Allied Golf Associations – Page 2

Patrick Sullivan: From late bloomer to Michigan Amateur champ

Patrick Sullivan has a message for those freshman and sophomore high school golfers who have big dreams for their games, but don’t feel like they are making progress.

“I was a late bloomer,” said the University of Michigan golfer who recently won the Michigan Amateur Championship two years after being a runner-up in the state championship.

“I didn’t really play well until I was a junior in high school, so those freshman and sophomores who are thinking they are not good enough, there’s time. Golf is crazy. You can get good at any point.”

Sullivan, whose game first blossomed at Grosse Pointe South High School, has two years remaining at Michigan with the NCAA’s granting of a COVID-19 extra year of eligibility, but he isn’t sure he will use both. He will earn his degree in sport management with an emphasis on marketing next year and may opt out of the extra year.

“I honestly don’t know yet,” he said. “I do know that when I leave Michigan it will be to head to Florida and take my shot at being a pro. I’m definitely going to give it a go. My mindset in college has been to get good enough to give pro golf a shot, and once I get there, try to make it work out.”

Sullivan made the 110th Michigan Amateur work out when he turned back Eastern Michigan University golfer Tyler Rayman of Otsego, 2 and 1, in the championship match at Cascade Hills Country Club. His name is on the prestigious Staghorn Trophy, two years after he lost in the championship match to Ben Smith of Novi and Georgia Tech, and where he wanted it to be before turning professional.

“It was a big goal since losing (to Smith at Oakland Hills North) to get back and win,” he said. “My name is going on the trophy and it means a lot. Getting to the finals is an accomplishment in itself, and you don’t really know if you’re going to be back in that situation. It’s so hard to win all the matches it takes. I was lucky enough two years later and I knew I wasn’t going to make the same mistakes I did then.”

Instead of mistakes in the final he made birdies, including one at No. 10 to pull even and consecutive birdies at Nos. 14 and 15 to take the lead.

“Tyler was very tough,” Sullivan said. “I just kept making birdies the guys told me. To be completely honest I had no idea. I was just playing to what he was doing. Yeah, luckily some putts fell and they needed to fall. For a while I was trailing and it was just one of those matches where if you get to three down, you’re probably not going to get back in it because we were both playing so well.”

Rayman, past the round of 16 for the first time, called it a great match.

“I played solid on the front and on the back really and felt I had a great chance,” he said. “Patrick just got hot. He’s an amazing player.”

Sullivan’s father Tom is an accomplished golfer who has played in the Michigan Amateur, including a couple with sons Patrick and Tommy. Patrick said he never pushed the game on the boys but taught them and let him find their own way.

“I definitely wouldn’t be where I am if he didn’t play golf,” Patrick said. “He started playing a lot after college and loved it, then he played with us and we got into it. It was about middle school where all of us got the bug.”

All of us includes three boys, Patrick, Tommy, who will be a sophomore at Michigan State University, and Brennan, who will be a sophomore in high school. Tommy isn’t on the MSU golf team, but still competes in Golf Association of Michigan tournaments and was part of the starting field in the Michigan Amateur. Brennan was playing in a tournament in Northern Michigan the same week as the Michigan Amateur. Their mother Theresa is part of the support system.

“The support has always been there,” Patrick said. “They will support whatever I chose to do with golf. I know that.”

Patrick has worked with Patrick Wilkes-Krier, a teaching professional in Ypsilanti for the Dave Kendall Golf Academy at the Miles of Golf facility. Wilkes-Krier, who is a former University of Michigan assistant coach and recruited Patrick, recently finished second in the Michigan Open Championship.

“I’ve always hit the ball a long way off the tee, so there hasn’t been a lot of concern with that,” Patrick said. “I realized once I got to college golf how important the short game is and it is the part of the game where I’ve shaved off the most strokes. We’ve worked on my game from 150 yards and in. I spend probably 80 percent of my practice time on that.”

Along his way in golf being a professional tour player became the dream that was behind the practice. He even has a dream foursome that makes perfect sense – Jordan Spieth, Tiger Woods and Ben Hogan would join him.

“I’ve always admired Spieth and Tiger, obviously, and they say Hogan hit it unbelievable even with bad clubs,” he said. “It would cool to see what he could do with today’s clubs.”

Kimberly Dinh finds perspective, great golf after studies

Kimberly Dinh balances work and golf these days with a little bit of practice on the right things after work and sometimes on weekends, too.

Kimberly Dinh returned to competitive golf with a different perspective.

“I don’t live and die with every shot like in college,” said the recent 28-year-old Michigan Women’s Amateur Champion.

“I take the bad shots as they come and don’t let them bother me as much as they did before. It’s perspective. Golf is not the end of the world now. I try and take it all in and then trust my game, trust that I can score without putting too much pressure on myself.”

Dinh played college golf at the University of Wisconsin, made a few runs in the Women’s Amateur in the summers during school, set a course record (62 on Mountain Ridge course) in the 2014 Michigan Women’s Open at Crystal Mountain, and then went off to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for five years of graduate work and zero competitive golf.

