Livingston County Boys Golfer of the Year Winston Lerch was model of consistency

The final round of Winston Lerch’s Brighton golf career could have gotten off the rails before he reached the first green.

His drive on No. 1 during the second round of the state Division 1 tournament on June 10 wound up in thick weeds to the right of the fairway. So did the tee shot of Northville playing partner Mason Sokolowski.

While Sokolowski opted to take a drop, Lerch chose to play a barely visible ball from tall weeds at a course aptly named The Meadows on Grand Valley State University’s campus.

Lerch’s next shot made little forward progress, requiring another attempt from the thick stuff. His second shot from the weeds positioned him to walk away with a bogey, which felt like a birdie under the circumstances.

“If it hadn’t been the state championship with the team, I don’t know if I’d have made a really nice shot like that to save bogey after hitting two in the weeds,” Lerch said. “I took a deep breath, drank some water, just realized I’m not going to let the day go like this. I’m going to keep grinding. Anything can happen. There’s a lot of golf left to play.”

Lerch battled back from a tough start to shoot a par round of 71, vaulting him from 15th after one round to a tie for fifth on the final leaderboard.

With the ability to overcome midround adversity, Lerch never shot worse than 75 all season while compiling a school-record 18-hole average of 72.31. A model of consistency, Lerch made the all-state Super Team and has been chosen Livingston County Player of the Year for the second time by the Livingston Daily.

“You could argue he had the most complete career of any player at Brighton when you look at his overall statistics,” said Brighton coach James Dewling, a Super Team selection for the Bulldogs in 2008.

“It says a lot about him and the confidence he has in his golf game and his toughness. When you talk about being a pro’s pro in professional sports, it comes down to consistency; that’s professionalism. That’s the epitome of what his career was.”

Lerch didn’t stumble into success by accident. He set lofty goals for himself back when he was 5 years old and became known around Oak Pointe Country Club for his constant presence on the practice and chipping greens.

“A long time ago, I wanted to play college golf and hockey,” he said. “As you get older, things change; things don’t always work out perfectly. The important thing was I set my goals really high, and I don’t know if I’d have accomplished the amount of things I have if I hadn’t set such high goals for myself.

“Maybe I didn’t end up playing college hockey and golf or maybe I wasn’t Mr. Golf. Those were all my goals, but working toward those goals allowed me to get as far as I got.”

Lerch played hockey and golf for Brighton, but playing two sports in college is rare. He chose golf for his college future, signing with Grand Valley State where he will get even more acquainted with the hazards at The Meadows.

“It’s a big school, a great golf team,” he said. “I like the coach a lot. I’ve seen some great results out of their players. They have a nice business school; that’s what I was looking to study. It checked a lot of the boxes for me. Great dorms, somewhat close to home. I’d like to have the option to go home if I needed something.”

Lerch was on successful teams in each of his sports at Brighton, finishing as the state runner-up in hockey and third in the state in golf each of the last two years.

Hockey and golf have seemingly gone together at Brighton the past few years. All-state goalie Levi Pennala was part of the Bulldogs’ postseason lineup and Ontario Hockey League player Davis Codd was a state champion for Brighton two years ago.

Other hockey players have cracked the varsity lineup this year and played for the junior varsity.

“It made it really enjoyable,” Lerch said. “It was really competitive. It’s fun to see the guys grind it out. It feels like the hockey guys tend to be really gritty and don’t give up when things don’t go their way.

“We had a great culture at Brighton. Hopefully, it continues through the years. My class and (Codd) and them have made a big enough impact for the culture to last at Brighton golf.”

Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillKhan.

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Boys Golfer of the Year Winston Lerch was model of consistency