MI Golf Journal March 2020

MARCH 2020

Townspeople United to Build Local Course

Sage Run U.P. Double Play 31 Evans Scholars Named

Sweetgrass

For Kids: PGA Jr. League New Patent-Pending Golf Course Design

MSU’s Ally Geer-Park Headed to Augusta National — Again

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March 2020 www.michigangolfjournal.com

Marching into the Golf Season

Our goal is to always provide readers with a cross section of news, activities and features each month in the Michigan Golf Journal, and this month’s edition is no exception. We start with great golf in the far north of the Upper Peninsula, as well as introducing you to a new golf course patent-pending design concept that dramatically decreases the cost of buying land and maintaining it, yet provides diehard golfers a choice at 6, 12, or 18 holes of full-length play on a small piece of property.

Then there is MSU senior Allyson Geer-Park who has accepted her 2nd invitation to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and her trail-blazing career path to this point; plus, a look back at the early part of the 1960s when the people of two small towns combined to build their own local golf course with a LOT of sweat equity.

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We’ve included some new equipment ideas, the emotional stories of some newly-awarded Evans Scholars, a review of PGA Jr. League opportunities for children to join the game – and a look at how golf lovers are making new friends, competing, and Standing Up to Cancer as part of the GolfWeek Amateur Tour across Michigan.

Thanks for joining us.

Tom Lang Publisher/Editor

What’s Inside: 07

Ally Geer-Park Heading to Augusta National

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31 New Evans Scholars in MI

12

Double Play: Golf at Sage Run and Sweetgrass

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GolfWeek Amateur Tour

18

Oceana Golf Club, Built by the Townspeople

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Michigan News and Notes

22

New Wave of Course Design?

38

PGA Jr. League

Michigan Golf Journal New Equipment in 2020

New Technology to Drop Strokes

By Jeremiah Richie Maple Hill Golf

golf ball alignment system, the three Triple Track lines are prominently featured to help improve your putting accuracy. Triple Spring is just around the corner and we’re all Track uses Vernier Hyper Acuity for better ready to test our skills again across Michigan’s and more consistent alignment, a key beautiful golf courses. The new season fundamental to good putting. It’s a design doesn’t just bring opportunities to shave that’s incredibly intuitive and easy to use. some strokes from your handicap or pick up a While it appears gimmicky at first, the few extra bucks in a $5 Nassau – it also brings results, especially when used alongside a new technology to help you do it. Here are a Triple Track golf ball, are hard to deny. few advances in golf technology to check out https://maplehillgolf.com/search. before you hit the links this year. php?searchboost4T=Triple%20 Track&section=content

Odyssey Stroke Lab Triple Track Putters

Odyssey began using the Stroke Lab putter shaft in 2019. The multimaterial shaft saves 40 grams of weight, which is redistributed to the head and grip end of the putter.

This completely rebalances the putter for improved tempo and consistency in the stroke.

New for 2020 there’s a new Microhinge Star Insert in the face for a firmer feel and enhanced sound, but the real advance is in the Triple Track Alignment. Developed from Callaway’s innovative

Garmin Approach S62 Premium GPS Golf Watch

Garmin is an obvious choice when it comes to anything GPS, but the revolutionary Approach S62 is setting a new standard for quality, features, and all-around use on and off the course.

This premium GPS golf watch integrates the critical information and mapping you need in full color on your wrist. It comes preloaded with more than 41,000 maps of golf courses from around the world.

The Green View feature gives you each green’s true shape from wherever you are on the

March 2020 www.michigangolfjournal.com

course, and it allows you to drag-and-drop the pin for greater accuracy.

Other features let you quickly reference the front, middle and back of the green, the direction of the pin on blind shots, hazard distances, or wind speed and direction.

Perhaps the most advanced feature is the ‘Playslike Distance.’ Like the Slope feature on laser rangefinders, Garmin’s Playslike Distance adjusts your flat yardage based on whether your target is uphill or downhill.

It does all the calculating of where the arc of the shot (short or long) your ball will hit, relative to flat yardage. And as if that weren’t enough, the 1.3” easy to read screen, customizable watch faces, smart notifications, wrist-based heart rate technology, and long-lasting battery make this one of the best golf watches available. https://maplehillgolf.com/garmin-approachs62-premium-golf-gps-smart-watch/

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Going to Augusta

MSU Senior to Compete at Augusta National One Last Time Ally Geer-Park invited to second consecutive Augusta National Women’s Amateur

By Tom Lang

Ally Geer-Park had a careerchanging experience in Georgia in 2014 at the ripe young age of 15.

