“Golf’s narrative is changing — it is becoming more inclusive, more community-focused, and more forwardlooking. We see that in Michigan every day, and we are proud to be part of that movement.”
—Richard Aginian, GAM president
Dear Fellow GAM Members,
Welcome to the first-ever digital edition of Michigan Links! As president of the Golf Association of Michigan, I am proud to help usher in this new format — an exciting evolution that allows us to tell more of the stories that define golf in Michigan, more often, timely, and more dynamically.
This digital edition is not replacing our annual print magazine; we are expanding on it. We are adding three new digital issues throughout the season to give our growing community more ways to stay informed and engaged. Alongside our biweekly E-Links newsletter, these new tools reflect our deep commitment to keeping you connected — to the game, to the GAM, and to each other.
Our membership (over 97,000 strong) is more diverse and expansive than ever before. As the USGA recently noted, golf’s narrative is changing — it is becoming more inclusive, more community-focused, and more forward-looking. We see that in Michigan every day, and we are proud to be part of that movement.
This edition’s cover story features Ryan Grant, director of golf services at the Country Club of Detroit — one of the GAM’s founding clubs. Ryan leads one of the state’s most impactful caddie programs, helping produce a remarkable number of Evans Scholars. His story is a powerful reminder of how golf can be a vehicle for giving back and shaping futures.
Inside, you will also meet new GAM leaders like Darrell Zavitz (Belvedere GC) and Chris Zeigler (The Moors GC), explore how facilities are growing junior golf through Youth on Course, and get updates on key topics like the World Handicap System® and the upcoming 2026 U.S. Senior Women’s Open in Michigan at Barton Hills.
Our goal with Michigan Links — in print and now digital — is to shine a bright light on the people, programs, and places that make Michigan golf so special. We are glad you are a part of it.
Here’s to a fantastic golf season ahead!
Warm regards and many birdies,
Richard Aginian
President, Golf Association of Michigan
2025 GAM President Richard Aginian
“The thing I love most about golf are the people I’ve met. I’ve met my closest and best friends on the golf course.”
—Chris Zeigler, GAM governor
Faces of the GAM Course Connections
Chris Zeigler: “Everyone with the GAM loves the game of golf”
BY GREG JOHNSON
Chris Zeigler enjoys being outside, on a golf course, and loves the challenge of the game.
“You can never quite master it,” she says. “But I think the thing I love most about golf are the people I’ve met. I’ve met my closest and best friends on the golf course.”
Zeigler, 68 and a Kalamazoo resident, is starting her second year as a Golf Association of Michigan governor and her fourth year serving as a course rater. She has become a volunteer rules official, too.
She is a longtime member of the GAM, currently through her 15-year membership at The Moors Golf Club in Portage and for 20 years prior at Mount Pleasant Country Club.
She can play the game, too. She has won club championships 10 times at The Moors and 10 times at Mount Pleasant CC and has made four holes-in-one in her career. She played collegiate golf at Central Michigan and now competes in GAM championships.
She was playing in the Michigan Women’s Senior Amateur in 2021 when she met Mark Bultema, a GAM rules official and at that time chair of the course rating committee. Bultema made a recruiting pitch for her to try course rating, and she took the shot.
“I enjoyed it, and I love spending time at golf courses,” she says. “I always have.”
Zeigler is retired. For 15 years, she was a CEO for a nonprofit that served people with dis-
abilities in Kalamazoo, and she worked for 20 years prior with a similar agency in Mount Pleasant.
She grew up in West Michigan and learned the game by playing with family at Ionia Country Club, a facility that has nine holes designed by legend Donald Ross and is now known as Shadow Ridge Golf Course. The Ross holes serve as the back nine of the expanded 18-hole public venue.
One of the first ratings Zeigler worked on with the GAM was a recent update rating at Shadow Ridge.
“I really enjoyed that, and I enjoy working with the raters,” she says. “I didn’t realize all that went into a course rating, all factors that are part of it. I plan to do some ratings this summer, help as a rules official, and play as much as I can, too. It will be a busy summer with the GAM, but a fun summer. Everyone with the GAM loves the game of golf, and they all are honored to be a part of it.”
GAM Gov. Chris Zeigler (right) poses with Rickie Fowler at the BMW Championship.
Chris Zeigler
Paying It Forward
New GAM secretary Darrell Zavitz gives back to Michigan golf
BY GREG JOHNSON
Darrell Zavitz, a native Canadian and longtime Michigan resident in Midland and now East Jordan near Charlevoix, worked with Dow Chemical for 30 years and in three countries, including Canada and Switzerland.
