DETROIT — Shannon Kennedy says she’s loved golf since she was 8 years old.

She’s sweet 16 now, a junior at Bloomfield Hills Marian, a state champion when she was a freshman, and a two-time Catholic League champion. She's a fierce competitor whenever and wherever she plays.

When Shannon won the state Division 2 championship, Cathie Fritz, then her co-coach at Marian, said, “I would equate her personality with Meg Mallon’s.”

Mallon, a 1981 graduate of Farmington Hills Mercy, is regarded as the greatest golfer to come out of the CHSL, and an inductee in the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Shannon practices and plays as much year-round as she can manage in Michigan’s climate or, on occasion, where it’s warmer. She has a coach for the game itself and a coach for the mental aspects of the game.

“It’s a challenge,” she says. “You never get the same shot twice.”

Her challenges at Monday’s (Sept. 30) CHSL girls golf championship at the Detroit Golf Club were self-imposed. She hit only two of 12 fairways.

“I’ve been struggling with the driver all summer, but,” she pointed out, “I finished two under par.”

Indeed, she did, a 67 on the short (4,832 yards) par 69 South course for medalist honors, hitting 11 of 18 greens in regulation, taking only 30 putts, collecting seven birdies to offset four bogeys, one a double bogey.

That one came on the 10th hole after she shot a one-under 33 on the front nine. It served as an insight into her unflappable demeanor.

Her 200-yard drive went way left into a bunker. Her next shot landed some 40 yards left of the green. She chunked her next shot, leaving it short of the green buried in wet grass.

Her chip rolled some 10 feet past the hole. It took two putts for a six.

She got her game back on track with two pars and two birdies the next four holes.

Shannon finished with a flourish with a birdie sandwiched by a pair of near-eagles.

On the par-5 416-yard 16th hole, she whacked her best drive of the day, a 240-yard blast down the middle, and followed up with a 175-yard shot to the green. Her 10-foot downhill putt stopped two inches from the hole for a birdie.

On the closing hole, a par-5 442 yards, her 220-yard drive was just barely off the right fairway. Shannon stroked a 190-yard iron to the green, some 50 feet from the hole. Her putt for the eagle was a foot shy.

Shannon has another love, though not quite as intense as for golf. Her lanky 5-foot-11 frame makes her valuable on the Marian basketball team. Last season, she forced herself into the Mustangs starting lineup through her 3-point sharpshooting and aggressiveness, a 180-degree reversal of her demeanor on the golf course.

“If she’s not playing golf, she’s shooting the basketball around,” her father Ted says.

Shannon’s biggest challenge is imminent: the state tournament.

Marian will play in the regional Oct. 10 at the Farmington Hills Golf Course. The state finals, a two-day test Oct. 18-19, will be held on Michigan State University’s Forest Akers East course, where last year Shannon bogeyed the last two holes to wind up two shots out of a three-way playoff.

Winning the Bishop Trophy (formerly the Central Division) was Marian’s first CHSL girls golf title since back-to-back titles in 2010 and 2011.

Dearborn Divine Child won the Cardinal Trophy (formerly the Double A) for the Falcons’ first CHSL golf title in school history.

A closing note: The CHSL office had to do some last-minute scrambling to find a site for the championship when Edgewood Golf Course gave notice 10 days before the event it couldn’t accommodate the league, citing renovations.

The Detroit Golf Club became available through the intervention of David Sass, a member of the club’s board. His daughter Lauren is on the Marian squad.

2019 CHSL girls golf championship

Only top 4 golfers count in team totals

BISHOP DIVISION (formerly Central Division)

1st – Bloomfield Hills Marian – 311: Shannon Kennedy 67, Marlo Hudson 76, Lauren Sass 79, Sarah Kuredjian 89, Laura Emerson 89, Ashley Carroll 92.

2nd – Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood – 337: Ashley Cong 76, Natasha Samsonov 84, Julia Frykman 85, Sydney Greenlee 92, Lydia Cheung 96, Katherine Li 96.

3rd – Farmington Hills Mercy – 346: Leah Glover 82, Elyse Zurawski 87, Chloe Vig 87, Anna Sauer 90, Gabby Crespi 92, Madelyn Juday 94.

4th – Macomb Lutheran North – 358: Sarah Honensee 86, Aileen Consentino 89, Julia Zaugel 90, Sarah Doletzey 95, Taylor Elias 95, Emily Honensee 101.

5th – Warren Regina – 371: Charlotte Thibault 74, Claire Dudek 96, Lauren Graham 97, Ella Dankanics 104, Anne Komoroski 108.
 
CARDINAL DIVISION (formerly Double A)

1st – Dearborn Divine Child – 330: Zeinab Saad 78, Julia Lizak 80, Ellie Berry 83, Madina Saad 89, Leila Saad 89, Bree McCormick 100,

2nd – Wixom St. Catherine of Siena – 398: Sarah Haupt 83, Abby Hook 94, Anne Dark 110, Dylan Field 111, Emma Lenhert 113, Rachel Thornton 119.

3rd – Royal Oak Shrine – 417: Sydney Buchanan 93, Elizabeth Kemp 106, Allison Jablonski 107, Jaime Saliba 111, Katherine Kemp 114.

4th – Ann Arbor Fr. Gabriel Richard – 420: Julia Stowe 88, Claire Peters 91, Annie Pintar 110, Sydney Marzano 122, Blythe McCaig 124.

5th – Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart – 424: Julia Nafso 96, Sydney Gatland 96, Maya Pelshaw 115, Noor Simon 117, Brook DesJardines 129.

DNQ – Ann Arbor Greenhills – 283: Aarushi Ganguly 75, Euna Lee 91, Sabeen Malik 97.