminski has embraced the opportunity to coach his daughter, Anna.
“That has been a lot of fun,” he said. “It can be stressful at times because the role of a father and coach are sometimes vastly different, but it’s been enjoyable to watch her play and progress and get better.”
Anna Kaminski said the seniors were motivated to make their mark on the program and end the longstanding drought between Finals appearances.
“We came into the season kind of expecting to do pretty well,” she said. “We knew we had a decent team, and we thought if we could do well in the conference then we should make it to state.”
And Jansma said the team was determined to take the necessary steps to heighten expectations.
"We felt very motivated," she said. "We still wanted to have fun. (But) in the back of our minds, I think we were all looking to win it. We pushed ourselves, and we got the job done.
"It felt so satisfying to work as hard as we did and have it finally pay off. For me, I spent quite a large amount of time working on my short game, and I remember spending hours on the driving range. I was itching to get out on the course with all my teammates."
The Trojans won’t be considered among the favorites this weekend, but that won’t stop them from competing hard to earn the best finish possible.
“I’ve been trying to tell them to have fun and enjoy the experience, but they are a very driven group and they want to do as well as they can,” Bob Kaminski said. “Obviously you’re playing with the best teams in the state, so we don’t know how it is all going to end up. But they want to go there and compete and do the best they can."
Added Anna Kaminski: “I’m not trying to put up a certain score or anything, and I just want to go and have fun. There are a lot of good teams out there, but hopefully we’ll do all right and play our best.”
Dean Holzwarth covered primarily high school sports for the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years and more recently served as sports editor of the Ionia Sentinel and as a sports photojournalist for WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Thornapple-Kellogg’s Anna Kaminski watches an approach shot during competition this fall. (Middle) Junior Paige VanStee has been the team’s low scorer. (Photos courtesy of The Sun and News.)