She came home in 2020 with the promise of her current job, as a Senior Research Specialist for Dow Chemical in her hometown of Midland.

“I came home last year and I wasn’t starting the job until August, so I had some time to play golf,” she said. “I found you can come back to competitive golf. I started working with a swing coach recommended by a friend and I won the (GAM Women’s Mid-Amateur). I enjoyed competing again and winning was fun and I had the new perspective.”

After winning the recent Women’s Amateur played at Saginaw Country Club, Dinh admitted the tournament had always been on her bucket list.

“This was always one of my goals and I never quite got it done when I was in high school and college and playing all the time,” she said. “I didn’t think I would play in it after that just because of everything else, but here I am and it’s amazing.”

Dinh worked here way through two rounds of stroke play, then five matches including the final, a tense 1-up win over 19-year-old University of Michigan golfer Mikaela Schulz of West Bloomfield.

Dinh made a six-foot birdie putt on the par 4 No. 16 hole off a 54-degree wedge shot to tie the match for the final time and then won on No. 18 with a pressure-packed par.

“The match could have gone either way,” Dinh said. “We were pretty much trading shot for shot and ultimately it was going to come down to who was going to make the shot at the right moment.”

Schulz said Dinh hit the critical shots down the stretch, especially the approach at 16.

“She couldn’t have hit it much better,” she said. “It was a tough, tough match. She just doesn’t make mistakes.”

Dinh has been working with Kyle Martin, the head golf professional at The Fortress in Frankenmuth, and he caddied for her in the title match taking over for her father.

“His teaching style and my playing style connected and it has been great,” she said. “In college my strength was my short game and putting. Ball-striking has always been the weakest part of my game, but I’m getting better at hitting more consistent shots. I’m a better wedge player now that when I graduated from Wisconsin.”

Dinh said she balances work and golf these days with a little bit of practice on the right things after work, and sometimes on weekends, too.

“I have some experience with this method because when I played college golf I was always working internships full-time in the summer and still trying to compete in tournaments. I found a way to keep my game sharp, so what I do now is not new to me. It’s just been a while since I had to do it.”

Dinh is the daughter of Paul and Mai Dinh and has two siblings. She said she isn’t all work and golf. She is family oriented, likes to cook, especially baking bread, and she has taken to playing Ultimate Frisbee, too.

“I like to be active,” she said.

She also thinks she is helping prove you can return to golf.

“I know a lot of women golfers leave the game after college, but you can come back,” she said. “Stacy (Slobodnik-Stoll, the Michigan State University women’s golf coach and the state’s winningest amateur) always inspired me. She’s a great example of balancing all the other things she does with still being a good player.”

The recent Michigan Amateur win proved Dinh is still a good player.

“In reflection, I was a solid college player, but just solid,” she said. “I had never won a (Golf Association of Michigan) tournament until last year. Winning the Amateur is really nice validation that I’m one of the best players in the state.”

Bradley Smithson wins dramatic Michigan Open Championship

Bradley, 20 and a Michigan State University golfer, went wire-to-wire to win the 104th Turtle Creek Casino Michigan Open Championship.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – Bradley Smithson grew up going up north to Grand Traverse Resort and its celebrated The Bear golf course to watch his father Gary, a PGA professional and accomplished player compete in the Michigan Open Championship.

In fact, dad, now a salesman for Yamaha Golf Cars Plus in Michigan, made 22 consecutive cuts in Michigan Open Championships.

Bradley, 20 and a Michigan State University golfer, did him one much better, going wire-to-wire to win the 104th Turtle Creek Casino Michigan Open Championship on The Bear.

“It’s pretty cool to win this one,” Smithson said. “I remember being up here at Opens riding around in a cart with my dad and he always played well here. I guess it’s come full-circle. He (Gary) is watching me now and giving me advice.”

Gary was proud.

“It has always been a great tournament to come to and I always played pretty well up here, but nothing like Brad did this week,” Gary said. “I’m so proud of him.”

Bradley, a tall left-hander with a powerful swing, walked a wire of intense final-day drama on The Bear to get the win.

“For sure it’s the biggest win of my life,” he said after he accepted the James D. Standish Trophy.

“At the end I was thinking wow, and I’m really tired, and I’m really hungry. I mean, it’s an awesome feeling. I mean, very emotional, but awesome feeling to get it done.”

Smithson, trailing by two shots on No. 18 tee in regulation play, birdied to land in a playoff when Ann Arbor teaching professional Patrick Wilkes-Krier missed the green and made bogey.

Then playing No. 18 again as the first playoff hole, he chipped in from about 15 yards off the green for birdie matching Wilkes-Krier who hit it to eight feet and made birdie.

Then they went to No. 16 where Smithson had made double-bogey 6 in regulation play with bunker trouble and missed short putt, and he hit it to 10-feet and made birdie to win.

The three consecutive birdies made him the fifth amateur in history to win the state championship, and Wilkes-Krier, 37, a runner-up with the first-place money of $12,000 from the $80,000 purse for professionals.