As his work took him around the world, the new Golf Association of Michigan officer (secretary) and course rating volunteer brought his golf clubs and took his wife, Ann, and their three sons on vacation travels, too.
“We were members at Midland Country Club and loved that, and when we were in Switzerland, we were a member of a club, and the boys were able to be part of a junior program there, playing on a course where the cows with their cowbells were next to the fairways,” Zavitz says. “We have also played in Scotland and in Egypt. We’ve played a lot of very interesting places, and now we’re members at Belvedere [Golf Club].”
He retired from Dow in 2014, and in joining Belvedere, he met Steve Braun, a former golf professional at Belvedere and president emeritus of the GAM.
“I had heard about course rating, and that interested me, and Steve talked about the GAM and all it does for golf,” Zavitz says. “I have always been involved with nonprofits. I spent a lot of time with United Way of Midland County, worked with the Midland soccer and hockey associations, and always enjoyed community
involvement. Working with the GAM seems like a natural extension of that.”
Zavitz says he and Ann are happy their sons, who are all now in their 30s, are dual citizens of Canada and the U.S., but Michigan is home. He says while he has enjoyed golf around the world, he also knows golfers do not have to leave Michigan to find great places to play.
“Not only are there beautiful championship courses all over the state, there are so many great family-run public courses in Michigan that people don’t know much about,” he says. “Working with the course rating team has made that very clear to me. There are dozens of great golf courses in our state.”
While he enjoys his GAM and golf travels, Zavitz says the game’s top appeal for him is the social side.
“It’s a game that spans capabilities and generations at the same time,” he says. “You can go play golf with anyone of any skill level, of any age, and spend quality time over the course of four hours. You learn about them, their character, so many things. Golf has been a great sport for me to meet a lot of interesting people around the world and get to know them.”
“I have always been involved with nonprofits … and always enjoyed community involvement. Working with the GAM seems like a natural extension of that.”
—Darrell Zavitz, GAM secretary
Darrell Zavitz
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Standout caddies, Evans Scholars shaped by Country Club of Detroit’s Ryan Grant
/ BY GREG JOHNSON
Mark Bond, a Golf Association of Michigan governor, Western Golf Association director, and the state chair of the Evans Scholars Foundation, says Ryan Grant, the director of golf services at the Country Club of Detroit, checks all the boxes.
“If he isn’t the top golf services guy in Michigan, then he’s No. 1A,” Bond says.
Grant, who has been at CCD since 2019, deflects the praise while at the same time admitting he is especially proud of what he has been able to accomplish with his caddie program at the club.
“My goal is to provide a quality caddie experience to all of our members and guests and be the best place for caddies to work in Michigan,” the 37-year-old Grant says. “It’s really the goal every day. We are always working toward making sure members and their guests have a quality experience.”
Grant says part of reaching that goal is training caddies correctly, helping them grow in the job and learn to build life goals for themselves. The Evans Scholarship program plays a primary role, and Grant is proud that since 2019, the club has been home to 15 Evans Scholars, who are part of 26 scholars in Grant’s golf services career of 17 years that he has helped produce.
One of two 2025 Evans Scholars from CCD, Avery Gates of Saint Clair Shores, a fourth-year caddie and freshman at Michigan State University, says Grant’s impact on her has been incredible.
“Anytime I have a low battery for my job, all I have to do is listen to some of the kids interview for the Evans Scholarships. I’m right back at a full battery. They are our future.”
—Ryan Grant, director of golf services at the Country Club of Detroit
“I didn’t know anything about golf, but the caddie instruction that Ryan gives you is so great. … Now I play the sport, and I think golf will always be a part of my life.”
—Avery Gates, 2025 Evans Scholar
“Being a caddie has allowed personal growth for me, and Ryan has repeatedly urged me to work toward being an Evans Scholar,” she says. “Before becoming a caddie, I was introverted and shy, and now I’m more outspoken and outgoing. I’m so proud to be an Evans Scholar. I applied last year and was turned down, but Ryan supported me so well and urged me to apply again, and this year it happened.”
Bond says Grant’s detailed organization of his caddie program is impressive.
“He has developed a system, and I believe he can predict who has the skills to become an Evans Scholar,” he says. “He is poised, his caddie training classes are great, and he is very professional. Some golf services guys can come off a little rough and gruff, but he is professional all the way, a genuine good person, and a perfect fit at Country Club of Detroit.”
