FARMINGTON HILLS — Vicky Kowalski has seen a lot in her 40 years coaching golf at Mercy High School.
It all started in 1980 when golf was a just club sport. One of the players was a future World Golf Hall of Fame inductee, Meg Mallon. The school paid the $35 entry fee to play in the state tournament. Mallon shot 82 for second low medalist honors. The team finished fourth.
Then, there were the Borowiec sisters: Jennifer (Class of 1999) and Erin (2001). They led the Marlins to the 1999 state championship, and Erin was the individual medalist in Mercy’s 2001 state title.
Kowalski’s teams were state runners-up in 2002 and 2012 and have won 17 Catholic League championships in the last 24 years.
She witnessed both sisters making a hole-in-one their senior years.
“They were the last,” Kowalski said.
Until Sept. 24 and Sept. 28, when sophomore Chloe Vig made two aces on the Detroit Golf Club South Course.
The first — on her 16th birthday — came in a round of 37 against Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood on the par-3 126-yard fifth hole. “It was a blind shot,” Chloe said. The hole was on the back side of a rise on the green. She used an 8-iron.
“I didn’t know what happened until the girls around the green started screaming,” she said.
Four days later, during the CHSL championship where she shot an 83, Chloe used a pitching wedge on the par-3 92-yard 17th hole.
“I knew I hit it well,” Chloe said. “I didn’t watch the ball. I turned around, bent down to pick up my tee — and then I heard more screaming again.”
“This time I saw the hole-in-one,” Kowalski said. “The ball rolled in the cup. It was crazy.”
Her dad introduced Chloe to golf when she was 8 or 9. “It was just for fun. I didn’t take it seriously until a year or so ago,” Chloe said. This is her second year on the Mercy varsity team. “I like being on the team. Ultimately, it’s all on you. You can’t rely on other people.”
Kennedy has competition
There’s a lot at stake when Bloomfield Hills Marian tees off in the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s girls golf championship at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, at the Michigan State University Forest Akers East course.
The Mustangs will be seeking to repeat last year’s state team title.
Marian qualified by winning the regional at the Calderone Farms course in Chelsea. Shannon Kennedy had medalist honors with a 74. Ashley Carroll shot 78, Sarah Kuredjian 82, Laren Sass 88, and Laura Emerson 90. All but Carroll were on last year’s champ squad.
Kennedy will be carrying an extra load of pressure seeking to win her third medalist title to join only 10 others in MHSAA history who have done so, including Danielle Staskowski of Pontiac Notre Dame, in 2016-17-18.
Kennedy won as a freshman and a junior. She missed out her sophomore year by two strokes.
Jolie Brochu of Flint Powers Catholic, who trailed Kennedy by three strokes a year ago, will be back.
A new threat might come from Lauren Timpf of Macomb Lutheran North. Only a freshman, she posted a 78 to help qualify North on the Heather Hills course in Macomb. In the Catholic League championship, she pushed Kennedy, who shot a 68, with a 70.
“Going to state my first year is a huge privilege and honor,” Timpf said recently. “My ultimate goal is to win states. It would be great to do it as a freshman. ... I know I have to play well to beat Shannon Kennedy. She’ll be my No. 1 competition.”
Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood won the Heather Hills regional led by Natasha Samsanov’s 82.
In Division 2 finals Friday, Oct. 16, at 9:30 a.m. at MSU’s Forest Akers West course, two CHSL teams will be competing: Dearborn Divine Child, winner of the Rackham regional at Huntington Woods, and Mercy, who came in third in the Farmington Golf Club regional. Chloe Vig shot an 85 (without a hole-in-one) to lead Mercy.
CHSL teams took the top three qualifying positions in a Division 4 regional at the Washtenaw course in Ypsilanti. In order, they were Royal Oak Shrine, Wixom St. Catherine of Siena, and Ann Arbor Greenhills.
Warren Regina’s Charlotte Thibault qualified as an individual with her 78 in the Heather Hills regional. She’ll be trying to win the state individual title for a second year in a row. Pontiac Notre Dame’s Julia Fitzgerald also was an individual qualifier.
Division 4 finals will be held Saturday, Oct. 17, at MSU’s Forest Akers West.
Contact Don Horkey at [email protected].