“I messed up 18 in regulation,” Wilkes-Krier said referring to losing a two-shot lead to a double-bogey when his tee shot landed in the rough area in the middle of the split fairway, his second shot missed the green and he missed a 10-foot par putt.

“But then, you know, he went out and earned it,” said the teacher for Dave Kendall Academy at Miles of Golf in Ypsilanti, who is also a former mini-tour player. “He made a bunch of putts and played great. He’s a great player. He was a lot of fun to play with. So you know, I lost to a good guy, for sure.”

Smithson shot a final 71 in regulation, and Wilkes-Krier shot 70 for the tie at 13-under 275.

“After the double (at 16 in regulation) I just tried to keep myself in it, thinking 17 and 18 are really tough holes especially with the wind today,” he said. “I knew anything could happen, and it kind of did. I mean a lot happened.”

Smithson said he couldn’t have picked a better championship to win, and that it will strengthen goals in golf.

“It was awesome to have my parents here, really cool,” he said. “When my dad (PGA professional Gary Smithson) hugged me he just told me he was proud of me and stuff. We’ve been coming up here since I was a little kid to watch my dad play, so this is really special.”

Bradley will be a junior in class standing with sophomore eligibility in the fall at MSU. His next golf stop was the Golf Association of Michigan’s premier event, the Michigan Amateur Championship in his hometown of Grand Rapids.

“I’m having a good summer,” he said and smiled.

From TV to real life, Youth on Course has made all the difference for this Michigan family

The Melendez family of golfers from Ann Arbor first found out about Youth on Course from a television commercial.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The Melendez family of golfers from Ann Arbor first found out about Youth on Course from a television commercial.

Further investigation convinced Tori and Robert that it was perfect for their three golfing children, Amaya, Mia and Robbie, and eventually they were directed to the Golf Association of Michigan website (GAM.org) to register and start paying $5 or less per round for their young golfers to play at participating golf courses.

“It’s had great impact for us because with this junior golf program you can go out across the country and play,” said Tori. “Sometimes it is hard to justify paying when there are not junior rates like these, especially with little kids who get tired or are just beginning.

“Youth on Course provides access to courses, the flexibility to diversify golf experiences, and it’s really great for kids who play in tournaments. It helps with the costs. In addition to tournaments, where you have tournament fees, there are practice rounds and playing different kinds of courses to help be ready for competition and just rounds for fun. Our kids are hooked. They love to play. Those things can add up quickly without Youth on Course.”

The Melendez kids, Amaya, 18, Mia, 14 and Robbie, 9, are three of the current 3,280 (as of May 10) Youth on Course members in Michigan where the participating courses are subsidized a negotiated rate through the GAM Foundation. Since December, 911 new Michigan members have joined. In comparison, 2019 numbers in Michigan totaled just 844 members.

“The registration process numbers are pretty impressive when comparing them to the last couple of years,” Laura Bavaird, director of member relations for the GAM said. “It just goes to show how much this program has caught fire.”

The Melendez family interest in golf sparked when Robert, a data scientist at the University of Michigan, suffered a foot injury playing basketball. Inspired by watching Tiger Woods play golf on television, he took up golf as a competitive and exercise outlet.

“Amaya would go with him when he hit balls, and eventually she became interested in trying it,” said Tori, who is a cardiovascular researcher at the University of Michigan Hospital. “Right away she made great contact and got the ball in the air on her first shot and Robert was impressed. Amaya was also a gymnast and quite athletic and liked it. It kind of all went from there. Mia, who also plays soccer, followed her sister and then Robbie, then golf tournaments and here we are.”

Along the way the family joined The Polo Fields Golf & Country Club, and Michigan Golf Hall of Fame golf instructor Dave Kendall worked with the kids. Robbie, who plans to play his first GAM age-group tournament this summer, the GAM Junior Stroke Play Championship, is already competitively involved through U.S. Kids Golf.

Amaya has reached a major goal. She will graduate from Ann Arbor Pioneer High School soon and in the fall will head to nearby Eastern Michigan University where she has been recruited for the women’s golf team.

Mia, meanwhile, recently won the 15-and-under girls title in the GAM Junior Kickoff Championship at Washtenaw Golf Club. It was her first GAM win after a series of second-place finishes the last two years.

“We’re so proud of all of them,” Tori said. “Amaya got to the point where she chose golf over gymnastics and she has worked really hard at the game. Her success and earning a chance to get recruited and play in college has pushed Mia too, and she was so excited to finally achieve that GAM win. She had been so close and everybody has learned golf can be so humbling. And Robert is excited to compete like his sisters. We are a golf family now.”

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Michigan-based Raymond Hearn Golf Course Designs celebrates 25 years

Ray Hearn has traveled around the world for his work as a golf course architect, but home has always been Michigan.

HOLLAND – Ray Hearn has traveled around the world for his work as a golf course architect, but home has always been Michigan.

