Allied Golf Associations – Syndication Server

Why the USGA committing $30 million to water conservation is important for golf’s future

Mike Whan: “We write an incredible white paper, we send that out and we think ‘job well done.'”

Water is an integral part of everyday life. It’s also vital to golf.

That’s why the United States Golf Association says it’s investing $30 million in its effort to drive forward a more sustainable game. Last month, the USGA announced a multi-year, multi-million-dollar investment toward reducing golf’s use of water.

Efforts to reduce water usage are nothing new in the game, but it’s more vital now than ever.

“There’s only going to be more competition for our water resources as population increases,” said Cole Thompson, the USGA’s Director of Turfgrass and Environmental Research. “That’s really what this initiative is, is the USGA committing to hopefully leading the industry toward water resiliency.”

The USGA’s $30 million commitment over the next 15 years will advance underutilized strategies and technologies that golf courses can use to economically reduce their use of water, a vital and increasingly regulated natural resource with near- and long-term cost and availability concerns. The work will focus on irrigation optimization, advanced conservation innovation and water sourcing and storage.

“The long-term economic and environmental sustainability of green-grass golf courses – where more than 25 million people enjoy the game and millions more are employed – will be challenged in certain regions if the game doesn’t advance this critical work now,” Mike Whan, CEO of the USGA, said in a release. “We are enthused and impressed by the reductions golf course superintendents have pursued over the past decade, and even more optimistic about the future. The USGA is ready to not only contribute our voice, but also our resources and expertise, to help our golf course partners and ensure golf’s future.”

Some highlights of the commitment include:

Launching and continuously update a water resilience playbook for the game of golf
Demonstrate underutilized and emerging, research-based practices
Understand and break down barriers to adoption of proven strategies (including financial barriers)
Continue to support water resilience research and turfgrass breeding programs

The work toward greater water resilience propels many of the current and emerging practices employed throughout golf, which have contributed to a 29 percent reduction in golf’s use of water from 2005-20. The USGA’s initiative will build on that benchmark, with the goal of more widespread adoption nationwide.

“The problem of water is not going away,” Thompson said. “You’ve got to think about what your water sources are and if they’re being used efficiently, so you know if you can diversify your water supply.”

One of the best examples of water conservation is at Pasatiempo Golf Club in California, which in September of 2017 started using a $9 million irrigation setup, consisting of a 500,000-gallon subterranean water storage tank, a water treatment facility and a pump station.

The wastewater treatment site supplied between 60 percent and 70 percent of Pasatiempo’s irrigation needs annually, superintendent Justin Mandon said. In addition, Mandon said Pasatiempo also used potable water and well water, though its use of potable water has dropped nearly 80 percent since opening the wastewater treatment site.

“I’m not aware of other courses anywhere that use three different sources of water,” Mandon said.

Mandon has worked with the USGA and has spoke at water summits to discuss Pasatiempo’s changes and how other courses can do their part.

“Even if you think you’re in an area where you have very secure water, you really need to start thinking about where does your water actually come from, who controls that,” Mandon said. “Start really started having those conversations about where this commodity is going to start to go because it’s going to become more and more limited, regardless of where you are in the United States.”

The USGA is partnering with courses on numerous field projects designed to show where and when the water conservation potential of a strategy outweighs the investment and disruption required for implementation. Research supports that drought-tolerant grasses use about 20 percent less water than commonly used varieties, depending on location and grassing scheme, and installing them typically pays off in five to 10 years.

With a goal of identifying early adopters, the USGA will continue to collaborate in a series of water summits in several states along with its Allied Golf Associations, as it seeks to draw the best talent and innovations toward the program’s goals.

The organization will also work together with golf courses on sharing best practices and innovations that could be more widely adopted to advance program goals.

“If you employ the right strategies in your region, this can help get to a reasonable amount of water to provide a golf course,” Thompson said.

Whan believes the USGA (and other governing bodies) have long had good intentions when it comes to water conservation, but simply tried to hand research down to golf courses already facing financial battles.

With the new initiatives, the CEO believes the pathway to success becomes more practical.

“What I said to the board when I got there is we’ve been really good at research right up until the white paper. We go spend a bunch of money on research, we write an incredible white paper, we send that out and we think ‘job well done.’ We’ve got to move from white paper to actually putting product in the dirt,” Whan said. “So our 15-30-45 initiative which is 15 years, $30 million to reduce water on a golf course by 45 percent, you can’t just show somebody on a pamphlet how to do that.

