By Jeff Steers
JTV Sports
(September 28, 2024 8:00 AM ET) A Jackson College math teacher was going over some work in class and noted that most of the students had “worked on this last year.”
Golfer Michael Klintworth chuckled a bit and said to himself “maybe in 2016” and noted that he may need a little refresher.
Eight years, many countries, thousands of hockey games, and more than a dozen surgeries later Klintworth is back in Jackson pursuing his degree.
He has played professional hockey in Sweden, lived with other families in other parts of the country, and made so many road trips that one more challenge would not hurt.
Klintworth knew that school would always be there.
The 2016 Hanover-Horton High School graduate started playing hockey at age three – spurred on by the quest to become potty trained.
“My dad said you couldn’t wear diapers on the ice,” Klintworth said with a smile. “I loved the sport and the friendships it produced.”
Klintworth continued in leagues in Jackson, Flint, and Lansing where travel from one part of the country to another was just part of the ambiance of the sport.
He started Junior Hockey at age 16 living in Colorado, Atlanta and Kansas and discovered the rush of big-time hockey.
“In the Southern Division (in Kansas) you could sometimes get 5,000 to 6,000 fans at your games. “In Texas you may get up to 8,000 fans at the games.”
Klintworth spent four years in the juniors – including what was his senior year at Hanover-Horton – and decided at age 20 to play professionally in Sweden.
“My good friend – almost like a brother – from Junior Hockey asked me to play in Sweden,” Klintworth said. “That sounded appealing and I knew school would always be there.”
Klintworth offered a unique package as a hockey player. He is 6-foot, 7-inches tall and that size was great for a defenseman. But he could also skate like a forward on the ice.
“A lot of big guys at the defense position clutch and grab you,” Klintworth said. “I was a really good skater and that made me different.”
Klintworth said he was more like Nicklas Lidstrom – as a defenseman – than Bob Probert.
“In my eyes as a hockey player Lidstrom was Mr. Perfect,” Klintworth said.
He did not know much of the Swedish language, although he learned a lot of the bad words through hockey.
Being away from home gave him a unique perspective on sports.
“Doing travel hockey made me grow up a little more than other kids,” Klintworth said. “It was tough in high school as I missed a lot of football games, homecomings, and other events.”
When he returned to Michigan in the summers he continued to play the family sport of golf. His sister, Megan, was an all-state golfer who attended Hope College to play the sport. Most of the time playing golf was “just for fun” for Klintworth.
“I caught the golf bug from following in my sister’s footsteps,” Klintworth said. “She still beats me.”
He eventually returned to the United States and played a couple of years for the Kalamazoo Wings. Eventually, an injury caught up to him at age 25.
Klintworth was slashed in the leg during a showcase at Notre Dame. The doctor told Klintworth he would “do everything he could to save the foot” at the hospital.
Klintworth did not flinch and with his dry sense of humor told that doctor he only needed “one good leg for a great golf swing.”
More than a dozen surgeries later he “retired” from hockey at the age to 25. One of his last procedures was a tricky vein bypass surgery.
“I knew that was the end of the road,” Klintworth said.
After more than two decades in the sport, Klintworth decided to take classes at Jackson College. A Facebook listing noted that the school was holding golf tryouts and he made the team his first year.
Suddenly the just-for-fun sport became his new passion. Klintworth got his average down to 76 in his first spring at Jackson College and missed going to the NJCAA finals by two strokes.
“The first six holes (of the regional tournament) I didn’t know what was going on,” Klintworth said. “I realized I was feeling that adrenaline rush just like hockey.
“It was nice to feel the nerves again.”
Klintworth, a business major, has shot 73 and 76 in the first two rounds for the Jets this fall. Men’s golf in the conference is played in the spring with numerous invitationals in the fall.
At age 26, he is the “old man” on the golf team. Teammates keep asking Klintworth about World War II.
“Playing on the golf team and working with the (Jackson College) basketball teams keep me young,” Klintworth said with a smile.
Klintworth hopes to pursue golf at another level remembering some of the high-end hockey players he experienced at the pro level.
“The great ones were always the first ones in the gym and the last to leave,” Klintworth said. “Everyone is good at the high school level … when you get to college there are 10 other men or women just as good as you.
“If the opportunity is there to play golf, I would like to keep the story going.”