“I’m a Midwest guy, I love Michigan, love the seasons, my family is here, my wife and kids love Michigan,” he said. “I’ll be honest Michigan winters by the time it gets to February can be a little tough, but then I’m blessed to be able to pop down to Florida for a while.”

Born and raised in Detroit, educated at Michigan State University and a longtime resident of Holland on the west side of the state, Hearn’s firm, Raymond Hearn Golf Course Designs Inc., is celebrating 25 years this summer.

For a quarter of a century Hearn and his firm have excelled in golf course architecture, including creating new course designs and the restoration, renovation, and remodeling of existing courses throughout the United States and abroad.

“It has been a great ride thus far with a couple bumps – recessions – mixed in here and there,” Hearn said. “We have stayed busy during these 25 years and our portfolio remains diverse with a variety of projects.”

In the company’s early years new golf course design comprised 60 percent of the work portfolio but the portfolio has evolved with the industry over time. Existing golf course restoration, renovation and remodeling make up 80 percent of the company’s current work.

“We are still lucky enough to have some new 18-hole designs kicking around,” Hearn said. “Times have changed in the industry though. There are fewer new courses being constructed, especially in the USA, but at the same time there are wonderful opportunities to restore, renovate or remodel existing courses that over time have come to need updating in various ways. Our company excels in this.”

Hearn’s firm is busy with several projects currently underway, including some in Michigan.

He completed a Master Plan for Washtenaw Golf Club in Ypsilanti last fall and renovation and restoration work has started on one of the oldest golf courses in the state (1899).

At Boyne Highlands Resort in Harbor Springs he is working on master plans for each hole on The Moor course, doing some restoration work on the Donald Ross Memorial course and planning a new par 3 course.

At White Lake Golf Club in Whitehall he is restoring features, shot values and strategies of the original Tom Bendelow design that dates to 1916.

He has been working on and off in recent years with The Inn at St. Johns in Plymouth with master planning ideas and has also prepared an award-winning master plan for Maple Lane Golf Club in Sterling Heights.

Hearn’s company has earned a national reputation for their award-winning restoration, renovation, and remodeling. The American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA) has acknowledged his firm with Design Excellence Recognition Awards five times since 2012, including three for Michigan projects – renovation of his original design in 2013 at Island Hills Golf Club in Centreville, renovation work in 2018 at Water’s Edge Golf Club in Fremont and the 2019 master planning at Maple Lane. The other two were for work in Panama (renovation at Golf de Club de Panama) and renovation work on Hearn’s original award-winning design at Mistwood Golf Club in Chicago.

Kathy Aznavorian of Fox Hills Golf & Banquet Center in Plymouth pointed out that Hearn’s 2001 design of their Strategic Fox par 3 course was then a revolutionary concept. That design won the Michigan Golf Course Association’s Golf Course of the Year award.

Golf Inc. Magazine has ranked Hearn’s firm among the highest valued architects in American and one of the global golf industry’s most innovative designers.

Some of his company’s projects have been completed or are underway on highly regarded designs from various eras including the acclaimed “Golden Age of Golf Course Design.” Hearn said he has enjoyed the privilege of working on three pre-1900 projects with a fourth and possibly fifth assignment coming soon, and that working on existing courses versus creating new ones is obviously entirely different but equally as exciting.

“Working on existing courses, especially historical classics, is more difficult in my opinion due in part to the time that must be dedicated to research right out of the gate,” he said. “Respectfully, working on courses where Willie Park, Ross, Bendelow, Langford, Tweedie, and other legends graced the property and created years ago is an incredible privilege for which I am humbled.”

Hearn, a devoted MSU Spartan who started his career working with Jerry Matthews and Associates in Lansing, said he is often asked about the elements that have helped him in his architecture journey.

“I always respond in this order: My university degree in Landscape Architecture with my emphasis area in Golf Course Architecture and my degree in Turfgrass Science,” he said. “My overseas study and tours in Scotland, Ireland and England were also invaluable. Combining those things with years of experience has aided my career, and I’ve always held that, as with any profession, you must never stop learning.”

Michigan native Aya Johnson navigates career as Golf Channel producer

Aya Johnson backed up her playing career with a career in golf media.

Aya Johnson was part of a team that produced 50 hours of programming for the NBC Sports Group’s Golf Channel during the week of the recent Masters Tournament.

She enjoyed every minute.

“During weeks like that it’s a lot of time working, but I enjoyed it and I have a job and a career that I love,” she said.

Johnson, 25, the 2017 Michigan Women’s Amateur Champion from North Muskegon and former University of Wisconsin golfer, thought for several years that she wanted to be an orthodontist.

Then along her journey, including going through a back injury that sidelined her from golf for two years during her college career, and a comeback that included winning the Michigan Amateur, she transitioned to wanting a way to stay in the game.

“I didn’t want to be a professional golfer – the back problems were part of that – but I wanted to have a career in golf and that led me to working in sports media,” she said. “I took a few media classes and loved it.”