She’s hoping the state of Georgia can create a new one again.

Next month she will compete for a second time in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. She was invited based on being ranked in the top 30 amateurs in the U.S. It was about 100 miles away from Augusta in 2014 that Geer-Park won the AJGA Junior All-Star at Chateau Elan, east of Atlanta. The year before in the same event, her biggest national experience until that time, as a 14-year-old she didn’t make the cut.

“I went in and got my butt kicked,” Geer-Park said in

refence to 2013. “And my dad said, ‘is this something you really want work at and put the time in – do you think you have what it takes to come back and compete with the best players in the world?’

“I was dancing at the time too, and I quit to focus on golf and came back the

next year and won the tournament. That mindset switch of asking myself how much I wanted this, to take my ability and put the work into it and see what I can accomplish. Moments like that have helped define me as a person.”

I would call Geer-Park the kind of person that sets

Continues on page 9 >>

Going to Augusta things, and for me I just try to be true to who I am and do things within the time I think is best for me.

trends – she doesn’t follow them.

It was that same summer of 2013, just a month after completing 8th grade in homeschool, that she verbally committed to play her collegiate golf at Michigan State. Then she earned the credits and test scores to finish high school early and enroll at MSU in January of 2017, which meant sacrificing the first half of NCAA golf season eligibility. The fact someone this talented didn’t pick a southern school is also another non-norm.

The Brighton native was voted Big Ten Freshman of the Year based on that

first half-a-season, made the All-Big Ten First Team and placed fourth in the Big Ten Tournament. And at the end of the same half-freshman season, the Meijer LPGA Classic came calling and invited her to be an exemption in the LPGA Tour event, the first of three times. On a personal level, she also got married just a week before she turned 20 years old.

“I’m kind of used to people reacting with how they expect the timeline of what people’s life should look like,” Geer-Park said.

“Everyone has an idea at what stages in your life you should be doing certain

“I got the same reaction when I told people I was home-schooled, or when I was graduating early and going to college right away.

I think getting married young, that I was prepared for that (reaction). But I’ve always been confident in my decisions so that’s made things easier. I don’t (hear) people saying I’m crazy, but they are often curious... everyone’s journey doesn’t have to look the same.”

Other Geer-Park career highlights include: • 2016 Golf Association of Michigan Women’s Player of the Year, after winning the 2015 and 2016 Michigan State Amateur Championships, becoming the youngest to do so.

• Was the only amateur to make the cut at the 2016 Symetra Tour-Tullymore Classic where she finished 1-over-par.

• Led MSU with a 73.24 scoring average last season, which ranked

Continues on page 11 >>

Going to Augusta as the sixth-best singleseason average in program history.

• Two Big Ten team championships (2017 and ’18) • Owns two of the six best single-season averages in MSU history, while her 72.9 career average (through junior season) is currently the best of any player Geer-Park plans to turn professional this summer and go to LPGA Tour

Q-School in the fall. Exactly when she turns pro will be based on if there is an invitation waiting for her for the Arnold Palmer Cup, in July.

“I think this stage of life in college has flown by,” she said about spring’s final months of her school life before graduating in May. “I remember thinking I was never going to get through high school, the first couple of years seemed to take forever. I still had four years to grow and develop and

have a junior career. They seemed so much longer because I knew what I had coming once I finished high school.

“I was so excited to join Michigan State, and getting into your dream school everything just seemed to fly by. But each year has been different, with various teammates and meaningful experiences, each year is very vivid to me and special.”

Just like the special young golfer she is. MGJ

Michigan Golf Journal Cover Story: UP Golf

March 2020 www.michigangolfjournal.com

slightly elevated green. The hole is named Wisdom, and the sandstone represents a turtle, which embodies wisdom in the animal world.’

Sweetgrass island green

updated its food options and Spa amenities in recent years to attract new guests.

The resort built its first golf course, Sweetgrass, in 2009, designed by Michigan-based architect Paul Albanese.

Sweetgrass ranks among Golfweek’s Best Courses and has earned recognition

by GOLF Magazine and Golf Digest as a Best in State.

Sweetgrass features an open layout with some of the game’s most exciting greens to putt. In addition, the course showcases some wonderful strategic holes including the famous island green No. 15, and its spectacular duo par 5 holes running parallel and finishing the front and back nines –

sharing the same, expansive green complex.