Grant, who has a history degree from Michigan State, says he fell into golf services working for the late Desmond Crowley at Birmingham Country Club during college.
“Working for Des, who was the best of caddie masters, I got my love of the game, learned how to train caddies, and was simply pulled into the golf world, where I’ve stayed,” Grant says. “When I graduated from college in 2009, the job market was not great, so I went all in at Birmingham to see what I could do in golf, and honestly, I’ve not looked back. I love it.”
Grant says Crowley was a legendary golf services guy and imparted the history of caddies and served as a role model in mentoring and teaching caddies more than just caddie skills.
“Being a caddie teaches you time management, fiscal responsibility, leadership, helping others, and like Des, I try to prepare caddies for life outside of the club, for later in life, and to build relationships with our members,” Grant says. “We have doctors, CEOs, business titans, the kind of people others would pay thousands of dol-
lars to spend time with them, and a caddie gets to have four hours with them to interact, serve and learn, and potentially create an opportunity, an internship, build a connection, and maybe it helps them with a career one day. At minimum, it prepares them to approach and converse with business leaders.”
In Grant’s second season at CCD, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the golf club, and it shut things down in the caddie program significantly.
“We had to build it back up from maybe 200 caddies on the roster to 20, and we’ve been able with the support of the membership and club to get back to [a] roster of close to 300 caddies, and I see regularly each year about 200 individuals,” Grant says. “Last year, 21% of the rounds at CCD were caddie rounds. That’s skewed a bit by all our men’s leagues being cart leagues, because on a daily basis it’s probably a higher percentage. We have some caddie rules here, and they are supported by our members, which is what really makes a program work.”
Grant also tries to introduce playing the game to the caddies and is supported by the
membership through their donation of their used clubs.
“It doesn’t take long for a set to be in the caddie yard before someone is playing with them in our Monday caddie rounds,” Grant says. “A good caddie program is made only better with this kind of support from the club.”
Gates says she became a golfer after her best friend, Sara Linsdeau, another Evans Scholar and CCD caddie, introduced her to the opportunity.
“I didn’t know anything about golf, but the caddie instruction that Ryan gives you is so great, and I’ve learned a lot from Sara, the other caddies, and members,” Gates says. “It’s kind of a community that works together. Now I play the sport, and I think golf will always be a part of my life.”
Grant says his same-page relationship with George Forster, head golf professional at CCD, and other club staff and leaders pushes the caddie program in the right direction.
“I like to think of myself as a teacher more than anything, and these 250 kids out here are mine to help learn,” he says. “I stay available to them. They have my cell number, and they can call me and text me at all hours. It’s a two-way street. I treat them as adults until there is a reason not to do that, and they know we want them to develop and leave this place knowing they have the skills to be successful in whatever they want to do.”
Grant says he pushes the Evans Scholar program as an ultimate goal to the young caddies.
“Anyone who needs financial assistance for college, and that’s almost everybody, benefits from going for that goal,” he says. “The program, the WGA, the vast network created by it, it’s amazing. The caddies who work at it come out better for it. Anytime I have a low battery for my job, all I have to do is listen to some of the kids interview for the Evans Scholarships. I’m right back at a full battery. They are our future.”
2025 Evans Scholar Avery Gates.
pure excitement
Stewart Cink
Women’s Metropolitan Golf Association celebrates granite anniversary
90Years Strong
/ BY BARBARA PORTER
This year, the Women’s Metropolitan Golf Association is celebrating its 90th anniversary. This milestone is referred to as the “granite” anniversary, and like granite, the WMGA is going strong. From the beginning in 1935 at Sylvan Glen Golf Course in Troy, the amateur golf organization has continuously played competitive handicapped flighted stroke play every Wednesday from May until mid-September. Each week, WMGA members play a different course, which affords them the opportunity to experience the diversity of golf courses in the metropolitan area. The WMGA offers two classes for members: full membership, playing all events, and associate membership, playing 10 selected weeks of competition. Golfers must have a current USGA Handicap Index® no higher than 25.4.
Even though the WMGA is a women’s group, it was golf pro Bob Sutherland at Sylvan Glen who, in 1935, suggested to a group of women who played Michigan Golf Association courses that they organize for medal play golf. The women found this idea to be favorable and met at the old Tuller Hotel in Detroit, where they formed an organization “to promote competitive golf and good sportsmanship among women who play public and semi-public golf courses.” The name
was registered in Lansing, and the first official competition was held at Sylvan Glen on May 6, 1936, with 61 participants. And thanks to the strength of the many former and current members, the rest, as they say, is history. The WMGA joined the GAM in 1991, which paved the road for several of the former’s members to qualify for and excel in both GAM and USGA events.