Her current position is as an assistant producer for the NBC Sports Group’s Golf Channel. She works primarily in a graphics production role, including leaderboards, statistics and more, but with her golf knowledge she is also called on for other off-air tasks like editing broadcast highlights.

“I know I still want to be golf media 10 years from now, but right now I’m still exploring if I will continue to be part of producing, or shift to on-air work,” she said. “I do know I want to be part of the diversity of sports media as an Asian woman. I feel that’s important.”

Her mother, Nina, a radiation oncologist, immigrated from Japan at age seven, and met Aya’s father Trip, a Muskegon businessman and golfer, years later in Ann Arbor.

Aya is active on social media, and Twitter followers of hers know that her mother is a big fan of Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama. She shared tweets through the Masters regarding her mother’s emotional ride as a television watcher, and she loved the airport photo of Matsuyama that made social media rounds on Monday following the Masters.

“I thought that was just great with the green jacket on the chair,” she said. “In Japan Hideki is just huge, bigger than Tiger Woods. It’s so great for golf that he won, and for Asians who golf, too.”

Aya was born in Ann Arbor, but grew up in North Muskegon, went to North Muskegon High School and played high school golf as part of a cooperative team at Muskegon Catholic Central High. She was a standout at the junior level, won the Michigan Junior Girls State Amateur in 2010, was prep golf’s Miss Golf in Michigan in 2012 and won the Division 4 individual title. She also played in the Girls Junior PGA Championship and picked Wisconsin from a final three collegiate programs that also included the University of Michigan and Notre Dame.

“Wisconsin was in a town between two lakes, and it felt like home and I was immediately comfortable there even though it was the school farthest from home,” she said. “I wanted to be part of a big sports family, and it had that, too. It was just the right fit.”

She progressed, ever improving in the golf program through her first two seasons but was lifting weights on campus in March of 2015 and suffered a herniated disc in her lower back. She was 19 and doctors said the initial course of action should be rehabilitation and nerve root injections. After six months with pain, left leg numbness, balance and sleep issues it was determined surgery was required. She was told it was likely she would not be able to play golf again.

Aya Johnson, Michigan — Aya Johnson (Golf Association of Michigan)

With recovery time she missed two golf seasons but mounted a comeback, including a swing change with a shorter takeaway and a longer handle-putter to ease stress on the back. She returned for a season as a starter and was one of the top scorers on the team. In the next two summers she won the Michigan Women’s Amateur, and twice qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur.

With an injury waiver she could have played one more year at Wisconsin, but a producer job with the former Morning Drive show came along on the Golf Channel, then based in Orlando, Florida.

“I had my degree and it was a great opportunity,” she said.

She isn’t sure if her first two years in the sports media industry are comparable to those of others because much of it has been working in the context of a global pandemic. When the Golf Channel became part of NBC Sports she moved from Orlando to Stamford, Conn., where the NBC Sports Group is located. She feels golf has helped her to find a career she loves, but also much more.

“I’ve me so many people and some of my closest friends through golf, playing in GAM and AJGA tournaments, playing at Wisconsin, meeting girls from other schools,” she said. “Plus golf gives my family something to bond over. We all love watching golf and talking about it. Mom is playing it now. She used to think it was easy and couldn’t understand how I could miss a short putt or make a bad shot. She’s learning now how hard the game is to play.”

Aya plans to keep playing, in part because it is an outlet for a person who describes herself as competitive in everything. She came home to Michigan last summer while working remotely during the pandemic and teed it up at her family’s home course, Muskegon Country Club, in the GAM Women’s Championship. Her father caddied, and mom followed in the gallery as always.

“I think it helps me working in golf to know the game, play the game, stay connected to it, stay competitive, and well, it’s just me,” she said. “I want to keep beating my coworkers. You know me, I have to be the best player in the office.”

One way to see more of Michigan golf? GAM Golf Days

The Golf Association of Michigan has devised a way for its membership to experience more courses around the state.

Cris and his wife Kriste Vocke own Cedar Creek Golf Club in Battle Creek and they also partner in the ownership at Riverside Golf Club and Banquet Center in Battle Creek where Justin Smith is general manager.

Not only do the Vockes and Smith make available and promote Golf Association of Michigan membership to their golfers, but they take it a step farther and take advantage themselves of one of the most popular GAM member benefits: GAM Golf Days.

“We are ambassadors of the game,” Cris said. “This is my 32nd season at (Cedar Creek) and I feel we should be promoting golf any way we can, so I tell people about the Golf Days, especially the ones who enjoy stroke play and competition with a good group of people.

“The Golf Days are well run and they are on great courses you wouldn’t get a chance to play otherwise, and we are blessed in Michigan to have such fabulous golf courses available through the GAM at more than fair prices.”

This year Cris, 60, and Justin, 28, are signed up with others to take on The Moors Golf Club in Portage, and Wabeek Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, two private clubs with sparkling reputations.

GAM Golf Days are scheduled throughout the summer at private and high-end courses and GAM members get to play on those days for special rates as low as $60. There’s even a special championship tournament day at the end of the season. See GAM.org to learn more.