In a review for the Detroit Free Press many years ago, I wrote this: ‘The only hole on the course completely framed by trees from tee to green, No. 17, has many photogenic features to explore. Playing the back tees first requires a trip over one of the course’s five reclaimed road/train bridges from across Menominee County. A significant water carry starts the adventure.

The landing area (from all tees) is littered with bunkers and a sandstone rock formation to avoid. For the final approach, the green is framed by tress not in play as a nice backdrop to the

The description above shows that the rest of the course is pretty wide open with a more prairie-style ergonomic feel to the design.

Sweetgrass is fun, with wide fairways and some of the most fun greens you can putt on including a Redan, Biarritz, Island, and the double-green finishing holes of 9 and 18. Sweetgrass is also part of the “Road to the LPGA” with its Symetra Tour Island Resort Championship featuring the future of LPGA professional golf.

A few years ago, the resort embarked on its latest golf development after demand for more golf had become evident among golfers. The Sage Run course, which was also designed by Albanese, provides a different and fun golf experience traversing up and down, in and around a large bluff that runs through the property about six miles from the hotel (free shuttles). The new course opened full time in May, 2019 – and in the fall hosted the first-ever U.P. Div.

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1 college tournament that featured MSU (with medalist James Piot), Purdue, Kentucky, Central Florida and team winner Liberty University, among six other collegiate teams.

Sage Run was built as part of an $8 million renovation including the addition of a full-service spa, renovation of the bingo hall and a new sports bar that would rival the nearest Buffalo Wild Wings with massive TVs and a thrilling sports-centric atmosphere – something golf groups cherish on most evenings. The truth was, after the great golf combination of Sweetgrass and Sage Run, they had me at “sports bar.”

We utilized the new website (www.islandresortandcasino. com) and package offerings and made the call to book our group on a three-night,

Sage Run 10th hole

four-round golf package.

On this trip we decided to stay on property, but golfers could also choose the “Perfect Foursome” package to include Greywalls in nearby Marquette, and Timberstone in Iron Mountain – both exceptional courses produced by awardwinning Michiganders Mike DeVries and Jerry Matthews, respectively.

Tony Mancilla, the IRC general manager, was willing to take a little risk with

developing Sage Run. He rehired Albanese to dream up a rough and rugged concept located on a totally different type of landscape.

“If you were to take away all the golf course furniture out there – the flagsticks and tee markers – I don’t think you’d realize it’s a golf course,” Albanese told me.

“It looks like a landscape. Yet you throw a flag and a few tee markers in and now it becomes a golf course. The way it is integrated into the Continues on next page >>

Sage Run 9th hole

Michigan Golf Journal Cover Story: UP Golf

Sage Run

natural terrain is what I’m most proud of at Sage Run.” The main feature of the property is a long, sloping ridge that’s an outcome of past glacier movement in the region. It runs through the heart of the property and is very prominent as it has vast hill climbs over 120 feet high. It is clearly the focal point for the golf design and can be very intimidating the first time it’s experienced.

Uphill challenges are most prominent on the par 3 holes of No. 5 and No. 14, plus the 16th par 4. In each case you might see the top of the flag from the tee – if you’re lucky.

Yet the balance of routing includes mostly level or downhill plays – especially Nos. 6, 15 and 18 with highly elevated tees inviting golfers to ‘let it fly’ and watch the ball hang in air for a gloriously long time before dropping to the earth below.

three card poker, let-it-ride, roulette, and bingo. We all met in the McC’s Sports Bar to go over the itinerary for the next three days, pick teams, determine the games, and watch games on more than 30 huge TVs and enjoyed great food and drink.

Following golf, we had a great dinner at the 5 Bridges, where the create-your-own burger was perfect after a long day of golf. Following dinner, we hit the casino before heading back to the rooms, which are very comfortable and spacious.

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Michigan Golf Oceana GolfJournal Club is Saved

Oceana Golf Club: Built on Sweat Equity

By Fred Inglis

One cattle farmer’s bad luck turned good luck for golfers in the remote region of Shelby and Hart, Michigan, in the 1960s – when area golf enthusiasts grew tired of traveling 25-30 miles to play their beloved game and they united to create their own local, 9-hole golf course.

The community group formed, designed and built the Oceana Golf Club to become the first golf course in Oceana County, north of Muskegon. In 1961 the

organizers bought 75 acres located between the two towns. Most of the land was Ollie Satterlee’s cattle pasture.

“I think my dad was glad to sell it,” said Doug Satterlee.

“We didn’t have much luck with that farm. One time we had four cows hit by lightning.”