During the organization’s season, the WMGA dedicates time for fundraising to help support a charity dedicated to helping women. Currently, the charity of choice is Sanctum House, which provides a safe home for survivors of human trafficking to heal and rebuild. “Our membership has stepped up every year and opened their wallets to help women who are facing major battles,” says Belinda Friis, the current president of the WMGA. “We recognize our good fortune having the opportunity to play the great game of golf and want to take some time each season to focus on those who need a helping hand.”
The WMGA will host an anniversary celebration on July 16 at Greystone Golf Club in Washington, Michigan. The program will consist of golf, a buffet lunch, a guest speaker, and sharing memories of the organization’s notable heritage. Additional membership information and 90th anniversary updates can be found at womensmetgolf.org
The Women’s Metropolitan Golf Association poses at Edgewood Country Club.
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Getting KIDS on the Golf Course
Youth
on Course thriving at top public venues across the state
/ BY GREG JOHNSON
Paul Scott, general manager of Radrick Farms Golf Club for the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor; Dean Marks, the director of golf for the three Kalamazoo municipal golf courses; and Ben Rabourn, clubhouse supervisor for Kent County’s L.E. Kaufman Golf Course in the Grand Rapids area, are shining examples of golf leaders who have embraced participa -
tion of their facilities in Youth on Course Michigan.
“We are 100% in for building tomorrow’s customers,” says Rabourn.
“We’re involved, and I personally see it working as a general manager and as a parent,” says Scott.
“Youth on Course ties in everything I’ve been passionate about in junior golf the last 25 years,” says Marks.
The Golf Association of Michigan Foundation’s Youth on Course program reached a major milestone in 2024, surpassing $1 million in subsidies via Youth on Course to the state’s participating golf courses.
The GAM’s Youth on Course involvement, which was started in 2017 and guided by the national Youth on Course model, has subsidized participating golf courses $1,004,115, including a record $253,535 in 2024. In the eight years of Youth on Course Michigan, 51,967 members have played golf rounds and/or hit a bucket of balls at reduced rates, 172,108 times.
The Youth on Course model allows youth golfers ages 6 to 18 to play golf rounds at the participating courses for $5 or less. The GAM Foundation works with the courses and clubs to subsidize them for taking part.
IN GRAND RAPIDS
Rabourn says L.E. Kaufman, a popular public venue in the area, has been affiliated with Youth on Course for the last six years without hesitation.
“The program brings us the customers who are going to be coming back here in 10 to 15 years,” he says. “They are our future clientele. If we get them here and they enjoy the game when they are younger, it is likely they will come back as adults and play.”
Rabourn has worked at Kaufman since 2011 and feels strongly that anybody who works in golf shares a responsibility to grow the game and that it should be part of the business model of every public venue.
“It makes the game affordable for families of young kids, and that’s the part I like best,” Rabourn says.
He says the course booked over 150 Youth on Course member rounds last summer and that those numbers increase each year.
“The kids spread the word, and while our course is longer even from the red tees than some other courses in the area, I think they enjoy the challenge, our conditions, and get better at the game,” he says. “Youth on Course works. It gets kids on the golf course.”
IN ANN ARBOR
Scott first learned about Youth on Course through the GAM and says he jumped in because he felt it was a program that would work at Radrick.
“It works very well as far as aligning us with the university and the principles and values we share,” he says. “As part of an education institution, we are asked to be a golf course that grows the game and feeds the pipeline for future golfers. It’s a no-brainer for us.”
Radrick welcomes over 200 Youth on Course rounds a summer, and some of those include Scott’s son Isaac, who is 13.
“Wherever we play, our first question when booking a round is ‘Are you a participating Youth on Course facility?’” he says. “It greatly impacts our decision-making. We were just in Florida with a lot of options to play golf, but we ended up at Shalimar Pointe because it is a Youth on Course operation.”
Scott says his son went from a 32 USGA Handicap Index to an 18 in the span of a year.
“I credit a lot of that to him being able to play more golf courses and different golf courses as a Youth on Course member,” he says.
