Kramer Leads 2020 Michigan Women’s Amateur After One Round

SOLID START: Spring Lake’s Anna Kramer Leads at 2020 Michigan Women’s Amateur  

  EAST LANSING – Spring Lake’s Anna Kramer was looking for a solid start Saturday in the 104th Michigan Amateur Championship presented by Carl’s Golfland.

 The University of Indianapolis golfer pulled it off, shooting a 2-under 70 to set the pace through one round on the Forest Akers West golf course at Michigan State University.

  “I just had one bad hole and that was because of just one bad shot on a bunker shot that was hard anyways with the type of lie I had,” she said after three birdies and just one bogey. “I hit my irons and wedges fairly well. I could have made a couple more putts, but I was a little lucky in spots with my driver on the front, too. It was a solid start overall.”

  Anika Dy of Traverse City and the University of Michigan shot 71 as the only other player under par in the first round, and Flushing’s Kerri Parks, the 2018 Amateur champion who plays at Marshall University in West Va., opened with a 72 after being a late entry and waiting-list player who got in after a late withdrawal.

   Four golfers opened with 73s including Mikaela Schulz of West Bloomfield and soon the University of Michigan, Nichole Cox of Empire and Bowling Green State University, Alexa Hatz of Novi and the University of Detroit Mercy, and 17-year-old Ariel Chang, last week’s Michigan Girls Junior State Amateur Champion from Macomb Township.

  Last year’s runner-up and two-time-former champion, Michigan State women’s golf coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll, opened with a 74. Also shooting 74 was Kay Zubkus of Ada and Oakland University, Abigail Livingston of Northville and Eastern Michigan University and Chelsea Collura of Riverview.

   The field of 84 golfers play 18 more holes of stroke play Sunday to determine seedings and the low 32 scorers to make up the match play bracket. Match play continues through Wednesday.

  Kramer, the 2016 GAM Champion, said it would be nice to be stroke play medalist Sunday, but she is more concerned with getting into match play.

  “Then you have to go one match at a time,” she said. “I’ve made it to the final eight twice. This is tournament I’ve always wanted to win, but right now I’ll just finish stroke play and go one match at a time.”

  Dy, the 2019 Michigan PGA Women’s Open champion, said she played in safe mode most of the day.

  “I drop-kicked my tee shot on my first hole (par 3 No. 10) into the bunker, and then I hit it in the bunker again on 11. I saved par on both of them, but it seemed like the rest of the day I was playing safe, not going for pins at all, just hitting to the middle of the greens and being careful.”

  She planned to hit the range, saying rust has been a problem in this COVID-19 season of golf.

  “There aren’t that many tournaments to play, so no matter how much you practice, you are just not playing enough competitive golf,” she said. “I miss competing so much. I didn’t feel real good about it all day, but I did hold it together. It’s good to be under par. I’ve been concentrating on just shooting good rounds, and not thinking about end results.”

  Parks, who has been working research with a professor this summer in West Virginia, won the West Virginia Women’s Amateur Championship last Tuesday by 15 shots. She dominated in the 54-hole stroke play tournament, and then decided to drive home and play in the Michigan Women’s Amateur. She was on a waiting list as a late entry and got in Friday when Katie Chipman of Canton and Grand Valley State withdrew due to illness.

INFORMATION, TEE TIMES, RESULTS: Visit GAM.org