EAST LANSING — Two years ago, Ian Masih of Okemos was envisioning high school golf success in Michigan, although he wasn’t even living in the state at the time. 

Masih grew up in Michigan, but spent his freshman and sophomore years of high school living in the Orlando, Fla., area with his grandpa. He took online classes and enjoyed the luxury of being able to play golf year-round with a coach he had there. 

But before his junior year, he decided to move back to cold-weather Michigan in spite of his golfing ambitions.

“I wanted to come back for family and friends,” he said. “It was good to be down there practicing all the time. But it was nice to come back.”

Masih was really thankful he came back to Michigan on Saturday after he won the medalist honor at the Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final at Michigan State University’s Forest Akers West.

Not surprisingly, the team championship was once again claimed by Detroit Catholic Central, which won its second-straight title and third over the last four years. 

Back to Masih, he shot identical scores of 69 for a two-day total of 138 – one shot ahead of Catholic Central junior Jack Whitmore (139) and two shots ahead of Warren De La Salle Collegiate senior Julian Sinishtaj (140). 

Signed with Grand Valley State, Masih had five birdies and just two bogeys and finished his day by birdieing the par-4, 386-yard third hole. 

“Patience,” Masih said of the key to his round. “There were a lot of times I wanted to hammer it at the hole. But I stayed patient and made the putts I needed to.”

Masih said he didn’t know he needed a birdie on his last hole to sew up the title. 

“I tried my best not to look,” he said. “It worked out.”

All of that certainly made coming back to the cold of Michigan worth it, even as he had to readjust to hitting balls in a dome during the winter. “A lot of (simulator) golf also,” he said. 

Behind Masih, Catholic Central had two players finish among the top 10 – Whitmore and senior Dillon Che, who placed as part of a five-way tie for 10th (146).

Juniors David Krusinski and Collin Davis flanked those two with identical two-day totals of 151 for the Shamrocks, who had to deal with a little bit of a transition this year.

Head coach Mike Anderson retired after leading Catholic Central to five Finals titles over 10 years, but the train kept rolling behind new coach Mike Fras, an assistant with the team the past three seasons. 

Catholic Central finished with a final team total of 587, seven shots ahead of Rochester Adams, which finished as the runner-up for the second-straight season with a total of 594.

“It was definitely a change with Coach Fras coming in,” Whitmore said. “We did things different. We actually had team practices this year. There really wasn’t any pressure. Just have fun, go out there and play good.”

Catholic Central entered the day 11 shots ahead of second-place Brighton and 15 shots ahead of fourth-place Adams.

The Highlanders had a strong second day, shooting a team score of 296 to climb into second position. But it wasn’t quite enough to make up the difference with Catholic Central. 

“We only cared about the team, and that is what our priority has been all season,” Fras said. “Our first tournament of the season, Rochester Adams beat us pretty good. We knew Adams was going to be right back and we’d be going back and forth all season. Fortunately we had a really good first day, because Adams had a really good day today.”

Brighton (601), Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern (602) and De La Salle (602) rounded out the top five. 

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