“Like, if somebody can’t afford the $5 million dollar drip irrigation change, we’re going to have to put up the five and let them pay us back a million a year over five years. We’ve got to create a process.”

For example, Golfweek learned that in the anchor agreement the USGA signed with Pebble Beach — which includes hosting four U.S. Women’s Opens — that the oldest continuous working golf course west of the Mississippi will be a testing ground of sorts. Officials will see what they can learn from Del Monte Golf Course, which sits right near downtown Monterey.

“They’re kind of letting us experiment at Del Monte and actually try different things,” Whan said. “We’ve got a similar agreement in the South, we’re taking research and we’re actually putting it in the ground so that we can show somebody, ‘hey, at this place we reduced water by 53 percent. Let us tell you how, and do you want to try to do that here at your own course?’

“I think in the past we stopped at the white-paper stage, like in a 2-by-2 plot of land at UC Riverside we showed that this strain of grass needs 30 percent less water. But that doesn’t help your typical superintendent.

“We’re going to take it to the next level.”

Golfweek’s Tim Schmitt contributed to this report.

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Miami Valley ‘punches above its weight’ when it comes to amateur stars like Marissa Wenzler, Austin Greaser

A small golf market like Miami Valley can have its challenges but as executive director Steve Jurick says, “we punch way above our weight.”

After Marissa Wenzler collected the Women’s Western Amateur trophy, a colossal piece of hardware both physically and symbolically in the amateur golf world – on July 24, she was headed back home to Dayton, Ohio to a family reunion already underway. Safe to say the family was watching that week-long performance at Park Ridge (Illinois) Country Club from afar.

Safe to say some Wenzler fans in the greater Miami Valley Golf Association were watching, too.

“I think everyone is going to be pretty excited,” she told Golfweek at the end of that week. “I have a great support system, my family, friends, teammates, coaches, everyone.”

Wenzler, a junior on the University of Kentucky roster, is a bright spot for one of the country’s smaller golf organizations. Miami Valley numbers only 10,577 members. A smaller golf market can have its challenges, including a small inventory of courses and smaller membership numbers, but as executive director Steve Jurick says, “we punch way above our weight.”

Perhaps that’s never been so obvious as it has been these past few months. After Wenzler marched through five head-to-head matches to victory at the Women’s Western, she teed it up two weeks later at the U.S. Women’s Amateur. She advanced through a 12-for-2 playoff on the match-play bracket, and then her first match-play victory was over stroke-play medalist Rachel Kuehn.

Wenzler ended up advancing to the Round of 32 at the U.S. Women’s Amateur, and a week later, another player with Miami Valley ties did even better at the U.S. Amateur. Austin Greaser, of Vandalia, Ohio, played his way to the final match before falling to eventual champion James Piot.

Greaser, a junior at North Carolina, told Golfweek after the quarterfinals at Oakmont (Pennsylvania) Country Club that he just loves a good, Midwest-style golf course, noting how Oakmont reminds him of Inverness in Toledo, Ohio, where he lost to eventual champion Preston Summerhays in the quarterfinals of the 2019 U.S. Junior.

James Piot, left, and Austin Greaser pose with the Havemeyer Trophy before the start of

the final match at the 2021 U.S. Amateur at Oakmont Country Club. (Chris Keane/USGA)

“These courses just fit my eye, man,” said Greaser, who was making his third U.S. Amateur start.

Courtesy of his trip to the final match at Oakmont, this Miami Valley native will now have the opportunity to play in both the 2022 Masters Tournament and the U.S. Open.

Greaser and Wenzler certainly stand out on the national stage, but

Britt Platt was the medalist and lost in the finals of the Women’s State Mid-Amateur Championship, Dhaivat Pandya, lost in a playoff in the Ohio Amateur and Jordon Gilkison won the State Boys DI High School Championship.

There is much to celebrate about Miami Valley golf.

Competition drives Michigan golfer Jerry Gunthorpe

The extremely competitive Jerry Gunthorpe made golf headlines in Michigan and beyond with a runner-up finish in the U.S. Senior Amateur.

Jerry Gunthorpe, who grabbed the attention of the golf audience in Michigan and across the country with a runner-up finish in the recent U.S. Senior Amateur Championship at Country Club of Detroit, describes himself as very competitive.

