Michigan golfer Mikaela Schulz continues success with win in 30th GAM Women’s Championship
WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. (BVM) — Mikaela Schulz is no stranger to the top of the amateur golf scene in Michigan. Continuing what was a solid high school career at Bloomfield Hills in college at the University of Michigan, Schulz continues to make headlines whether she is competing for the Wolverines or elsewhere.
As she continues her success, Schulz has plenty of goals in mind within the sport, but the ultimate is to compete at the top level.
“I definitely want to continue my golf career after college and want to play professionally on the LPGA Tour,” Schulz said. “I think that would be really special and it would really mean a lot to me. It’s been a dream of mine since a young age.”
Although she has work to do to achieve that dream, Schulz has been able to see what it takes to get to that level firsthand, as she is cousins with LPGA Tour player, Morgan Pressel. In 2001, Pressel became the youngest player to ever qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open at just 12 years old. Five years later at age 17, Pressel became the youngest player to win an LPGA major, taking home the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship title.
“It’s really cool,” Schulz said. “I don’t get to see her that often because they do live in Florida but it’s always so cool to see her and play with her. When I was really young, she would let me sit on her lap when she was getting interviewed and take me to the locker room and show me around. It was just such a cool experience to see what it was like behind the scenes on tour. It really inspired me to work hard at my golf game so I can get to that level.”
Meanwhile, Schulz’s uncle, Aaron Krickstein, is a former professional tennis player who was ranked as high as No. 6 in the world at one point. Although she didn’t get to see him play much, Krickstein has also been a motivation for Schulz to pursue her dream.
“I’ve always been really inspired that he was so good,” Schulz mentioned. “It’s just really cool to see how much of his time and effort he gave to be good at the sport.”
But Schulz’s closest athletic family member is her mom, Rachel, who she has also been able to learn the game from. Rachel is a former golfer at the University of Michigan herself, and being able to follow in her mom’s footsteps has been truly special for Mikaela.
“My mom would come to some of my practices and I just remember she would always be able to help me,” Mikaela said. “She doesn’t really play much golf anymore, but I just remember playing with her and thinking, ‘wow, she’s still got it.’ Me and my mom have a really close relationship and I think it’s a really cool thing to have a mom that knows the game so well.”
As one could imagine, Mikaela was destined for an athletic career early in her life. She also played the other family sport of tennis when she was young, but ultimately it was golf that caught her eye.
“In my family, it’s become a joke that you play either tennis or golf,” Mikaela said. “You’re bound to end up playing one of the two. My grandfather and my dad would take me to the driving range and I just loved hitting balls until my hands had calluses.”
By the time she started playing competitively at age 9, Mikaela quickly developed strong ball-shaping skills and found immediate success. Entering Bloomfield Hills High School, Mikaela was poised for a strong career.
As a member of the Blackhawks, Mikaela helped lead her team to four Division 1 state final appearances. Individually, the golf star placed 13th at state as a freshman, but earned a runner-up finish as a sophomore, a fourth-place finish as a junior and another second-place medal as a senior.
“High school golf was a cool experience,” Mikaela said. “I loved traveling with my team. I think my game really developed a lot throughout high school and I just knew that I had so much potential.”
That potential and confidence was further realized during the summer between Mikaela’s junior and senior years, when she won the Golf Association of Michigan (GAM) Junior Amateur state championship at Forest Akers Golf Course — one of her first breakthrough titles.
“It definitely gave me a lot of confidence and momentum moving forward to my senior year,” Mikaela said. “It’s always so special to win GAM events, they’re always my favorite tournaments.”
At the same time, Mikaela was still figuring out where she would go play in college. Despite some serious consideration to other Big Ten schools such as Illinois and Indiana, Michigan quickly set itself apart from the pack.
“I think what really was the pull towards Michigan was that I knew it was an amazing school and I had a lot of family that went there,” Mikaela said. “It’s close to home, I just really loved the coaches and loved the campus. It just felt like it was a better fit for me.”
However, the journey to become a Wolverine wasn’t easy at first. During the end of her senior year of high school, Mikaela developed a cyst on her wrist that would require surgery. As a result, her final season of junior golf was taken away.
“I had to sacrifice my last summer of junior golf,” she explained. “That was really hard for me.”
While heartbreaking, there turned out to be a pretty bright light at the end of the tunnel. In her first collegiate event at the Shirley Spock Invitational, Mikaela earned first-place medalist honors with a tournament score of four-under. The impressive performance also resulted in Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors.
“I ended up winning the first event that I came back to play,” Mikaela added. “That was really special and an incredible experience for me. It just felt like the ultimate bounce back and made up for not being able to play in the summer. I came into college wanting to make a really big impact on the culture of the team and also playing wise.”
Mikaela did just that in her first event and throughout her freshman year, competing in four other events while averaging an 18-hole score of 75.33. However, the end of her first season, including postseason play, would be canceled due to COVID-19.
But once again, Mikaela would make up for the lost time. This season, she dazzled in the Big Ten championships, shooting a season-best one-under round and a season-best 54-hole total of 222. The effort helped the Wolverines finish second at the championship, and sent them off to NCAA regional and eventually NCAA final appearances.
“I definitely have learned a lot being at college,” the Michigan golfer said. “I’ve learned how to practice better and more efficiently, and I’ve developed my game to a new level. Our team was really strong this year and it was really special to be able to play in everything.”
Coming off a strong finish, Mikaela was again hoping her momentum would carry over to the summer. Initially, it nearly did, but some heartbreak would strike again as the golfer played her way to a second-place finish at the Michigan Women’s Amateur Championship.
However, the finish served as motivation for the 30th annual GAM Women’s Championship held at Klinger Lake Country Club a month later. Determined going in, Mikaela shot an impressive three-under round of 69 on day one, giving her a three-shot lead going into the final round.
“It was definitely tough,” Mikaela said about her runner-up finish at the Michigan Women’s Amateur. “It really drove me to work hard for the next tournament. I came out really strong the first day and was playing well.”
The second day of the tournament would not go quite as smoothly for the Wolverine. After bogeying the second hole, Mikaela rebounded to shoot even par on the front nine. Still even through the first five holes of the back, trouble would arise when she bogeyed both the 15th and 16th holes. Although she didn’t know it at the time, Mikaela needed a par on hole 18 to win.
“I really wanted to just play my best golf and see where I could place no matter what anyone else does,” the 20-year-old said. “I didn’t even know I had to make a par on the 18th hole to win. I had two bogeys late and I definitely did feel nerves on the last day.”
Mikaela maintained her composure on 18, making a par to shoot a final-round 74 and preserve the victory. It may not have been the prettiest win, but Mikaela is still proud of what she accomplished in her final tournament of the summer.
“It was really special knowing that I won,” Mikaela said. “After those last two bogeys, I didn’t know if I had given it away.”
Once again, Mikaela will look to ride momentum into a new season. She is poised for big things on the golf course for years to come, but for now, the focus is on what she can accomplish as a junior at Michigan.
“It’ll be awesome momentum leading into my junior year,” Mikaela concluded. “I know we’ll have a strong team this year with the same team as last year. I want to be able to play as many events as I can and contribute to my team this year. I just want to shoot some low rounds and have fun.”