“We’ve played The Moors before, at least a decade ago, but we’ve never played Wabeek,” Cris said. “We’re looking forward to playing the The Moors again. It was great before, and Wabeek will be a new adventure for us.”

Justin, who grew up in nearby Climax, said before he started taking advantage of Golf Days his golf was essentially limited to playing Cedar Creek where he learned the game and played in high school, and Riverside where he now works.

“I was working and when I did get out to play it was at Cedar or here,” he said. “It’s been fun to try the different courses. If kind of forces me to get out there and see other good golf around the state. We’ve been doing it a while now and I really enjoy it.”

He said he doesn’t push GAM benefits on his golf customers and members, but when asked most often about keeping a handicap index, he directs them to being GAM members and mentions the Golf Days, too.

“It’s easy to tell people about something you know you have enjoyed,” he said.

Cedar Creek opened in 1974 and was designed by Robert Beard, and Vocke purchased it from the original owners in 1989.

“It was under-maintained and a good opportunity for us,” Vocke said. “We fixed it up. Our superintendent Tim Hesselink has been with us 25 years and does an excellent job. We’re a local favorite, very affordable, we have a lot of leagues and a course that everybody can enjoy.”

Riverside was established as a golf course in 1926 and was a private club until 2011 when Vocke was approached by local businessmen who wanted to keep it a golf course.

“The club had gone through some hard times and the last thing Battle Creek needed was to see it shuttered,” he said. “It was in good shape. Bruce and Jerry Matthews, the father-son team, had renovated it about 1990 or so, but it just needed some polishing when we got it. It’s a really nice course and we made it public. It’s done really well and has the banquet center.”

Vocke, who already this spring carded his fifth career hole-in-one, said GAM members and others are welcome to visit the two courses in Battle Creek. Learn more about the two courses at cedargolfclub.com and bcriverside.com. He also said he urges all GAM members to give Golf Days a try.

“Michigan golf is great,” he said. “This is a way to get out and see more of it.”

Register Now for the 2021 Golfweek Super Senior, Legends & Super Legends National Championship

Calling all championship caliber Club, and State Association players age 65 and over to join us July 6-9 at one of Georgia’s best – The Golf Club of Georgia. Its time to tee it up in the 2021 Golfweek US Super Senior, Legends & Super Legends …

Calling all championship caliber Club, and State Association players age 65 and over to join us July 6-9 at one of Georgia’s best – The Golf Club of Georgia. Its time to tee it up in the 2021 Golfweek US Super Senior, Legends & Super Legends National Championship. This is the first national ranking championship exclusively for world class golfers age 65 and over. Sponsored by USA Today Sports, The Golfweek US Super Senior, Legends & Super Legends National Championship is now in its fifth year. The championship fills a void left by the US Golf Association for players 65 and over. After 54 holes of intense competition, only one player in each division will earn the right to hoist the trophy and be called a “National Champion.”

Volunteer coach bringing back golf in Detroit’s public schools

Martin Siml has for three years been building a grassroots high school golf program at a school that had not fielded a team for years.

DETROIT – Martin Siml loves golf and he wants the kids of Detroit to love it too.

“I want them to learn how to play, how to love it and bring to them a lifetime sport, a passion they can enjoy for the rest of their lives,” he said.

Siml, a 50-year-old Southfield resident who grew up in Taylor, has for three years been building a grassroots high school golf program largely with players who had never played the game before at a school that had not fielded a team for several years.

He has developed a team of girls over three years and a team of boys the last two years at Renaissance High School, one of Detroit’s public schools where high school golf teams have disappeared in recent decades because of funding shortages.

His efforts have not been limited to Renaissance students. He has golfers from Cass Tech, Cody and Henry Ford involved, too, and the Michigan High School Athletic Association has allowed those golfers from other schools to compete in the state tournament structure as individuals.

The Renaissance girls’ team even hosted an MHSAA regional golf tournament last fall at historic Rackham Golf Course, which the school believes might have been a first for a Detroit public school.

“It’s building slowly,” Siml says. “COVID has killed me with recruiting players and raising funds this year, but we have teams and we’re trying to make progress.”

Siml, who also coaches tennis at Renaissance, doesn’t draw a salary. Funds are not available for golf or tennis coaches. He is the very definition of a volunteer coach when he isn’t working the midnight shift at his real job as a surgery technician at Henry Ford Hospital.

He coached baseball and then soccer first, games of choice in his youth. He didn’t play high school golf, opting for baseball instead. The game, however, was slowly introduced to him by his grandmother who he would visit each summer, and who belonged to the fabled Chicago Golf Club.

“I want to give these kids a special experience in golf like I’ve had,” he says. “I want them to experience a great course like Rackham with Donald Ross history, I want them to experience the nature, the birds, the sunshine while playing golf along the river at Rouge Park, and I want them to one day be able to experience the humbling effect on your game at a place like Arcadia Bluffs. I want to make the love of the game a possibility.”