“I’ve always been that way,” he said.

It was seeking an outlet for his competitiveness that first brought him to golf. When he started the 10th grade at Lansing Everett High School he stood just 5-foot 2-inches tall and was declared anemic by the doctor in his annual physical.

“I could shoot and handle the ball, and I could run, but I wasn’t going to play football or basketball at the Class A high school level at 5-2,” he said. “I had to find something else as a competitive outlet, and golf was that outlet. I wasn’t driven to play golf really. I was driven to be competitive, and golf fit that competitive aspect for a guy who was 5-2 at the time.”

A growth spurt, ironically, happened in the very next year with iron pills prescribed by the doctor.

“I went from 5-2 and 98 pounds at the start of my sophomore year to 6-foot and 98 pounds at the start of my junior year,” he said.

He added some weight and filled out over time, and today Gunthorpe, 58, fit and standing strong at 6-foot, still finds his competitive outlet in golf.

His recent run to the finals in the U.S. Senior Amateur might have been as surprising as a 10-inch growth spurt on the national level, but in Ovid, where he lives, at Owosso Country Club where he plays, in the Lansing area and in Golf Association of Michigan tournaments where he normally competes, it wasn’t as much surprise as it was verification.

“Jerry has a lot of game, and it’s just great he’s making a run,” said Bill Zylstra of Dearborn, who on the day Gunthorpe was competing in the finals at CC of Detroit was at Boyne Highlands Resort in Harbor Springs competing in the GAM Mid-Amateur Championship.

Zylstra, who is a former top-ranked national senior player, wasn’t surprised.

“It’s great they are playing it in Detroit,” he said. “It gives more Michigan guys a chance to see what they can do.”

Five Michigan players were in the starting field and three – Gunthorpe, Tom Gieselman and Rick Herpich, making it through stroke play to match play. Gieselman, in fact, reached the quarterfinals along with Gunthorpe.

Gunthorpe didn’t surprise himself reaching the finals. In a move to take his game national he had played in a trio of senior Golfweek tournaments in Florida last winter, had a top-five finish in the very first, and built enough ranking points to be in the top 30 at one point.

He had already met and competed against Gene Elliott of Iowa, who beat him 1-up in the title match of the U.S. Senior Amateur as a lead he held most of the match slipped away with bogeys on the final two holes.

“I don’t want this to come off as arrogance or anything like that because that’s not what this is,” he said, “but I believed I could play with and beat anybody my age. I still have the distance, I have longevity in the game, I’m in good shape at this age and I wouldn’t say I felt like I belonged there. It was more I never felt like I didn’t belong. It wasn’t a Genie in a bottle, a lucky swipe. You have to have a certain amount of luck to get that far in any tournament. That’s a function of the game, especially in match play, but as we went through the week I was trying to win it and thought I could.”

He almost did win it, and he said the most remarkable thing he will remember is the reaction of others to his accomplishment.

“The amount of congratulations has been amazing and humbling, and the amount that came from people I never even thought paid attention to me or golf was amazing,” he said. “So many people have told me they were riveted to the on-line scoring from the middle of the week to the end, and that others were, too. All over the country somebody that knew somebody who knew me, was pulling for me. I was so much in my own thing, competing, and to find out so many people cared about it, that is almost overwhelming. I never knew I could be the focus like that for so many people.”

Gunthorpe’s biggest takeaway from the experience, the thing he thinks he will remember most is having his son Nate caddie for him.

“He worked so hard and made it easy for me to play consistently well and not get caught up in whatever outside influences were going on. His demeanor, the interaction we had and my ability to hit quality golf shots came together. He was such a positive influence, helping me through warm-ups, being prepared to play and he was there to navigate whatever outside influences that were going on. I don’t think I will ever forget that experience.”

Golf is the competitive outlet for much of the family, and it is very competitive. Nate played collegiate golf at Michigan State University, and his son Nick played at Grand Valley State University and both are competitive amateur players at the state and national level. Gunthorpe figures the family battles with his boys and other top players at Owosso Country Club prepared him well for the championship run.

“Having your kids play golf has been a huge benefit,” he said. “They kept me in the game, kept me on the competitive side. I coached them in high school for seven years when they didn’t have a coach for the program. It was really about 15 years there where I was with them and golf was part of it.”

Gunthorpe and his wife Joani also have a daughter, Casey, who was a standout in competitive cheer in high school and also a cheerleader at Michigan State. He referred to her as the best athlete in the family.