Fast forward to today and OGC was on the brink of extinction before area native Jason Wenk recently agreed to purchase the financially

strapped 58-year-old public course and build a plan of renewal and renovation.

In the beginning, organizers from both towns went door to door to share their dream of signing 300 charter members. For $100 they would become a shareholder in the nonprofit corporation. One of their first stops was Tanner’s Plumbing in Shelby.

“We didn’t get 300,” recalled the 95-year-old Tanner. “But I told them I’d buy one, and

March 2020 www.michigangolfjournal.com

if they needed me to then I’d buy another one. I was so surprised and thrilled that they managed to make it happen.”

The late Gordie Wyns was another charter member of OGC. He once told me the front nine was designed by local residents Herbert Shinn and Earl Danville.

“They never had a real plan or anything,” Wyns said.

“They just strolled through the property and Shinn would outline hole by hole on a small scratch paper.

He had a knack for seeing something that wasn’t there and draw up fairways and greens.”

It took several months to turn Shinn’s rough design into reality. Local farmers, excavation, trucking, and landscaping companies donated time and equipment. Men and women volunteers put in hundreds of hours of sweat equity.

“We had drainage problems on some holes,” recalled Wyns. “We had to clear a

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lot of grapevines, and we had to clear some of the biggest elm trees I ever saw.

And snakes! I mean lots of snakes. Claude Ferris hated ‘em, and sometimes he’d skip the second hold just to avoid them.”

The front nine opened in late 1962. There have been a few changes, but if Shinn and Danville were alive today, they would still see the integrity of their original hand-drawn design.

“Remember, that was everybody’s first try at Continues on next page >>

Oceana Golf Club is Saved building a golf course,” says 96-yearold charter member Roy Fox. “Some of us didn’t even know how to play, but I think we did pretty good. The fact it’s still there says it all.”

In 1963 the nonprofit corporation paid Marvin Omness $6,000 for his asparagus field across the street from the club house. This time they hired White Lake GC General Manager Ernie Augustin to design the back nine.

Tom Kirk was just 10 years old when he was paid to pick up the multitude of rocks and stones that peppered the newly turned earth.

“Us kids were given a screwdriver and a bucket,” Kirk said with a chuckle. “I lasted about a week.”

In 1964 OGC became the first 18-hole course within a 30-mile radius of Shelby.

“My favorite hole is still number 4,” said 6-time Club

pond sitting right in front?”

There’s always been an underlying rivalry between the two proud communities of Hart and Shelby.

But for golf they chose to join forces in creating this lasting treasure.

Champion Kirk. “It’s not long, but the extreme slope of that green is still a fun challenge to land the ball in the right spot and watch it break 15-20 feet down to the hole. It can leave you shaking your head.”

New owner Jason Wenk, a pioneer in the financial/ technology field, played the course often as a teenager on the Shelby High School golf team.

“This place requires you to make so many different kinds of shots,” Wenk said.

“Like the short par 4, 18th hole. Do you dare try to drive the green with that

“We didn’t think it was a big deal,” Fox said. “But it brought all kinds of people together, not just us, but even people who came up to visit here in the summer. I began to appreciate that after I got older. I don’t think I ever laughed as much as did on that golf course.”

Tanner added: “I don’t know what this area would be like if we didn’t have it.” if we didn’t have it.”

Now, thanks to Wenk, Oceana Golf Club will be rejuvenated and passed on to future generations. MGJ Editor’s note: this is the second in a 3-part series on the rebirth and rejuvenation of Oceana Golf Club.

Michigan Golf Journal New Course Design

Three Sticks Creates Bright New Concept in Course Design

By Tom Lang

People in the game of golf are trying all sorts of new concepts for growing the game – and one way could be the idea of shrinking the amount of land use.

And I don’t mean short courses.

We’re talking full length, par 72, 6,600-or-more-yard

courses with a practice area too; on less than 70 acres of land – about half the land most 18-hole courses consume.

John Zaliagiris has dreamed of being a full-time golf course designer his entire adult life – heck – make that since he was a 10-year-old

in Livonia creating new golf courses with crayons on the huge chunks of cardboard that had wrapped his family’s newly-delivered refrigerator.

Zaliagiris, now a Grand Blanc resident, has come up with a Patent-Pending design that could have

March 2020 www.michigangolfjournal.com

merit in the years ahead.

It’s called Three Sticks.

Basically, the design is made up of six fairways of varying length, laid out in a way very similar to any six-hole stretch of par 3s, 4s and 5s, found on a standard golf course and ranging from 135 yards to over 500 yards.

Each hole has a couple sets of tee boxes, just like a standard golf course.

