Meet Michigan’s greatest boys high school golfers since 2000

Meet Michigan’s greatest boys high school golfers since 2000

When you think of the best players in golf history, the first two names that come to mind have to be Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.

Well, Bobby Jones could be in the nix but he didn’t face the same level of competition.

Nicklaus and Woods have won more professional major championships than any other players in history – 18 for Nicklaus and 15 for Woods – and majors are the holy grail for PGA Tour players. Those numbers swell to 20 and 18 when you factor in the U.S. Amateur, which Nicklaus considers a genuine major.

So when trying to select the best boys high school golfers in Michigan over the last 20 years, we based our list on state championships. That’s the ultimate accomplishment in MHSAA golf, right?

That said, we leaned heavily toward players who won state titles in the Lower Peninsula, where the championship tournaments are played under 36-hole formats instead of the 18 that is standard in the Upper Peninsula.

The 36-hole format gives players a better opportunity to overcome a bad round and provides a better indication of who is the best of the best. Scores were also taken into account when narrowing the list of candidates.

In most cases, it took multiple state titles to make our list. Remember, what the players did on the high school level is the only thing we considered. College, professional and amateur accomplishes were not factors. (We did mention some post-high school achievements but they were not considered for our list.)

So with all that said, here’s our top 12 players since 2000:

12. Henry Do, Ann Arbor Greenhills

Do’s only state championship came in the 2011 Division 4 state tournament at The Meadows but he did it in an impression fashion, shooting a final-round 67 to erase a five-shot deficit and post a seven-stroke victory. The second-best score in the final round was 73. Do also tied for third in 2010, three shots behind the winner. He went on to win the 2014 Michigan Amateur championship.

11. Scott Sparks, Macomb Lutheran North

Sparks won a pair of Division 3 championships after shooting 67 in the first round both times. In 2014, he posted a seven-shot victory after closing with a second-round 76 on a day that saw only two other players in the field beat that score with 75s. In 2016, his second-round 74 was beaten by just two other players in the top 10. He also tied for sixth in 2015.

10. Ted Rider, Kalamazoo Hackett

Rider shot 36-hole scores of 142 to win the Division 4 championship in both 2012 and 2013. He carded a pair of 71s in 2012 to win by five shots at Forest Akers West before repeating as champion in a playoff after a final-round 69, the lowest score of the tournament at Forest Akers East. He was also second in 2011 and tied for 11th as a freshman in 2010.

9. Hunter Eichorn, Carney Nadeau

OK, we said 18-hole tournaments weren’t going to carry as much weight as the 36-hole events. But Eichorn can’t be overlooked after winning four straight UP Division 3 state titles beginning in 2014. He shot 71 in 2014 before winning in a playoff, carded 68 to win by four shots in 2015 at Irish Oaks Golf Course, shot 75 in 2016 again at Irish Oaks, and then ended his career with a blistering 66 at Irish Oaks to win by four shots. He’s the only four-time individual state champion in MHSAA history.