She holds the Michigan record for career scoring average, as well as the program's highest single season scoring average.

She shot a seven-under 65 in the second round of this year’s Big Ten Championships — the best score ever recorded in conference history.

And she holds more Michigan athletic records than Tom Brady and Jalen Rose — combined. Not to mention, she just recently graduated from the Ross School of Business, one of the top business schools in the country.

In a sports world where criminal records and bad attitudes are apparently becoming the norm, Ashley Bauer's teammates and coaches paint her as a breath of fresh air.

“She is the nicest person you will meet in your entire life," former teammate and best friend Andrea Ratigan said.

But after getting to know the Bauer family, it isn’t difficult to figure out how Ashley became the person and athlete that she is today.

Developing a Love for the Game

Bauer grew up in Grand Blanc, about an hour away from Ann Arbor, and as a young girl, her parents, Jackie and Glen, were always looking to keep her and her two sisters — Meagan, now a junior and Shana, a sophomore — busy.

So they turned to sports.

“We exposed them to everything,” Glen said of his three daughters — the younger two are currently on the Michigan women's golf team. “They played tennis, golf, piano, every sport and every activity. The reason was for them to stay active and other things that typically keep kids out of trouble.”

While playing sports and being involved in other activities kept the kids busy, golf provided the family with an opportunity to keep busy, but also enjoy time together,

“I wanted something that (Glen) could do with the kids, so that they could spend more time with him,” Jackie said. “It worked out pretty well.”

“When we got married, my wife said, ‘Hey, we are going to do stuff as a family,’ ” Glen said. “So I’d just start taking the girls to the range with me, and that’s how it all started.”

When Ashley was six, she started playing in a Flint junior golf league program once a week. And as Meagan and Shana became old enough, Glen would take them out on the course together. Jackie would often join her husband and kids — but mainly for moral support.

“I’m horrible (at golf),” Jackie said with a laugh. “I was there to make sure they could all beat me, and it stayed that way."

A Determined Competitor

Ashley’s competitive spirit became apparent at a very young age — as most of her friends were out at the pool during the summer, she would be out at the driving range doing what she loved.

Reflecting back on Ashley’s younger years, Glen remembered a story from the summer before Ashley started high school, when Ashley had just lost a tournament in a playoff hole.

“We’re coming home and she was beating herself up and I was like, ‘Hey Ash, this is a silly little game, you can’t do that,’ ” Glen recounted. “We got home, and I told her, ‘You just cannot treat yourself like that. If it’s going to be like this, I don’t know if this is really the game for you.’ So we got home and she’s like, ‘Dad, I’m changing my socks and shoes and we’re going to the range.’ I’ll never forget that day.”

It was that determination and competitive spirit that helped Ashley become one of the best players in the state of Michigan. But heading into her high school years at Grand Blanc High School, Ashley’s golfing ability was still relatively unknown — at least to her future high school coach Martha Ryan.

Ryan didn’t meet Ashley until the spring of 2004, and she had no idea what kind of golfer Ashley was going to be. It didn’t take her long to find out, because in the first tournament of her high school career, Ashley’s potential shone.

“She was in the 80s and she had an incredible amount of putts,” Ryan recalled. “I thought, ‘How could she be in the 80s with all those putts?’ And then I thought, ‘Duh, you harness this girl and she’s gonna be good.’ And from there she just got better and better.”

As she continued to improve, Ashley decided that she wanted to play college golf, and as any father would, Glen was willing to do whatever he could to help his daughter achieve that goal.

“One day, Ashley was like, ‘Dad, I want to play college golf,’” Glen said. “And I was like, ‘Wow, what does that mean?’ So I had to understand what it would take to help to get her there. It was her desire.