The difference is the green complexes.

Zaliagiris, founder of Visionary Golf Design, offers

up three different flag sticks – red, blue and white – all at different lengths and angles from the common landing area off the tee.

Sometimes there are three very distinct, separate greens with their own bunkering. A stream might even run between them, changing the attack angle and length between the three.

On other holes, there could be two greens, but one of them is very large and has two different pin placements, with a bunker

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or high rough splitting parts of the putting surface. The third option for variety in design and playability is a massive, undulating green that shares three different flags.

Frankly, the design options for green complexes are endless. On one sample blueprint, one par 4 fairway had three different total distances of 355-yards, 385 and 405, with the two longest flags requiring a carry over a stream and different attack angles.

Continues on page 25 >>

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New Course Design One drawback could be that fewer people can be on the property at one time, so that means less cash flow each day of operation.

But the financial flip side is virtually all the costs are cut in half or more – half the land to acquire and develop in the first place, half the property taxes, less than half the mowing and watering costs, etc. Only 20 bunkers do the job of having 60 on an 18-hole course.

The more glaring positive is Three Sticks gives

people with less time – or who are just learning the game and are otherwise frightened off by the idea of 18 holes – the option to play 6 or 12 holes and call it a day. Short courses are nice and fit a niche, but not everyone wants to play a slew of par 3s all in a row.

“I think this is a great way to offer the game in a less intimidating way to new players, while also offering a full length, regulation course to the diehard golfer; at a course that

costs so much less for the owner to operate as well,” Zaliagiris said. “Lots of people don’t have the time to play all 18 holes.

Three Sticks allows for a lunchtime round of 6 holes.”

I’m not an agronomist by any measure, but it seems the concept of Three Sticks has merit and it’ll be fun watching if a potential first design goes from drawing board to earthmoving to grand opening.

Contact John Zaliagiris at: vgd@3sticksgolf.com MGJ

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Michigan Golf Journal Evans Scholars

Golf Delivers Brighter Futures for 31 Evans Scholars

By Tom Lang

homelessness or what kind of education I’m receiving.

The scholarship gives a kid who was the lowest on the totem pole, an opportunity to be seen and heard.”

Jade Hamdan of Novi was adopted from China when she was 10 months old and is now raised by a single mother.

John Paul moved to America to attend University of Detroit Jesuit High School following hardships in his home country of Haiti from the 2010 earthquakes.

When he began caddying at his local club, he had never seen golf before.

Devian Johnson of Waterford describes himself as a kid from a broken family who wanted to succeed, and a scholarship was his “ticket to a new beginning”… and no longer needing “to worry about

These three young people and 28 others like them were all recently chosen for the life-altering Evans Scholars program, which in Michigan sets up high school seniors who worked as caddies, with four years of fully paid tuition and housing at either Michigan or Michigan State’s respective Evans Scholars House. Each scholarship is estimated at a worth of $120,000 over four years.

The Western Golf Association, headquartered in Glenview, Illinois, has supported the Chick Evans Scholarship Program through the Evans Scholars Foundation since 1930. One of golf’s favorite charities, it is the nation’s largest scholarship program for caddies. Currently, a record Continues on page 28 >>

Michigan Golf Journal Evans Scholars

his undergraduate degree in engineering.

Devian Johnson

1,010 caddies are enrolled in 18 universities across the nation as Evans Scholars, and more than 11,050 caddies have graduated as Evans Scholars since the program was founded by famed Chicago amateur golfer Charles “Chick” Evans Jr. Award winners are those who show great character and hard work as a caddy, who excel in their studies and demonstrated great need-based funding.

Kevin Ladley of Southfield was raised by a single mother and adopted after leaving his home country of China when he was young.

He maintained a near 4.0 GPA while attending Trenton High School and plans to use the Evans Scholarship toward earning

“I started caddying the summer after 7th grade and loved the job,” he said.

“My inspiration for earning the Evans Scholarship is my mother who works two jobs to support me and all of my extracurricular activities…Evans scholars are one big family. I know that expectations are high with becoming an Evans Scholar, but I look forward to the challenge and all that comes with it.”

Hamdan was raised in Ann Arbor until her parents split and she moved to Novi at age 14.

“I was scared I was too late; too late to make any friends. Too late to join any

Jade Hamdan

Kevin Ladley

extracurriculars. And too late to find my place,” she wrote. “Nevertheless, if there was one thing I could control, it was going to be what I was going to make of my life in Novi. That summer I started caddying at Walnut Creek Country.”