“I met Joani back when I was in my second year of college (Lansing Community College) and I knew I wanted to get married and have her be a part of my life,” he said. “We had kids young because we wanted to have kids and saw no reason not to have them while we were young. The family was my focus. Yes, I still played golf, but the family and work were priorities for us.”

Gunthorpe is the president and owner of Gunthorpe Plumbing & Heating Inc., which is headquartered in Bath near East Lansing. His grandfather was a mechanical contractor. His father chose that path, too, and started Gunthorpe Plumbing & Heating in 1980. Gunthorpe and his late brother took it over. Nick and Nate now work in the business, too.

“Like with any family business you work 24 hours a day at it,” he said. “It’s doing really well, and I enjoy what I’m doing. It’s competitive in the business world like anything else, and that fits me and the family.”

Gunthorpe, who also likes to bow hunt and fish when he can find the time, said only so much time was carved out for golf over the years. He is going to take advantage of the exemption perks in the U.S. Mid-Amateur this fall and the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Senior Amateur next summer, but he isn’t planning dramatic changes in his life because of his run at CC of Detroit.

“I’m looking forward to the competition, that’s really it,” he said.

For talented senior Julie Massa, golf has been the family game for life

Julie Massa of Holt, Michigan, returned recently from her sixth U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, which was played in Point Clear, Alabama.

Julie Massa of Holt, Michigan, returned recently from her sixth U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship, which was played in Point Clear, Alabama.

She made match play and was disappointed with a first-round loss, but she plans to keep working on her game and return next year.

“I practice with the USGA tournaments in mind,” she said. “They are special for me.”

The USGA national tournament challenge clearly appeals to her as evidenced by her 21 USGA tournament appearances dating back to two U.S. Girls’ Junior tournaments and including two U.S. Women’s Amateurs and nine U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur appearances.

“The courses are always challenging, there’s always a great field, it tests your game completely and I like that,” she said. “And like when I went to Alabama and played Bermuda grass greens, I like playing different conditions in different parts of the country. It’s the challenge of it I think.”

There was something different with this trip, too. Her husband Daryl, who retired last year, was able to go along and serve as caddie.

“That was really special,” she said. “I would hire him again if he wants to do it. I told him no firing and no quitting. It was fun to have him be a part of it.”

Golf is the Massa family game and mom is the star. She’s been the GAM Senior Women’s Player of the Year the last six years and was named the GAM Women’s Senior Player of the Decade in 2020. In early October she will be inducted into the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame.

She learned the game from her father Al Cross, a PGA golf professional who turned 90 in July and still plays nine-hole rounds of golf a couple of times each week.

His star pupil, which also happened to be his daughter, won the 1983 Oregon Women’s Amateur and played for the Arizona State University golf team for four years and turned professional briefly before getting her amateur standing reinstated.

Massa met her husband along the way, brought her golf game to Michigan and they raised three daughters who play golf, too.

In Michigan her game has blossomed, first in mid-amateur tournaments and later in senior competitions. She said the most satisfying national event was teaming up with her daughter Mariah and qualifying for the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball.

Golf has been a central activity throughout her life.

“Just growing up playing golf I liked to play well,” she said. “When I was a teenager I played with my brother and his friends, with other girls and guys, and we would have matches. It makes it fun when you play well and others around you play well. That’s where I learned to like competition.”

Massa is humble and deflects praise even as she continues to be the top senior female golfer in Michigan. She considers golf a privilege.

“Dad taught us to play, but he also taught us golf is a game,” he said. “I feel lucky to get to play this game, fortunate to be able to go places and play. I get disappointed, and it feels great to win, but I really enjoy just getting to play.”

She recovered quickly from her recent first-round match loss and said she learned from it.

“I’m always learning,” she said. “I played well in Alabama, hit a lot of good shots but I also learned more about some of the things I didn’t do well.”

Her frequent national tournament appearances have also helped her cultivate a group of national friends. She noted she grew up playing in Oregon with the family of three-time winner and this year’s champion Lara (Mack) Tennett, and former champion Terry Frohnmayer is a former student of her father.

“Terry was working with dad when she won in 2011,” she said. “I played two practice rounds with her this year. It’s great to see the people I’ve competed with over the years, just like when I play in Michigan. You compete, but you become friends, too.”

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.”

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.”