EAST LANSING >> Shannon Kennedy missed the cut into match play in the Michigan Women’s Amateur Championship in 2023, used it as motivation and last year returned to win the state title.

The Beverly Hills resident, Birmingham Marian grad and Michigan State University golfer will look to repeat Monday through Friday, July 7-11, in the 109th Michigan Women’s Amateur Championship presented by Carl’s Golfland at Eagle Eye Golf & Banquet Center.

Kennedy earned her nameplate on the Patti Shook Boice Trophy last summer by winning the final two holes of the title match for a 2-up win over Elise Fennell of Caledonia and Illinois State University.

“I think my favorite memory about last year is that I had missed the cut two years ago and it became a big turning point for me,” she said. “Being on the Michigan State golf team, expectations were high that I should compete and have a chance to win, and then I missed the cut. Being able to dig in last year, finally getting it done, achieving a lifelong goal, having my dad there, it was really cool.”

Her dad, Ted, served as caddie, and he is defending, too.

“Team Kennedy is back,” Shannon said.

Kennedy will lead a field of the top players in the state into two days of stroke play Monday and Tuesday to determine a match play bracket of 32 golfers. The round of 32 is Wednesday, the round of 16 and quarterfinals are scheduled for Thursday and semifinals and the final match will be on Friday.

It takes more than golf talent and stamina to win the Michigan Amateur, Kennedy said.

“Mental toughness is the thing,” she said. “It takes grit and mental toughness. I got down in my final match, but I was able to dig in and grind it out. I hit the ball great last year and struggled with my putting, but I was still able to do it. You have to realize it’s never going to be perfect, but it can be good enough if you are tough out there.”

Kennedy, who graduated with a degree in communications and in the fall will start graduate work in sports management with a fifth and final year of golf eligibility remaining, said she feels great about her game heading into the championship.

“I’ve been playing well, working on it and I’m looking forward to having the game firing on all cylinders this year,” she said.

As a nearby Spartan at MSU, she has played the Eagle Eye course multiple times. She said it is a completely different type of course than Plum Hollow.

“I can use drivers off all of the tees at Eagle Eye, that’s a big difference for me,” she said. “Plum Hollow was a great challenge, too, but at Eagle Eye you must figure out a different plan. It’s a different challenge and it will be a great test for the women in the field.”

As Kennedy received a year ago, this year’s champion will receive an exemption in the 2025 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship.

Kennedy is one of five past champions in the field. That includes her Michigan State coach, Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll of Haslett, who won in 1996 and ’98. The other past champions are Laura Bavaird of Trenton, the recent GAM Women’s Mid-Amateur champion who won in 2007 and ’08, Elayna Bowser of Dearborn, who won in 2019, and Kim Dinh of Midland, who won in 2021.

Other accomplished players in the field include Bridget Boczar of Canton and Baylor University, the 2023 and 2024 GAM Women’s Champion, Sophie Stevens of Highland and the University of Florida, the 2022 GAM Women’s Champion, Chelsea Collura of Wyandotte, the 2022 GAM Women’s Mid-Amateur champion, and Alena Li of Okemos, who just won her second consecutive Michigan Girls’ Junior Amateur Championship last week.

Among the many collegiate players in the field are Fennell, last year’s runner-up who is now at Illinois State University, and Olivia Hemmila, the runner-up in 2023 who is now at Oakland University.

Of last year’s “Sweet 16” players, 13 are in the field this year, including Kennedy, Boczar, Bowser, Fennell, sisters Amaya and Mia Melendez of Ann Arbor, Olivia Stoll of Haslett and Grand Valley State University, Lillian O’Grady of Grand Rapids, Rachel Niskanen of Negaunee and Central Michigan University, Lily Bargamian of Grosse Ile and Oakland University, Macie Elzinga of Byron Center and Bowling Green State University, Grace Slocum of Traverse City, and Megha Vallabhaneni of Northville and Western Michigan University.

Eagle Eye has hosted multiple state championship tournaments for amateur and professional golfers in recent years. The Michigan Women’s Amateur will be the second major championship the Golf Association of Michigan (GAM) has administered on the Eagle Eye course and third conducted with the Eagle Eye group, including the 2016 Michigan Amateur on Eagle Eye, and the 2022 Michigan Amateur on the Hawk Hollow course.

The award-winning course designed by Pete Dye protégé Chris Lutzke with Dye consulting, has also hosted several GAM and USGA championship qualifying rounds since its grand opening in August of 2003.

“It’s a championship course in all ways,” Ken Hartmann, the GAM’s senior director of competitions and USGA services, said.

“You can set it up to fit the field that is playing it. It is challenging for everybody. It’s always in great condition. They are welcoming and the facilities around the course are second to none.”