“Being chosen as a finalist and then a recipient of the scholarship not only reinforces all my hard work for the past four years, but also the saying that you should never give up. In the moment, you might not want to wake up at 6am, walk around a golf course with a 30-pound bag on your back, and interact with other caddies and members. However, the rewards and benefits are so much greater than the costs in the long run.”

March 2020 www.michigangolfjournal.com

John Paul added: “My dream is to get a college degree that will allow me to get a job and to help my family in Haiti and everyone else in need. Currently, I am the only hope my family has of having a better future. My family’s living All 31 Michigan Evans Scholars: Thomas Westman Tyler Ostrum Kennedy Smith Phillip DesRochers Joanna Zahra De'Sha Benson Harley James Isabel Lopez Andrew Campbell Brooklyn Northcross Jonathan Paul Townsend Meredith Brendan Jones Noah Kaplan William Alff Michael Argenta Jade Hamdan Daniel Calco John Cook Stephen Moussiaux Megan Fairchild Benjamin Banks Erin Davis Regenald Fletcher Ethan Price Kevin Ladley Elizabeth Muter Carter Ellis Devian Johnson Jacob Rose Jorge Garcia

Forest Lake CC Belvedere GC Edgewood CC Edgewood CC Orchard Lake CC Detroit Golf Club Detroit Golf Club Detroit Golf Club Warwick Hills G&CC Detroit Golf Club CC of Detroit CC of Detroit Lochmoor Club Warwick Hills G&CC Meadowbrook CC Meadowbrook CC Walnut Creek CC Kalamazoo CC Birmingham CC Lochmoor Club Point O' Woods G&CC Country Club of Detroit Franklin Hills CC Plum Hollow CC Red Run Golf Club Plum Hollow CC Oakland Hills CC Plum Hollow CC Pine Lake CC Orchard Lake CC Kent Country Club

Jonathan Paul

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condition is really poor in Haiti. Without the Evans Scholarship, I might have been forced to leave the U.S. If I had to go back to Haiti because I could not afford to pay for college… there would be no one to break that cycle of poverty.” MGJ

Bloomfield Hills HS Charlevoix HS Clarkston HS Walled Lake Northern HS Walled Lake Central HS Detroit Renaissance HS Detroit Denby HS Detroit Cristo Rey Flint Powers Catholic HS Grosse Pointe South University of Detroit Jesuit HS University Liggett School University Liggett School Flint Powers Catholic HS Livonia Stevenson HS University of Detroit Jesuit HS Novi HS Portage Northern HS Royal Oak HS Lakeview HS St. Joseph HS Southfield Univ. HS Academy Southfield Univ. HS Academy Southfield Univ. HS Academy Warren Cousino HS Trenton HS Troy Athens HS Waterford Kettering HS Waterford Mott HS W. Bloomfield Oakland Early College Wyoming HS

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Golf Outings Benefit All

Golf Outings “Scramble” for Recognition

By Kate Moore Michigan Golf Course Association

Golf is a cradle to grave lifetime activity.

While approximately 10% of the population plays golf routinely, golf outings gather a combination of the avid golfer, the recreational golfer and the non-golfer all together for a one day experience. Now 10% may not sound like a big number, here in Michigan that is a million golfers. Add to that million the “non-golfer” participant and you have a thriving business opportunity for your charity golf outing and for your golf course.

Golf outings are a key component to most golf facility’s operations and an integral part to the topline revenue plan. They provide more far reaching outcomes

than simply raising funds for the organization hosting the day. Today most of our golf outings are associated with a community charity. It is a win, win, win for the charity, the community and the golf outing.

The golf course has been the backdrop for corporate decisions and business deals since the first course opened its doors centuries ago.

When business is mixed with golf, the course becomes a platform that goes far beyond fairways and greens. Golf is a great way to entertain clients, grow relationships, build employee morale and thank your partners. Most golf outings are intended as fundraisers for the nonprofit world or even political campaigns.

Since many people don’t routinely golf, the outing is the great equalizer. Outings are generally played in a simple “scramble” format, so it isn’t necessary for an individual to know all the rules or be skilled – it’s a team effort. What is important is that the individuals have fun. This is the once a year opportunity for your charity and the golf course to shine.

