FARMINGTON HILLS – Lauren Timpf of Macomb won four consecutive Golf Association of Michigan tournaments in 2020.
She thinks her best golf was in a tournament she didn’t win, however. Timpf reached the quarterfinals of the Michigan Women’s Amateur Championship at Forest Akers West Golf Course and was paired up against the top seed and eventual winner of the championship Anna Kramer of Spring Lake.
Timpf pushed Kramer to the 18th hole before falling 1-up. Timpf was the only golfer to force the University of Indianapolis standout to play 18 holes in the championship.
“That tournament brought out some of my best play,” she said. “In order to keep advancing I had to perform well. I started that tournament without any expectations and just hoping to make it to match play. Once I did that I wanted to play my best and hopefully win a match or two. I did that and then learned a lot playing Anna. She is a very strong player and her putting is amazing. I learned to win at that level putting has to be one of the stronger parts of your game.”
With lessons learned Timpf, a Lutheran North High School student who turned 14 in September, has been named the Golf Association of Michigan’s 15-and-under Junior Girl’s Player of the Year, Kyle Wolfe, director of handicap, course rating and junior golf, announced today.
GAM Players of the Year are determined by the Honor Roll/Player of the Year points system. Player of the Year point totals can be found on a pull down from the PLAY tab at GAM.org.
Last month James Piot of Canton was named the GAM Men’s Player of the Year, Kramer was named the Women’s Player of the Year, Steve Maddalena of Jackson was named the Senior Men’s Player of the Year, Julie Massa of Holt was named the Senior Women’s Player of the Year and Rick Herpich of Orchard Lake was named the Super Senior Player of the Year.
Just last week PJ Maybank of Cheboygan was named the Junior Boy’s Player of the Year, and Ariel Chang of Macomb Township was named the Junior Girl’s Player of the Year, and earlier this week Will Preston of Grand Rapids was named the 15-and-under Junior Boy’s Player of the Year.
Timpf, who won the 2019 season-closing GAM Invitational, started 2020 by winning her age group in the GAM Junior Kickoff and then won the Michigan Junior Girls State Amateur, the GAM 14-and-under Match Play and the GAM Junior Stroke Play for five consecutive wins in five tournaments entered.
A member of the GAM through Youth on Course Michigan, Timpf totaled 1,508 Player of the Year points.
Mia Melendez of Ann Arbor and Youth on Course Michigan was second with 946 points and Laura Liu of Rochester Hills and Sanctuary Lake Golf Course was third with 785 points. Jessica Jolly of Rockford and Blythefield Country Club, who had 645 points, and Sophie Stevens of Highland and Prestwick Village Golf Club, who had 505 points, rounded out the top five.
“It’s a huge honor to be Player of the Year,” Timpf said. “I feel like I worked really hard this past season and feel like it has really paid off.”
Timpf said the best moment of the summer was playing the last few holes of the GAM Junior Stroke Play at Forest Akers East for the fifth consecutive win.
“I shot 67 and all my friends came out to watch me on 17 and 18 and it was amazing to have them there,” she said. “It was fun and exciting.”
Timpf, the daughter of Ryan and Amy Timpf, practices and plays often with her father. They frequent C.J. Barrymore’s Dome practice facility, and she has worked with instructor Enrico Sunga. She started instruction with her father and then through the TGA program in her school, learned about Youth on Course and became a member.
“My dad is a good player and he saw potential in me and started taking me to the dome when I was five or six and at the age of seven I knew I wanted to play competitive golf,” she said.
Timpf dreams of playing professional golf one day, but first wants to play NCAA Division I college golf.
“One of my goals this summer is to decide what I want to do in college for golf,” she said. “I’ve already received a letter from the University of Virginia. I thought that was pretty cool.”
Wolfe, who refers to Timpf’s five consecutive wins as the “Timpf Slam,” said remarkable is a good way to describe her performance in 2020.
“She met and exceeded every expectation and to be honest it was fun to watch her from the sidelines,” he said. “I think what really validated the season she had was taking the eventual champion to the final hole in the Michigan Women’s Amateur. Not that her wins were not impressive, that just showed that at age 13 she will be a force to be reckoned with in the future.”