Siml, 50 and a father of four with his wife Tanisha, said sports impacted his youth, and he was drawn into coaching baseball for his oldest son Nicholas. At the urging of friends he was soon coaching a middle school soccer team at Mumford and ended up starting tennis and golf programs at Renaissance. He continues to coach the tennis team, too.

His golf teams practice at Rouge Park Golf Course mainly because of geography, and on weekends they hit Royal Oak Golf Center where Glenn Pulice allows high school teams great access to the practice center. He is always recruiting and fundraising, sometimes visiting schools at lunch time to talk with kids about giving golf a try.

“I tell them give it two weeks and see if you like it,” he said. “It’s not for everybody.”

Some stay and play.

“It has been easier with the girls to be honest,” he said. “The boys want that instant gratification you can get in basketball, football and baseball where you hit a shot or hit a pitch, make a play, but golf starts with having to develop a swing and its hard.”

Nia Heaston of Detroit, a senior at Renaissance, is one of those who gave it two weeks and has stuck it out. She suffered a knee injury her freshman year and was unable to play basketball, and Siml first got her involved in the tennis team and then the golf program.

“Golf is really a great pastime and I feel like it is always there when I need it,” she said. “It’s affordable with the programs I’m in and I like the fact it is outdoors. I love being outside, and as this spring it is one of the first things I will end up doing outside.”

Heaston, who is also involved in basketball and tennis in school and boxing and taekwondo out of school, said golf will be a lifetime sport for her. She is happy Siml talked her into trying it.

“I will definitely always have a set of clubs, and probably a membership somewhere to play golf, you know a league or club,” she said. “I tell my friends to give it a try. Like in basketball, you miss all the shots you don’t take. If you don’t try golf, you are going to miss out.”

The daughter of Joseph and Nancy Heaston said students in Detroit need coaches like Siml who encourage attempting something they never thought they could do.

“Golf is hard and you won’t be good at it right away, but I gave it a chance and it is probably one of my favorite sports to do now,” she said. “Coach Martin is great. He really cares about you and your future, not just about golf. I think because he has a mixed-race family he also knows golf is not a sport a lot of minorities ever get the chance to play.”

Glenn Pulice, a PGA professional and general manager of the Royal Oak Golf Center, is a member of the GAM’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee and works with the popular Midnight Golf Program in Detroit as well. He calls Siml and his efforts above and beyond the norm.

“We have probably 25 teams, including junior varsity and varsity teams, that practice at our facility, and there are a lot of great coaches who do great things and then there are those like Martin who look even further down the road and have a vision,” he said. “We’ve talked about what he is doing and his next step is to get the kids in the middle schools going with the game. When they get to high school they will be in a better position to compete and enjoy the game.”

Pulice believes in Siml’s efforts to the point he has donated thousands of golf balls to the cause, as well as several golf clubs, bags, and shoes to some beginning players.

“When I started here nine years ago our demographics were very tight and we needed to get more kids, women, family and diversity in our customers,” Pulice said. “It’s working and with it we meet coaches like Martin and Renee Fluker of Midnight Golf who just don’t give up on kids. They stick with kids and believe in them. When Martin added players from Cody and Cass last year, I thought that was just spectacular. He is impacting communities by helping kids.”

Funding is the primary reason golf and tennis teams have fallen by the wayside in the Detroit public schools over the years according to Josh Lopez, the athletic director at Renaissance. He said Coach Martin, as most including Lopez refer to him, doesn’t let the hurdles that stop others stop him.

“I feel lucky to have him here,” Lopez said. “I wish I had 10 Coach Martins in my school. He is a great guy, he is dedicated, and it’s phenomenal to see how he gets any and all kids involved – black, white, Asian, Hispanic – he does anything he can to get golf clubs in their hands, get them involved in raising funds and get them involved.

“Just yesterday we had a kid say he wanted to start golf, but he didn’t have golf clubs, golf balls, shoes, nothing. Coach Martin said all you have to do is come out and practice and play. And I know Coach Martin will find him clubs, whatever it takes, to get him out there.”

Lopez said Martin networks though the community and seeks donations of equipment and even places to practice and play.

“He is the face of golf and tennis at our school and he amazes me how much he is there on a volunteer basis and how dedicated he is to our schools and community,” he said. “He is so passionate about it, too. I wish all coaches had that passion. He has done something we hoped would happen but didn’t think would happen. When we hosted the golf regional last year at Rackham it was so awesome to be out there and see our kids out there playing, competing with other schools.”

Lopez wonders, too, when Martin finds time to sleep.

“He is at the hospital all night and then he is at our school trying to get kids involved at lunch and then with the team, just amazing,” he said.

Martin said he finds time to sleep but is also dedicated to coaching and seeking ways to make golf happen in Detroit schools. He works with First Tee and the Police Athletic League, and he has his kids enroll in Youth on Course through the GAM Foundation where they can play rounds of golf for $5 for less at participating golf courses. At Cody recently he was told he can develop an indoor training center in two currently empty rooms, and he plans to make it happen.