Golf outings are instrumental in helping maintain the vigorous promotion of why this game is great. Outings continue to sell the brand, advance the attributes, advantages and benefits of the sport while providing an experience for the participant that can’t be found anywhere. MGJ

Michigan GolfAmateur Journal Tour GolfWeek

GolfWeek Amateur Tour – More than the Game Lasting Friendships, Fighting Cancer, Wrapped around Great Competition Golf

By Tom Lang

Hundreds of amateur golfers across Michigan participate each season in the fun, energetic and friendship-building GolfWeek Amateur Tour, with East and West Tours in Michigan organized by golfing couple Jamy and Michele Gillan, who were awarded national Tour Directors of the Year in 2014 and ’16.

Now Jamy is in a tough battle with cancer.

Coincidentally, the GolfWeek Tour is not just committed to providing a season-long schedule of opportunities to play on great course across our state. About a decade ago, the Tour made a commitment to ‘Stand Up Against Cancer’ in honor

of another Tour director at the national level, Roger Mitterling, who died of cancer.

The Tour’s website says: After a tremendous response from fellow golfers sharing similar stories, the Golfweek Amateur Tour realized how many of our Tour members’ and directors’ lives have

March 2020 www.michigangolfjournal.com

been affected by cancer.

In honor of Roger, our directors, and our family of Tour members that have been touched by cancer, the Golfweek Amateur Tour will stand up as a team and help win the fight against cancer.

Now it’s affected Jamy, who developed the live scoring system used nationally by the Tour. As he fights to recover, with Michelle at his side, she pushed forward during the off-season to create the East and West schedules for 2020. (https://www. amateurgolftour.net/ detroit_tour_pages/ default6.asp) “I enjoy playing on the Golfweek Amateur Tour because I get to play courses that I wouldn’t normally go and play, and I love the comradery with the fellow golfers,” said David Greeno, age 39, from Norton Shores. “One of the first people I met on the tour 7 years ago is soon going to be a groomsman in my wedding along with many fellow tour members as guests.

I feel like it’s a family to me.”

Courses on the 2020 schedule include: Bucks Run, Fox Hills, Indianwood Country Club, The Grande, Boyne Mountain and Highlands, College Fields, Angels Crossing, Stoatin Brae, Thousand Oaks, Quail Ridge and Pilgrim’s Run. Players can sign up under the East or West Tours but play in either one. Fullfledged handicaps are incorporated, and flights are created to match up players with like ability. A national tournament takes place each fall at Hilton Head Island.

“I’ve really enjoyed playing golf with some really good people who are supportive of each other while playing competitive golf together,” said Bill Roelfsema, age 55 of Grand Rapids. “Our flight system gives us all an opportunity to win

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tournaments all throughout Michigan. Live scoring on your phone adds another dimension to the events with live leaderboards that you or your families can follow.”

Paul Carpentier, age 56 of Clarkston said he has made so many friends on the Tour, including those in neighboring Tours in Chicago and Indianapolis.

“The competition can be fierce, but the comradery is overwhelming,” he said about the event at Hilton Head Island. “The tour is a mix of diverse backgrounds, doctors, teaching professionals, truck drivers, software developers. The one thing in common is the love for the game. We all look forward the release of the seasons schedule which presents some old course favorites as well as some new tracks the tour has not competed on. One of the treats from the 2019 season was playing Bay Harbor where regardless of the scores, all enjoyed this Michigan gem.

I love my Michigan GolfWeek Tour family.” MGJ

Michigan Golf Journal Golf at the Movies Michigan News and Notes

GAM’s Topgolf Challenge Golfers of all ages and skill levels can help raise money for the GAM Foundation via the inaugural Topgolf Challenge, March 22 from 2:00-5:00 p.m.

GAM represents the interests of all golfers statewide – both private and public course players – and the GAM Foundation supports the movement to grow the game with kids: Youth on Course.

The day will feature a TopContender tournament with team and individual prizes, as well as a buffet meal. The entry fee is $100 per person, with all proceeds going to the GAM Foundation.

REGISTER HERE

Ally Challenge Updates Volunteer registration for the Ally Challenge presented by McLaren, July 27Aug. 2 at Warwick Hills, is now open to the public at www. theallychallenge.com/ volunteers.

All volunteers receive a golf shirt (and visor or cap), a commemorative pin, meals for each day they work, an official tournament credential and one weekly grounds ticket. In addition, all volunteers are invited to attend a catered post-tournament party on Sunday, August 2.

To cover the cost of the volunteer package there is a fee of $45. These contributions help maximize the charitable donations the tournament will provide to the community.

Rocket Mortgage Birdies for Charity Registration for the Rocket Mortgage Classic Birdies for Charity program is now open for the 2020 tournament, scheduled for May 25-31 at Detroit Golf Club. All registered 501(c) (3) organizations can get involved by visiting RocketMortgageClassic. com, selecting “Charity” and then clicking on “Birdies for Charity.”

