#TBT: Marquette's Palmer Begins Title Run
August 17, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
This photo of Marquette’s 1996 Upper Peninsula Class A-B champion team is like most stuffed into our archives from publications past – and at the same time, includes a player starting on one of the most historic runs in MHSAA girls golf history.
Third from left is then-freshman Kendra Palmer, who won the individual title that day at Marquette Golf & Country Club with a score of 93. She also went on to win individual championships the next three seasons, becoming the first Michigan high school female golfer to win four Finals total.
Palmer shot a first-place 89 in 1997 at Gladstone Golf Club as her team finished third, and then a winning 89 at Escanaba Country Club as Marquette finished third again in 1998. Palmer capped her career firing an 85 to lead her team back to the top of the standings in 1999 at Riverside Country Club in Menominee.
Palmer went on to play at Loyola University in Chicago and was named Horizon League Player of the Year as a senior in 2003. This past summer Palmer won the Upper Peninsula Ladies Golf Association championship – click for more on that event from the Marquette Mining Journal.
Only one other golfer has won four MHSAA girls championships – Marquette’s Carley Saint-Onge from 2008-2011. Seven have won three Finals titles – Menominee’s Jenny Mellinger (1984-86), L’Anse’s Jennifer Kangas (1990-92), Ann Arbor Pioneer’s Kate Loy (1993-95), Ontonagon’s Halley Borseth (2009-11), Ishpeming Westwood’s Megan Manninen (2009, 2011-12), Okemos’ Elle Nichols (2011-13) and Maple City Glen Lake’s Nichole Cox (2014-16).
PHOTO: Marquette's 1996 girls golf team, from left: Jill Zorza, Emily Downs, Kendra Palmer, Jenny Shaffer, Katie Crotty and Elizabeth Koski.
Performance of the Week: Macomb Lutheran North's Lauren Timpf
October 27, 2023
Lauren Timpf ♦ Macomb Lutheran North
Senior ♦ Golf
Timpf closed her high school career over the weekend as one of the most accomplished champions in MHSAA golf history. She carded a final-round 5-under-par 67 at The Meadows at Grand Valley State University on Saturday to finish with a two-round 141 and win the Lower Peninsula Division 3 individual championship by eight strokes. The championship was Timpf's third at a Final, as she and Ann Arbor Greenhills junior Mia Melendez (who won the LPD4 title over the weekend) joined just six others in Lower Peninsula girls golf history to finish as a Finals medalist three times.
The 67 tied for the second-lowest 18-hole score at a girls MHSAA Final, all classes and divisions included, and was just a stroke behind Timpf's Finals-record 66 from the first round of the 2021 LPD3 championship tournament at Michigan State University's Forest Akers West. The 141 tied for the eighth-lowest 36-hole score on the all-class/division Finals list (on which Timpf's 2021 score of 139 remains tied for third). She will continue next season at Purdue.
@mhsaasports ⛳️POW: Lauren Timpf #golf #champion #macomblutherannorth #letsgo #part1 #highschoolsports #tiktalk #interview #performanceoftheweek #mistudentaid #fyp #MHSAA ♬ original sound - MHSAA
@mhsaasports ⛳️POW: Lauren Timpf #tiktalk #questiontime #part2 #coffee #topgunmaverick #heart #jordanspieth #performanceoftheweek #mistudentaid #fyp #MHSAA ♬ original sound - MHSAA
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Past 2023-24 Honorees
Oct. 20: Alena Li, Okemos golf - Report
Oct. 13: Seth Norder, Grand Haven cross country - Report
Oct. 5: Paige Anderson, Muskegon Reeths-Puffer golf - Report
Sept. 29: MacKenzie Bisballe, Lake City volleyball - Report
Sept. 22: Jhace Massey, Gladwin football - Report
Sept. 15: Kaylee Draper, Sturgis swimming - Report
Sept. 8: Owen Jackson, Traverse City St. Francis tennis - Report
Sept. 1: Rachel Forsyth, Ann Arbor Pioneer cross country - Report
PHOTO Lauren Timpf putts during the first round of the 2023 Lower Peninsula Division 3 Girls Golf Final. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)