Lauren Timpf is just 14 years old, but she won the age 16-18 division of the Michigan Girls Junior State Amateur at Forest Akers in East Lansing. Tournament age records are incomplete, but she is believed to be the youngest winner in championship history.
Lauren started with TGA at age 7, participating in an after-school enrichment class at St. Peter Lutheran. Then she attended many summer camps, tournaments and parent-child events. Now she is an assistant coach.
Three other TGA coaches — Grace Wang, Audrey Becker and Samantha Coleman — also were among the top 16 who advanced to match play in the state junior. Lauren also tied for second with partner and former TGA player Olivia Hemmila in the GAM Women’s Four-Ball. Current coach Mariella Simoncini and her partner tied Timpf-Hemmila for second, and current coaches Samantha Coleman and Megha Vallabhaneni tied for fourth.
Here are some more outstanding performances by TGA players and coaches:
Mikaela Shulz, a former TGA assistant coach and current player at the University of Michigan, won the GAM Women’s Championship with rounds of 69-74 after earlier finishing second in the Michigan Women’s Amateur. Also performing well in the GAM event were Katie Chipman (T-3), Samantha Coleman (T-10) and Lauren Timpf (T-12).
Lorenzo Pinili, who started at a TGA after-school program at Montessori Children’s Academy, won a Golfweek Junior Tour event at East Lansing with rounds of 70-66. He also tied for 18th out of 144 players in the National Junior PGA at Lexington, KY, with rounds of 70-72-69-68. Lorenzo advanced to match play in the Michigan Boys Junior State Amateur along with former TGA players Sam Yono and Ryan O’Rourke.
Drive, Chip and Putt — In the July newsletter we reported on 12 TGA students who advanced to sub-regional competition. This month there were several more local qualifying events, and six more TGA players advanced — Naomi Wen, Brandon Wen, Emery Banks, Nathan Spaude, Kentaro Inoue and Landon Rokicki. Good luck to all 18 players in sub-regional competition Aug. 13 at The Orchards.
