Katie Chipman Rallies to Win the 107th Michigan Women’s Amateur

By Tom Lang and Greg Johnson

Katie Chipman of Canton did not start the final round strong.

Yet her strong finish was key to earning the championship title of the 107th Michigan Women’s Amateur, played at Spring Lake Country Club in mid August.

Chipman’s name is forever now on the historic Patti Shook Boice Trophy – named after the current Spring Lake member who won the event seven times – alongside several past winners from Michigan who made it onto the LPGA Tour.

Runner up Olivia Hemmila, age 18 of Troy won the first hole, immediately placing Chipman behind. The lead grew to 2-up on the front nine, before Chipman won the ninth hole with a birdie, then won the 10th with a par, despite her ball bouncing off the flagstick and into the rough of her approach shot, to make it all square. 

“I thought I had a good mentality this week, and if something didn’t go my way I just tried to stay in it,” said Chipman, a former Plymouth High and Grand Valley State University player.

Chipman never had the lead the entire round until the next hole, where she drained a 39-foot birdie putt from the back edge of the 17th green for the winning margin of 1-up. In the second round of match play she made an even longer putt to defeat the stroke play medalist, Shannon Kennedy of the MSU Women’s golf team.

“I tried to just feel out that putt,” Chipman said. “I tried to use more feel than judging the distance of the green, and it worked out. It did drop.

“It’s been kind of a crazy week,” added Chipman, the 2017 runner-up who has been working the last two years in golf after an unsuccessful LPGA/Epson Qualifying bid but has not played competitively and decided to seek amateur reinstatement. 

“This means a lot – a lot,” she continued. “I haven’t had much practice time at all. I never thought this was how it would end up. I’m really grateful that it did, and it was really a great experience and a really fun tournament.”