“My goal is to double the number of schools or players involved in golf every year, and that’s not easy when you lose players to graduation,” he said. “We have four schools involved now, instead of one. I should have 30 players on our teams by fall, depending on COVID.”

He has some help from other volunteer coaches, including a former player in the program. He also said Nick Macy, the manager at Rouge Park, and Pulice have been a great help in multiple ways.

“The kids will play, they just need to be asked, and people will help if you ask them, too,” he said. “I just try to make that happen. I’m really just a humble guy who wants to give kids a game they can enjoy for the rest of their lives.”

For Bianca Holsey and Mario Migaldi, caddying has made all the difference

Thirty Michigan golf caddies have been awarded the Chick Evans Scholarship, a four-year prestigious housing and tuition college grant.

Bianca Holsey of Detroit, a caddie at Country Club of Detroit, wants to see where studying computer science can take her, and Mario Migaldi of Okemos, a caddie at Country Club of Lansing, plans to be a medical doctor.

They are two of 30 Michigan golf caddies who have been awarded the Chick Evans Scholarship, a four-year prestigious housing and tuition college grant valued at $120,000, to help them reach their long-range goals.

They will attend college in the fall as Evans Scholars, Holsey at Michigan State University and Migaldi at the University of Michigan, and they will live in the Evans Scholarship houses at the universities.

“Being a caddie has allowed me to work hard and get the financial help I need to build a better future and follow my dreams,” said Holsey, a senior at Cass Technical High School. “A lot of people don’t know if they will be able to go to college because they might not have the financial means to make it happen, but because of this scholarship I’m going to get that opportunity. Being a caddie has opened a lot of doors for me.”

Migaldi, a senior at Okemos High School, said he was introduced to work as a caddie and the Evans Scholar program by Owen Brewer, who is currently an Evans Scholar at the University of Michigan.

“I’m so thankful to Owen and the Country Club of Lansing for my first job, one that is paying dividends to my future,” he said. “The University of Michigan has been my dream school for a long time. I want to become a doctor and that’s where I want to be for the next four years.”

Holsey, the daughter of Rosalyn Robinson and Cleveland Hosley, said she had no experience or knowledge of golf when she became a caddie.

“I heard about the opportunity to become a caddie at school and jumped on it,” she said. “I looked at is as a job opportunity that would let me be active and meet new people. I started training at Country Club of Detroit and loved it. I like meeting with people, talking to new people.”

In her first two years as a caddie Holsey performed 190 loops. She doesn’t play the game. She tried it once at a Top Golf facility and found it much harder than it looks. She has offered a few opinions when asked on reading putts, but otherwise she sticks to being a helpful caddie.

“The first year I would ride with Christyanna Griffin – she goes to Cass Tech, too, and is also an Evans Scholar – and we would get to the Country Club at 5 o’clock every morning to get on the list for loops,” she said. “We worked hard for this opportunity. I would have never dreamed golf would help me go to college and live out my dreams, but I’m so thankful it is happening.”

Migaldi, the son of Maria and Dominic Migaldi, said he was introduced by his father to golf at age 10 and he competed on junior golf tours and in several tournaments.

“I was one of the kids in my all-orange apparel like Rickie Fowler and really just loving golf,” he said. “Two years ago Owen pointed me to the program and it has been a perfect job for me. I love interacting with people, being outside in the summer, making money and enjoying it at the same time.”

Being a caddie has introduced him to people who have already made an impact on him and his future.

“I met Dr. Nick Doman and caddied for him multiple times,” he said. “After I had caddied for him for a round or two he asked me if I wanted to shadow him on his job – he’s an orthopedic surgeon. I got to go with him to his office, meet staff, meet patients. It was the coolest experience ever for me and being a caddie is paying dividends. The Evans Scholarship is helping me go after my dream.”

The Chick Evans Scholarship Program via the Evans Scholars Foundation has been supported since 1930 by the Western Golf Association, which is headquartered in Glenview, Ill. One of golf’s favorite charities, it is the nation’s largest scholarship program for caddies.

Golf Association of Michigan members and clubs help the WGA identify and sponsor worthy candidates and also help interview them for the scholarships which have four selection criteria: a strong caddie record; excellent academics; demonstrated financial need; and outstanding character.

An estimated 300 caddies nationwide are expected to be awarded the scholarships this year. Currently there are 1,045 caddies enrolled at 19 universities across the nation. The program was founded by famed Chicago amateur golfer Charles “Chick” Evans Jr., and 11,320 caddies have graduated from the program since 1930.

Scholarship funds come mostly from contributions by 32,500 golfers across the country, who are members of the Evans Scholars Par Club program. Evans Scholars Alumni donate more than $15 million annually, and all proceeds from the BMW Championship, the third of four PGA TOUR Playoff events in the PGA TOUR’s FedExCup competition, are donated to the Evans Scholars Foundation. The Golf Association of Michigan also contributes to the Evans Scholars through the annual online auction for it’s members.