IN KALAMAZOO
Marks, who directs Kalamazoo’s municipal courses — Milham Park, Eastern Hills, and Red Arrow — and separately owns Olde Mill Golf Course in nearby Schoolcraft, says Youth on Course rounds are making their mark already this spring.
“I came back from vacation, and I was at Milham Park, and a number of Youth on Course members were checking in to play,” he says. “Then over at Olde Mill, a group of seven Youth on Course golfers were checking in. Portage Central [High School] was closed for a few days, and these kids had time to play golf. I asked them if they were on the school’s golf team, and none of them are on the team. They are just Youth on Course golfers.”
Marks says he has watched the Youth on Course numbers rise each year since 2021, and he says that pleases city leaders.
“We answer to the Kalamazoo City Board, and they are very engaged in youth initiatives,” he says. “We have their full support to continue promoting youth golf.”
Marks says youth golf has been a passion for him. He directs the Kalamazoo Youth Golf Association, has developed a PGA Junior League, serves on a First Tee chapter board, and serves the Michigan Section PGA as a member of the growthe-game committee.
“Youth on Course has brought some parents to the game, too, especially since COVID,” he says. “We see more parents with their kids I think in part because it is more affordable for the whole family to play.”
The GAM Foundation operates Youth on Course Michigan, providing junior golfers access to play golf at participating public golf courses for $5 or less.
Your donation supports financial subsidies to our public course partners and makes the affordable rate possible for juniors.
Count Keeping
Score posting expands to even more short courses
/ BY GREG JOHNSON
The current boom in golf includes a boom in construction, especially short courses, or par-3 courses, and it follows that golfers want to post their scores on the new courses to stay current in the World Handicap System®. Ratings at short courses are an option thanks to a 2024 update to the USGA’s Rules of Handicapping. Previously, a golf course needed to be 1,500 yards minimum per nine holes to be qualified for rating. The new minimum length is half that: 750 yards per nine holes. Hunter Koch, director of course rating for the Golf Association of Michigan, says the
GAM has rated 14 short courses in recent years, with one more on the calendar for this spring and more expected to be opened and then rated in the coming year or two.
“There is a ton of energy behind short courses, to say the least,” Koch says. “There are existing member clubs that have built short courses, and there are resorts adding short courses because of the popularity of them. They obviously answer the needs of facilities for their customers or members for various reasons — time, practice, that kind of thing. Golfers wanting to post those scores makes sense.”
750 YARDS PER NINE HOLES IS THE NEW MINIMUM LENGTH TO BE QUALIFIED FOR RATING.
As of this publication date, GAM members are able to post their scores at these short courses:
1. Bay Meadows Family GC — Green Course (Traverse City)
2. Black Lake GC — Little Course (Onaway)
3. Cascades GC — Short Course (Jackson)
4. Cascade Hills CC — The Park (Grand Rapids)
5. Forest Dunes GC — Bootlegger (Roscommon)
6. Fox Hills — Strategic Fox (Plymouth)
7. Garland Resort — The Sawyer (Gaylord)
8. Georgetown CC (Ann Arbor)
9. Giant Oak GC — Executive (Temperance)
10. Kalamazoo CC — Short Course (Kalamazoo)
11. Lake O’ The Hills GC (Haslett)
12. Manistee National Resort — Short Course (Manistee)
13. Myth GC — Par 3 (Oakland Township)
14. Red Arrow GC (Kalamazoo)
15. Treetops GC — Threetops (Gaylord)
C. Exceptional Score Reduction.
D. All of the above.
D. 20.
C. Course Handicap™.
A. Soft Cap.
B. The player must replace the ball on the original spot where they marked the ball.(13.1D)
D. Use Lateral Relief by taking up to two club lengths (no closer to the hole) where the ball last crossed the edge of the yellow penalty area. (17.1D)
C. One-stroke penalty. (14.3b(4)) ANSWERS TO
World Handicap System® Quiz
1. Going into her round, Jenny had a Handicap Index® of 20.2. She then posted a score that produced a Score Differential™ of 12.2. As a result, her Handicap Index calculation is subject to:
A. Soft Cap.
B. Hard Cap.
C. Exceptional Score Reduction.
D. None of the above.
2. The committee in charge of the competition has the ability to set the Terms of the Competition, including which of the following:
A. Determining the stroke index allocation to be used for the competition.
B. Setting a maximum Handicap Index for entry or use.
C. Setting a maximum Playing Handicap™ for use.
D. All of the above.
3. A player’s scoring record must contain how many scores before a Low Handicap Index™ can be established?
A. 3.
B. 5.
C. 10.
D. 20.
4. Which value is always used when adjusting hole scores for net double bogey purposes?
A. Handicap Index.
B. Low Handicap Index.
C. Course Handicap™.
D. Playing Handicap.
5. Jason’s Low Handicap Index is 10.0, and the current average of his 8 best of 20 Score Differentials is 14.5. As a result, his Handicap Index calculation is subject to:
A. Soft Cap.
B. Soft Cap followed by Hard Cap.
C. Exceptional Score Reduction.
D. None of the above.
Rules of Golf Quiz
1. A player has marked their ball on the putting green. After they replace the ball, a gust of wind moves the ball to another area of the green. How must the player proceed?
A. The player plays from the new spot where the wind moved the ball.
B. The player must replace the ball on the original spot where they marked the ball.
C. The player drops the ball within one club length (no closer to the hole) where the original spot was marked.
2. A player has hit their ball into a yellow penalty area. Which of the following options isnot allowed for a ball in a yellow penalty area?
A. Play the ball as it lies.
B. Use Back-on-the-Line Relief by keeping the point where the original ball last crossed the edge of the penalty area between the hole and where the ball is dropped.
C. Take Stroke-and-Distance Relief.
D. Use Lateral Relief by taking up to two club lengths (no closer to the hole) where the ball last crossed the edge of the yellow penalty area.
3. A player drops a ball from shoulder height when taking relief from an abnormal course condition. The ball dropped from shoulder height stays in the proper relief area. The player proceeds to finish out the hole. What penalty, if any, does the player incur?
A. No penalty since the ball came to rest in the proper relief area.
B. The general penalty.
C. One-stroke penalty.
“To welcome the game’s most accomplished senior women golfers to our historic course is both a privilege and a testament to the club’s enduring commitment to excellence.”
—Mark Klinger, GM and COO at Barton Hills
A Test of the Best
U.S. Senior Women’s Open coming to Barton Hills Country Club in 2026
/ BY GREG JOHNSON
Barton Hills Country Club in Ann Arbor will be the host site for the eighth U.S. Senior Women’s Open Championship in August 2026 and will for the third time test some of the world’s top golfers.
“To welcome the game’s most accomplished senior women golfers to our historic course is both a privilege and a testament to the club’s enduring commitment to excellence,” said Mark Klinger, general manager and chief operating officer at Barton Hills, in a recent United States Golf Association press release.
“This championship is a celebration of skill, perseverance, and the indelible spirit of the game. We are proud to stand alongside the USGA in advancing the sport and providing a world-class stage where history will be made once again.”
It will be the third USGA champion-
ship hosted by Barton Hills, which annually hosts Golf Association of Michigan tournaments and qualifiers, including last summer’s GAM Championship. Barton Hills previously hosted the 1998 U.S. Women’s Amateur, won by Grace Park, and the 2008 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, won by Joan Higgins.
“Barton did such a great job with those championships, so the USGA is well aware of the course and the club, and of course we have some great members who really have promoted women’s golf, like Betty Richart,” says Suzy Green-Roebuck, a Barton Hills member and Michigan Golf Hall of Fame member who played in five of the first six U.S. Senior Women’s Opens. She finished in the top 10 twice.
The club’s course is a favorite among Michigan’s top golfers and GAM members. Barton Hills has hosted three Michigan
Women’s Amateur Championships (1968, 1995, 2006) and five GAM Championships for men (1996, 2011, 2016, 2017, 2024), as well as several other tournaments and GAM and USGA qualifiers.
Chris Whitten, executive director of the GAM, says it is great to see the USGA come back to Michigan again, especially for this championship.
“I think it will be a great championship at Barton Hills,” he says. “The renovation work they have done in recent years has been phenomenal, and we were fortunate to see that up close when we set up our GAM Championship last year. We had a great tournament, and we were able to find the best player that week, and we’re sure the USGA will have a similar experience.”
The 2025 U.S. Senior Women’s Open is scheduled for San Diego Country Club in Chula Vista, California, Aug. 21–24.
Barton Hills Country Club
Five championship courses await your swing—including the celebrated Hawk’s Eye GC plus two top-ranked Michigan gems (Cedar River & The Legend). 90 holes at one resort destination, play each one of them for only a dollar-per-hole. Find out more at shantycreek.com.
Legendary golf course architect Donald Ross keeps watch over his design at Barton Hills CC in Ann Arbor, site of the 2026 U.S. Senior Women’s Open.