The turnkey program is completely free for participating charity organizations, with 100 percent of the proceeds directed to those nonprofits. Each registered nonprofit organization that applies can collect contributions as a flat dollar amount, or a donation based on the total number of birdies made by PGA TOUR pros during the four rounds of tournament play.

March 2020 www.michigangolfjournal.com

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1899 Circa Golf Course Under New Ownership is a jewel with a notable past.”

The Washtenaw Golf Club in Ypsilanti first formed in 1899 and became a 9-hole course.

Now the 18-hole gem is under new ownership, anchored by award-winning golf instructor Dave Kendall.

Its biggest shift will be

making the golf course fully public.

“This is a great opportunity and we have a business plan to make it successful as a public course,” said Kendall, a former member of the club for six years. “And this course

Washtenaw’s origins trace back to 1898 when the original founders—Cora Henry, Newton Swift and Daniel Quirk—persuaded a local farmer in Ypsilanti to allow them to stick three empty tomato cans in his hay field and invite their cronies for a round of golf. A year later, the trio were joined by a dozen others who formed the Washtenaw County Club still at its current location off Packard Road in Ypsilanti.

Kendall will continue teaching at the acclaimed Kendall Academy at Miles of Golf, just a couple miles away. MGJ

Gaylord Golf Mecca Expands for 2020 The Gaylord Golf Mecca enters 2020 as its 33rd year operating as a cooperative multi-property marketing effort to bring visitors to the international golf destination in Northern Michigan.

“We have come together in an industry that’s very competitive and continued to keep working to make things better year after year,” said Paul Beachnau, executive director of the Mecca. “I think we all realize that if we work together to put Gaylord on the tourism map everyone

benefits. A rising tide benefits all ships.”

The Mecca generated over 200,000 rounds of golf, with golf expenditures of almost $13.8 million among its 15 golf course members and 20 lodging partners last year. Two new member properties – Garland Golf Resort (with four courses) in Lewiston and Lakes of the North Golf Course in Mancelona – have joined the Mecca for 2020, bringing the total golf courses to 20 for 2020. MGJ

Michigan Golf Journal PGA Jr. League

Get Kids in the Game: PGA Jr. League

By Tom Lang

It’s not rocket science: kids like to play with their friends, or even make new ones – and parents have more peace of mind when their kids play in safe, clean, values-enriched environments.

Both can happen at a golf course, participating in the PGA Jr. League – a team ecosystem in what’s considered an individual sport.

PGA and LPGA teaching pros run local leagues

at more than 80 golf courses in Michigan.

They teach the basics of the game and organize multiple team events for the kids to play throughout the summer months.

“I think the league creates a fun environment for the kids that’s still competitive,” said Chris Osentoski, who leads a PGA Jr. League at Shepherds Hollow Golf Course in Oakland County. “But

there’s less pressure on the kids because you have a partner and you’re playing in a team environment. You play with your friends and support each other.

“It also gets families involved because it is set up for families to watch the kids and that doesn’t always happen.

Most tournaments don’t allow kids and parents to interact, so it’s a more fun and relaxing environment.”

March 2020 www.michigangolfjournal.com

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Osentoski had 84 kids involved last summer, the largest in the region. Two seasons prior, there were just 24 kids. Osentoski offers nine practices and six golf matches. He names the teams after natural disasters, like the ‘Tornados’ or the ‘Hurricanes.’

“PGA Jr. League is really changing the way golf is introduced to kids,” said Chelsea Guoynes, who oversees player development at the Michigan Section PGA in East Lansing.

“The kids get numbered jerseys and a team name to rally behind and it turns golf from an individual sport to a team experience. It really encourages players to mentor each other and grow as a golfer and as a team player.

“We see unbelievably positive feedback from parents, players and captains on the positive impact PGA Jr. League has made on their child and growth of the game.

THIS SIGN STEALING SCANDAL HAS RIPPED THE GOLF WORLD APART.

PGA Jr. League encourages the growth of golf skills, creativity, sportsmanship, but most of all, having fun in sports.”

Last year, more than 60,000 boys and girls of all skill levels participated nationwide, up 20 percent from the apx. 50,000 players in 2018.

Visit PGAJrLeague.com for more information, and follow PGA Jr. League on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

MGJ

WHO WOULD DO SUCH A THING?

IF GOLF WAS LIKE OTHER SPORTS

Phot oofAr c a di aBl uffs

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